It's an old question, but far from obsolete -- who will protect us from the people we hire to protect us? In one critical setting, those who are supposed to answer that question seem more concerned with silencing the questioners. PNS commentators Dan Macallair and Vincent Schiraldi are with the Justice Policy Institute, a research and public policy organization located in San Francisco and Washington, D.C.

Some 2000 years ago, the writer Juvenal asked "Who will guard the guards?"

Juvenal was concerned with the decline of the Roman Empire and the unchecked power of the Centurions but the question is relevant today.

In the biggest state in the most powerful country in the world, the power to investigate wrongdoing by law enforcement officers -- to guard the guards -- is granted to the Attorney General. But time and time again, when it comes to checking abuse by correctional and law enforcement personnel, California's Attorney General Dan Lungren drops the ball or punts it to other prosecutors. 

The clearest example of this is in the story of eight guards at Corcoran State Prison, recently indicted on federal charges for allegedly arranging a "blood sport" at that institution to "entertain" themselves. The indictment alleges the guards played on racial tensions in the prison to incite fights in the prison yard.

A little more than four years ago, one guard allegedly said to another, "It's going to be duck hunting season" as he led two black inmates into the prison's exercise area.

There they fought with men identified as belonging to the "Southern Mexicans," while guards reportedly did nothing to stop them. Guard Christopher Bethea then allegedly fired at the men, striking inmate Preston Tate in the head and killing him.

There have been allegations of attempts to thwart any investigation. FBI Special Agent James Maddock, speaking with uncharacteristic candor, has said, "Despite intentional efforts on the part of correctional and other officials to stymie, delay and obstruct our inquiry, we will continue until all culpable parties are brought to justice."

One indicted officer, Lt. John Vaughn, was promoted to the unit charged with investigating charges of brutality at Corcoran.

Where was Dan Lungren during all this? Although it seems likely he had better access than the federal authorities to state officials, his investigation into the incident has produced no indictments so far.

The emperor's answer to Juvenal was to banish him. The Department of Corrections' defense against criticism, in the midst of investigations of the prisons, has been a system-wide ban on interviews with inmates, as well as new restrictions on witnessing executions.

When journalists sued to overturn these measures, the Department action was defended by its lawyer -- Dan Lungren.

The Attorney General's investigative skills don't vanish only when the issue is prisons, however. In 1992, Donald Scott, 62, was killed in the privacy of his own home by 30 law enforcement officers who believed -- erroneously -- that Scott was cultivating marijuana on his ranch.

If Scott had been growing marijuana, the seven different law enforcement agencies that sent the virtual army to his house would have been able to seize his $5 million waterfront property. The Los Angeles Sheriff's office had even obtained an appraisal of his property before the raid.

Lungren's investigation found no wrongdoing in the Scott case. But the Ventura County District Attorney's office discovered that the federal drug agent has falsified evidence to obtain a search warrant.

Since 1987, Dan Lungren has received over $140,000 in campaign contributions from the California Correctional Peace Officers' Association, the union that represents California's prison guards. The union has come out swinging on behalf of the Corcoran guards, raising funds and organizing rallies on their behalf.

The same union gave Pete Wilson nearly $1 million in his first bid for governor. Since Wilson won that election, both the number of guards and the mandatory contribution level of the members of the guards' union, has swelled, substantially increasing the union's purse for its favored gubernatorial candidate.

That kind of carrot dangling before him may explain why other prosecutors are able to find evidence of wrongdoing while Dan Lungren looks more like the fox guarding the hen house.