California Assembly Reviews Solitary Confinement Policies As Prisoners Threaten New Hunger Strike

February 26, 2013 By 10 Comments

˜¡@On Monday, February 25th, the California Assembly’s Public Safety Committee, chaired by Assembly Member Tom Ammiano, held a hearing on the state’s Security Housing Units (SHUs). The hearing comes 18 months after the committee held a similar hearing prompted by  a three-week long hunger strike in June 2011 that involved thousands of California prisoners across the state. The 2011 hearing, which was subsequently followed by an additional three-week long hunger strike in September 2011, lead to significant attention on the controversial SHU system. Chief among the demands of the hunger strikers was an end to long term solitary confinement and the controversial gang validation process. Corrections officials have officially stated that reforms first announced in March 2012 were considered and crafted independently of the demands of the hunger strikers.

Monday’s hearing focused on the implementation of new CDCR policies and considerations of their appropriateness.

In California, prisoners determined  (“validated”) by prison investigators (Institutional Gang Investigators, or, IGI) to be members or associates of one of seven prison gangs are placed in a SHU at one of three prisons (Pelican Bay State Prison, Corcoran State Prison, and Tehachapi State Prison). Prisoners in the SHU typically spend 22 1/2 hours in solitary confinement, being allowed out for exercise and showering on an infrequent basis. At Pelican Bay State Prison SHU cells have been described as “small, cement prison cell. Everything is gray concrete: the bed, the walls, the unmovable stool. Everything except the combination stainless-steel sink and toilet…You can’t move more than eight feet in one direction.”

Currently, over 3,000 prisoners in California are held in a SHU. More are held in Administrative Segregation Units (Ad Seg), which are designed similarly to the SHU, pending openings of SHU cells.  Prisoners validated as gang members or associates have been held for indeterminate terms in the SHU, with over 500 prisoners spending over 10 years in isolated confinement, and over 70 prisoners spending over 20 years in the SHU. Until recently, the policies around SHU confinement of gang validated prisoners required that prisoners prove that they have not been active in gang activity for six years, or they must “snitch” on fellow prisoners in order to be transferred out of the SHU.

At Monday’s hearing, California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR)  Deputy Director in charge of the Division of Adult Institutions, Michael Stainer, defended the gang validation as a necessary component to institutional and public safety. It was argued that restricted housing is necessary to curtail the ability of gang leaders to continue to operate their criminal enterprises, order murders, and orchestrate attacks within the prisons and on the streets.

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Filed Under: California, featured posts, race, solitary confinement, supermax prisons Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

Inmates in Solitary Confinement in California Respond to Prison Policy Reforms

May 1, 2012 By 11 Comments

Prisoners in California’s Security Housing Unit (SHU) have offered their opinions of the recent reforms of the California prison system’s controversial gang validation policies. In correspondences with Solitary Watch, SHU inmates in Pelican Bay and Corcoran prisons have consistently been critical of the reforms, which among other things reform the gang validation point system and introduce a step-down program in which inmates can  transition out of the SHU. Last month a group of SHU inmates, all of whom are labeled as either members or leaders of prison gangs (Aryan Brotherhood, Mexican Mafia, Black Guerilla Family), released a counter proposal in response.

The following are excerpts from letters written by prisoners currently in California’s SHUs.

From Kijana Askari (self-portrait above), who has been in the SHU since 1994 after being validated as a member of the Black Guerilla Family:

With regards to the revisions that were done to SHU management gang policies, well, that is exactly what has taken place—”revisions” (e.g. “reform”). Hence, more of the same in that, the revisions have only strengthened CDCR officials power and ability to label and validate every prisoner in CDCR as belonging to a Security Threat Group–e.g. “prison gang.”At the crux of the revisions is a lack of a definitive and “behavioral-based” criteria, as to what actually constitute as being gang activity. Meaning, any and everything can and will still be considered as gang activity, in spite of how innocuous the activity may be.

In addition to this, we still have untrained and unqualified CDCR officers/officials determining and assessing what is “gang activity.” And this point is critical for two very important reasons: 1) There are no qualitative oversight mechanisms in place, meaning there is absolutely nothing to prevent CDCR’s prison guards, gang unit, etc., from being vindictive, retaliatory, punitive, etc., via the application of these “revised” gang management policies; and 2) it has been proven that CDCR’s prison guards and their IGI gang unit staff do not properly investigate the evidence used in each prisoners gang validation–see Lira v. Cate.

And the new revisions do not do anything to correct this.

Kijana Tashiri Askari (Marcus Harrison) #H54077, Pelican Bay State Prison  D3 122 SHU, PO Box 7500, Crescent City, CA 95531

From a Pelican Bay SHU inmate who has been in solitary confinement for five years and is currently appealing the gang validation that placed him there:

“We were recently afforded a copy of this proposal. Many of us are getting the chance now to read through and evaluate it. I read through it once and will go through it again. There are many aspects of the step down program that at face value seem to provide far better alternatives to the over 20 year long policy of implementing indeterminate SHU programs. Many of the program objectives and privileges outlined in the proposal at first glance look to be very good and beneficial to a lot of SHU prisoners. However, the gang validation/identification aspect of the proposal continues to present an ongoing issue and problem for many individuals who have been validated and will be validated. Under the criteria that is set forth, it continues to target and identify individuals for long-term SHU placement based on gang affiliation rather than actual gang activity or criminal/illegal conduct.”Which is, has been, and under this proposal will continue to be a significant hardship for many who the CDCR looks to place and keep locked away in the SHU for little to no reason.” [Read more...]

Filed Under: California, due process, politics of punishment, solitary confinement, supermax prisons Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

Family of California Prisoner Who Died on Hunger Strike Speaks Out

February 23, 2012 By 18 Comments

The family of Christian Gomez, the 27-year-old prisoner who died while on hunger strike at California’s Corcoran State Prison, is speaking out about the loss of their family member in the hope that similar incidents in the future are avoided.

In a phone call with Solitary Watch, California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation spokesperson Terry Thornton confirmed that Gomez had been placed in solitary confinement in the Administrative Segregation Unit (ASU) pending investigation of assault on another inmate with a weapon on January 14, 2012. Thornton would not confirm the status of this investigation. Gomez was serving a life sentence for first degree murder and attempted murder.

Christian Gomez had not told his family members of his intentions to participate in the January 27-February 13 hunger strike held by ASU inmates in protest of their conditions. According to an interview with Gomez’s sister, Y.L., she “found out when the coroner Tom [Edmonds] implied that there was a possibility of a chemical imbalance due to a hunger strike he was participating in. That’s the first I heard of this. Back in [September or October] when he first was transferred there he did tell me that they were having a hunger strike to fight for their rights but he was in general population.”

Contrary to earlier reports that he had only been on a hunger strike for four days when he died, Terry Thornton confirmed to Solitary Watch that Gomez joined the strike on January 27 with 31 other inmates. This means that he had been on hunger strike for a week at the time of his death.

The family says that Gomez had high blood pressure, thyroid and kidney problems.  According to Y.L., before being sent to Corcoran he had been incarcerated at High Desert State Prison for four years. “He told me things were a lot different at this prison and that he didn’t receive the same medical attention he received over at high desert,” said Y.L.

Gomez was found unresponsive in his cell at an unconfirmed time on February 2. Reports from other inmates indicate that they had pounded on their cell doors and screamed to get the attention of the correctional officers. He was declared dead at Corcoran District Hospital at 12:22 PM.

According to Y.L., “My mother received the call of my brother’s death on Thursday February 2, 2012 at approximately  1pm. She then called me hysterically and that’s when I went over to her house. When I got there I asked her who called and she said someone from the prison. [I] asked her if they gave her a number were we could call to obtain more info and she said no. They told her that she would receive a letter in the mail explaining everything and where we could claim the body… I was so upset that things were being handled this way, for God sake we were talking about a human being not an animal.”

Asked how she would like people to remember her brother, Y.L. responded,”he was a genuine person that had not lost hope in the system. He knew that he would eventually get out. Although he had made bad choices in who he hung around with he didn’t murder anyone. The witnesses in his case never identified him on the contrary, but yet he was still convicted. Unfortunately we couldn’t afford a good attorney and he got screwed. He was very caring with his family and friends and therefore he will be greatly missed by those who knew him. He had matured a lot in prison and can be remembered by those who knew him as a prankster. There was never a dull moment with him. He always had a big smile when we visited him and never discussed how bad things were in there to not worry us. He always said he was fine. Even in the last letter he wrote on Jan 30th which my mom received on Feb 3rd he wrote that he was fine.”

Update, February 24: Yajaira Lopez (Y.L.), sister of Christian Gomez, appeared on Democracy Now! this morning to talk about her brother’s life and death. Democracy Now! also interviewed Carol Strickland of the Prisoner Hunger Strike Solidarity Coalition and Prisoners With Children, as well as Terry Thornton of the CDCR.

Filed Under: California, physical effects, prison health care, solitary confinement, supermax prisons Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Update: Inmate Dies During Hunger Strike at California’s Corcoran State Prison

February 10, 2012 By 6 Comments

Update (February 13): Theresa Cisneros, Public Information Officer at Corcoran, confirmed to Solitary Watch that Christian Gomez, 27, was hunger striking at the time of his death in the Administrative Segregation Unit. Official autopsy results still pending. Nancy Kincaid of California Correctional Health Care Services told Solitary Watch that Gomez had been “medically monitored for hunger strike activity and had been on strike for four days” at the time of his death on February 2nd. She further said that “the preliminary autopsy report does not indicate hunger strike activity contributed to his death.”

News of a death in Corcoran State Prison’s Administrative Segregation Unit is emerging as an underreported hunger strike in the prison’s ASU comes to a close. Inmates in the ASU are held in 23-hour-a-day solitary confinement. Many have been in isolation for years and even decades.

California State Prison, Corcoran, which houses over 1400 in Security Housing Units and an additional 350 in ASUs, has been the site of two waves of hunger strikes since late December 2011. Unlike the highly publicized hunger strikes last year that originated in Pelican Bay State Prison’s SHU, the Corcoran strikes have remained relatively small and have received little press attention.

On December 19, 2011, three inmates at Corcoran announced a hunger strike protesting the conditions of the ASU. They listed eleven demands  ranging from educational and rehabilitative programming to timely medical care. According to California Department of Corrections spokesperson Terry Thornton:

On Dec. 28, 59 inmates housed in the Administrative Segregation Unit at Corcoran State Prison refused their state-issued meals. On Dec. 29, that number dropped to 54. On Dec. 30, 49 inmates refused state-issued meals. By Dec. 31, all inmates resumed eating state-issued food.

According to Pyung Hwa Ryoo, one of the main petitioners of the December 2011 hunger strike:

Three days after the strike began, prison officials came to the ASU and let the strikers know that the petition, and demands of the strike, would be granted. They requested three weeks to make the changes happen; and to give them the benefit of the doubt, the request was granted and the strike was put on hold.

It has been a little more than 2 weeks since the strike stopped. So far, there has been some improvements in this ASU, but the majority of the promised changes have not yet occurred.

According to a letter from strike petitioner Juan Jaimes dated January 31st:

…this hunger strike commenced on December 28, 2011 and it has no ending date unless some or all demands are met…

He also indicated (as confirmed by CDCR’s inmate locator) that he was transferred from Corcoran to Kern Valley State Prison. Though unconfirmed, he has also indicated that the two other strike petitioners were also transferred away from each other.

There is conflicting information suggesting that some inmates continued to strike during the period between the “official” strikes. The following, however, has been confirmed by Thornton:

 On Jan. 27, 32 inmates in Corcoran State Prison’s Administrative Segregation Unit (ASU) refused to eat breakfast and started a hunger strike. As of Feb. 9, all inmates in the ASU except one resumed eating state-issued food.

In an email to Solitary Watch from Nancy Kincaid, Director of Communications for California Correctional Health Care Services, stated that all strikers resumed eating February 9th.

A letter to California activist Kendra Castaneda from a Corcoran ASU striker, however, indicated that “on or about Feb 2nd or 3rd 2012 an inmate has passed away due to not eating.”

While the cause of death and its possible relationship to the hunger strike remains unconfirmed, Thornton responded to questions from Solitary Watch with an apparent affirmation that an inmate death had taken place, and the statement: ”I do not know the results of the autopsy.”

In response to a phone call, Tom Edmonds, Chief Deputy Coroner in Kings County confirmed that inmate Christian Gomez died on February 2nd at Corcoran, but also did not share the cause of death.

Solitary Watch will provide updates as information becomes available.

Filed Under: California, solitary confinement, supermax prisons Tagged With: , , ,

California Considers New Rules for Solitary Confinement in State Prisons

January 10, 2012 By 4 Comments

The Prisoner Hunger Strike Solidarity coalition today reports on the content of a meeting held in late December with an undersecretary of the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR), regarding the future of the state’s Security Housing Units (SHUs). Prisoners in the SHUs at Pelican Bay, Corcoran, and elsewhere are held in round-the-clock solitary confinement, some for years or even decades; many are there because they have been “validated” as gang members based on the word of other prisoners.

Following a series of highly publicized hunger strikes and a hearing in the California State Assembly, the CDCR promised to revisit the process through which it condemns prisoners to long terms in the SHU. Any proposed changes apparently would not affect the Administrative Segregation Units, or ASUs, where prisoners are also held in solitary; a number of hunger strikers have been sent to ASU.

The following notes from the December meeting serve as a status report on that process.

On December 28, 2011, two members of Prisoner Hunger Strike Solidarity’s mediation team spoke with Undersecretary Terri McDonald about the status of the new regulations on gang validation/SHU classification policies and procedures.

Undersecretary McDonald stated the following:

  1. CDCR is changing to a behavior-based policy about SHU consignment, so that prisoners could be designated as members of “security threat groups” without being sent to the SHU.  Others currently in SHU who have not had behavior issues could be returned to the general population.  It remains to be seen how broadly CDCR will define “behavior.”
  2. In addition, CDCR is designing a 4-step “stepdown program” designed for exiting gang members.  Step 1 is high security and step 4 is transition to general population.  Debriefing is not required to qualify for this program.
  3. CDCR has drafted a “concept paper” about these new policies, which it intends to send to its national experts in early January.  CDCR did not adopt the prior recommendations of the 2007 experts’ report, mostly because of cost.  CDCR’s concept paper will not be available to prisoners and their advocates until after the experts weigh in. [Read more...]
Filed Under: California, due process, solitary confinement, supermax prisons Tagged With: , , , ,

Voices from Solitary: Christmas in the Hole, 1968

December 17, 2011 By 7 Comments

by Alan CYA #65085

Editors’ Note: In this memoir, the author–who prefers to be identified only by his first name and California Youth Authority number–recalls a Christmas spent as a 17-year-old inmate in the juvenile jail then known as the Preston School of Industry, since renamed the Preston Youth Correctional Facility. Opened in 1894, Preston was one of the most notorious “reform schools” in the country, known for its brutality and deprivation. More than a century later, little had changed–at least, not for the better. Last year, the Ella Baker Center reported abuses at California Youth Authority facilities that included “young people locked in 20- to 23-hour-a-day solitary confinement for days, weeks and months on end; young people locked in 4′x4′ cages for temporary detention; guard and staff abuse, neglect, manipulation, and humiliation of the young people in their care; rampant sexual assault;…virtually non-existent care for young people with mental health or substance abuse needs; shocking negligence in medical care, especially emergency care; woefully inadequate educational programming; [and] a culture and atmosphere of constant intimidation, isolation, fear and violence.” It singled out Preston, along with Stark, as the worst of the facilities. In the fall of 2010, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation announced that it would close Preston in order “to operate more effectively and efficiently as the state adapts to changes in our youth population.”

= = = = =

For most of us the holiday season is filled with good memories of cheerfully bright decorations at holiday parties with ample supplies of sinfully good food and drink. It is a time that we all gather together to share our good fortune with those that we care most about. And for the luckiest amongst us, our homes are as full as the cornucopias that sit at the center of our dining room tables.

But as we gather near the Christmas tree to sing “Silent Night,” I cannot help but recall my solitary confinement experience during the holidays of 1968. The knowledge that there are still other human beings being held in such sterile, foul smelling, and depressingly deteriorating, cold, concrete boxes leaves me both grateful for my good fortune and somber for the others that I left behind. Because, you see, Christmas in solitary is neither silent nor holy, but filled with the howling cries of the ever increasing population of mentally ill prisoners housed there.

When I read about the long term isolation that inmates endure today, my experience as a 17-year-old juvenile seems to pale in comparison. The solitary confinement unit at Preston School of Industry, a California Youth Authority facility which only recently has been closed due to the infamous and unproductive brutality of it’s wards, is briefly described in Edward Bunker’s memoir titled Education of A Felon: “I was assigned permanently to G Company, a unit with a three-tier Cell block. It was dark and gloomy and a carbon copy of a prison cell block.” An indeed it still was when I landed in the hole just before Christmas for fighting.

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Filed Under: California, juveniles, mental illness, psychological effects, solitary confinement, Voices from Solitary Tagged With: , , , ,

Voices from Solitary: “There Must Never Be A Time When We Fail To Protest”

October 30, 2011 By 6 Comments

The following is a series of excerpts from letters written by a prisoner who has been in solitary confinement in the Security Housing Unit (SHU) at Pelican Bay State Prison for nearly two decades. He participated in the July hunger strike for changes to  conditions in and policies governing California’s SHUs, and resumed during the second phase of the strike in September. The letters, dated before, during, and after the September 26th-October 13th hunger strike, provide a glimpse into the motivations and experiences of the hunger strikers.

Sept. 25, 2011

We choose our reactions and attitudes to situations that irritate us just as we choose what to wear each day. I have learned that we have the power within to choose the outcome of our feelings, embracing a bad, painful feeling or running from it. Also it helps to experience what we feel from the inside out. When everything on the outside looks gloomy, we open our heart/mind where the love and peace live, and healing. There inside are the answers that we seek, to bring calm and conscious flow freely as our inner compass.

Doubts ruled my life for a long time, and the thought of opening myself up to face reality scared me. The feeling of worthlessness loomed deep, at a loss where to start my transformation. Not only that, I didn’t want to face my own demons and shadows, which caused fear and incapacity, kept me inactive inside, spurning growth. To be able to detach from this has brought a gush of fresh air into my life and new commitment to change now, grow up. I made tons of mistakes and bad decisions over the course of my life that I am not proud of. Everyone has stuff in their lives to sort out, which is a challenge of course when conditioning is deeply rooted. No change is possible without awareness, healing, and commitment. Living in denial, one is empty and disconnected from life, as was the case with me for too long. If we know how to love ourselves, truly accepting our whole being, there is peace, strength, active inner growth and excitement naturally, and overall happiness.

Heard on Cali NPR news that CDC –PBSP said another strike will start 9/26 in SHU. That inmates are trying to manipulate the system via the hunger strike protest to get what the CDCR won’t give them. And that disciplinary actions will be taken against inmates partaking in the hunger strike. The penalty would be 90 days’ loss of privileges (TV/canteen), also photo (1) a year. This threat is to be expected issued by PBSP staff, and it will deter inmates from getting involved in the strike tomorrow. I don’t think support in here, numbers of inmates participating, will be as huge as the count in July. Or it’ll be a high count at the start then a big number drop after a few days. But even with a small number of committed inmates striking, with support from outside a lot can still be accomplished. It doesn’t seem like many inmates are enthused about this upcoming strike, hardly any talk of it. There are a lot of inmates in SHU satisfied with what we won from July hunger strike, and feel no need to strike so soon, wait for 4-6 months to see if CDCR comes through or not. A lot of inmates will also use excuses to not partake in this strike. It doesn’t make them bad if they decide not to be a part of this. We are all suffering in the SHU and need to all stand together, not separate, protesting peacefully to end prison abuse and unfair CDC policies.

What I went on hunger strike last time for was for human justice, to be treated right as human beings, fairness, compassion, positive reform, dignity, just to bring awareness about what’s going on here in the SHU, the torture and suffering. I gained so much clarity spiritually and emotionally, cleansing from the strike, very important to my growth and human compassion happy to say.

There may be times when we are powerless to prevent injustice, but there must never be a time when we fail to protest. It’s about being treated as humans and for CDCR to accept responsibility and follow the law as responsible employees of the state.

[Read more...]

Filed Under: California, civil liberties/civil rights, psychological effects, solitary confinement, supermax prisons, Voices from Solitary Tagged With: , , , ,

California Department of Corrections Threatens Prison Hunger Strikers, Bans Lawyers

October 3, 2011 By 14 Comments

In response to a renewed inmate hunger strike to protest conditions in the California prison system, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation has taken a hard line, threatening participants with disciplinary action and banning two lawyers who represent the strikers. According to the Contra Costa Times:

Prison officials are investigating the two lawyers for “alleged misconduct,” said Terry Thornton, spokeswoman for the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.

Letters faxed Friday to San Francisco lawyer Carol Strickman of Legal Services for Prisoners with Children and Berkeley lawyer Marilyn McMahon of California Prison Focus said they were banned from inmate visits as the department investigated whether they had “jeopardized the safety and security” of the prisons.

Both women have been active advocates for the rights of prisoners at Pelican State Bay Prison, the Crescent City supermax facility at the epicenter of the hunger strike this week and another one in July.

“It’s under investigation. I really can’t comment any further on that,” Thornton said.

California Watch reports that the attorneys were banned under “temporary exclusion orders” that were signed by Corrections Undersecretary Scott Kernan on September 29. The order states that an investigation is underway to determine whether the lawyers “violated the laws and policies governing the safe operations of institutions within the CDCR.” While not providing specific allegations, the document cites a section of the California Code of Regulations: “Committing an act that jeopardizes the life of a person, violates the security of the facility, constitutes a misdemeanor or a felony, or is a reoccurrence of previous violations shall result in a one-year to lifetime exclusion depending on the severity of the offense in question.”

According to California Watch, Department of Corrections spokesperson Terry Thornton “confirmed the department had banned ‘some specific attorneys’ from one facility for alleged misconduct. She declined further comment, citing an ongoing investigation.”

Shortly after it banned the lawyers, the CDCR issued a memo to all striking prisoners, informing them that “the department will not condone organized inmate  disturbances.” The memo indicated that disciplinary action could be taken against inmates participating in the hunger strike, and that those identified as leaders could be placed in isolation in a Security Housing Unit. The memo did not state what might be done to those strike leaders already locked in solitary in the Pelican Bay SHU, where the strike originated.

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Roundup of Testimony from California Assembly Hearing on Solitary Confinement

September 26, 2011 By 2 Comments

Today, some inmates in the Security Housing Units (SHUs) at Pelican Bay and Calipatria State Prisons in California will resume a hunger strike demanding reforms ranging from nutritious meals to reducing the use of long-term solitary confinement.

In response to a three-week hunger strike this past summer, the California Assembly’s Public Safety Committee held a hearing on August 23 on the SHUs, their efficacy, effect on inmates, and possible directions for reform.

Below are the main pieces of testimony–as transcripts or as written statements–presented before the Committee, in the order they were presented.

Glenda Rojas (transcript), family member of Pelican Bay SHU inmate: http://www.whatthefolly.com/2011/08/25/transcript-glenda-rojas-testimony-on-the-harmful-impacts-of-solitary-confinement-practices-at-californias-secure-housing-units-shu-prison-facilities/

Earl Fears (transcript), former Corcoran SHU inmate: http://www.whatthefolly.com/2011/08/25/transcript-earl-fears-testimony-on-the-harmful-impacts-of-solitary-confinement-practices-at-california%E2%80%99s-secure-housing-units-shu-prison-facilities/

Reverend William McGarvey, member of the national board of More Light Presbyterians, representative of the Bay Area Religious Campaign Against Torture: http://solitarywatch.com/2011/09/03/the-destruction-of-the-human-spirit-testimony-of-rev-will-mcgarvey-on-solitary-confinement/

Charles Carbone, attorney : http://www.whatthefolly.com/2011/08/30/transcript-charles-carbones-testimony-on-the-harmful-impacts-of-solitary-confinement-practices-at-california%E2%80%99s-secure-housing-units-shu-prison-facilities/

Craig Haney, Professor of psychology: http://solitarywatch.com/2011/09/01/pawns-in-a-failed-experiment-testimony-of-dr-craig-haney-on-solitary-confinement/

Laura Magnani, Interim Regional Director of the American Friends Service Committee-Bay Area: http://solitarywatch.com/2011/09/08/a-form-of-torture-testimony-of-laura-magnani-on-solitary-confinement/

Dorsey Nunn, Executive Director of Legal Services for Prisoners With Children and member of All Of Us Or None: http://solitarywatch.com/2011/09/08/where-punishment-becomes-torture-testimony-of-dorsey-nunn-on-solitary-confinement/

Dr. Terry Kupers, clinical psychiatrist and professor at Wright Institute Graduate School of Psychology : http://solitarywatch.com/2011/08/31/toxic-conditions-testimony-of-dr-terry-kupers-on-solitary-confinement/

Scott Kernan (transcript), Undersecretary of Operations of California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation: http://www.whatthefolly.com/2011/09/12/transcript-cdcr-undersecretary-of-operations-scott-kernan-solitary-confinement-in-california-prisons/

Filed Under: California, civil liberties/civil rights, corrections industry, cost/budget issues, due process, physical effects, politics of punishment, psychological effects, race, retaliation, solitary confinement, supermax prisons, torture Tagged With: , , , ,

The Truth About Solitary Confinement in California

September 22, 2011 By 12 Comments

As inmates in California Security Housing Units (SHUs) and Administrative Segregation Units prepare for another hunger strike on September 26 in response to what they see as an inadequate response by the California Department of Corrections & Rehabilitation (CDCR), some informative figures have come out this month regarding California’s segregation policies in Pelican Bay State Prison and elsewhere.

Earlier this month, CDCR released figures regarding Pelican Bay SHU inmates. Over 1100 inmates of Pelican Bay’s 3400 inmates are currently in the SHU. Of them, over 513 have served 10 or more years in the SHU, and of those 513, 78 have been in the SHU for 20 or more years. In addition, 544 SHU inmates have been there for more than five but less than 10 years.  These figures generally confirm CDCR Undersecretary of Operations Scott Kernan’s testimony before the California Assembly’s Public Safety Committee on August 23 that the average time in the SHU is 6.8 years.

Statewide, according to Kernan’s testimony, there are over 3000 inmates in SHUs across California, though it is unclear as to whether or not inmates in Administrative Segregation Units are included in that figure.

According to California Watch, based on CDCR data, only 671 inmates since 1999 have qualified for a transitional program that allows validated gang members to return to general population cells from SHUs if they “show no signs of gang behavior for six years.” It is because of the difficulty of programming out of the SHU that many inmates have commented that the options a typical SHU inmate has for getting out of the SHU are “Debrief, Parole, or Die.”

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Filed Under: California, due process, featured posts, solitary confinement, supermax prisons Tagged With: , , , , , ,
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