Judge Rules California Solitary Confinement Lawsuit Should Have Its Day in Court

March 19, 2013 By 7 Comments
Pelican Bay "exercise" yard, © Richard Ross, from "Architecture of Authority"

Pelican Bay “exercise” yard, © Richard Ross, from “Architecture of Authority”

On Thursday, March 14th, U.S. District Court Judge Claudia Wilken denied a motion by the state of California to dismiss a lawsuit filed by the Center for Constitutional Rights against long term solitary confinement in the California prison system. The lawsuit, filed on May 31st, 2012, argues that California’s segregation of “gang-validated” prisoners in Security Housing Units (SHUs)for longer than 10 years constitutes “cruel and unusual punishment.” The lawsuit also argues that the current process by which prison officials label prisoners gang members is a violation of prisoners due process rights. In California, as of late 2011, over 500 California prisoners had been in the SHU for at least ten years; 78 had been in the SHU for at least 20 years.

The SHUs, located at Pelican Bay State Prison, Tehachapi State Prison, Corcoran State Prison, and California State Prison, Sacramento, hold over 3,000 prisoners in segregated units. Prisoners are primarily held in solitary confinement in these units, which have been described by NPR as living in a “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.”

Conditions in the SHU prompted two large scale hunger strikes in California prisons in July and September 2011. The hunger strikes drew national attention to the issue of solitary confinement, and prompted California legislative hearings in 2011 and 2013. The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) has implemented reforms to the system, including an allegedly more stringent gang validation system; CDCR has been criticized for validating prisoners and keeping others in isolation for possession of black nationalist literature and “cultural calendars” on the grounds that they constitute evidence of gang activity. CDCR has also reportedly begun a review of all current SHU prisoners under the new standards to determine whether or not prisoners should remain in the SHU.  According to the Los Angeles Times in February, 144 prisoners had been reviewed and 78 had been released to general population and 52 were placed in a new Step Down Program in which prisoners may transition out of the SHU over 4 years with increasing privileges.

People inside California’s prisons have been less enthusiastic about the reforms.

North Kern State Prison prisoner Terrance White is housed in the Administrative Segregation Unit (ASU) pending an opening in the (full) SHUs.  White initially reported to the San Francisco Bay View that he was observing the prison sending prisoners in the ASU back to general population in December, but now says that “I see I’ve been duped by the lies of CDC. I got released back to the general population yard for 45 days and now they’ve brought me back to get validated. It’s sad to see law enforcement get away with monstrosities everyday, then come after us on the inside for becoming wise to their evils by educating ourselves.”

“They’re still validating people it seems every chance they get,” reports White, who has been validated as a Black Guerilla Family member. “I’m not alone as you are aware of, there’s a lot of us and poor Latinos, a few Natives, and poor whites have also been targeted these days. I don’t know how much longer I’ll be here at North Kern, I’m waiting for the Office of Correctional Safety to send my packet back and then I will be endorsed to the SHU to finish my term.”

Pelican Bay SHU prisoner Paul Sangu Jones is optimistic that the public, who he refers to as “minimum security,” are at least “getting a clearer idea of how their tax dollars are being wasted on all of these unnecessary prisons.” But, he says, “my current thoughts are that we remain in limbo. We are locked into a cycle of torture. We keep hearing about how our situation is going to change but every day we wake up to the same old thing–talk about déjà all over again.”

Jones, who has been in the SHU for over a decade, has been labeled by prison officials as a member of the BGF. He was initially placed in the SHU following an anonymous prisoners claim that he was a high ranking BGF member. He has been subsequently kept in solitary confinement for, among other reasons, possessing a “Black Panther newsletter” and because other prisoners designated BGF had written him letters which were intercepted by prison officials.

Jones has reported that someone in his facility had been recently take out of the SHU and placed in the Step Down Program. “It’s my understanding that the prisons are clearing their Ad Segs [Administrative Segregation Units] of prisoners they were planning on ‘validating’ as gang members. I’m told that these prisoners are being placed in the Step Down Program, and the prisons are saying that they are releasing folks from the SHU. It’s certainly what I’d expect from CDCR–no one in the Short Corridor, where prisoners who have been in SHU 10,20,30,40 years have been released to general population,” Jones writes.

“The Pelican Bay State Prison administration is not going to do anything to ease the SHU torture unless forced to do so by the courts. That is the reality our SHU lawsuit is facing.”

Jones also referred to the declaration by the leaders of the 2011 hunger strikes that the prisoners will launch a statewide hunger strike and work stoppage in July if conditions do not improve. “Surely you’ve heard the talk of another hunger strike? That should say it all…”

Filed Under: California, due process, Eighth Amendment, lawsuits/litigation, solitary confinement, supermax prisons Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

Voices from Solitary: “Where Cold, Quiet and Emptiness Come Together”

March 16, 2013 By 5 Comments
Pelican Bay SHU

Pelican Bay SHU

The following entry was submitted by California Prison Focus on behalf of Cesar Francisco Villa, 51, a “gang-validated” prisoner incarcerated in Pelican Bay State Prison’s Security Housing Unit (SHU). For eleven years, he has been held in solitary confinement in the SHU, subject to an indefinite term in solitary because, he says, he isn’t a gang member. “To be considered an inactive gang member (eligible for release), you must turn over gang information.  But if you are not a member, what do you have to turn in? Nothing,” he writes. The gang validation process, in which prison investigators determine whether or not prisoners are members of certain prison gangs and segregate them indefinitely in the SHU, has been criticized at California Assembly hearings in 2011 and 2013 as lacking proper oversight and providing effective due process. Currently, thousands of prisoners in California are serving SHU terms for gang validation, most in solitary confinement.   

“Each morning wakes the potential for disaster.  Each morning starts with anger before the anxiety,” Villa writes of the the frustrating monotony of life in the SHU, where he has since developed arthritis in the spine, hepatitis, a thyroid condition and high blood pressure.  Below is an excerpt from a powerful description of life in the SHU, from a letter he wrote to California Prison Focus. For the full version, in PDF format, click here. –Sal Rodriguez

When we talk of the SHU and the affects the conditions have on the psyche, it’s not a simple construction one can wrap his or her mind around.  Understanding the treatment of Pelican Bay inmates takes some getting used to.  Understanding this sickness that runs rampant in the minds of prison officials leaves knots in the pit of bellies.

Nothing can really prepare you for entering the SHU.  It’s a world unto itself where cold, quiet and emptiness come together seeping into your bones, then eventually the mind.

The first week I told myself:  It isn’t that bad, I could do this.  The second week, I stood outside in my underwear shivering as I was pelted with hail and rain.  By the third week, I found myself squatting in a corner of the yard, filing fingernails down over coarse concrete walls.  My sense of human decency dissipating with each day.  At the end of the first year, my feet and hands began to split open from the cold.  I bled over my clothes, my food, between my sheets.  Band-aids were not allowed, even confiscated when found.

My sense of normalcy began to wane after just 3 years of confinement.  Now I was asking myself, can I do this?  Not sure about anything anymore.

Though I didn’t realize it at the time—looking back now—the unraveling must’ve begun then.  My psyche had changed—I would never be the same.  The ability to hold a single good thought left me, as easily as if it was a simple shift of wind sifting over tired, battered bones.

There’s a definite split in personality when good turns to evil.  The darkness that looms above is thick, heavy and suffocating.  A snap so sharp, the echo is deafening.  A sound so loud you expect to find blood leaking from your ears at the bleakest moment.

[Read more...]

Filed Under: California, physical effects, psychological effects, solitary confinement, supermax prisons, Voices from Solitary Tagged With: , , , , , ,

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.

[Read more...]

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

As California Implements Some Solitary Confinement Reforms, Prisoners Remain Skeptical

January 25, 2013 By 3 Comments

dsc_0514_jpg_960x10000_q85Earlier this month, the Los Angeles Times reported that the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) had begun the process of implementing reforms the Department has crafted over the past year addressing the long-term solitary confinement of gang members in the California prison system.

California currently holds over 3,000 inmates in segregation units due to being identified by prison officials as being members of “security threat groups,” or, criminal prison gangs. In California, prisoners validated as members of the Aryan Brotherhood, Texas Syndicate, Mexican Mafia, Northern Structure, Nuestra Familia, Black Guerilla Family, or the Nazi Lowriders have until recently been subject to indeterminate terms in segregated housing units. Three prisons in California–Pelican Bay State Prison, Corcoran State Prison, and California Correctional Institution (Tehachapi)–contain Security Housing Units, where validated prison gang members are subject to at least 22 1/2 hours of isolation in their 8×10, often windowless, cells a day. Until the recent reforms are fully implemented, in order to be released from the SHU, inmates must either engage in “snitching” on other gang members and renounce gang activity or serve six years in the SHU without any evidence of gang activity before being considered “inactive” and can be returned to the general population. Inmates in these units have significantly greater chances of committing suicide and the deleterious effects of sensory deprivation and isolation on inmates mental health has been heavily documented.

CDCR argues that these units are critical in maintaining security in prison institutions and preventing criminal activity in the prison system. However, critics of the current system of dealing with gang members, including Amnesty International, have argued that reforms to the system are needed. The National Religious Campaign Against Torture, among others, has argued that prolonged solitary confinement amounts to torture. The conditions of the SHU prompted two large scale hunger strikes in California in 2011, in which thousands of California SHU and general population prisoners refused food for three weeks in July and September/October. The strikes prompted the California Assembly’s Public Safety Committee to hold a hearing on solitary confinement. In February 2012, in a smaller scale hunger strike at Corcoran State Prison, one inmate, Christian Gomez, died.

In March 2012, the California Department of Corrections announced a package of reforms to the Security Housing Unit. Among them was the creation of a Step Down Program, in which SHU inmates could transition out of solitary confinement and back into general population housing within four years, in a system of gradually lessened restrictions and greater incentives (e.g., greater property and out-of-cell time).

The CDCR also indicated that as part of reforms there would be a review of inmates in the SHU as to whether or not continued SHU placement was appropriate. According to the LA Times reporting, 88 inmates thus far have been reviewed as of January 4th. Of them, 51 were to be immediately removed from the SHU and placed in general population. Twenty-five others were to be placed in the Step Down Program, and the remaining dozen inmates were to remain in status-quo segregation.

[Read more...]

Filed Under: California, politics of punishment, psychological effects, solitary confinement, supermax prisons Tagged With: , , , , , ,

California Justice: Three Strikes and Sixteen Years in Solitary

September 7, 2012 By 23 Comments

The San Francisco Chronicle today ran an op-ed called “The Crime of Punishment at Pelican Bay State Prison.” The author is Gabriel Reyes, who has spent 16 years in solitary confinement (and whose artwork is featured on the left). The brief, powerful piece begins this way:

For the past 16 years, I have spent at least 22 1/2 hours of every day  completely isolated within a tiny, windowless cell in the Security Housing Unit  at California’s Pelican Bay State Prison in Crescent City (Del Norte County).

Eighteen years ago, I committed the crime that brought me here: burgling an  unoccupied dwelling. Under the state’s “three strikes” law, I was sentenced to  between 25 years and life in prison. From that time, I have been forced into  solitary confinement for alleged “gang affiliation.” I have made desperate and  repeated appeals to rid myself of that label, to free myself from this prison  within a prison, but to no avail…

Unless you have lived it,  you cannot imagine what it feels like to be by yourself, between four cold  walls, with little concept of time, no one to confide in, and only a pillow for  comfort – for years on end. It is a living tomb. I eat alone and exercise alone  in a small, dank, cement enclosure known as the “dog-pen.” I am not allowed  telephone calls, nor can my family visit me very often; the prison is hundreds  of miles from the nearest city. I have not been allowed physical contact with  any of my loved ones since 1995. I have developed severe insomnia, I suffer  frequent headaches, and I feel helpless and hopeless. In short, I am being  psychologically tortured. [Read more...]

Filed Under: California, civil liberties/civil rights, Constitution, human rights, lawsuits/litigation, psychological effects, solitary confinement, supermax prisons, torture Tagged With: , , , ,

Political or Gang Activity? “New Afrikan” Inmates in Solitary Confinement

August 7, 2012 By 28 Comments

Three “New Afrikan”  inmates in California Security Housing Unit’s (Pelican Bay and Corcoran State Prison’s) have recently written to Solitary Watch criticizing their continued isolation for being members of the Black Guerilla Family, the only black prison gang in California that will lead to placement in the SHU.

According to Mutope Duguma (legal name James Crawford) at Pelican Bay, it’s his political views “that got me placed in solitary confinement and labeled a BGF member, which I am not, but in order to place you in solitary confinement IGI/ISU/OCS have to label you a BGF if you’re a New Afrikan.”

He has been in solitary for over a decade. “My cell has a concrete slab bed, the cell is white with a concrete brick slab for TV holding. Toilet and sink connected all in one and the steel front panel door and a white painted wall in front. No trees. No animals. No sun. No life. Just prisoners isolated from the world,” he writes.

Life for men in the SHU is bleak, reports Duguma., “I get up at 5:30 AM, go to the yard when my rotation comes around for 90 minutes, then I am back in my cell for the rest of the day.”

Inmates labeled BGF are routinely validated on the basis of their political views. In a June 2012 ruling, the California Court of Appeals found that Duguma’s political writings were wrongly used to prevent outgoing mail to the San Francisco Bay View newspaper.  Duguma referred to himself as a “New Afrikan Nationalist Revolutionary Man.”

[Read more...]

Filed Under: California, due process, lawsuits/litigation, race, solitary confinement, supermax prisons Tagged With: , , , , ,

Voices from Solitary: Can’t You Hear Us?

July 14, 2012 By 2 Comments

The following is an excerpt from testimony submitted to the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, Human Rights, and Civil Rights by Pelican Bay Security Housing Unit inmate Gabriel Huerta. He has been in isolation since November 1986; like most in the SHU, he was validated as a gang member on questionable evidence of gang activity. He writes about the latest basis for his renewed SHU term, the need for social contact, and argues that long-term solitary confinement constitutes an act of torture. The rest of his testimony can be read here.–Sal Rodriguez

Many people may not know what it’s like to be isolated for so long, the way that we’ve been here, and I would say that it’s like being locked in the trunk of a car with just enough weather stripping removed so you can breathe, and with enough food and water stuffed in every day so that you can physically survive. You’re soon going to realize what it actually means when it’s said that we’re social beings. You’re going to crave social interaction and human contact. Soon you’ll be hollering out there, “anyone” you can at least talk to for even a brief time. Just like that Pink Floyd song says, “Hey you out there beyond the walls, can you hear me?” And yet every time you talk, every time you act like a human being and interact with other human beings, you’re told that that’s gang activity and you have to stay another 6 years now before your next review.

A book was found in my cell on 12/8/08, that my neighbor had let me read. It had his name and number on the book cover. This same neighbor also shared with me some pages from a Readers Digest that someone had sent him–the jokes section. These pages also had his name and number on them. It was concluded by staff that, “A friendship with a validated gang member proved through this lending and borrowing personal property solidifies the association with the gang itself.” My next review will bow be 2014.

Now let me ay this, there are many of thus who can endure this and much more–to the very end. But you know what? It doesn’t make the is existence any less “sorry.” It’s a sorry existence no matter how well you can endure it. I myself can, if I let myself, get lost in my own little world within the trunk of this car, reading my books and drinking my little pulque. I myself can, if I let myself, become “comfortably numb.” But that’s sorry, and so I’ve got to struggle in whatever way that I can. [Read more...]

Filed Under: California, human rights, international agreements, solitary confinement, supermax prisons, torture, Voices from Solitary Tagged With: , , , ,

Voices from Solitary: Isolated for Having a “Gang” Calendar

July 1, 2012 By 1 Comment

We have heard a lot about the gang “validation” in California prisons–the process by which inmates are identified as members of prison gangs. Validation can land a prisoner in solitary for five, ten, even twenty years, and was the main focus of the recent hunger strikes at Pelican Bay and other California supermaxes. We have also heard stories of prisoners who’ve been validated on the basis of tattoos or reading materials, as well as testimony by other prisoners, who are rewarded for “debriefing.” This is the first time, however, that we’ve heard of a prisoner being validated and placed in solitary because for having a calendar that was deemed to be gang-related–proving, once again, that First Amendment rights often end at the prison gates. — James Ridgeway

I am currently in the administrative segregation unit in a California prison. I was not placed in the ASU for any disciplinary reasons-I was placed here for having copies of a 10-12 year old cultural calendar. I’m basically here for having copies of other peoples’s artwork that dates back up to 20 years. Because these individuals were deemed “prison gang members” I am deemed a “threat to the safety and security of the institution’’ for simply admiring their artwork. How trivial is that?

I’ve been ion this situation for 15 months now. It is extremely mind-boggling how the state and courts allow the prison system to take all your little comforts, the things that help you feel like you are doing something positive with your time such as education (I was two classes away from getting a second college degree), AA/NA classes, a job and a few hours of recreation a day over some innocuous copies.

Now I sit here day in and day out wondering if humanity has desensitized itself to the suffering of other human beings. It is incredible when I hear about the anger and moral courage some people feel at how a chicken or any animal is caged up, but don’t bat an eyelash whena human being is treated worse. It simply amazes me.

Filed Under: California, solitary confinement, supermax prisons, Voices from Solitary Tagged With: , , ,

Voices from Solitary: “The SHU Is California’s Equivalent of Waterboarding”

June 10, 2012 By 8 Comments

The following piece, and accompanying artwork, comes from an inmate in Pelican Bay State Prison’s Security Housing Unit. He is among the over 1,100 inmates at Pelican Bay to be held in isolation from general population. SHU inmates in California generally spend 22 1/2 hours in a cell alone, for an average of over 6 years. In this letter, the inmate blasts the premise of the SHU, and argues that it amounts to nothing more than the “equivalent of waterboarding” to “extract information from [gang] validated inmates.” –Sal Rodriguez

California Dept. of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) Isolation facilities (SHUs) are unique in relation to other supermax facilities in the nation, in that they lock up and house inmates indefinitely without having committed prison rules violations.

They are isolated solely based on the identification as a gang associate, absent any actual gang misconduct charges supporting gang involvement.

The inmates are classified by CDCR as a threat to the safety and security of the central prison population. However, CDCRs own policies undermine these allegations because the CDCR will release these inmates from isolation promptly if they debrief, ie. become prison informants while in SHU. Yes, in exchange for information the CDCR will release them from their torturous SHU confinement (this is  illegal coercion). This exchange discredits CDCRs claim that these inmates are a threat (a danger that requires segregation).

If such was the case, any amount of information cannot remedy that alleged concern. Instead this exchange exposes CDCRs true objective, which is to extort information from prisoners by the threat of indefinite isolation and sensory deprivation. It’s no different than the methods used by tyrants and dictator nations. The SHU is California’s equivalent of waterboarding, for the purpose of extracting information from validated inmates. A SHU housed validated inmate cannot achieve release from isolation by good behavior–but it is guaranteed release if he becomes an informant. A blind man can see what’s going on here in California SHUs. It’s all about extorting the perceived information CDCR suspects an inmate may know.

The end game for CDCR is to break these inmates by turning them into prison informants by debriefing. It’s not about good conduct or actual threats.

Filed Under: California, due process, politics of punishment, solitary confinement, supermax prisons, Voices from Solitary 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: , , , , , , , ,
« Older Posts