OFF THE WIRE
By
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…”
