The protest will begin at 8 a.m. and run until 1 p.m.  I have the permit in hand. 

Inmates are missing the point that it is their families - not themselves - who have the power of the vote and musstt be ACTIVE with our calls to action if reform is ever going to happen.  This will have press coverage this week, but we must prepare to create the necessary crowd so that it has EXTENSIVE press coverage and those at the top, including DAVIS, can see that we mean business. Mail this inside to five inmates, I have addresses if you don't.  It is a crisis, there will be even more bloodshed if we don't ACT now.  We must get the word inside before more riots happen.  Everyone support our U.N.I.O.N. and find ten who care enough about their loved ones to picket soon.  We must cover this and cover this well or sit and suffer in our stupid silence.
 

U.N.I.O.N. Grievances/Proposed Solutions

Mr. Robert Presley, Secretary
California Adult and Youth Correction Agency
Sacramento, CA
Dear Mr. Presley:

Because you are the executive at the top reporting directly to Governor Gray Davis, the man he appointed as Secretary of the Agency for Adult and Youth Corrections, the Senate Rules Committee has made it clear that our grievances can only be settled by you. We've been told that what happens inside California prisons is ultimately your responsibility. I have prepared this letter for the special Warden meeting you've called which proposes solutions and our collective serious objections and capabilities.

For the wardens who have yet to meet us, here's a little history. Over the past five years, we have united in a statewide communication system and daily newsletter to report to California media and legislators the tragic fiscal and human loss happening in voter-financed penal institutions. As you know, our action system is called United for No Injustice, Oppression, or Neglect (U.N.I.O.N.) We consist of a coalition of organizations and individuals dedicated to reforming the criminal justice system from arrest through parole. Additionally, thirty six publishers and journalists subscribe to the newsletter and consider it a very reliable news source in California for what is really happening behind the walls.

We have 6,000 subscribers to the newsletter who are inmate families, groups, lawyers, authors, legislators and other alarmed citizens. Many are in the helping professions. We have been focused on building a voting lobby large enough to change any law or recall any politician through the initiative process. We are pastors of large congregations, priests, social workers, public defenders, civil and defense lawyers, educators, physicians and nurses - humanitarian organization leaders, families of inmates from every imaginable occupation. Somehow the arrests crossed over into the middle and upper middle class. It isn't just family members of the poor and uneducated that you have caged. We know the formula for successful organizing and each and every U.N.I.O.N. subscriber is committed to reach our goals for reform through ACTION.

I should also mention that our U.N.I.O.N. coalition gathered 66,000 signatures even after coming in at the last minute to the Amend Three Strikes petition campaign this past summer.

The point is that we are intelligent and we do know how to organize, write letters to editors and author stinging books. We are skilled at giving speeches and appearing on television and radio. We know how to draw crowds and picket to draw attention to injustice and inhumane treatment of U.S. citizens mistreated daily in California's prisons and jails. We know how to organize initiative campaigns and recalls and are experts in how to deal with onerous bullies and thugs. We do not operate from a position of fear.

During the past five years, we have brought to everyone's attention in CDC and the legislature thousands of instances of unbearable incompetence which result in needless suffering and dying and lawsuits costing taxpayers millions, if not billions of dollars which could better be used to actually rehabilitate and/or to prevent crime from ever happening.

For awhile it seemed that conditions were improving. Admittedly it required a legal settlement of $123 million per year in additional inmate medical care to make the point that abusing and medically neglecting peoples' family members is unacceptable. Not to mention virtually thousands of inches of articles and letters to editors so that the voters could see what they were buying with their tax money. We have learned that just asking nicely without noise making and activism doesn't work.

We have witnessed some improvements but they are so minuscule in proportion to the size of the problems that we are compelled to take a stronger stand against practices that you and the lawmakers accept as business as usual.

I have detailed the preceding so that it is clear we have the numbers, the education and the ability to fight back in a meaningful manner which all of the Wardens and rogue CCPOA members need to fully comprehend.

Our eyes and ears are everywhere, inside every jail, every prison and every juvenile detention facility. We cannot be deceived with public relations cover ups, lied to, or convinced that we shouldn't put an end to this needless suffering and dying. We're here to stay and we're growing daily with ACTIVE WORKERS who are not afraid to fight back for the safety and well being of their loved ones.

That said, we can either engage in an all-out battle where we outnumber all of you, since there are at least three million people hurt, or you can accept that we are dead serious about the following items and set about to make changes. We're way past being merely fed up. This is what we want to see NOW, not six months or years from now - but NOW! We've been waltzing with concepts and empty promises for five years. It is past the time for us to actually see these reforms take effect.

  1. This fact is foremost. There are too many people in prison. Conveyor belt laws such as Three Strikes need to be eliminated and non-violent offenders need to be released. Such conditions endanger the public safety as people are just becoming sicker due to inhumane treatment. There are many forms of alternative sentencing at the court level. While it may be CDC's job to warehouse human beings sent to them by the court, some administrator needs to exhibit the courage to say "HALT! We have too many people in custody and we're not going to accept anymore non-violent inmates because we cannot properly care for them within the current budgets." Anyone who buys into this mistreatment by continuing to accept non-violent inmates is just as guilty of crimes against humanity as Gray Davis.

2. The mentally ill only become distraught and depressed in the hostile environment of prisons and jails. Careless double celling of 18,000 mentally ill inmates with light offenders is causing murder and mayhem, and unnecessary lockdowns.

A. Special, accommodations such as hospitals should be provided for the mentally ill so that they can be healed instead of psychologically intimidated, victimized, robbed, raped and physically tortured or murdered in vicious prison and jail settings. Retribution style justice makes "custody" the opposite of "healing." The current methods are not a solution to crime and the mentally ill should not be punished, nor should innocents be exposed to their demented disorders.

B. The mentally ill are never going to be able to follow "rules" - that's what distinguishes them as "mentally ill." Mentally ill inmates have no business in prison at all. End the practice of using pepper spray on the mentally ill to get them to come inside from the walk alone cages.

3. The practice of continuous lockdown in whatever form, whether it is "modified programming", "full lockdown" or "fog alerts" that last all day needs to end. Putting two men in a cell the size of a bathroom for days, hours and weeks on end is just wrong. Guards are made more vulnerable to violence when people are so severely mistreated. Here's what we know about a better way to handle people who need more help than anyone else in prison - young gang members. These mostly young people might also be tremendously mentally ill, or they may be under-educated. The power struggle doesn't work to help them to recover. Medical and psychological tests should be administered on every prisoner when they are committed and then routinely conducted every year afterward.

. a. Never mix three gangs on the same yard. NEVER.

b. Southern and Northern Hispanics shouldn't even be at the same prison, let alone the same yard.

1. Whites and Southern Hispanics can live fairly well together.

2. Blacks and Northern Hispanics can live fairly well together.

3. Blacks and Whites are also fairly compatible.

4. Eliminate any combinations of THREE races or gangs on any one prison yard which is something that most CDC administrators already know. Provoked riots is a way that CCPOA justifies itself to the public but we're wise to this game and we're not going to stand for it any longer. Two compatible races/gangs on each yard will GREATLY reduce violence. This is only common sense.

c. Hold only the people responsible for disturbances accountable instead of blanket punishment lockdown for thousands of men.

The mental breakdown from isolation and continuous lockdown is severe and there is no real treatment, except to offer mind-numbing drugs instead of stimulation of the mind by educational opportunities, some sun and exercise in good air.  This should be done in compatible small groups. Military studies show that group punishment and isolation simply do not work.

Guard overtime is costing the taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars according to the Legislative Analyst. It shouldn't require weeks on end to search the cells looking for contraband. We believe this is an inhumane ploy mostly designed to benefit the guards. It is unacceptable to us that this continue.

*********

Psychological intimidation, limited access to legal libraries, interference with mail and packages and retribution for filing complaints against Guards are unacceptable to the people of the U.N.I.O.N.

We believe that prison guards intentionally create lockdowns by provoking through psychological intimidation temper outbursts from men who are already emotionally broken people. We have reports of social gatherings, pot lucks, training meetings and other guard fun going on while inmates are cruelly caged for hours, days, months and years.

Often, the guards believe they are above the law and want to justify their jobs and overtime to the voters. They get bored with routine and tranquility. Many have retribution-style training and enter this occupation with only a high school education to live out a "wanna-be" cop fantasy. Some are fearful that the inmates they kick around and psychologically torture with constant cell searches, destroying pictures and legal material, and a thousand other taunts might fight back with physical violence. They go to great lengths to create lockdowns over minor situations such as a cell phone found or a plastic cafeteria tray missing. We're not referring to one or two days but months, years and excessive punishments which gives the inmates no quality of life.

Individual wardens and their employees are making up the rules as they go along, completely disregarding the inmate's Title 15 and D.O.M. which should be used as the final authority. The "system" is out of control and the inmates have nowhere to turn for help. The media is banned, the guards exercise retribution if they file a 602 or a lawsuit. Medical care is withheld as a "punishment" for months and years on end if inmates even dare to speak out. CDC MUST enforce these two sections of the penal code and provide serious consequences to Wardens and Guards who deviate from your own rules.

Penal Code §147. Every officer who is guilty of willful inhumanity or oppression toward any prisoner under his care or in his custody, is punishable by fine not exceeding four thousand dollars ($4,000), and by removal from office.

Penal Code §149 Every public officer who, under color of authority, with out lawful necessity, assaults or beats any person, is punishable by a fine not exceeding ten thousand dollars. ($10,000), or by imprisonment in the state prison, or in a county jail not exceeding one year, or by both such fine and imprisonment.

We believe that administrators should have no less than a Master's Degree in criminology and that guards should have a minimum AA degree which includes basic CPR and some courses in teaching and social work. Everyone would be better off if you sent the bar bouncer types back onto the streets and hired someone besides the present bullies and thugs.

********

Food

The new heart healthy diet is causing needless hunger among inmates. This diet might be practical for people who can eat anytime they want since carbohydrates are known to burn up quickly. But for inmates who are given three eating periods with one of those consisting only of a cold, mystery meat sandwich at lunch, the hunger is intolerable. Mystery meat full of sodium and nitrates is not heart healthy.

We want real meat back on the menus because protein is more filling and nutritious. The word protein is Greek for "first importance" because every function of the human body depends on adequate amounts of PROTEIN. For those people who want protein alternatives to meat due to religious reasons and/or special diets, we support that position too.

The majority of the inmates want REAL poultry, beef, pork, chicken, fish and decent quantities food so that they are not continually suffering symptoms of starvation.

Some people do not metabolize carbohydrates well at all and this creates a medical condition known as hyperinsulinism, written about extensively by Dr. George Atkins whose 30 year studies (and 10 million books sold) are widely used by thousands of American physicians. A carbohydrate-based diet creates a pre-diabetic condition which ultimately develops into diabetes for many people.

Inmates are human beings and deserve fresh fruits, vegetables, meat and starches in greater quantity and quality served in a SANITARY manner. God help the thousands of inmates who do not have family to send them money for canteen so they can pay exorbitant prices for junk food to stave off the hunger pangs. It's outrageous and very likely contributing to the present violence throughout the prison system.

Blood sugar regulation is different for everyone and when it gets low or is deprived or shockingly contaminated, nothing but chaos will result. The heartbreak of families witnessing their loved ones underfed is unnecessary. As you know, we UNION people have a way of turning heartbreak into lawsuits. Cutting food will no longer be a cost-savings. We will name individuals responsible for this insanity in lawsuits from the lowest aid to the top callous legislators who sit idly allowing this great abuse. It's a promise we can and we will keep! Cease the heart healthy starvation diet immediately.

***************

We believe that many jail suicides are either homicides or caused by extreme psychological intimidation. Jailers should be neutral instead of voicing degrading opinions to people who may not even be guilty. It seems that there is no justice in the courts and that the prisons are filled with innocent and/or mentally ill people who deserve to be treated with more respect. Our files are full of abuse at all 33 prisons, all the jails and all the juvenile detention facilities.

This all comes back to a testosterone-driven revenge mentality which endangers guards, inmates and the public. This red-neck attitude may be rooted in tradition but this is the year 2002. Restorative justice techniques will stop the never-ending cycle of revenge. Murders, beatings, injustice in CDC's kangaroo courts are causing a strong reaction from people who are already downtrodden and hopeless. Not one U.N.I.O.N. subscriber has any trust whatsoever in our criminal justice system. That's because it is totally corrupt and ineffective. Instead of cutting back on fair trial expenditures, we should be increasing budgets in this area. Ultimately, the taxpayers pay dearly for what is meted out in the name of justice. People begin to take the law into their own hands - both inside the prisons and in the neighborhoods. A little street sense would go a long way toward reducing violence. We want the degradation of our loved ones to stop.

Conditions where 600 men are living in a gym at Mule Creek prison with exposed pipes and bunk beds stacked three high are just as cruel as continuous lockdowns. For ten toilets shared by 600 men to be spaced 12" apart and offer no privacy dividers is an affront to common decency. Human waste on the walls, floors, poisoned water supplies, filthy kitchens and showers endangers the public safety since there are highly contagious diseases such as Hepatitis and Tuberculosis to name a couple which can be transmitted to families.

Clean up ALL the hellholes to reduce the costs of rampant disease. California prisons are on a par with those in Tijuana and are an international disgrace. We've had it on this point! When did it become acceptable for a minor violation to result in a deadly disease due to administrative callousness and ignorance? You are not dealing with herds of livestock, these are the loved ones of California's voters. Many are veterans. Many are simply addicts who need rehabilitation, or geriatric seniors who are well past the point where they are a threat to society. Too many are even innocent or over-sentenced. We are dead serious on this point - clean it up or we'll clean you out through the power of the vote.

**************

Visiting is inexpensive therapy and gives hopeless men and women a reason to live. Yet even after we testified on March 8 by scores we are still experiencing intimidation of families who attempt to visit.

We know that the legislators failed California when it violated our State Constitution by ending all visits in 1997. But the people of the UNION also know very well how to bring 6500 people together to raise money for lawsuits and initiative campaigns. We are not morons incapable of collecting 200 signatures each to change any law, recall any politician or file a class action lawsuit. If rehabilitation, education and healing are the goals then visiting must be viewed in a completely different light. The families of prisoners are innocent victims and to mistreat devastated people is not only cruel and unusual, but certain to bring about violence in the institutions and neighborhoods. It's a downright stupid action. Overnight family visits should be restored and used as a reward system. This would certainly give incentive to rehabilitate.

We have posted at our website a complaint submitted against Mule Creek Prison which details 22 pages of problems. It was composed by 87 inmates. At least 90% of the problems described in this document apply at all prisons, jails and juvenile detention facilities in California. There are many proposed solutions in that document as well. We have it posted online at this website address:

http://www.geocities.com/capitolhill/parliament/2398/mulecreek.htm

Our general website address containing a collection of our published articles, campaigns and subscriber complaints, as well as informative studies and books authored by our subscribers can be found here.

http://www.geocities.com/capitolhill/parliament/2398/index.htm

The human bondage industry cannot continue to operate in its present manner without a tremendous response from the families connected to hundreds of thousands of people victimized by these inhumane practices and failure to adhere to laws. Enough said.

Most sincerely,

B. Cayenne Bird, Journalist
Volunteer Director
U.N.I.O.N.

Back to the Lockdown Index

http://www.geocities.com/capitolhill/parliament/2398/lockdown_index.htm

Select, copy, open a new email, paste this appeal to a new email. Let's alert the clergy in California only. Please contact five churches and ask everyone you know to do the same. Fax, email, snail mail, deliver this letter to at least five members priests, pastors. 

Good Christians will be happy to hear from you. Make certain that you too have written a 200 word letter to the editor re the visiting threat. Reach out for help. Stand up for visits. We must garner support now. Lives depend on it. 

To Beloved Friends and Fellow Laborers: 

March 20, 2002 

Greetings: 

As brothers and sisters in Christ we are commanded to love one another and to continue loving one another. That includes remembering people in prisons and hospitals who are suffering. We are to remember them as if we were suffering with them. Prisoners need to be visited, as they are often solitary and forsaken by the rest of the world. And, as our Lord instructed, "I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me." (Matthew 25:40). 

We have an urgent situation in our state. California Department of Corrections is planning to change, restrict and add to the already harsh regulations governing prison visits. In some cases it will even halt the ability of clergy, friends, and family to reach these people. 

Inmates in the cruel Security Housing Units will be restricted to short visits from blood relatives only. 

Certain drug convictions will forbid visits for a year. This is an intolerable situation! Indeed, it goes contrary to all that has been asked of us in the Bible and that we have been commanded to do. We believe the true intent is that Gray Davis needs to make a budget cut. He has selected the poorest, least organized, weakest voting group of mostly grandmothers, wives, and little children in a move that will ultimately endanger public safety. 

In order to help as quickly as possible, we need for you to contact the people in your congregation to let them know what is happening. Additionally, we have asked everyone to write to their newspapers (letters-to-the-editor) explaining the importance of such visits to the prisoner mental and spiritual well-being. This is not a political issue but rather a situation whereby the clergy will be forbidden to carry out their responsibility to minister to those in need. 

Reluctantly, we may also need to file a lawsuit against the state to correct matters and should we reach that point, we will urge you to join us in our efforts. Our organization is very poor since many of our members are families of prisoners, but we have heart and will try to stand up to this oppression. We will need help with funds and volunteers from all over the State. 

We were able to find a lawyer who would work on contingency for two prisoners who were abused. Eddie Dillard was raped at Corcoran after the guards put him in the cell of a predatory rapist (Booty Bandit) on purpose. Stephanie Hardie was a young mother sentenced to ten years in prison for overdrawing her own checking account. She died needlessly at Chowchilla Prison due to medical neglect at a young age and left two young children behind. These hearings will be coming up soon and their outcome affects the safety of every California inmate. We need people to know and write about these two cases as well. It would be good to fill the courtrooms during the hearings in Fresno which are coming up. 

Visiting was simply deleted in 1996 by the Legislature. The UNION did not exist at that time and the advocates missed it. The Legislators failed to uphold their oaths to defend the California Constitution. Visiting is now considered a "privilege" and not a "right." People will surely die over this travesty which violates the rights of the families. Unreasonable search and seizure, pursuit of happiness, and more are but a few of the rights in jeopardy. 

As long as the law is in place, the threat will be over us. But it would take 6500 people cooperating to change the law. You can see by the hardship that is happening in the campaign to end the three strikes law that families of prisoners do not know how to do this work. They are emotionally and financially devastated and do not know how to organize a voting group of the proportion needed. 

So we need to cry out to fellow Christians for help since millions of people will be adversely impacted. 

I give thanks to God always for all of you and what you are doing in His name. As I close this message, I would like to echo the words of the Apostle Paul, "Grace to you and peace from God." What better way to remember Christ, who was a felon, at Easter. Please contact me with your pledge to help those who most need it - the innocent victims of crime who are families of prisoners. We have a daily online newsletter which reports on criminal justice and human rights which you may subscribe to in order to stay current. 

In truth and love, 

B. Cayenne Bird, Journalist 
Volunteer Director, U.N.I.O.N. (United for No Injustice or Neglect) 
http://www.geocities.com/capitolhill/parliament/2398/advice.htm 
[email protected] 
P.O. Box 22765 
Sacramento, Ca. 95822 

For more information on this subject please go to these sites. Index is on first page 

http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/Parliament/2398/visiting_regulations.htm 

Text of Visiting Regulations 

Letter written by UNION Director B. Cayenne Bird to CDC containing more details of visiting threat 

Los Angeles Times Commentary - Don't Cut Off Prisoners From Their Families 

Letters to CDC About Visiting 

1996 Senate Bill 2601 (deleted visits in 1996) 

Inmates' families rip rules proposal 

Harsh new rules threaten public safety 

U.N.I.O.N. HOME 

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hundreds of letters should be sent to editors and news directors throughout California to show we are upset. Here are some sample letters. 

Dear Editor: 

Friday, March 8th, an important hearing took place in Sacramento which most people probably don't know about. And yet it was well- and emotionally-attended by those who did know. The California Department of Corrections held it to air proposed changes to visiting rules in our 33 state prisons, changes which are rather onerous. 

Of course, if you are one of our 160,000 prisoners or one of their presumably 800,000 family members, you care about visiting rules. But the truth is that if you are any citizen in the state of California you should care because the vast majority of prisoners will parole and there is precious little else in their prison experience besides family contact that may help them exit prison a whole, non-repeat offender. 

Prison is...well, prison--total loss of freedom, exposure to gangs, drug availability, insanity, brutality, sexual abuse, antagonistic guards. For ten years now the mind-set of our Governors has been to reduce educational and self-help opportunities. A troubled person commits a crime, gets sentenced, and several years later exits a whole person? Highly unlikely, unless something makes a difference in his/her life, and the best hope of that is family support and visiting. 

The CDC, rather than making visiting more difficult and stressful, should be bending over backwards to make use of the thousands of free "therapists"--family members--whose unsolicited efforts can make life inside and outside the prison more stable and safe. 

Deborah D. J... 

[email protected], [email protected] 

Dear Editor: 

The people in charge of state prisons in California (CDC) would have you believe that 1% of the drugs in prison come in through the Correctional Officers. That must be based on the opinion that they don't need the money since they just got a whopping 25% raise from the Governor (who's union is Davis' biggest campaign contributor). But with drugs inside going for 10 times the street price, don't bet on it. 

CDC has visitors to the inmates passing the contraband. Oddly enough, the visitors are screened, the visits are monitored, and after the visit the inmates are strip searched. Now just who is kidding who? 

Maybe funding a drug rehab program upon entry to prison would do more for the citizens of the state than fattening the CO's wallets would. 

Bob D 

------------- 

Letters must be faxed in to become part of the legal records by 5 p.m. March 8, 2002. Letters to editors on this topic are also greatly needed. We expect inactive people to do the crowd generation on this as UNION volunteers are very over-extended right now on matters of equal importance. 

We are against proposed changes to the Director's Rules #02/03 

Regarding: Visiting Rules 

 We, the 5000 humanitarian groups and individuals of United for No Injustice, Oppression or Neglect, strongly oppose the proposed changes to the Title 15, Visiting Rules for California State Prisons 

The public comment period will close March 8, 2002 at 5:00 p.m. Any person may submit public comments in writing (by mail, or by fax) regarding the proposed changes. To be considered by the Department, comments must be submitted to the Department of Corrections, Regulation and Policy Management Branch, P.O. Box 942883, Sacramento, CA 94283-0001; by fax at (916)322-3842;before the close of the comment period. The email which was previously advertised to accept comments was shut down. 

 Faxing is best. Follow up by snail-mailing your letters. Write your own letter in your own words. The letter below should give you plenty of ideas. It is a sample only. Limit yours to one page. Explain how the regulation offends or inconveniences you in any way. Try not to curse. 

 Writing letters to the editor is very important. If the press misses this one, CDC will get away with it completely. Do not exceed 200 words. The email list is posted here. If hundreds of letters don't arrive objecting to these changes, the media will assume everyone is happy with them and you will suffer forever. 

 Media addresses

 B. Cayenne Bird 

 Director, UNION 
P.O. Box 22765 
Sacramento, Ca. 95822 

March 2, 2002 
 
 

Rick Grenz, Chief, 
Regulation and Policy Management Branch 
Department of Corrections 
P.O. Box 942883 
Sacramento, CA 94283-0001 
 

Dear Mr. Grenz: 

We are against proposed changes to the Director's Rules #02/03 . We, the 5000 humanitarian groups and individuals of United for No Injustice, Oppression or Neglect, strongly oppose the proposed changes to the Title 15, Visiting Rules for California State Prisons 

In times of a budget crisis it is easiest to cut services to prisoners and their families because they do not have a large enough funded voting group with which to defend themselves or their loved ones. If they did, such oppressive, dramatic visiting regulation proposals wouldn't dare be issued. Our group the UNION is the nearest resemblance to a citizen's group to fill this role. Here are our comments and objections to the Proposed Visiting Regulations. 

Those who participate in locking people in cages have a responsibility to do the right thing for the poorest of the poor. It may not be found in a manual written by power-hungry men, but it is found in the Bible. 

Christ himself was a felon. He had a particular softness toward those who through mental illness, duress or just wrong decisions ended up in prison. He instructed us to view prisoners as if they were Christ himself. I already know that people who use pepper spray to bring mentally ill inmates in from the outdoor cages cannot be appealed to through compassion. 

The UNION questions whether CDC has the authority to alter the regulations since visiting is not a privilege as stated in the beginning paragraphs.  Visiting is a right according to the California Constitution. Visiting has been used for punishment, for psychological torture and mind control techniques. This is a violation of California 
Constitution, Article 1, §7 (b), where no distinction between classes of citizens is made, including prisoners who are being punished for some violation. 

"A citizen or class of citizens may not be granted privileges or immunities not granted on the same terms to all citizens. Privileges or immunities granted by the Legislature may be altered or revoked."  California Constitution, Article 1, §7 (b). "Where rights secured by the Constitution are involved, there can be no rule making or legislation which would abrogate them." 

Miranda vs. Arizona, 384 US 436, The use of visitation as punishment is cruel and unusual, as receiving mail and visitors are the only thing that prisoners receive to keep them sane, in touch with family and friends, which contacts are needed when they are released at some future date. Rights are something that cannot be taken away from us. 

We are aware that the government through the legislative process likes to turn rights into privileges, but privileges can be tampered with, changed at the whim of a bureaucrat who has no authority to make these kind of decisions. Privileges can be tightly regulated and, with little justification, taken away where "Rights" present greater obstacles to abuse. We would request that the sentence at the start of the regulations "Visiting is not a privilege," be removed from the new regulations that are proposed. 
 

The regulations parrot the general attitude at all California's prisons that the families are criminals who deserve to have their rights Constitutionally violated. All the regulations, in one form or another violate the Fourth amendment right to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures, the Fifth amendment right to remain silent, denial of equal protection of the laws, the right to due process. 
 

These regulations appear to have two underlying purposes. To give California prisons carte blanche to violate rights of visitors, prisoners, attorneys and anybody else they want to investigate. The regs give the employees arbitrary and capricious powers to deny anyone privileges, who doesn't "toe the line" or violates some hidden rule or regulation unknown to the outside. I guess I am just old fashioned, but I thought the Bill of Rights meant something. 
I guess they are null and void in the prisons of California. 
 

They may be the weakest, poorest-of-the-poor citizens in California. But to deprive, punish, intimidate and BULLY families in this manner who already stressed to the maximum is just morally wrong. They are the innocent victims of crime, not trash. When inmates see or hear that their family members were abused during visits, it creates great emotional trauma. This results in bad feelings towards the guards and does not help the inmates heal. It leaves the families traumatized. 

The goal should be to rehabilitate, educate and return inmates back to their communities in much better condition than before they were incarcerated. This attitude is far more conducive to ensuring the public safety than the present approach to give guards with only a high school education encouragement to degrade people who are already financially and emotionally devastated. 

The State of California insists that it wants people to hold jobs and be productive, tax-paying citizens so that they can earn money to pay for the bureaucracy. Causing them inconvenience and mental duress during visiting, requiring young children to have legal I.D. cards, timing the length of a hug or a kiss to 5 seconds has no practicality.1) 3175 (e) Limiting the greeting and goodbye hug and/or kiss to a maximum of five seconds. 
This sort of over-policing costs not only in terms of the expense of wasted motion but in human terms as well. The taxpayers of California should not need to pay for inmates, their wives and children to be psychologically intimidated, forced to stand in long DMV or prison visiting room lines, missing days of work and creating mountains of unnecessary paperwork. 

CDC whines constantly and wastes money, makes excuses for medical neglect claiming that there are staff shortages, yet proposes to worsen that situation with 3172 (b) Requiring CDC106 Applications for all persons, including minors. 

What's a DOJ or CLETS search on a child supposed to accomplish except maybe "marking" that child for life in your database? Will you ever get a report stating "This seven year old has a record of drug smuggling and aggravated assault." The answer can only be NO, so what is the real purpose of such a reg? We want this one deleted entirely and suggest 14 years of age to be more reasonable. 

3175 (f) Disallowing children seven years and older from sitting on a male inmate's lap. 
This assumes all inmates are pedophiles when in fact, the percentage is very low. There are already adequate regulations concerning sex offenders. Most children by nature cling to their fathers on the infrequent times they can visit. 

This type of guard interference might result in permanent scarring of the child involved. It sends a message that love is bad and emotional distance is good. This is not the message we need to send to children who are already confused about why their dads have men/women with guns standing by ready to shoot. The prison environment is a frightening place for adults, let alone children. What possible abuses have brought about this idea? There is little opportunity for lawbreaking in a visiting room as it is since they are heavily guarded. 

4) 3170.1 (c)Disallowing non-family members from visiting SHU inmates 

The regulation that prohibits only family members to visit inmates in cruel solitary confinement (Security Housing Units SHU) does not consider that a large percentage of inmates have no family. They are in fact, former foster children in many instances who have never had much love or nurturing. 

Putting someone in isolation is an inhumane act of violence designed to break their spirit and causes extreme mental illness. To prohibit visitors to the SHU who are not family members will mean in many instances that there will be no visitors forever to thousands of isolated prisoners. 

Christ commanded that EVERYONE, family members or not, visit those in prisons and hospitals regularly to facilitate their healing. The current laws violate one of the most basic premises of Christianity by blocking the public from doing their required service to humanity. There can be no motivation here that is understandable or acceptable. Not legally; not morally this practice is nothing less than an outrage. Isn't the real intent here to block priests, preachers, advocates from inmate contact so that they cannot report back to the media on the horrors of the SHU? 

3171 (1) (d) Disallowing new inmates convicted of drug charges from having contact visits for their first year. 

In addition to invoking cruel and unusual punishment on both inmates and family members, this is a highly prejudicial regulation implying that only drug addicts or accomplices would visit an inmate convicted of drug use. The media has reported many abuses of guards supplying inmates with drugs and very few incidences of families bringing in drugs. 

One of the comforting factors to anyone who has lost a family member to prison for this reason might be that drug dependency problems would at least be eliminated during incarceration. The family often hopes that with their continued love and support and rehabilitation programs, if they existed, the inmate might emerge from prison drug-free. 

Is the purpose of this regulation to psychologically torment and alienate recovering addicts and their families? The treatment practices in Betty Ford Center for example include the families. This proposed reg defies modern mental health procedures at every turn. They were sent to prison as punishment, not FOR mental cruelty. Often addicts are fathers and husbands. A year of separation is an unreasonable time frame and we recommend you strike this one entirely. Childhood friends, fiancées, foster parents would all be prohibited from visiting prisoners who desperately need social contact and support for survival. Mental breakdown will worsen and it is already at shameful levels. 
Families of prisoners are not to be judged as criminals. The rule that does not allow former inmates already covers any potential problem well enough. The search process is thorough for families but not for guards. We would suggest cavity searches for all guards before and after each shift as more of a solution to this problem. 

3179. Appeals Relating to Visiting 

The UNION has some recourse against accusations of misconduct or erroneous interpretations of rules and regulations by CDC Visiting Staff. Those who are not part of our coalition that includes tens of thousands of families are caused to suffer during the months of waiting for written replies from Wardens and the Director's office to remedy the situation. 

The Inspector General's office is far too busy to have their precious time spent on thousands of these type of complaints, yet they are important to the healing and rehabilitative process. The more rules imposed, the greater resulting complaints and problems since most of the Guards are on power trips and abuse their authority. 
These regs general violate rights, spew hate and help no one. They do a great deal to harm relationships and to further damage the most vulnerable members of our society; the innocent victims of crime who are the families and children of prisoners. 

Sincerely, 
 

B. Cayenne Bird 
UNION Director 
http://www.geocities.com/capitolhill/parliament/2398/home.html
[email protected]
 

 Date and Time: March 8, 2002, 9:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. 

 Place: Department of Water Resources Auditorium 

 1416 Ninth Street 

 Sacramento, CA 95814 

 Purpose: To receive comments about this action. 

Volunteers are needed to attend three important hearings coming up soon. 

 Stephanie Hardie, Chowchilla prison wrongful death medical neglect case 

 Eddie Dillard (Booty Bandit) civil suit against the guards 

 Both of these trials are being held in Central California 

 Lawyers who will accept pro bono or contingency cases are desperately needed. Also, students and other volunteers who will assist with criminal cases can make a difference here. Email [email protected]. Spread the word 
 
 

Jim Shook, a veteran in prison for a minor crime needs a liver transplant. Transplants are denied to all prisoners. A minor crime shouldn't result in a death sentence. To benefit all prisoners needing a transplant, we ask that you circulate the flyer on this webpage to at least TEN Veteran's groups and churches. Christ would never condone this cruelty, Jim's family is devastated. We are all there is to help. Click on the red web address and when you get to the site, hit your print button. Then send the flyer everywhere 

 http://www.geocities.com/capitolhill/parliament/2398/Shooktransplant.htm

 The medical crisis is full blown now with 39 inmates dead in one month statewide. Six of those deaths occurred at Chowchilla and and six at CMF Vacaville. 

 The UNION is the only way that the journalists and attorney who have surfaced can get the news out to the public. We need everyone's help in locating family members of the 39 inmates who died statewide Nov. 1 through Dec. 12 so that we may determine circumstances. 

 We are supplying 31 news agencies, especially the Los Angeles Times with the information as it breaks. Reporters are banned from the prisons, so everyone's help is needed in bringing the people involved together. 

 Volunteers are also needed for research as we need it, filing, preparation of other cases for national television news coverage, and we may end up picketing. 

 This affects everyone with a loved one inside. Everybody pitch in 

 [email protected] 
B. Cayenne Bird 
P.O. Box 22765 
Sacramento, Ca. 95822 

A letter like this needs to be FAXED to Gov Gray Davis and a PHONE CALL placed so that we make incredible noise and put an end to the harassment of witnesses to the prison deaths. Only hundreds of calls get attention. 

 February 8, 2001 

 Gov. Gray Davis 
Sate Capitol, 
Sacramento, CA 95814 
Fax: 916-445-4633 
Subject: Mistreatment of Chowchilla Witnesses 
Letter to the Editor: 

This letter is about several inmates who witnessed several deaths that occurred at the Chowchilla Women's Facility and other Correction Facilities within the State of California between November 1 and December 12, 2000. 

 Currently, there are several witnesses at the Chowchilla Women's Facility who are being harassed and threatened due to their testimonies regarding the deaths that occurred at the Chowchilla facility. This type of inhumane retaliation needs to be investigated and stopped before more inmates are lost to untimely deaths. 

 The media and our Legislators are not being fair to the California taxpayers when they refuse to acknowledge these witnesses and ignore their cries for help. The public has a right to know what is going on in our Prisons. If inmates (witnesses) continue to suffer mental and physical abuse at the hands of the CDC, this will only lead to more lawsuits - at the taxpayer's expense. 

 A concerned citizen, 

 Donna H. 
Chula Vista, CA 

 Make your own letter on the topic of mistreatment of Chowchilla inmate witnesses and fax it here. Also, call your local legislators and let them know that you as a voter resent this abuse and would like to see some bills going forward for prisoners 

 Gov. Gray Davis, 
State Capitol, 
Sacramento, Ca. 95814. 
Sacramento Phone: 916-445-2841 FAX: 916-445-4633 
San Francisco Phone: 415-703-2218 FAX: 415-703-2803 
Fresno Phone: 559-445-5295 FAX: 559-445-5328 
Los Angeles Phone: 213-897-0322 FAX: 213-620-2365 
These are serious matters of life and death for all California inmates. We need thousands more people helping to get this important work done. 
 
 

We have several cases where an inmate nearly died because the ambulance took one hour or more to arrive at the prison. Most prisons are in rural areas. With the frequency of riots, delayed ambulances are a form of torture and medical neglect. We are seeking cases where an inmate needed emergency service and couldn't get it. We need to know how long it took from the time the inmate was injured until he was actually given emergency help and all the specifics.

UNION members have been mailed a survey so that we may take a vote on the next three projects we plan to focus on in the next legislative session. If you aren't a UNION member, sign up today. Individuals don't count in Sacramento, the laws are influenced by large groups. Without a group, nothing can be changed. When the families of inmates become active, laws will change, but not one minute before.

Ten volunteers are needed to research government data for important information needed by UNION members who work inside the media. This entails tracking lawsuit payouts and how budget appropriations intended for one program actually ended up being spent. Please email [email protected] if you are good at research and want to make a difference

The best search engine in the world pays the UNION three cents everytime you access it from our page. Please use it for all your searches.

Search engine

CDC held a hearing regarding media access to prisons on September 6. To view these proposed changes and to get full information go to

Media Access

 Letters, phone calls, faxes and visits to Governor Davis' office by the thousands are needed. The Phone Bill which will reduce the prices paid by families for phone calls from inmates must be signed or vetoed by him by September 30.

It passed both the House and Senate and everyone who worked for this is to be congratulated. Too many people think someone else is doing this VITAL lobby work, then not nearly enough people do it.

 Teach inmates how to fight for themselves since they have time to write a letter for every member in your family. Unless we show numbers, the bills lose by default

 Governor Gray Davis
California State Capitol
Sacramento, CA 95814
Capitol (916) 445-2841

 Subject: SB 1978 (Hayden) - Telephone Contract Bill>

 TALKING POINTS

 The bill's intent is to provide affordable telephone service for families with incarcerated loved ones by eliminating the commission to the state, approximately 40%. The current annual commission to the state is $16-20 million.

 The bill would require that "only the costs of operating the phone system be recovered" by the state. Many of California's 33 prisons are located in remote regions making it expensive and difficult for families and friends to travel to these remote locations and visit their family member in prison.

Such a situation forces many families to accept collect calls as the only means to stay in touch with their loved one in prison. The rates range from $0.30 to $0.50 per minute.

A connect fee starts at $3.00 and can go up to $8.00. If the call is for some reason disconnected, you are subject to the same connection fee again.

 There is a security feature consisting of a voice over-lay that periodically plays throughout the call. The over-lay results in interruptions and drowning out of conversation.

Your support for SB 1978, if passed and signed into law, would help thousands of Californians gain access to fair and affordable collect phone calls from California prisons.