In re: The emergency regulations to amend Sections 3044, 3092, 3138, and 3190 in the California Code of Regulations, Title 15, Division 3 relating to statewide vendor packages 

Dear Mr. Grenz:

The California Department of Corrections (CDC) is trying to change the existing quarterly package rules with an emergency regulation. I object to the department using the emergency regulation to get what it wants without going through the procedures carefully laid out in the Department Operating Manual (D.O.M.) and/or Title 15. Public comment is thwarted and the voters and taxpayers of this state are denied access to which they are entitled. Subverting the process in this is, as it has in the past on very critical issues like family visit denial to lifers was, the denial of due process for all interested or affected parties. CDC has a responsibility to operate within the letter and intent of the regulations and not hide behind convenient loop holes of its own making. 

It is not only bad policy, it is mean spirited to take away the right of discussion and comment from those directly affected. We are after all still in a democracy and demand our say and our vote. As Mr. Davis discovered, you can only go so far. CDC is beyond that limit.

The program was first presented to us in Lancaster last year by several members of CDC. I was there as a member of the Inmate Family Counsel. At that time it was being presented as a cost savings and a security improvement. It was a sorry presentation. The numbers were pulled out of a hat to justify the cost savings by reducing the inspection time of individual packages. No warden in the system is going to allow un-inspected packages to enter any facility. So what savings might be achieved go up in smoke. As to the security improvement, there have been incidents in other states where security was breeched at the vendor and contraband brought in through the packages. I'm quite sure Californians are no less ingenious.

If you really wanted to reduce or eliminate the drugs inside, all you have to do is inspect the staff coming into the facility and have a trained dog at the sally port. Visitors probably account for a few percent of the drugs, but CDC always points to visitors even as staff is discovered with kilos.

The element that is ignored in this "bean counting frenzy" is the loving care the sender of the packages and the bond with the family for the inmate. My wife revels in finding a pair of men's weight gloves that aren't black so she can send our son just what he wanted. Or the joy she gets at finding just the right coffee or protein powder as food supplement. She buys in bulk for cost savings too so she can send each package with some for several quarters.

The results are coming in from the institutions that have switched and the problems pointed out at last year's presentation are happening:

1. Packages have been rejected for being the wrong size.

2. Packages have been rejected for being 2 lbs. overweight. Apparently the weight of the items doesn't include packing.

3. Packages have not been sent back to the vendor but to the inmate family who can do nothing with several hundreds of dollars it cost.

4. Packages have been missing items on receipt. Now who handles the problem? 

5. Some institutions have only one vendor approved. 

6. Some vendors do not have anything but a P.O. box. How do you find them when you have a problem? Previously an inmate could not receive from a P.O. box.

7. Vendors are limited in what they carry and families cannot buy bulk for multiple packages as they do now, reducing cost.

8. The bulk of items sent is food. That is because the diet is grossly inadequate and most of us have to supplement the measly portions (please spare me the "heart healthy crap") going to limited selection at some of these vendors is a mistake. 

9. Some vendors just came into existence, how convenient.

The list goes on but you get the drift. It is CDC trying to force something for which they have no expertise and will fail at but they are not the ones who suffer. If the true intent is to return our inmate to society as a better person, by God this is not the way. At least let families have an option to send packages along with the vendors but so not let the system deteriorate with this ill conceived plan.

Yours truly,

Bob Driscoll

  March 5, 2004

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

  Re:  Prisoner Vendor Packages

  Dear Mr. Grenz,

       I am writing to protest and share deep concerns of the loss of personal property in the new CDC regulations proposed for inmate packages sent from families and friends.

  Many inmates rely on that close personal contact, as do the families for sending their needed or favorite food items or better clothing than provided by contracted vendors.

  For inmates with food allergies or who have special dietary needs these packages are their survival items.   The amount of pens, papers and type of shoes limited for inmates is absurd.  They have already lost their freedoms, live in a brutal world, have very limited contact with their families, and this is a healing contact and survival issue for inmates who are already brutally punished within our system.

  This is simply a money grab outside vendor contract issue with loss of revenue  to California businesses and another way of decreasing very needed family and outside contact.  The outside packages are already searched thoroughly and your dangerous "contraband" is as limited as it is going to be.

  To say you cannot control drugs or items of concern by your current screening policies (or lack of screening on prison guards themselves) is to further punish the families of inmates (who have done nothing wrong) by causing undue concern and further punishing inmates because you can't fix your own system.

  This policy is unnecessary and hurtful to any positive reinforcement plans or motivations to inmates and is quit disturbing to me in our social attitudes of "punishment".   As a tax payer who wants to be "safe" in our society,  I expect you to contain inmates.  I do not wish  you to treat them with cruelty.  It is not what I have ever asked of the California Criminal Justice System and where do you think "we the people", that YOU represent, have asked this of you?
       Sincerely, AK

When these proposals are thought out or reviewed by someone who can be objective and not quote security, safety, and cost savings as a mantra most of what the CDC tries to slip through is a disaster. The only guard against this is to have open hearings and legislature concurrance. The following is one example of the devil in the details of the quarterly box changes.

Quarterly Box Procedure

If the inmates must order the boxes themselves, there is a far greater xpenditure of staff time and involvement as they would be utilizing the "special purchase" procedure.

First the inmate fills out the order then it goes to the Mailroom Sgt. who must log it, review it for errors and check the math. A substantial percentage will have errors in the order so the Sgt. sends it back to the inmate who then resubmits a correct order, which again must be processed by the Sgt. If the order is correct it goes to Accounting where the order is again reviewed before the check is written. If Accounting discovers an error the order goes back to the inmate who resubmits another order starting the process all over again. If the order is correct a check is written on the inmate's trust account and mailed to the company. 

When the box comes in it is picked up at the post office logged in and issued to the inmate by a C.O. When a package is sent from an inmate's family or friends it is picked up at the post office, logged in and issued by a C.O. Utilization of vendor packages and special orders involves far more time and effort on the part of prison staff than the current package procedure. Furthermore much of the work is performed by Sgts. and Accounting personnel who may be drawing higher salaries than C.O.s

We covered the points mentioned in this call to action and more.  I will let you know when it will air but in the meantime it is necessary for you to write letters to the editors for those who won't see my show and to send this email into ten inmates so we can all be together on what we need to do here.
 

So far, there has only been on article on the sneaky move to eliminate packages from home after the Senate Public Safety Committee denied it.  You can thank the Republicans for backing this idea but it wasn't legislatively approved.  I was there with a handful of people and this horrible bill by Sen. Brulte was killed in May, 2003.

CDC/CCPOA is out of control. What affects them are these three actions - nothing else!

1.  Negative press - that's why you must write a letter to the editors opposing this oppressive action against you simply because they think you're too stupid to fight back with lawsuits and initiative campaigns.

2.  Lawsuits which requires 2600 sharing the burden of hiring the lawfirm.  We only have 500 willing to participate at this moment so are you asking others to join us to make the burden lighter for everyone?  We need to take action that has teeth to prove we are organized, otherwise they just laugh at our efforts to fight back.

3.  Initiative campaigns - which requires 6500 workers who have the ability to change any law, recall any politician when all respond to calls to action to write, protest, vote together

6500 x 200 signatures each = 1.3 million

6500 x $200 each equals $1,300.000 enough to finance any change in the law through the initiative process, enough to eliminate 70% of tje prison industry.

Other groups do this everyday.

The call to action is to write a letter to editors -  Sarah Chappell and I wrote this one as an example, yours can be much shorter, ten or 15 sentences, so that we get some press coverage because many letters are coming into editors on this topic.  CDC/CCPOA hates negative press but without it, others do not know of the conflict.  Without YOUR letter, the press is not alerted that we are upset by this money grab, so please do it, takes 15 minutes.

AND

Please send this Call to Action to at least ten inmates so they can know that we need their families to join the UNION and help with a class action lawsuit.  When we get to 2600 who will support it, then we will move forward.  The same 500 people that fight all the battles for everyone are willing but this time we want people to get off the sidelines and help us with the work and expenses doing a lawsuit the proper way requires.

CDC says that this is an "administrative" change which did not require public hearings or the Office of Administrative Law to get involved, they said the same thing about the new visiting regulations which eliminates visits for thousands of inmates from their own children.

All of this interferes with the rehabilitative process, alienates more families from their loved ones, hurts family ties and YOU must fight back through publicity, lawsuits, and ultimately initiative campaigns.

Start with your letter to alert editors.  The distribution list is here. Let's see at least 200 go out to wake them up.

Then mail this call to action into ten inmates so they can send their families to help with a lawsuit, the more who participate the lighter the load, the  more likely it is that we can stop this now.

Spread the word to boycott these packages, make as few phone calls as possible and only feed your inmate at canteen.  You must stop allowing yourselves to be a profit center for these greedy gluttons who count on your dysfunction in organizing strong resistance through protests, lawsuits, initiatives. Until we do that, they will grab one thing after another.

Thank you for fighting for yourself and others.  Without action, no one will care.

 http://www.geocities.com/1union1/union_addresses.html
 

 [email protected]

Dear Editor:

Inmates' families and friends, most of which are already struggling financially, cannot further financial burden and exploitation by the vendors who will undoubtedly charge outrageously high prices for any items they sell within the quarterly packages.  Inmates have very few wage earning opportunities within CDC which leaves their support network to financially supplemtn the inmates while they are incarcerated. If there is a salary it is usually from 9 cents to 20 cents per hour.  This translates to $15  to us, is like $150 to their highest income level.

The approved vendors already in use for inmate "special purchases" have engaged in extreme price-gouging for years and reaped huge profits from the virtual monopolies they have been given by CDC.  CDC officials have done nothing to ameliorate this problem due to callousness and/or complacency.

There cannot be a significant contraband introduction problem necessitating such a drastic change to the quarterly package system because there are a multitude of procedures in place to prevent their introduction.  Further research would reveal that contraband comes in from staff--a fact known to inmates that is ignored by the CDC. There were three guards caught with bricks of drugs recently at Lancaster, and news articles have covered this problem repeatedly at almost all state prisons.  Yet nothing is ever done to prevent drugs coming in from their primary sources:  guards and vendors.

Inmates' families and friends cannot always afford to outlay a lump-sum payment such as what would be necessary to purchase a vendor quarterly package.  Instead, they generally buy the items they will send a little at a time, as their finances permit, and often buy items in bulk or on sale.  I have seen catalogs from five different vendors and the prices are nealy twice retail.  Also, many of these vendors are based outside of California, so dollars usually spent in local markets will be sent out of state.  Are you aware that many of these vendors are also ex-CDC employees?  There will be at least $60 million taken from the communities and put into the pockets of those friendly to CCPOA/CDC.  Packages r Us is a company who was just set up in February, 2003, not an established company and the ownership is questionable. 

Inmates with certain medical disorders such as diabetes rely on their correspondents sending them foods which are compatible with the condition.  The same goes for inmates with certain religious beliefs.  Various ethnic groups also rely on the correspondent sent quarterly packages in order to obtain foods which appeal to them. Some inmates like health food items which are not supplied by prisons. Vendors will not likely offer items that only appeal to a small portion of the inmate population.

Most inmates are deathly afraid of eating the prison food because at least 8000 cases per year of Hepatitis are caught due to poor food handling practices.  They cling to the packages to reduce their risk of getting a life threatening disease from the filth in the kitchens.  There will be riots over such a dramatic change for the worse and for no good justifiable reason.

Before offering your opinion for the public to read, please do research into the facts.  No one should buy these packages.  To insinuate that "families like this plan"  or "don't feel pressured to send in contraband" is outrageously wrong and implies that they are criminals. 

In the Senate hearings where CDC and CCPOA were denied eliminating packages from home, they were using a case of a "Skittle" found in 2001.  The 7 lb bricks of drugs discovered being brought in by guards happened just two months ago.

If the true reason goal were to eliminate drugs, packages from home aren't the source of the problem.  Drugs come in through vendors and guards.  A full strip search and see-through lunch pails should be required of every guard, yet they are rarely checked.

This oppressive move is  blatant money grab against the people who can least afford it.  The forgotten crime victims, the families of prisoners, most of whom send items to their loved ones with food stamps since they have been forced into poverty by the State.

CDC/CCPOA are operating out of control.  The legislature saw this idea would create more problems than it would prevent and denied the cruel bill by Republican Senator Brulte.  Then in complete defiance, they went ahead and did it anyway!  Why? Because they know a money grab from uneducated people who will not organize to file lawsuits and do initiative campaigns is as easy as taking candy from a baby.

Blood and tears will flow over this cut from desperately needed family ties and the practicality of it is awkward to say the least.  Hopefully the families will know not to buy the packages, but with eight prisons in Kern County, your story should be more insightful and expose the greed behind this change.

B. Cayenne Bird
 [email protected]

Vendor program tested at Wasco prison
 

By SHELLIE BRANCO, Californian staff writer
e-mail:  [email protected]  Friday July 04, 2003, 09:28:00 PM 

Property officers for the California Department of Corrections have seen drugs, weapons and other contraband sneaked through packages from the outside in the craftiest ways.The inspectors found LSD coated on the backs of postage stamps. Chunks of crack cocaine have been hidden inside M&M's candies, the bags so carefully resealed that it was nearly impossible to detect tampering.

It's hoped that these kinds of security notices from the California Department of Corrections' informational bulletin will be greatly reduced thanks to a new vendor package program test-piloted by Wasco State Prison, said Wasco spokesman Capt. James Hartley and California Department of Corrections spokesman Russ Heimerich. Wasco, which mainly serves as a reception center, allows the 800 to 1,100 inmates housed in its general population yard to receive packages from the outside every three months, said Wasco spokesman Lt. Troy Ojeda.

The quarterly packages of up to 30 pounds were troublesome because some items that families sent, such as candy-filled glass jars, were not approved by the prison and would have to be returned to the families or destroyed, Ojeda said. The searches were time-consuming for staff and frustrating for families, he added. Under the vendor program, vendors will offer at retail prices prison-approved food, such as coffee in clear plastic containers, and other items, including hygiene products.

Prisoners on good behavior who receive the privilege to order from the vendor send wish lists of items to their families, Ojeda said.Then a prisoner's relatives mail the payment to the vendor and the vendor delivers the package to the prison. Prisoners can also order items for themselves, which allows those without contacts on the outside to enjoy quarterly packages, Ojeda added. D and D Enterprises of Visalia is Wasco's current vendor, though the prison is exploring other possible vendors, including Packages R Us of West Covina, Hartley said. "Families are pleased because they don't have to shop for items," Ojeda said. 

"There's no pressure on the family to send contraband.""Inmates have 24 hours a day, seven days a week to decide how they can compromise our security," Ojeda said. "We had staff looking at every package, but the best-trained person is not going to catch something 100 percent of the time."Wasco and High Desert State Prison in Susanville tested the vendor package program in the past year, Heimerich said.On June 24 the California Department of Corrections issued a statewide memo notifying prisons that wardens could voluntarily implement vendor package programs, he added. 

My response:

1. Inmates' families and friends, most of which are already struggling financially, cannot further financial burden and exploitation by the vendors who will undoubtedly charge outrageously high prices for any items they sell within the quarterly packages.  Inmates have very few wage earning opportunities within CDC which leaves their support network to financially supplemtn the inmates while they are incarcerated.

2. The approved vendores already in use for inmate "special purchases" have engaged in extreme price-gouging for years and reaped huge profits from the virtual monopolies they have been given by CDC.  CDC officials have done nothing to ameliorate this problem due to callousness and/or complacency.

3. There cannot be a significant contraband introduction problem necessitating such a drastic change to the quarterly package system because there are a multitude of procedures in place to prevent their introduction.  Further research would reveal that contraband comes in from staff--a fact known to inmates that is ignored by the CDC.

4. Inmates' families and friends cannot always afford to outlay a lump-sum payment such as what would be necessary to purchase a vendor quarterly package.  Instead, they generally buy the items they will send a little at a time, as theri finances permit, and often buy items in bulk or on sale.  I have seen catalogs from five different vendors and the prices are nealy twice retail.  Also, many of these vendors are based outside of California, so dollars usually spent in local markets will be sent out of state.  Are you aware that many of these vendors are also ex-CDC employees?

5. Inmates with certain medical disorders such as diabetes rely on their correspondents sending them foods which are compatible with the condition.  The same goes for inmates with certain religious beliefs.  Various ethnic groups also rely n the correspondent sent quarterly packages in order to obtain foods which appeal to them.  Vendors will not likely offer items that only appeal to a small portion of the inmate population.

Before offering your opinion for the public to read, please do research into the facts.

Sarah Chappell

Senator Brulte was treated as royalty by the Public Safety Committee chair, Bruce McPherson which was my first signal that this wasn't going to be a cut and dry situation.

It wasn't.

CCPOA/CDC representatives made an argument that drugs were entering the prisons and stressed these three methods.

1.  By Contact Visits from Families

2.  By "Clever" Methods of items in packages

3.  By mail

They never once mentioned employees or guards as being drug traffickers.  Testimony by a CDC representative was given that in all the years he's been at Pelican Bay no guard was ever convicted of bringing in drugs.

They argued that 3% of family-originated drug trafficking was "all they caught" and then made up this big story which would lead most people to believe that almost all families of prisoners are criminal drug traffickers.

Then they looked ridiculous describing an incident in 2001 read 2001 when drugs were found in a Skittle or some piece of candy.   Wow!  Going back two years for an instance such as this was major.  They bragged that they went across state lines to Oregon 
and arrested and imprisoned the woman who sent that into the inmate.

They said meth was in Kool-aid, other drugs in cereal, Snicker's bars and the soles of Nike tennis shoes.

Brulte kept repeating "the bill is not to punish families, it's to stop the drugs."

"I've met with the inmate families, and they understand it's not to punish inmates."

Then Senator Burton brought up the point of restitution advancing to 55%. He asked how much higher canteen prices were than Walmart and I raised my hand from the audience to say "double."

Brulte was begging for the pilot program to be just at Pelican Bay.  In his mind, the families are drug suppliers and need to be stopped.

I was so irritated with this wrong-headed testimony that by the time I presented opposition I just really put the realities out there.

When I suggested full strip searches for the guards and see through lunch pails, McPherson did the usual thing that every Republican committee head up there does when you suggest controlling guards, and told me to keep my comments brief.

I commented very emotionally that I shouldn't be expected to speak in soundbites on very real and human issues and raked the inmate's fear of eating the food, 8000 cases PER YEAR of Hepatitis not to mention TB, Staph, and other infectious diseases, and most of the points in my letter yesterday.

I let them all know in no uncertain terms that the other crime victims - families of prisoners are very upset over such a bill, that we have a class action lawsuit in the works and that if they pass this bill, we'd add this one in there.

I really cut loose mentioning that my own son has been in a box for five weeks because he tried to notify the legislators of food contaminations at Mule Creek.  That the packages only last a few weeks but at least the inmates trust the food contained therein, and not the prison food.

I made a big issue out of the cutbacks on soap and disinfectant.

There were four or five other family members there who spoke of compassionate reasons for packages in a very mild tone.  I was really glad that I attended and could put some teeth and more facts into this hearing.  After fighting similar bills several times over the past five years, this one was along the same lines.

The two Republicans disregarded all of my testimony and that of the other families present and voted YES, that packages should be banned.  Consider McPherson and Margette enemies.

John Burton left the room before the vote but he said he didn't like the bill.  Vasconcellos said "pass" when they asked him to vote.

Gloria Romero said "no."

So the final vote was 2 yes and 1 no.  In order for the bill to go forward, four votes are  required.

So this one is dead for now.

What you need to understand is that the Republicans posture on statewide television and  vote in favor of every mean-spirited bill that comes up.  They are building their "careers"  by doing this and are true enemies of inmates and their families.

It is REVOLTING because they never take a healing position and never consider the long  term expense or consequences.

Brulte tried to use the expense of guards checking packages during a budget crisis as a  reason to take them away and I reminded them all that after our lawsuit, there would be no cost savings.

We won this battle, but be aware most of the Republicans want to take packages and contact visits away and they are not your friends.

Brulte wanted the articles about guards being busted for trafficking drugs to be submitted as evidence.  We have a number of them posted at our website. Is he  this ignorant?  Apparently so.

Vasconcellos, Burton and Romero were highly tuned into the realities but not McPherson  or Margette.

AND when I asked them what they planned to do if SARS breaks out, they all ridged, as if they hadn't considered it at all.  Dr. Videen told me tonight that he is far more worried about the lack of disinfectant and soap in kitchens, toilets and cells for the old diseases  such as Hepatitis, Staph, TB.

March 20, 2003

Ladies and Gentlemen of the Legislature:

SB 206 by Brulte proposes to revoke quarterly packages sent to inmates from their families. This is a brutally oppressive move and will cause great frustration and anger among inmates inside which will no doubt result in violence.

It is nothing more than a money grab from the people who can least afford it, the families of prisoners. It is easy for families to obtain food to send but not cash. And now with more than half of what they send proposed to be "seized" for restitution, this diminishes their ability to help their loved one.

The packages are one of the few connections inmates have to their families, and to the world outside. Considering that many inmates are suicidal over unjust long sentences, the packages are symbolic and life preserving. Many inmates are educated to health food, none of which is available in prison but they can get some in their packages. Others are very depressed over the monotony, sanitary danger and lack of nutritional value of food routinely served by prisons. There are no special diets for ill inmates or those with food allergies. The packages are often very important to ease the dietary suffering created by bad prison management policies.
Are their fears of unsanitary conditions and possible disease contaminations unfounded?  No!

The Center for Disease Control reports that 8000 new cases of Hepatitis is caught in California's prisons each year.  This does not include TB, Staph, AIDS and other life threatening diseases.  We have continuous complaints of food contaminations from prisons statewide.  CDC has admitted to "metal, rocks, hair (really pubic hair) and razor blades" at Mule Creek Prison.  Inmates on B yard (sensitive needs) have also documented urine in the jello, metal hooks embedded in chicken, beverage pop tops and many, many other instances. 

None of the workers serving food are medically screened unless they ask for it.  With six cases of SARS already discovered in California, we can expect tens of thousands of deaths amongst inmates once it breaks loose inside as food handling procedures are on a par with prisons in Tijuana.  Rarely are disinfectants and soap available in kitchens to food handlers.  Food is left out on the dock for hours at a time and is spoiled, dangerously spoiled, by the time it reaches inmates. 
There are rodent infestations statewide.  At Mule Creek at rat's carcass was found in the cornbread.  This is covered up instead of remedied.

There is a big contrast to what you believe is happening and what is actually taking place.  It is easy for them to clean up for you in an announced visit.  Why not show up unannounced at prisons statewide and witness these terrible food  dangers for yourself?

Attempts to alert you, the legislators who should have some say over out-of- control prisons, have landed the MAC Chairman David Bristow and letter writer, Eric Knapp in the hole, where they have been sitting for weeks in a box, psychologically tortured, simply to hide this from the you and the press. The food impurities have been discovered several times since they were accused even though the 115's against them do not name a time, place or date when they supposedly committed these contaminations.  The warden is trying to "force" a confession out of Knapp and Bristow when they should be treated as heroes for alerting outsiders to their fears. 
 

We notified you of serious food contamination problems at Mule Creek in June, 2000 during the Senate Rules warden confirmation hearings. We were sent to Agency Secretary Robert Presley as the "man who could fix it."  All that has been done about the problem is that everyone who complained has been punished in the hole and accused of the contaminations, even though many occurred before they were ever housed at Mule Creek.  There has been no solution at all!

Even though the small supply of a package lasts for only a few weeks, the food items sent are some relief to inmates, enough to keep them from rioting over the food or lack thereof. Enough to keep them connected to their families who love and worry about their health. Sometimes all a mother can do for her son or daughter in prison is give them the foods that only she knows they love.  In this current budget crisis, it makes sense to allow families to send even larger boxes with more food in them so the regular hunger pangs that inmates experience will be staved off.

This would be more of a cost savings to the State because inmate families have food stamps but not cash as so many families are financially destroyed after their loved one is chewed up by the system.  The canteens will fail financially because the money won't be there.

The CDC has cost the California taxpayers millions if not billions of dollars in brutality and neglect lawsuits brought on by poor management techniques which create an atmosphere of suffering and retribution inside. To enact further oppression to the inmates and their families such as denying packages is not a wise move.

Two characteristics that are exposed by this bill are among the worst humans harbor towards each other. First is meanness and lack of respect for the inmate and their families. By denying inmates' families the right to send their loved ones presents, including basic needs not provided by the state in its consistent maltreatment, a link to the outside and maintenance of some semblance of normal life and contact with society is taken away. 

The second is greed by the CDC. To force money to be sent into the inmates book that can only be used in the canteen which has a mystery fund called "Inmate Welfare", or through outside stores which have a conflict of interest because the ownership is associated with the CCPOA can only be called greed. Prices are already outrageous in the canteen and visiting rooms. Just increasing the
number of items without competition is unfair to families struggling to make ends meet. 

Be mindful that increases in "restitution" of about half of what families send to their loved ones is already being seized in another money grab. Those inmates without family members to send them packages are underfed and hungry. Does this unwise move really save money?  No, it results in angry prisoners most of whom are already extremely ill from diseases they've caught while in prison.

Packages are thoroughly examined by staff. Items like food and vitamins are emptied into plastic bags and containers discarded, clothing is inspected. Sealed wrap is required to avoid any tampering. Security is not an issue as the system now stands and any claim that it is, is bogus. 

If an item is considered contraband (which seems to be at the whim of the particular guard) the inmate is asked to "donate" the item or can request it be returned to the sender at his cost. If drugs are coming into the prisons, it is via the guards 99% of the time.  They should be made to submit to full strip searches, dogs and see- through lunchpails before each shift. The incidences of guards trafficking drugs have been reported in the news media numerous times over the past six years. 

The extremely remote location of the prisons results in only a small percentage of inmates getting visits. The poverty level of many families further reduces ability to visit. Isolating the inmate further serves what purpose? Doesn't the "Correction" part of CDC mean anything? Don't you want inmates to come back into society with some ability to adjust. Removing any contact as this bill promotes is bound to cause an increase in recidivism. California already has the worst recidivism rate in the nation. This bill is wrong-headed.

Passing this bill would be yet another form of Cruel and Unusual punishment which will be included in our upcoming class action lawsuit. Please do the right thing here and Vote No.

B. Cayenne Bird, Director
 

SB 206, as introduced, Brulte. Inmates: canteens. Existing law authorizes the Department of Corrections to maintain canteens at its facilities, as specified. This bill would require the department to establish a pilot program at Pelican Bay State Prison to replace the Inmate Quarterly Package Program with an expanded inmate canteen program. This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.

 Daily Republic

August 17, 1999

Package policy in peril for California prisoners 

By Inga Miller 

FAIRFIELD -- Inmates will be doing without packages from home if a proposal stirring in the California Department of Corrections becomes policy. 

Receiving care packages is a privilege enjoyed by well behaved prisoners. But the privilege may end in an attempt to limit the infiltration of guns, drugs, and other contraband into prisons. 

"Packages are a source of contraband," Department Spokesman Jeanie Esajian said. The department is considering a ban, but even if the proposal becomes policy, prisoners would still be able to receive some form of commercially created care packages bought through the department. 

What such pre-packaged gifts would consist of hasn't been decided, Esajian said, but some are concerned that the ban will corrode conditions in the state's prison system. 

Parent and activist B. Cayenne Bird said conditions on the inside are likely to deteriorate rather than improve if the ban on personal packages goes into affect. 

"It's going to stir inmate frustration," said Bird. 

"If the ban goes into effect, it will take one more thing away from an already oppressed group. It's going to mean riots," she said. 

Bird sends Knapp health food packages to supplement his diet.

"They are served mostly starches. My son's a real health food nut, and I send him specialty foods like soy beans. That kind of personal touch will vanish if we're required to buy a commercial package." 

Only inmates classified within the top behavior group are allowed to receive packages, with a maximum of four, 30-pound packages a year.

Whether the packages are a significant source of prison contraband is debated, but Esajian said that while the actual amount of contraband that reaches inmates through mail can't be estimated, it is a source. 

To: Bureau of Prisons
Department of Justice
C.A. Terhune, Director CDOC
Mr. Steve White, G. K. 

"Rights of Institutionalized Persons"

"The Civil Rights of Institutionalized Persons Act of 1980 ensures that the rights of persons in institutions are protected against unconstitutional conditions. Those confined in government institutions include persons with disabilities, the elderly in government-run nursing homes, and prisoners." 

Located at the US Department of Justice Web page.

Dear Sirs: 

I now ask you to explain why the Department of Justice ignores this directive and allows mentally ill inmates to suffer needlessly at the hands of the California Department of Corrections. 

A prime example of this is Jimmy Diesso. This man is currently on trial for murdering a fellow inmate. Both mentally ill inmates incarcerated at Vacaville Medical Facility were placed in a cell together. Early the next morning, and after hours of screaming noises coming from their cell, a lone officer assigned to monitor them discovered Jimmy writing on the walls of his cell with blood from the dead inmate.

As tragic as this case is for both the families involved, more painful is the fact that it did not half to happen. The decision to place anyone in a cell with Jimmy following recent violent outbursts, and the attack on another inmate just hours before placing the victim in the cell. For any person making such a careless, and negligent decision as putting these two people in a cell together and walking away, our justice system would prosecute them for reckless endangerment resulting in the loss of a human life.

That is unless you are a member of the CCPOA. Police Officers as well as Correctional Officers are not held accountable for committing criminal acts, yet they are allowed everyday to go and get the bad guys of the street. Does this seem as ridiculous to you as it does to me? To sit by and watch a powerful union squash internal investigations, pressure local politicians, and influence the legislation of an entire state without breaking a sweat is terrifying. How bad is all this going to get before you do something about it? 

It appears by the lack of intervention by the Department of Justice, or the Bureau of Prisons that it is acceptable for this to be happening to the people that are depending on your protection. The issue to me appears to be that ill people belong in hospitals, but hospitals have limited funds due to managed care budget constraints, where our prison budgets are bulging with money from our tax dollars.

What happened to "Justice for all." I must remind my children that when pledging allegiance to the flag, that the words mean nothing more then if they were reciting a nursery rhyme.

I pray that someday, somehow, someone in a position of authority steps forward to do what is right for America, instead of what is calculated to win the most votes. I would like to know that our Government works as intended, and that the DOJ and BOP will protect those people that can't protect themselves. Maybe someday I will come across the word JUSTICE, and not feel like throwing up.

Thank you for your time.

Mikki

Copy to San Francisco Chronicle [email protected]

June 30, 1999

Mr. Cal A. Terhune, Director
California Department of Corrections
1515 "S" Street
Sacramento, Ca. 

Subject: Quarterly Inmate packages revoked

Dear Mr. Terhune:

I understand that a decision has been made to revoke quarterly packages sent to inmates from their families. This is a decision that I, and other Mothers like myself view as yet one more slap in our faces.

It appears that the effect your decisions have on us, the families of inmates is inconsequential to you, or as your staff pointed out, "not worth the trouble." Sometimes the only thing a mother can do for her child is send him a quarterly package. These packages are not filled with home baked brownies, nor anything else that is not on the approved list. Everything is factory sealed and inspected by the staff prior to being given to the inmate. Why must you take the last bit of home we have to offer from them, and us? 

I understand that it takes people to inspect the packages; however the same employees will still have to handle incoming shipments, and property inspections relating to inmate transfers. By eliminating the packages the DOC gains one more way to rob families of our money. The cost for a can of Bugler at canteen is almost $2.00 higher then if we buy it out here, and mail it to the inmates. Are you doing this to make up for possible losses related to the MCI - collect call lawsuit?

As it is now, the small amount of cash I can send to my son to use at canteen has 24% taken off the top for restitution. I must have missed the part of my son's hearing where I was ordered to pay his restitution. By the time the remaining amount is credited to the books, he might be able to buy a soda. I don't expect you to care about the inmates comfort, you have made your position very clear by the actions taken. What you may not realize is you are about to have hundreds of angry families protesting in front of your office.

I would like to bring up another point in that many inmates require special diets due to illness or religious restrictions, which the prisons have a difficult time accommodating, or just refuse to provide at all. The nutritional value of food routinely served at prisons is below the acceptable standards given in every other state in the United States. What is mandated under DOC guidelines, and what ends up on inmates plates is vastly different? I am sure that the issue of canteen will be raised, so I will address it now. Canteen is greatly restricted, or no longer offered to the following prisons in California. Pelican Bay inmates housed in total isolation {SHU} are allowed to receive one per year, and until recently, inmates at High Desert Prison were not allowed them at all.

Statements about tough on crime statistics coming from your office and local politicians are strange reasons to use for beating down the men that are already serving time in prison. What good is it to abuse men, and woman while more crime is occurring on our street corners every day.

Why do you continue to waste thousands of dollars every week on hazard pay at Salinas Valley State Prison, when the incident that prompted the lockdown took place back on 5-17-99? Why was a new warden suddenly appointed to SVSP the same day as the stabbing? Are we to assume that was just a coincident, or a failed attempt at damage control? Your own Officers are asking for transfers out of SVSP because they know what this lockdown has done to the inmates, and they don't want to take any chances when the cell doors open.

The inmates are rightfully angry at several insightful actions by the staff, such as having their TV and Radios taken away, they have been locked two men to a 6X9 cell 24 hours a day for 6 weeks. Some refused to be allowed a pen or pencil to write up a complaint for abuse. These writing implements are state issued for the inmates use. Why refuse them the only way they have to communicate to anyone outside shouting range? Inmates have had their cells turned upside down and searched 4X. Some inmates reported not having a toothbrush or deodorant. The families have been kept away since 5-17-99, which adds to the overall tension from both sides of the wall.

If you were held hostage by terrorist, and placed in similar conditions as Salinas inmates are in this very moment, you would attempt to invoke the Geneva Convention standard of care for incarceration. Sadly our own children cannot expect the same consideration or conditions in their confinement. It seems the public is all for punishing inmates, but they would not feel the same if their child was one of those being mistreated. NOT every inmate in prison is of the caliper of high profile cases like Charles Ng, or Richard Allen Davis. Why are they being punished as if they were? The DOC has gone too far this time, by taking our packages and for punishing 3500 inmates for the action of one.

The CDC has cost California taxpayers millions, if not billions of dollars in brutality and neglect lawsuits brought about because of poor management techniques, abuse of power, and wide spread cover-ups. To enact further restrictions at a time when the DOC is deliberately ignoring the fanning of the flames of anger at SVSP, is not a wise move. Inmates and their families have steadily been building a stronger and more powerful following, including Unionizing smaller and supposedly insignificant groups that were previously overlooked, into one large voting block. We will be heard.

The bottom line is that the State has spent millions of dollars building new facilities, but there is not enough money to feed prisoners, provide them with proper nutrition and medical care, or even deliver toothbrushes. I, for one, am willing to picket and write the media if this decision is not reversed immediately. 

Sincerely,

Please fax this to all UNION members not online, mail to your teams, mail to inmates, Cooperating Organizations please distribute, print off and post in churches, media members please do stories around this issue. Let's do a full force UNION response to the decision to ban inmate quarterly packages. Don't assume that someone else is doing this work for you, we all must write in on this one and get others to write too.

B.Cayenne Bird, UNION Director

Dear UNION/media members:

Every quarter the California Department of Corrections says "this will be the last time we allow packages from home to be sent to the inmates." This has been a looming threat for the past two years.

Now, the decision to revoke quarterly packages has been made although there is a chance we can turn this decision around. You must cooperate and participate if you want to voice an effective objection. A few rabble-rousers writing in get absolutely no recognition in that big bureaucratic sludge in Sacramento.

First, understand that this is the CDC and not the Legislature who has made this decision. The CDC sees that the prisoner families can't call more than 200 people out to a UNION demonstration, so they feel we aren't a threat to ANY decision they might impose. So, what we need to do is let the Directors and Ombudsmen feel full force the wishes of the members of the UNION which may result in pickets outside their offices if the families want to press it that far.

The CDC has, through its prison mismanagement cost the taxpayers millions of dollars in brutality and abuse lawsuits. Banning the quarterly packages is certainly going to cause anger among the inmates and there will be major disruption over it. A few riots will result in lockdowns, then the guards can collect "Hazard" pay over it, so few care if there is strong emotional reaction and trouble over yet another oppressive move. The public thinks that prisoners get what they deserve by being denied basic human needs, so all that is left is the love for inmates by their families. Love is expressed by giving opposition to this kind of oppression through writing, demonstrating and voting the bums out of office.

At High Desert Prison inmates weren't allowed quarterly packages for a long time, at least not level 4 prisoners. In the SHU at Pelican Bay they have been allowing one package per year only. It's time for prisoner families and humanitarians to take a stand on this unnecessary cruelty.

The CDC thinks the UNION is comprised of only a few hundred active members. We need to make a strong point of the real size of our membership and our intentions not to sit passively by and watch mistreatment. Please make a copy of the letter below. Use your select, copy, paste (or copy it from our website later where I will post it) Fax it to every prisoner family you know, every church, and mail it inside to the inmates. Let's really get the word out on this one so we can reverse this decision and make a strong point that we as voters, as parents want inmates to receive quarterly packages from their families.

Reform of the Criminal Justice System only comes from the power of numbers acting in Unison. You as an individual, or a group of less than 1000 people, do not count in Sacramento. But the UNION, who can bring pickets and bad press to the oppressive individuals does count, so please support all our calls to action in the manner described for maximum results.

If you wish to copy others below with an email, be certain that you also FAX, phone, visit Cal Terhune. You are a voter, you pay their wages and your wishes WILL be heard if you voice your objections in large enough numbers. As you know, the squeaky wheels get the grease. Adapt this letter to your own reasons why you want to stand up for prisoner's quarterly packages and food problems in general.

B. Cayenne Bird 
Director
[email protected] 
http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/Parliament/2398/home.htm Select, copy, open an email, paste, print from here on down.

Begin letter

June 30, 1999

Mr. Cal Terhune, Director
California Department of Corrections
P.O. Box 942883
Sacramento, CA 94283-0001
Headquarters Street Address:
1515 S Street
Sacramento, CA 95814
Phone: (916) 445-7682 or (916) 445-7683
FAX (916) 322-2877

Dear Mr. Terhune:

I understand that a decision has been made to revoke quarterly packages sent to inmates from their families. This is a brutally oppressive move and will no doubt cause great frustration and anger among inmates inside which will no doubt result in violence.

The packages are one of the few connections inmates have to their families, and to the world outside. Considering that many inmates are suicidal over unjust long sentences, the packages are symbolic and life preserving. Many inmates are educated, and very depressed over the monotony and lack of nutritional value of food routinely served by prisons. There are no special diets for ill inmates or those with food allergies. The packages are often very important to ease the dietary suffering created by bad prison management policies. Even though this small supply lasts for only a few weeks, the food items sent are some relief to inmates, enough to keep them from rioting over the food or lack thereof. Enough to keep them connected to their families who love and worry about their health.

The CDC has cost the California taxpayers millions if not billions of dollars in brutality and neglect lawsuits brought on by poor management techniques which create an atmosphere of suffering and retribution inside. To enact further oppression to the inmates and their families, who are already Unionizing into a voting block due to other harsh laws and abuse, is not a wise move. The State has millions of dollars to spend on new facilities but not enough money to feed the prisoners and provide them proper nutrition and medical care.

I, for one, will picket and write the media if this decision is not reversed immediately. And, while I am writing to you on this subject, the practice of Pelican Bay inmates receiving a package only once a year and High Desert Prison's restrictions need to be revised. I am ready to stand up and fight against all prisons who ban packages.

With the high degree of disease, the use of bleach as a cleaning agent in kitchens needs to be reinstituted as well. Food portions at Corcoran and Salinas Valley prisons are half of what is humanly bearable. Kitchens at Salinas Valley, Calipatria and Centinella are usually filthy and the inmates don't want to eat from them for fear of catching Hepatitis or worse.

A MONTHLY package to inmates makes more sense and since we have so much money to waste in Sacramento on museums and the like, we could surely feed the mostly young people we lock in 6 x 9 cages for weeks at a time. These inmates will return to live among us. Depriving and abusing them is not a wise course of action.

I also believe that guards who steal, as they routinely do pilfer from these packages, should be fired. These are not animals in cages. Zoos at least provide good diets and medical care while California prisons do not! These are our fathers, husbands, brothers and sisters. 

Sincerely,

Your name

Email letters to CDC & Cal Terhune - [email protected] but alsso follow up with a fax. CDC Ombudsman,

Ken Hurdle - [email protected] CDC Healthcare, 

Angie Tam - [email protected]

Prison Visitor Info - 1-800-374-8474

Inspector General for Prisons - (remember that when White was DA, his Deputies stood up in courtrooms and told the judges how to sentence. He is the fox guarding the hen house.)

Inspector General Steve White
801 K Street, Suite 1900
Sacramento, CA 95814
Ph: 916/445-6696
e-mail: [email protected]