Guards at prison formed own gang, report concludes Study accuses warden at Salinas Valley facility
By Don Thompson
Associated Press
Monday, January 26, 2004 - SACRAMENTO -- Guards at a California state
prison formed their own gang-like organization, inventing hand signals
and codes to telegraph their membership to inmates and other officers,
state investigators concluded in a confidential report this month.
The Office of Inspector General found that a group of correctional officers
at Salinas Valley State Prison near Soledad formed an alliance in 1999
that they called the "Green Wall," after the color of their uniforms.
"Numerous incidents" involving the group took place over the next two
years, including the vandalizing of prison property with markings of "GW"
and "7/23," which stood for the seventh (G) and 23rd (W) letters of the
alphabet.
The Green Wall logo was taped to a control room window: a pair of dice,
an upside-down horseshoe with the numbers 7 and 23, and the satanic symbol
"666."
Members developed a hand signal -- fingers folded into the shape of
a W -- to "represent" their alliance to inmates and other employees, a
whistleblower testified to a joint state Senate committee hearing last
week.
The prison's own internal investigators smuggled into the prison a green-handled
knife engraved with "7/23" as a promotion gift for a sergeant, according
to the report obtained by The Associated Press.
The report is sharply critical of Warden Anthony LaMarque, who took
command in March 2000 and remains the warden there.
LaMarque had a special relationship with several members of the prison's
internal affairs unit, the report found: He ignored reports that they might
be involved in the Green Wall, and refused to transfer them during an investigation
of allegations that they used excessive force against inmates and engaged
in other misconduct.
LaMarque was "evasive" when he was questioned about the Green Wall,
and falsely said the Monterey County district attorney was probing the
organization, the report said. It said he admitted knowing about the organization,
but didn't try to find out what it was or who belonged.
The Jan. 5 report was sent to the California Department of Corrections
for "appropriateaction," but department spokesman Bob Martinez said he
couldn't comment because the report is supposed to be confidential.
Former internal affairs officer Donald J. Vodicka, a hulking man with
a shaved head, was so frightened after he blew the whistle on the Green
Wall that he wore a bulletproof vest and repeatedly burst into tears while
testifying before the joint Senate hearing last week.
He alleged members of the Green Wall employed a "code of silence" to
hide activities including roughing up inmates after several guards were
injured on Thanksgiving Day 1998. The organization grew out of that event,
with green-attired members eventually throwing parties featuring green
beer on the 7th and 23rd days of the month.
The inspector general was unable to verify claims that members of the
Green Wall set up inmates for assaults, vandalized cars of fellow employees
who were not members, or intimidated other staff members.
Lance Corcoran, vice president of the California Correctional Peace
Officers Association, said a vehicle belonging to Eugene "Gino" Carranza,
president of the union's Salinas Valley Prison chapter, was vandalized
after he reported wrongdoing by two supervisors at the prison in 1999 or
2000.
"These guys who do crap like that, they're cowards and we don't support
them at all," Corcoran said. "It was the Sharks at Corcoran (State Prison),
maybe we'll have the Jets (as in "West Side Story"). Now we have the Green
Wall; it doesn't matter what moniker we have for it."
A March 2001 internal memo by Carranza says the Green Wall also was
known as "Seven Twenty-Three" and "Code of Silence."
Carranza reported members greeted each other with a signature hug, and
sometimes wore turkey pins on their uniforms to symbolize the Thanksgiving
event that gave the group its start.
Department spokesman Martinez said new Youth and Adult Correctional
Secretary Roderick Hickman, in testimony to the Senate committees, "made
it very, very clear this is something he's pledged to deal with, to confront
in a relentless way, and to get rid of."
KTVU.com
State Prison Guards Had Their Own 'Gang-Like' System POSTED: 2:48 PM PST January 25, 2004
SACRAMENTO -- Guards at a California state prison formed their own gang-like
organization, inventing hand signals and codes to telegraph their membership
to inmates and other officers, state investigators concluded in a confidential
report this month.
The Office of Inspector General found that a group of correctional officers
at Salinas Valley State Prison near Soledad formed an alliance in 1999
that they called the "Green Wall," after the color of their uniforms.
"Numerous incidents" involving the group took place over the next two
years, including the vandalizing of prison property with markings of "GW"
and "7/23," which stood for the seventh (G) and 23rd (W) letters of the
alphabet.
The Green Wall logo was taped to a control room window: a pair of dice,
an upside-down horseshoe with the numbers 7 and 23, and the satanic symbol
"666."
Members developed a hand signal -- fingers folded into the shape of
a W -- to "represent" their alliance to inmates and other employees, a
whistleblower testified to a joint state Senate committee hearing last
week.
The prison's own internal investigators smuggled into the prison a green-handled
knife engraved with "7/23" as a promotion gift for a sergeant, according
to the report obtained by The Associated Press.
The report is sharply critical of Warden Anthony LaMarque, who took
command in March 2000 and remains the warden there.
LaMarque had a special relationship with several members of the prison's
internal affairs unit, the report found: He ignored reports that they might
be involved in the Green Wall, and refused to transfer them during an investigation
of allegations that they used excessive force against inmates and engaged
in other misconduct.
LaMarque was "evasive" when he was questioned about the Green Wall,
and falsely said the Monterey County district attorney was probing the
organization, the report said. It said he admitted knowing about the organization,
but didn't try to find out what it was or who belonged.
The warden "wouldn't be able to comment because it's pending litigation
right now," said prison spokesman Lt. Eloy Medina.
The Jan. 5 report was sent to the California Department of Corrections
for "appropriate action," but department spokesman Bob Martinez said he
couldn't comment because the report is supposed to be confidential.
Former internal affairs officer Donald J. Vodicka, a hulking man with
a shaved head, was so frightened after he blew the whistle on the Green
Wall that he wore a bulletproof vest and repeatedly burst into tears while
testifying before the joint Senate hearing last week.
Vodicka sued the state and corrections officials in September for allegedly
violating his whistleblower rights by retaliating against him with a demotion,
defamation, and infliction of emotional distress. He is currently on a
medical disability leave.
He alleged members of the Green Wall employed a "code of silence" to
hide activities including roughing up inmates after several guards were
injured on Thanksgiving Day 1998. The organization grew out of that event,
with green-attired members eventually throwing parties featuring green
beer on the 7th and 23rd days of the month.
The inspector general was unable to verify claims that members of the
Green Wall set up inmates for assaults, vandalized cars of fellow employees
who were not members, or intimidated other staff members.
Lance Corcoran, vice president of the California Correctional Peace
Officers Association, said a vehicle belonging to Eugene "Gino" Carranza,
president of the union's Salinas Valley Prison chapter, was vandalized
after he reported wrongdoing by two supervisors at the prison in 1999 or
2000.
"These guys who do crap like that, they're cowards and we don't support
them at all," Corcoran said. "It was the Sharks at Corcoran (State Prison),
maybe we'll have the Jets (as in "West Side Story"). Now we have the Green
Wall; it doesn't matter what moniker we have for it."
A March 2001 internal memo by Carranza says the Green Wall also was
known as "Seven Twenty-Three" and "Code of Silence."
Carranza reported members greeted each other with a signature hug, and
sometimes wore turkey pins on their uniforms to symbolize the Thanksgiving
event that gave the group its start.
Department spokesman Martinez said new Youth and Adult Correctional
Secretary Roderick Hickman, in testimony to the Senate committees, "made
it very, very clear this is something he's pledged to deal with, to confront
in a relentless way, and to get rid of."
Copyright 2004 by The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material
may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
After our letter and media campaign,
some concessions were made. There is still a great deal of work which needs
to be done protesting conditions at Salinas Valley
Family members of prisoners at Salinas
Valley State Prison think the protracted state of emergency there poses
more of a threat to prison security than the violent event that triggered
it WHEN SUSAN STEFFENS saw her husband through the glass in a Salinas Valley
State Prison visiting room, he looked worn out, thin and tired. It had
been two months since they had even spoken on the phone, and after only
15 minutes of conversation, guards took him away, returning him to the
6-foot-by-9-foot cell that he shares with another inmate.
Steffens drove back to San Jose,
frustrated and upset. Two months earlier, on May 17, her husband (who was
sentenced to 50 years in prison under California's three strikes law for
committing $800 worth of credit card fraud) had been handcuffed and taken
from his cell. He and the other 120 inmates in his unit were kept cuffed
in the dining hall while corrections officers searched every corner of
their cells.
Guards confiscated Steffens' pillow,
cardboard, fruit, even the wrapper around the roll of toilet paper, and
the items were never returned. Seven hours later, shoulders numb and stiff,
he was put back in his cell. Like each of the other 4,000 inmates in this
maximum-security prison, Steffens has remained locked there 24 hours a
day for the last two months, leaving only twice a week in handcuffs to
take a shower. This is what is known as a lockdown, a prison state of emergency
which was implemented at Salinas Valley State Prison 12 weeks ago.
Those close to inmates say that
the prison population is on the verge of revolt, and that years of shoddy
management and inmate abuse have created a situation that is growing out
of control. And the desperate effort to regain control through the lockdown
is cruel and unnecessary, inmates say.
Under lockdown, visitation rights
and recreation time on the yard are suspended and inmates can no longer
make phone calls, even to family members. No one has been allowed to go
to their prison jobs or to participate in classes. Inmates have complained
that medical care is nonexistent and they are not getting enough food.
Eventually, even the tiny glass window in each cell, where inmates sat
day after day without reprieve, was covered over.
"You're never rewarded for good
deeds in here," Steffens wrote to his wife on June 22. "Later you always
get screwed for doing them. I'm just waiting to die. That's all a life
sentence really is." THE LOCKDOWN started soon after May 17, when an inmate
attacked a corrections officer in the kitchen of C Yard, stabbing him in
the back and in the arms with a homemade knife. Soon a swarm of other officers
subdued the inmate, and the guard was rushed to a local hospital, where
he was treated for the injuries and is recovering from the attack.
The case is currently being investigated
by the Monterey County district attorney's office, but prison spokesman
Lt. John Westphal says that no motive for the attack has yet been made
public. The attack comes on the heels of ongoing fights between rival gangs
and even inmate protests. In 1998, there were more than 90 assaults on
staff, making Salinas Valley State Prison the seventh most dangerous prison
for corrections officers in the state. The prison is divided into four
separate yards, A through D, and according to spokesman Westphal, the prison
was designed to keep inmates on each yard totally separate, with zero interaction.
Yet following the stabbing in C
yard, the entire prison was placed on lockdown. On July 20, the administration
eased restrictions for some inmates. But just two days later, on July 22,
inmates from C yard stabbed three more guards. This time C yard was returned
to full lockdown. Since the attacker was a Mexican from Southern California,
all Mexicans from Southern California in the entire prison were also returned
to full lockdown. "This has been going on for longer than you would hope
for," says Tom Clanon, who has worked for the California Department of
Corrections for 25 years and served as the superintendent at California's
Vacaville State Prison from 1972 to 1980. "Prisoners sit in their cells
and don't even get out one hour a day. They don't know how many months
or days it will continue. It's very disheartening. While you keep people
locked up, you are not helping them to do their time."
High Tension: The inmate population
grows tense at Salinas Valley Prison as an emergency condition known as
"lockdown" goes into its 12th week. UNDER NORMAL OPERATING conditions at
Salinas Valley, most inmates go to jobs in which they cook, serve food,
clean the prison and perform most of the menial tasks. When not working,
they can use the yard, a large open space off the cell block surrounded
by high cement walls and ringed with armed guards. Some inmates also take
classes toward their GED, or vocational training. Many work on legal appeals.
During lockdown all of this is suspended. Guards and other prison staff
must clean the prison, cook and serve meals to inmates in their cells.
Some inmates say the portions of food are tiny, that guards drop it on
the floor and serve it cold.
Some inmates have complained that
the showers are filthy and that even when they offer to clean up, the necessary
supplies are removed. "Lockdowns are an expensive proposition," Clanon
says. "Staff has to work overtime and do the work of prisoners. Some of
it, like searching cells, is quite time-consuming." Steffens and others
interested in the inmates' welfare are concerned that officers prolong
lockdowns in order to earn more overtime money. Though Westphal says that
prison staff do not work long overtime hours, he admits that there is some
overtime for some staff during a lockdown. Westphal explains that after
the stabbing, the entire prison population--all 4,000 inmates--was placed
on lockdown as a result of a memo that administrators received from other
prison officials outlining a possible conspiracy by Southern California
Mexicans to attack corrections officers.
Following the attack, the administrations
did not want to take any chances. And during the searches, officials found
40 homemade weapons and small amounts of drugs, including black-tar heroin.
"Searches eliminate the root causes of inmate violence," Westphal says.
Without contraband, there is less for them to fight about, and no weapons
with which to do damage. "Confidential inmate interviews and intelligence
gathering are crucial." But in letters written to family members, inmates
complained bitterly about the interview process and what they consider
to be policies designed to punish all the inmates for one man's violence
against one guard. Inmates say they were forced to go to these interviews
wearing nothing but T-shirts, boxer shorts, socks and sandals. Westphal
counters that inmates often relax on the cell block in their underwear,
but he was unable to say whether or not inmates were forced to attend interviews
in their underwear. Steve Fama, an attorney with the Prison Law Office,
which files civil rights lawsuits on behalf of inmates, has long been aware
of complaints about Salinas Valley. "It has had more than its share of
problems," he says. "I don't think the prison has ever gotten its sea legs.
It has always had rough periods."
LOCATED AN HOUR SOUTH of San Jose,
just off Highway 101 and framed by steep brown mountains and lush green
irrigated fields, the prison marks the end of a decade-long prison-construction
boom in California. But soon this state-of-the-art prison became as troubled
as many of the older prisons in the state, if not more so. Between its
opening in 1996 and 1998, Salinas Valley had 272 reported assaults on its
staff. And it is the fourth most violent prison in California's system.
In three years, the prison has had seven different wardens, most of them
appointed as interim place-holders. The prison has a tough population,
housing inmates convicted of some of the worst crimes in the state. Most
are violent offenders serving long sentences. Like most prisons in the
state, it is overcrowded. Within six months of opening it was at 166 percent
of capacity. Now it is at 192 percent, meaning that all of the 6-by-9 cells
house two prisoners. In that high-pressure environment, Westphal says,
lockdowns are common. Though he will not say how many times Salinas Valley
has gone on lockdown in the last year, he says some units might go a whole
year in various stages of lockdown. . The Department of Corrections was
not able to provide statistics on lockdowns in other institutions.
Inmates and activists have seen
many other problem areas at Salinas Valley, especially medical care. "I'm
concerned about everything [at Salinas Valley], the adequacy of care, the
ability to provide basic minimum care to people with serious illnesses,"
says Fama, who won a recent court decision forcing California to improve
medical care in all of its prisons. "There have been improvements recently,
but there have been stretches where it's been pretty close to horrible."
WHEN MIKKI JEANES visits her son
at Salinas Valley, she is amazed at what she sees. He's so thin she can
see his veins, and when she buys him food from the vending machine in the
visiting room, he cannot get enough. Many inmates have complained about
the shrinking portions of food during the lockdown. But for Jeanes' son,
who asked that Metro not use his name for fear of retribution from the
staff, food is a minor problem. Jeanes' son is at risk for a rare form
of hereditary cancer, a cancer that nearly killed her and which spreads
rapidly if left untreated. Though Jeanes says the medical staff found evidence
of cancer when he was tested, they told her son that he was fine. After
a minor operation was performed on her son to remove a cyst, which may
have actually been a tumor, he was left untended for 24 days during the
lockdown.
His stitches were not removed after
the operation, and the gauze was never once changed. If he is not treated
quickly by a specialist, Jeanes fears, her son may die before his expected
release after a 10-year sentence in 2005. But doctors do not communicate
with her, and her efforts to get her son transferred to a prison near a
specialist that she is willing to pay to treat her son have failed. The
system is the problem. Salinas Valley, she says, has been negligent. "My
son was in another prison for 2.5 years and I never had to write a letter
[to the administration]. It's not like I'm the mom from hell, but no one
else will do it. He is my only son. He has no voice."
Other inmates have also had problems
with Salinas Valley's medical staff. In a letter to Steffens, who has begun
collecting inmate accounts of misconduct at the prison, one inmate writes,
"My medications ran out on the 26th of June. I started submitting requests
to be seen by the doctor on June 16. As of today, July 12, I still haven't
been seen by the medical department here and I remain without my medication."
Westphal denies that any of the institution's core services like medical
care have been affected in any way by the lockdown. The infirmary at the
facility has just been accredited by the state as a hospital, only the
second prison infirmary in the state to be granted that distinction, he
says. But that has not helped Jeanes' son. And, she says, the lockdown
has made her frantic. She cannot communicate with her son on the phone,
and mail takes up to two weeks to be processed by the staff because more
inmates are writing letters since they lost phone privileges. And all the
while, her son's health, and perhaps his life, hangs in the balance. "When
your son is in prison you are a second-class citizen by default," she says.
"I have taken a whole new look at what I believe in. There is no justice--not
in prison, not in the courts."
-------------
Also Printed in Metro News
July 14, 1999
Editor
The Monterey County Herald
P.O. Box 271
Monterey, CA 93942
Dear Editor:
Thank you for your recent
and extensive coverage of the current problems besetting the Salinas Valley
State Prison in Soledad. I appreciate the detailed thoroughness and evenness
of presentation in all the articles. Over the past few months I have come
to admire John DeSantis for his perceptive writing on contemporary community
issues, and I applaud him for work well done in exposing a problem that
too many in our society would rather have hidden and locked away.
Salinas Valley State Prison
sits virtually in the midst of our County, yet it remains unseen and unknown
by most of us. Nonetheless, it is but a microcosm of a vast wasteland in
this country-and especially in California-that we are finally beginning
to recognize as a "prison-industrial complex" of inter-locking commercial
interests and hysterical public fear. Our elected leaders and appointed
officials have profited politically and economically for too long and with
impunity in promoting their self-interests. A sensible, decent, and humane
treatment of our prisoners is lost in this network.
People of every faith must
not condone injustices of any kind, nor may they sit by idly when injury
is perpetrated on the invisible in society.
Sincerely,
The Rt. Rev. Richard L. Shimpfky,
D.D.
Bishop of El Camino Real
-----------
July 5, 1999
EditorZ
The Herald
P.O. Box 271
Monterey, CA 93942
Editor:
Congratulations to John DeSantis
for the four superb articles he authored concerning the situation at the
Salinas Valley State Prison that appeared in yesterday's edition of The
Herald. His articles successfully captured in factual and human terms the
current deplorable state of affairs at the prison. I believe that DeSantis
has correctly identified a leadership vacuum at the institution as the
cause of this sad and tragic situation. I am convinced, however, that the
lack of imaginative and farsighted leadership is not only lacking at the
local level-but that it is endemic throughout the entire California Department
of Corrections.
Congratulations, also, to
The Herald for publishing DeSantis' articles. The conditions and the events
described in your newspaper have been occurring regularly over the past
three years at the Salinas Valley Prison. I was beginning to despair, wondering
if the press was aware or even cared about the plight of the inmates-and,
yes, the staff- at the prison. What takes place behind the secure and tight-lipped
walls of the prison is being done in the name of the citizens of this State.
I expect responsible journalism always to search out and expose official
incompetence and abuse of power wherever it may be. DeSantis' investigation
must not end here. I beg you to continue to bring to light the truth.
Likewise, I expect the same
from the religious communions of our area. I am unaware of any church leader
in Monterey or the surrounding communities who has issued a public statement
of protest concerning the petty abuses and blatant injustices that have
plagued the Salinas Valley Prison over the past three years. Christian
people may not be content to ignore the unseen and forgotten in their midst,
for they are admonished to "remember those who are in prison, as though
you were in prison with them; those who are being tortured, as though you
yourselves were being tortured." (Hebrews 13:3)
Very truly yours,
The Rev. Canon Robert J. Seifert
Chaplain, Santa Cruz County Jails
11-10-98 Excerpt from a letter sent
to me signed by 18 prisoners at Salinas Valley State prison in Soledad.
Dear Cayenne
"Restrictions of lifer's family
vist was another written form of genocide against blacks. Confiscating
all legal books from the prison population is being threatened to prevent
prisoners from challenging convictions or filing legal claims against any
form of abuse.
Prisoners at Salinas Valley State
Prison are being denied their 2500 calories per day. The poor prisoners
are literally starving for the lack of a nutritious balanced diet. We're
being forced to consume the same basic diet month after month. The law
states that food is not to be used as a means of inflicting cruel punishment
and yet this is practiced at Salinas Valley State Prison. They drop our
food on dirty floors and make us eat it.
State prisoners are being fed as
late as 8:30 p.m. and food is never steaming hot as required by law. Kitchen
workers are working under tyrant conditions and being forced to serve the
population half of their portion e.g. if the menu says an 8 oz should be
used the kitchen worker is told to use 4 oz. Real sugar is denied in favor
of a cancer-causing substitute.
Prisoners are being denied any types
of citrus oranges, grapefruits or lemons for fear the prisoners will make
wine. The latter is no lawful excuse to deny nutritious balanced diets.
One bag of hard candy is all that
is allowed at the inmate's canteen. State toothbrushes are sold in the
canteen. There is not always soap for the indigent. Only two showers per
week are allowed for non-workers. Prisoners incoming and outgoing mail
is read verbatim. Health care is a thing of the paste. We are living in
dangerous health conditions, need surgery in many cases and are in constant
pain.
We have witnessed the clinic being
completely empty of medical personnel or a physician in the event of serious
injury or a heart attack. It is not possible for a person exposed to severe
degrees of abuse, pain, isolation, and deprivation of basic needs not to
develop depression born out of extreme rage repressed over a long period
of time. It is simply a question of when and how the depressive reaction
will surface and manifest itself., Respectfully
Then there are 18 signatures on
a petition for human rights violations attached with a summary of C/O Perry
K. Selph torturing black inmates by dropping their food on the floor and
a threat of force against anyone who complains. We have a member of The
UNION who is a former CDC employee at Salinas Prison who relates worse
nightmares than these happening. What can you do to help these inmates
and your inmates?
Bring new members to write letters,
demonstrate and vote with us. The squeaky wheels get the grease. We have
the power to politically embarrass any warden or judge just by showing
up in numbers at trials, by flooding legislators and media with complaint
letters and generally being a thorn in the side of the callous bureaucrats.
For this problem at Salinas, let's address our letters to:
----------
I write a man at Salinas Valley
State Prison & he tells me that he has gum disease and two of his front
teeth are loose. No citrus fruits are served at SVSP, supposedly in fear
that someone will make wine from the fruit. The primary source of Vitamin
C is from overcooked broccoli. This is disgraceful. A man shouldn't end
up sick because of poor nutrition while in prison. How can Calif. citizens
justify such treatment? Susan Steffens --12-23-98
Dear Ms. Cayenne B. Bird, Journalist
with a heart: My name is John Doe #___. At present I am incarcerated at
Salinas Valley State Prison in Soledad, Ca. I am writing in regards to
a few grievances we have about the staff conduct and program here at SVSP.
Staff here are very disrespectful to inmates, their personal property which
is constantly being "misplaced, damaged, destroyed. The feeding conditions
are below meager, everyday the meats are being served cold and less than
half the amount that is supposed to be issued. We are starving. Legal mail
is not being processed on time, has been delayed as well as misplaced.
Staff is failing to notify inmates of deaths and hospitalizations in their
families. It is causing severe problems and frictions among staff and inmates
that could be feasibly avoided. The staff refuses to have the heating system
repaired and it is unethical, cruel and unusual punishment to be living
inside of an ice cold cell The working conditions are that of slave labor.
The titles are "vocation" but the jobs being done is that of highly priced
professionals. We are being refused pay for the hard work, blood, sweat
and tears poured out in services rendered by force. CDC 602 forms are not
being answered in a timely fashion and are being thrown away by the staff
officers which is unprofessional. Please respond to me so that I know you
received this letter and let me know if I can help you to help the convicts.
We deserve respect. We are not getting rehabilitation, we are getting torture
and misguidance. You are an angel sent to all of us from God. The inmates
love you and hope you do not get too tired of working for us. I have heard
you work 20 hours a day from people who have volunteered and are close
to you. No one else cares about us. You are right, only a voting block
is going to save our lives. Every night when I pray, I pray for you and
the U.N.I.O.N. people in this freedom fight. John Doe 12-22-98
Dear Senators and Editors My e-mail
to CDC regarding the lack of citrus and scurvy at Salinas Valley State
Prison got a response from Luis Jones out of Bakersfield who is the head
of CDC for central Calif. He said he talked with the staff at SVSP and
that citrus is provided. No one I've talked to at SVSP has seen any citrus.
According to the regulations, citrus for Vit. C can be oranges, orange
juice, grapefruit, grapefruit juice or large tangerines. I'd like to know
when the last time was that the general population had any of these. Thank
you for your time. Susan S
FOX 35 News June 24 SVSP Lockdown
A SOLEDAD PRISON HAS BEEN IN LOCK DOWN FOR MORE THAN A MONTH WHILE OFFICERS
INVESTIGATE A POSSIBLE CONSPIRACY. OFFICIALS AT SALINAS VALLEY STATE PRISON
ARE SEARCHING THE WHOLE PRISON SECTIONS AT A TIME.LOOKING FOR WEAPONS AND
NARCOTICS.
THIS AFTER A CORRECTIONAL OFFICER
WAS STABBED IN THE CAFETERIA LAST MONTH. VISITORS ARE NOT ALLOWED AND OFFICIALS
SAY PRISONERS WILL BE INTERVIEWED ONE BY ONE. THESE EXTENSIVE EFFORTS ARE
BEING TAKEN TO FIND OUT IF THE STABBING WAS A SINGLE EPISODE, OR PART OF
A LARGER PLAN. NO WORD ON WHEN THE LOCKDOWN WILL END.
----------------
Dear Director Terhune & Public
Safety Committee Members,
Salinas Valley State Prison has
been on total lockdown since May 17. Because of the lockdown, little housekeeping
or sanitation has been done by the staff. I heard from the inmates that
the showers are dirty, the floors are filthy and the food is cold. How
do I go about getting the state or county health inspector to inspect the
living conditions of the men? Senator McPherson or Assem. Keeley, can you
answer that question for me? Or, better yet, ask the warden to let some
of the Level 1 men out of lockdown to clean up the place. If these men
get sick and die, I expect many more law suits will be filed against the
state by the grieving families. Thank you. Susan S
-------------
Dear Editor:
As director of a large group composed
of teachers, college professors, human rights organization directors,
journalists, priests and ministers, and families of prisoners, I
appeal to others to perform an ACT of brotherly love this season.
As I understand it, the celebration
of December 25 is to honor Jesus Christ, who taught us to care for
one another. And, Christians, the people who are supposed to follow
his teachings, spend hours and hours and thousands of dollars
commemorating His birthday.
Why, then, is it that even after
two years of constant exposure in the media of inhumane treatment
of prisoners at Salinas Valley State Prisons and most others in California
that atrocities, medical neglect and outright torture is still happening
and the Christians and others are not up in arms about it?
I am reading desperate cries for
help from thousands of families statewide for what the CCPOA Guard's
Union is doing to destroy lives, but there is one particular shocking
story which wrenches my gut.
The Metro News covered it about
six months ago and told all the citizens that a boy named Josh had
a rare form of intestinal cancer. This 22 - year-old boy hurt no
one and is in prison on a minor drug charge. He might be out in five
years, if he survives SVSP. He had a cyst cut off his leg, a symptom
of the cancer. It took 24 days for a tech to change the bandage.
Is this not an outrage?
His mother, an upstanding, hardworking
citizen, has the same form of cancer and she has begged and pleaded
with everyone to help her. We have as an organization written to
the Cancer Society, appealed to several Senators and Assembly persons,
the Warden LaMarque, the doctors in charge Dr. Lillian Lustman and
Dr. Andrew Lucerne We have generated many letters to Governor Davis
and Cal Terhune asking that this young man's life be saved
with the needed surgery.
Pass-the-buck, transfer the call,
put up barriers to information and block the mother's visits, that's
what our efforts have yielded. The doctors deserve to lose their
license, but they practice with impunity because people aren't objecting
in large enough numbers.
This is the only response we have
received while the boy is dying before our very eyes. These appeals
have been daily for at least six months, but no one is listening
with their heart. There seems to be no heart.
Our begging is met with a bureaucratic
maze and a merry-go-round. No one cares, not even the Christians in the
community who were alerted of this situation six months ago.
Educated people know and write that
it is not a solution to crime to lock people in cages. Studies have
shown restorative justice to be much more humane and effective. But
even in Christ's day there existed this terrible treatment of man
and he discussed the necessity of visiting prisoners and the sick.
"Lord, when was it that we saw you
hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or SICK or in PRISON, and
did not take care of you?'
Then he will answer them, 'Truly
I tell you, just as you did not do it to one of the least of these,
you did not do it to me.' And these will go away into eternal punishment,
but the righteous into eternal life." MATT. 25:31-46 .
There are tens of thousands of mentally
ill and very physically ill inmates, the sons, husbands, brothers
and friends of millions of Californians simply rotting away from
the State's medical neglect of their conditions. Two legislators
seem to care: Richard Polanco and John Vasconcellos who have repeatedly
called this treatment of our mostly young people an outrage. Last
week, the Guard's Union declared them an enemy because of their work
to alert others of neglect inside the prisons. Our only two advocates
were attacked by a group who has bought off most legislators and Governor
Gray Davis. If we did not have their voices, even more inmates would
be abused.
But no remedies happen because the
citizens, the people of every religion who celebrate God and love,
sit on the sidelines and do not call, write and demonstrate to protest
this inhumanity.
Josh and others rotting of cancer
in SVSP need help against the unbearable incompetency and cruelty
of the CCPOA, the California Department of Corrections and callous
legislators who do nothing to remedy this suffering. Animals in the
zoo get better treatment than some 160,000 prisoners for which the
taxpayers are paying billions of dollars.
Is the profit motive more important
than the human destruction resulting from this horrible treatment?
If people will take five minutes out of their daily routines to look
at the higher picture to help Josh, we may be able to save a life.
The prisons are not equipped to deal with medical problems correctly. This
young man should be released, like so many people near death, to
suffer at home with their families.
We as citizens must not turn our
backs on this abuse and the Guard's Union. The CCPOA and California
criminal justice system is guilty of murderous policies which has
cost every one of us so many liberties. Everyone thinks this cannot
happen to them or to their child until it's too late.
We allow this neglect and torture
of inmates, then turn them back into our communities. Is it any wonder
that recidivism is so high? What would Christ do with knowledge
that people are dying painful deaths right under his nose?
B. Cayenne Bird, Director
United for No Injustice, Oppression
or Neglect
Statewide Headquarters
P.O. Box 22765
Sacramento, Ca. 95822
Website:
U.N.I.O.N. HOME
July 29, 1999, B. Cayenne Bird,
Director United for No Injustice,
Oppression or Neglect
Comments made by UNION Director
B. Cayenne Bird in radio shows statewide around the Salinas Crisis
"If the citizens of California knew
of the treatment of inmates at Salinas Valley Prison they would never stand
for it. Take the nicest dog, torture him while caged, and he WILL bite
you. Prisons are not a natural human habitat. When lockdowns extend for
months at a time, power games and psychological abuse abound, a natural
result is violence."
"The UNION has received multiple
complaints of starvation from inmates and their families. One group of
18 black inmates writes us that their food is purposefully dropped on a
filthy floor and then physical violence threatened if they report it. We
believe the inmates are reacting to confinement, physical and emotional
abuse."
"We have letters dating back a year
which describe the same problems over and over. Even though we now have
a network of inspector generals, the UNION has yet to see any resolution
to the problems at Salinas Valley and other prisons."
"This abuse is happening right under
our noses, so much so that the Chaplain of the Santa Cruz County jails,
Rob Seifert issued a public appeal for help, as well as the Bishop of Monterey
County. Animals in the zoo are treated better than most inmates. What must
be recognized is that these inmates may someday be returned to society.
All this inhumanity and there are no statistics anywhere to prove that
prisons are even a solution to crime. Retribution breeds retribution. We
need to end this vicious cycle with a focus on prevention, education, rehabilitation,
a strong economy, supervision of our young people and restorative justice.
"
"Most inmates live in a cell the
size of a small bathroom, aren't fed a fresh food diet, are offered no
educational or rehabilitative opportunities. If the atmosphere is conducive
to lockdowns, there is a financial advantage that the prison guards receive
a great deal of overtime. That's because most prisons run by inmate labor.
When they are confined, the guards must do the work and the hours mount
up at great taxpayer expense. We have reached a point where prisons and
their operations are profit- motivated, slave labor industrial blood houses.
This problem exists because 100% of the citizens think injustice and incarceration
could never happen to anyone in their family until it's too late."
"What you find in prison is the
small fry while the worst of the criminals usually run free. They take
who they can, mostly the poor or weak. Many inmates are physically ill.
We have two complaints now from a boy and an older man who have cancer.
Neither are getting any treatment and the UNION is out in full force to
apply pressure to the legislators to correct this outrage. Not many people
realize that about 70% of the prisoners are there for non-violent acts
and that many are innocent due to the total dysfunction and corruption
of the California Criminal Justice System."
"The threads which run through all
of the complaints are starvation, lack of citrus and fresh food in the
diet, psychological intimidation through ego power games, a serious lack
of medical treatment and a dangerous environment no doubt brought about
by poor management. In Russia this week 300,000 prisoners were freed due
to these type of run-away problems. We don't need more prisons, we need
decarceration of non- violent inmates and more education, rehabilitation
and restorative justice. Prisons are a money-making industry but when humanity
is on the table, we really need to consider our big picture losses. Allowing
torture of inmates, a high disease rate, and breaking our young people
down to have no self esteem can only hurt society as a whole."
B. Cayenne Bird
