[Ppnews] Pelican Bay SHU Short Corridor Collective’s Rejection of CDCR Proposal

[Political Prisoner News]

Pelican Bay SHU Short Corridor Collective’s Rejection of CDCR Proposal

Pelican Bay Human Rights Movement

http://prisonerhungerstrikesolidarity.wordpress.com/pelican-bay-shu-short-corridor-collectives-rejection-of-cdcr-proposal/

Preface:

The PBSP-SHU short corridor prisoner 
representatives have read, carefully considered, 
and hereby oppose the CDCR’s March 1, 2012, the 
Security Threat Group Prevention, Identification 
and Management Strategy proposal (hereinafter 
proposal), based on the following reasons. 
Additionally, we do hereby present our counter proposal (attached hereto).

One, Summary of issues

Beginning in May of 2-11, the PBSP-SHU short 
corridor prisoners collective presented CDCR with 
a ‘Formal Notice’ of intent to go on a peaceful 
protest hunger strike beginning July 1, 2011, in 
order to expose for force policy changes 
regarding our subjection to 25 years of torturous 
human rights abuse in California SHU and Ad Seg. 
units. The Formal Notice included a list of “five 
core demands” and a “Formal Complaint” 
summarizing the facts and circumstances leading 
up, and supporting the basis for putting our 
lives on the line to stop the torture of our families and us.

During negotiations conducted in late July, 
August, and October of 2011 top CDCD 
administrators several times admitted, to 
PBSP-SHU representatives and to our mediation 
team, that the five core demands made by 
prisoners were reasonable. The CDCR made repeated 
assurances that the Five Core Demands would be 
addressed via meaningful substantive changes, 
responsive to the specific demands as soon as 
possible. The five core demands are summarized 
here for the purpose of clarity.[1]

1.     Eliminate group punishments. Instead, 
practice individual accountability. When an 
individual prisoner breaks a rule, the prison 
often punishes a whole group of prisoners of the 
same race. This policy has been applied to keep 
prisoners in the SHU indefinitely and to make conditions increasingly harsh.

2. Abolish the debriefing policy and modify 
active/inactive gang status criteria. Prisoners 
are accused of being active or inactive 
participants of prison gangs using false or 
highly dubious evidence, and are then sent to 
long-term isolation (SHU). They can escape these 
tortuous conditions only if they “debrief,” that 
is, provide information on gang activity. 
Debriefing produces false information (wrongly 
landing other prisoners in SHU, in an endless 
cycle) and can endanger the lives of debriefing prisoners and their families.

3. Comply with the recommendations of the US 
Commission on Safety and Abuse in Prisons (2006) 
regarding an end to long-term solitary 
confinement. This bipartisan commission 
specifically recommended to “make segregation a 
last resort” and “end conditions of isolation.” 
Yet as of May 18, 2011, California kept 3,259 
prisoners in SHUs and hundreds more in 
Administrative Segregation waiting for a SHU cell 
to open up. Some prisoners have been kept in 
isolation for more than thirty years.

4. Provide adequate and nutritious food. 
Prisoners report unsanitary conditions and small 
quantities of food that do not conform to prison 
regulations. There is no accountability or 
independent quality control of meals.

5. Expand and provide constructive programs and 
privileges for indefinite SHU inmates. The hunger 
strikers are pressing for opportunities “to 
engage in self-help treatment, education, 
religious and other productive activities
” 
Currently these opportunities are routinely 
denied, even if the prisoners want to pay for 
correspondence courses themselves. Examples of 
privileges the prisoners want are: one phone call 
per week, and permission to have sweat-suits and watch caps.

With respect to core demands #1,2,3,and 5, Policy 
and Practice of basis for indefinite SHU 
isolation averages(s) available for gaining one’s 
release therefrom, and the progressively punitive 
nature of SHU/Ad Seg conditions, it’s important 
to remember, many SHU prisoners have been held 
indefinitely, and subject to sensory deprivation, 
and every other abuse imaginable, that occurs in 
such hidden hell holes, for between ten to forty 
years and counting, solely bases on what CDCR-OCS 
refers to as their “intelligence system” i.e., 
debriefer allegations and innocent associational 
activity without ever actually being charged and 
found guilty of committing a criminal gang-related act.

Thus, the parties understood CDCR’s intelligence 
system for indefinite SHU placement was one of 
the major issues of concern to the class of SHU 
prisoners and their families, subjected to such 
long term isolation and abuse, without being 
charged and found guilty of committing a criminal 
act by credible evidence, and after the due 
process such formal charges would require. The 
parties all understood that major, meaning, and 
fundamental, change away from the above 
referenced “intelligence” based system 
 to a 
“behavioral” based system. A system defined as 
one in which a prisoner who engaged in “criminal 
gang activity” that is supported by “credible 
evidence” will be subject to sanctions (Per CDCR, 
Title 15, §§ 3312-3315, et seq., i.e., rule 
violation reports, referral for prosecution, 
determinate SHU term, and corresponding loss of 
privileges—after receiving due process and being 
found guilty of the criminal act alleged). On 
March 9, 2012, CDCR issued a press statement and 
presented their proposed gang management policy 
changes (the Proposal) in response to our 
peaceful protest activity and related five 
de3mands and negotiation process referenced above.

Two. CDCR’s Proposal Is Not Acceptable

The PBSP-SHU short corridor prisoner reps have 
read and carefully considered CDCR’s March 2112 
proposal and we hereby summarize our opposition 
to the proposal. This rejections is based upon 
the CDCR’s failure to act in good faith, as 
demonstrated by the mockery made of our 
agreements (referenced in above section I), 
including Secretary Cate’s delegation of the 
policy change process to the Office of 
Correctional Safety (OCS), who resorted to the 
same twenty-five years plus fear tactics of 
California prison gangs being the “worst of the 
worst” in order to propagate, manipulate, and 
promote their own underlying agenda, which is to 
increase the power, staffing, and money of the 
OCS office within CDCR. (See, e.g., Proposal, 
P.5, at last paragraph; “the continuing evolution 
of our existing intelligence network
”). It 
should be noted that the OCS is the gang 
intelligence/goon squad in charge of SSU/IGI 
units within CDCR. This propagandist-manipulative 
abuse of state power—includes the ongoing use of 
long-term sensory deprivation, designed to coerce 
prisoners to become state informants, while also 
making a ton of money from such SHU/AD Seg torture units.

The Proposal seeks to manipulate the law makers 
and the tax payers into allowing CDCR-OCS to 
significantly expand on the use of these SHU/Ad 
Seg units, via the creation of new criteria and 
classes of what they term Security Threat Groups 
(STG) involved in “criminal gang behavior” (See Proposal in general).

The CDCR-OCS is asking the law makers and tax 
payers to allow them to continue to violate 
thousands of prisoners human rights, including 
the use of torture with impunity bases on false 
propaganda scare tactics exemplified below.

The Proposal (and related CDCR press statement) 
begins with propaganda claiming California prison 
gangs are “the most sophisticated and violent in 
the nation—connected to major criminal activity 
in the community, and having influence on nearly 
every prison system within the United States” 
(Proposal pgs. 2,3,5 and Press Statement of March 
9, 2012). They also claim their current torture 
practices, those utilized for over 25 years, 
“have been successful in reducing the impact of 
sophisticated gang members have in CDCR 
facilities” 
 “by removing them from the general 
prison population” (Proposal, p.2 at paragraph 2, 
3). These are the same manipulative tactics used 
by OCS for twenty-five years. They’ve gotten away 
with it at a cost of hundreds of millions of tax 
payers’ dollars, and with the destruction/severe 
physical-psychological damage long term 
subjection to torture units has caused thousands 
of prisoners and their loved ones outside prison. 
And all of this in the face of the facts and 
evidence to prove CDCR-OCS 
propaganda-manipulative statements are false. In 
spite of being subject to 25 to 40 years of 
extreme security surveillance by alleged gang 
expert special agents the majority of the 
prisoners classified a prison gang members have 
never been charged or found guilty of any 
criminal gang related acts! Moreover, a 
statistical study of the CDCR’s practice during 
the twenty-five year period prior to imposition 
of the current policy of placing all prison gang 
affiliates in SHU and comparing this data with 
the current 25 year SHU policy will prove that 
CDCR general population prisoners have been 
significantly more violent and out of control 
since the current policy has been in place.

CDCR-OCS are directly at fault for this 25-years 
of madness that continues to take place in this 
state’s general population facilities, including 
staff manipulating prisoners against each other 
to further the staff’s agenda (a lot of riots or 
other violence is useful in supporting demands 
for extra hazard pay, overtime, etc.).

CDCR-OCS’s gang management policy of the last 25 
years is a one hundred percent failure, and their 
march 2012 proposed changes are not acceptable 
because they seek to increase the use of torture 
units and do not change the many of dealing with 
those classified as prison gang members at all, 
which is a blatant violation of the parties 
agreement(s) during the negotiation process last 
year. This is shown by reference to the following examples:

     The Proposal wants to change the 
classification of “prison gang member” into 
“security threat group I” member (STG-1 member), 
while continuing the current policy and practice 
of keeping these alleged gang members in SHU 
indefinitely, using the same alleged “evidence” 
that’s been used for the past 25 years. The 
Proposal specifies that “
 STG I members will 
remain in SHU indefinitely, until they 
successfully complete the debriefing process 
 or 
the ‘step-down program’ consisting of a minimum 
of four years to complete all four steps.” 
Notably, it states, “
STG-I members will remain 
in SHU and will not be able to gain release to 
the general prison population via step down 
program based on IGI’s confirmation of 
participation in criminal gang behavior.” 
Confirmation requires “either (1) a guilty 
finding in a serious rule violation report and/or 
(2) any document that clearly describes the gang 
behavior and is referred to the institution 
I.G.I. for confirmation.” Number 2 is in 
reference to “documentation” consisting of 
statements from confidential inmate 
informants/debriefers, staff’s alleged 
observations, and other forms of innocent 
associational type behavior (See Proposal, at 
page 7, 17-25,3). This is the exact same process 
CDCR-OCS has used and abused for 25 years. This 
changes nothing for the prisoners classified as 
prison gang members, which is a majority of those 
in PBSP short corridor, most of whom have been in 
SHU for between 10 and 40 years already—without 
ever being formally charged and found guilty of a criminal gang act.
     The Proposal fails to make meaningful, 
substantive changes responsive to core demands 1, 
2, and 3, (and does so unsatisfactorily re: Core 
Demand #5, e.gl. mockery of our request for 
weekly phone calls, no contact visits for step 3 
and four, etc., etc.). We see no point in having 
four steps—each requiring a minimum of one year 
to complete. And the vague wording regarding the 
rest of the Proposal leaves much room for abuse 
and manipulation—which CDCR-OCS staff have a long 
history of doing. All of which makes CDCR-OCS proposal unacceptable.

Three, PBSP-SHU Short Corridor Prisoner Representatives

Based on CDCR’s lack of good faith in the process 
of changing their illegal policies and practices 
regarding the use and abuse of long-term 
isolation/torture, and for the reasons briefly 
summarized above, together with our belief that 
the CDCR-OCS proposal is so blatantly out-of-step 
with what was agreed during negotiations between 
July through October of 2011, as to con statute 
an intentional stall tactic designed to prolong 
our subjection to those torturous conditions.

Therefore, we hereby respectfully present our 
attached counter proposal—to be implemented without further delay.

Date: 3-19-2012

Respectfully Submitted by:

Sitawa Nantambu Jamaa – Dewberry C-35671

Arturo Castellanos – C-17275

Todd Ashker – C-58191

Antonio Guillen – P-81948

[1] This version of the Five Core Demands was 
taken from 
http://www.change.org/petitions/support-pelican-bay-shu-prisoners-five-core-demands-hunger-strike




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