[Ppnews] CA Prison lockdowns can't be based on race

[Political Prisoner News]

  Prison lockdowns can't be based on race


          Bob Egelko

http://www.sfgate.com/crime/article/Prison-lockdowns-can-t-be-based-on-race-4221832.php


          Published 5:09 pm, Thursday, January 24, 2013

California's maximum-security prisons must treat inmates of all racial 
groups equally and may not - except in a short-term emergency - lock 
inmates down or deny them visitors, work assignments and other 
privileges based on their race, a state appeals court has ruled.
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Wednesday's decision by the First District Court of Appeal in San 
Francisco specifically addressed Pelican Bay State Prison in Del Norte 
County. The warden had issued a series of orders restricting activities 
of all inmates in a particular racial or ethnic group, citing violence 
by racially defined prison gangs.

Superior Court 
<http://www.sfgate.com/?controllerName=search&action=search&channel=crime&search=1&inlineLink=1&query=%22Superior+Court%22> 
Judge Robert Weir 
<http://www.sfgate.com/?controllerName=search&action=search&channel=crime&search=1&inlineLink=1&query=%22Robert+Weir%22> 
prohibited those orders 18 months ago, saying inmates can be locked up 
or denied freedom of movement for their behavior but not for their race. 
The appeals court upheld his decision in a ruling that applies to all 
prisons with similar policies.

The impact could be widespread. Attorney Rebekah Evenson 
<http://www.sfgate.com/?controllerName=search&action=search&channel=crime&search=1&inlineLink=1&query=%22Rebekah+Evenson%22> 
of the nonprofit Prison Law Office said there have been more than 500 
racially based lockdowns and similar restrictions imposed at men's 
prisons in California in the last two years.

"They're treating everyone as a gang member based on the color of their 
skin," she said.

Prison officials insist their orders are based on gang affiliation, not 
race. Terry Thornton 
<http://www.sfgate.com/?controllerName=search&action=search&channel=crime&search=1&inlineLink=1&query=%22Terry+Thornton%22>, 
spokeswoman for the state Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation 
<http://www.sfgate.com/?controllerName=search&action=search&channel=crime&search=1&inlineLink=1&query=%22Department+of+Corrections+and+Rehabilitation%22>, 
said it adopted a policy in October declaring that restrictions on 
inmates "shall not target a specific racial or ethnic group unless there 
is a legitimate penological reason for doing so."

The Prison Law Office has challenged the department's implementation of 
its current policy in a separate federal lawsuit.

In Wednesday's ruling, the court acknowledged that prisons have broad 
authority to take security measures against gang violence, including 
racial violence.

But Pelican Bay imposed "restrictions on all members of a racial group 
for extended and indefinite periods" without any attempt to determine 
whether they belonged to a gang or were responsible for the violence, 
said Justice Stuart Pollak 
<http://www.sfgate.com/?controllerName=search&action=search&channel=crime&search=1&inlineLink=1&query=%22Justice+Stuart+Pollak%22> 
in the 3-0 decision.

"Racial classifications threaten to stigmatize individuals by reason of 
their membership in a racial group and to incite racial hostility," 
Pollak said, quoting a U.S. Supreme Court ruling.

He said many of the Pelican Bay restrictions, like a ban on outside 
visitors for months or years at a time, "appear primarily punitive."

The ruling includes an exception, which Weir had also approved, allowing 
the prison to separate inmates by race during brief emergencies, as long 
as no race is treated preferentially.

California prisons formerly segregated inmates by race during their 
first 60 days in a prison, but the U.S. Supreme Court declared that 
practice unconstitutional in 2005. Despite the ruling, inmate housing 
remains racially segregated at Pelican Bay and other maximum-security 
prisons, the appeals court said.

The court said Pelican Bay has also disregarded a 2004 ruling by another 
appeals court panel banning racially based lockdowns, the focus of 
Wednesday's decision.

After a fight in August 2008 between members of Northern and Southern 
California Latino gangs, the warden barred or limited different racial 
groups' access to visitors, work assignments, phone calls, prison 
canteens and exercise yards for nearly three years, until Weir's July 
2011 order.

There have been no reports of major racial clashes at the prison since then.

Read the ruling at www.courts.ca.gov/opinions/documents/A132816.PDF 
<http://www.courts.ca.gov/opinions/documents/A132816.PDF>.

Bob Egelko is a San Francisco Chronicle 
<http://www.sfgate.com/?controllerName=search&action=search&channel=crime&search=1&inlineLink=1&query=%22San+Francisco+Chronicle%22> 
staff writer. E-mail: begelko at sfchronicle.com 
<mailto:begelko at sfchronicle.com>


Read more: 
http://www.sfgate.com/crime/article/Prison-lockdowns-can-t-be-based-on-race-4221832.php#ixzz2J0QGxDFn
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Appeals court upholds order to end race-based prison practices

* January 23, 2013 |  2:51 pm
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/california-politics/2013/01/appeals-court-uholds-order-to-end-race-based-prison-practices-ff.html


A California appeals court Wednesday upheld an order for the state's 
super-max prison to stop punishing inmates by race, following four-year 
lockdowns of southern Latino inmates because officials feared their gang 
ties.

The warden of Pelican Bay State Prison contended race-based practices 
were forced by "long-standing and constant hostilities between rival 
Hispanic prison gangs," whose "repeated efforts to attack each other at 
every opportunity" threaten prison safety.

California prison manuals identify seven prison gangs along racial 
lines, including Latino inmates from Southern California with the 
Mexican Mafia and Northern California Latinos with La Nuestra Familia. A 
Del Norte County trial court found Pelican Bay "has an unwritten policy 
of using race as the primary factor determining housing assignments, 
activity levels, and restrictions among the general population of inmates."

The trial court found a prison committee divides inmates in five racial 
or ethnic groups: white, black, northern Latino, southern Latino, and a 
fifth group of mostly Asian inmates. Cells are even color-coded by those 
assignments, such as red for southern Latinos. Prison officials 
testified that the system merely reflects the way inmates themselves 
break into groups.

The court case was filed by the Prison Law Office on behalf of a Latino 
inmate who was denied visits and other privileges because of his race, 
and contended the prison uses race "as a proxy for gang membership" 
without proof of any gang affiliation.

[Updated 4:55 p.m. Jan. 23: State prison officials responded by calling 
management of gang-related violence "complex and challenging." Agency 
spokeswoman Terry Thornton said the California Department of Corrections 
and Rehabilitation is reviewing the decision, to decide if updated 
policies address the issues raised by the court, and whether to appeal 
to the California Supreme Court.

While the San Francisco appellate court concurred Wednesday that 
racially motivated violence is a problem at Pelican Bay, the justices 
said the prison takes the practice too far, using race to segregate 
prisoners, deny family visits and to issue assignments for work, 
religious services and yard time years at a time.

Pelican Bay imposed a general lockdown after a 2000 prison riot, but 
only southern Latino inmates were kept on lockdown and denied exercise 
for four years after. At another time, only Asian inmates were given 
work assignments and the privileges that go with them. Those practices 
were to end under a 2005 U.S. Supreme Court ruling, but were 
reinstituted at Pelican Bay sometime before 2009.

The appellate decision notes Pelican Bay has been ordered to cease 
race-based practices as far back as 10 years ago.

"If the warden doesn’t cease these racially discriminatory practices he 
will be in contempt of court," said Don Specter, lead attorney in the 
case for the Prison Law Office.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/california-politics/2013/01/appeals-court-uholds-order-to-end-race-based-prison-practices-ff.html
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