[Pnews] Pelican Bay - We are relying on the legislature to rein in CDCR’s gross abuse of power, this year

[Prisoner News]

    We are relying on the legislature to rein in CDCR’s gross abuse of
    power, this year
    <http://sfbayview.com/2014/we-are-relying-on-the-legislature-to-rein-in-cdcrs-gross-abuse-of-power-this-year/>

April 22, 2014
*http://sfbayview.com/2014/we-are-relying-on-the-legislature-to-rein-in-cdcrs-gross-abuse-of-power-this-year/*

/*by Todd Ashker*/

As a principal representative of the PBSP SHU (Pelican Bay State Prison 
Security Housing Unit) Short Corridor Collective Human Rights Movement, 
I begin this personal perspective update with a shout out of solidarity 
and respect to all those inside and outside these prison walls who have 
put aside divisive race and culture differences in order to unite as a 
prisoner class and demand long overdue, meaningful reforms to the 
fascist prison industrial complex – beginning with the end of long term 
solitary confinement and inclusive of humane treatment, dignity, respect 
and rehabilitative programs and privileges of real substance – 
beneficial to all prisoners, our outside loved ones and public safety in 
general.

Additionally, I sincerely thank the California Assembly and Senate 
Public Safety Committee members for holding the joint public hearings 
Oct. 9, 2013, and Feb. 11, 2014, in order to further examine the CDCR’s 
use and abuse of long term punitive solitary confinement as a general 
purpose “status”-based gang management policy resulting in the torture 
of thousands of people over the course of more than three decades.

These hearings were in response to our third peaceful hunger strike 
protest in two years, wherein more than 40 prisoners fasted for 60 days, 
and, at its peak, more than 30,000 prisoners joined in solidarity to 
protest decades of personal subjection to policies amounting to state 
sanctioned torture! Prisoner Billy Sell’s death was directly related to 
our collective protest issues, and others have yet to fully recover.

There can be no doubt that the legislators’ courageous act of publically 
acknowledging our protest issues in late August 2013 saved many lives, 
and it gave many people real hope that substantive changes will be 
forthcoming. And now that there has been additional public exposure – 
via the two public hearings – demonstrating CDCR’s refusal to institute 
real, meaningful changes, on its own, people are relying on the 
legislature to do all in their power to pass legislation reining in 
CDCR’s gross abuse of power, this year.

This is of critical importance in light of CDCR’s push to have their 
“Security Threat Group-Step Down Program” formally adopted into the 
rules and regulations – in spite of repeated, point specific objections 
to such by those affected by it, the prisoner class, including outside 
loved ones and people of conscience. There are many red flags within the 
STG-SDP policy, as well as related actions demonstrative of our point 
that this policy is simply a repackaged new twist on the policies in 
place for the past 30 years, as briefly illustrated below:

The new disciplinary matrix changes nothing; it merely codifies all the 
innocent, associational type acts used to keep us in SHU indefinitely 
for the past 30 years into the regulations, as formal rule violations 
requiring a rules violation report. Being found guilty of such is a slam 
dunk resulting in placement or retention in SHU for an indefinite term 
of four years to life.

Additionally, it instructs staff to issue rule violations based on 
confidential prisoner informant debriefing reports meeting reliability 
criteria per CCR Title 15, Section 3321. Those inside know how IGI 
(Institutional Gang Investigations) et al manipulate this. Thus people 
can expect lots of write-ups based solely on confidential prisoner 
informant claims, which will result in being found guilty. And once the 
determinate SHU term assessed for such is completed, it’s all about 
beginning the four years to life SDP!


      There can be no doubt that the legislators’ courageous act of
      publically acknowledging our protest issues in late August 2013
      saved many lives, and it gave many people real hope that
      substantive changes will be forthcoming.

Since we suspended our hunger strike on Sept. 5, 2013, the CDCR has 
conducted 12 case by case reviews of PBSP Short Corridor prisoners 
classified as members – that’s 12 over the past six months. 
Additionally, the statistics show that while CDCR claims to have 
released more than 400 prisoners from solitary confinement to general 
prison population per STG-SDP case by case reviews, the number of 
prisoners in solitary confinement cells has increased! This is what we 
stated would happen way back in March 2012 in our public opposition to 
the STG-SDP proposal.

The CDCR has kept their word about providing us with a bit more SHU 
privileges responsive to our fifth core demand and related supplemental 
demands. These are all things former CDCR Undersecretary Kernan admitted 
we should have had 20 years ago when we met with him in 2011. And most 
were only recently authorized a few weeks before the Feb. 11, 2014, 
legislative hearing.

Of course, they are a plus, but they don’t go far enough – e.g., we 
should be able to have contact visits and weekly phone calls etc. – and 
a real concern is that providing additional privileges is the 
prisoncrats’ way of improving SHU and Ad Seg conditions with the intent 
such will make it acceptable to keep us here forever.

Our remaining demands 1-4 remain unresolved.


      The statistics show that while CDCR claims to have released more
      than 400 prisoners from solitary confinement to general prison
      population per STG-SDP case by case reviews, the number of
      prisoners in solitary confinement cells has increased!

Many people recognize that there is an element within CDCR’s rank and 
file – administrators, Office of Correctional Safety (OCS), California 
Peace Officers Association (CCPOA, the guards’ union) etc. – whose 
underlying agenda is to maintain and promote the expansion of the prison 
industrial complex, related to the growing fascist police state agenda 
in this nation.

One of the prisoncrats’ tactics under CDCR Secretary Beard’s leadership 
is the increase in propagandist demonization of SHU prisoners as the 
“worst of the worst” in order to try and justify and expand on the 
policies and practices condemned by the world as violating longstanding 
human rights treaty law banning torture. A recent example is Secretary 
Beard’s LA Times op ed of Aug. 6, 2013 
<http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/opinionla/la-oe-beard-prison-hunger-strike-20130806,0,4933570.story#axzz2zZwVLg5c>, 
wherein he claimed the hunger strike, a massive, peaceful protestation, 
was a gang power play, intended to regain control of the prison system.

Secretary Beard’s support for this obvious lie? Reliance on 25- to 
40-year-old events taken out of context and stories by two prisoners who 
broke down after years of enduring torturous SHU conditions, “debriefed” 
and were quickly recruited as state propagandist collaborators. In order 
to “successfully debrief,” one must support the CDCR-OCS agenda.

Notably, prior to these torture victims’ agreement to become state agent 
collaborators, they were in the PBSP SHU Short Corridor, labeled the 
worst of the worst. Each of them is serving a life term for murder 
convictions outside prison and had been issued many serious rule 
violation charges while in prison – landing them in SHU. One was accused 
of strangling his SHU cell mate.

Yet, as soon as they agreed to become state collaborators against our 
cause, their past misdeeds are forgotten, and their words become “good 
as gold” while CDCR parades them before the public. This is a strategy 
used by CDCR to try and distract the world’s focus away from our 
exposure of state sanctioned torture. This is how fascists operate.

For their part, these two collaborators now enjoy special general prison 
population perks, at the “sensitive needs” prison of their choice.

Also notable is the fact that the prisoncrats refused to allow Sen. 
Hancock to personally meet with us in late September 2013. As well, they 
refused to allow a couple of us to personally participate in the Feb. 11 
hearing. CDCR’s intent is to try and prevent us from being seen and 
heard as human beings while simultaneously propagating the alleged 
greatness of their Security Threat Group-Step Down Program.

 From my perspective, the above points are ongoing examples 
demonstrating CDCR’s lack of respect for our human rights and dignity – 
as well as their intent to continue to abuse their power with impunity, 
if allowed to do so. It’s especially concerning the way they tried to 
marginalize us out of the legislative hearing process, and I believe it 
could be a major mistake for us to allow them to do so without even a 
token response – a reminder of our resistance and refusal to accept 
having our voices silenced, so they can maintain the status quo of 
indefinite solitary confinement, thereby condemning us to the long, slow 
death such entails, while they profit. Thousands passing on a day or two 
of food is a strong reminder and showing of solidarity.

I mistakenly thought there was a consensus and put out a statement in 
early January. The prisoncrats have hindered the dialogue, creating 
confusion. Thus, as soon as I found out the consensus wasn’t there, I 
immediately moved to change the statement to reflect my personal views – 
this too was stymied.


      Notable is the fact that the prisoncrats refused to allow Sen.
      Hancock to personally meet with us in late September 2013. As
      well, they refused to allow a couple of us to personally
      participate in the Feb. 11 hearing. CDCR’s intent is to try and
      prevent us from being seen and heard as human beings while
      simultaneously propagating the alleged greatness of their Security
      Threat Group-Step Down Program.

The important thing is that CDCR’s moves to marginalize us from Feb. 11 
have failed. Our people outside did a great job of educating the 
legislators about the sham aspects of CDCR’s STG-SDP, including Dolores 
Canales’ requests for prisoners here to send letters to Sen. Hancock. 
And, based on my commitment, a few of us went on a three-day hunger 
strike from Feb. 3 to 5. It all helped ensure that our humanity was not 
forgotten on Feb. 11.

I still believe a crucial part of our struggle for real reform requires 
us to do our part in here. Failing that, we can’t ask for, nor expect, 
people outside to support us.


      The important thing is that CDCR’s moves to marginalize us from
      Feb. 11 have failed. Our people outside did a great job of
      educating the legislators about the sham aspects of CDCR’s
      STG-SDP, including Dolores Canales’ requests for prisoners here to
      send letters to Sen. Hancock.

While I’m at it, I’ll also address and clarify a few recurrent points 
raised, related to our collective cause. This comes from my perspective, 
as an individual and principal representative, as follows:

*The subject of criticism and obstructionism*

Historically, no social movement has proceeded without criticism. 
Constructive criticism is a good thing and everyone’s entitled to their 
opinion. Naturally, there’s obvious reasons why we’re not able or 
willing to discuss the basis for our collective decisions. Suffice it to 
say most people understood from the gate that this effort would be a 
protracted struggle, and we agreed to do all we could to be smarter than 
our adversary, recognizing this is a constantly evolving process, 
similar to a chess game of moves and counter moves, responsive to 
circumstances. And we’ve done an excellent job of this.

Most participants have done so on the basis of faith and solidarity, 
recognizing something has to be done to put CDCR’s abuse of power in 
check. Not everyone gets the point of a concept at the same time – some 
take a while to get it, and some never do. That’s human nature.

Generally, our goal is the same. And for those who do get it – onward in 
struggle and solidarity.

As for obstructionism – differences of opinion are always going to 
happen, and such are not obstructionist in my view. I see an 
obstructionism as active attempts to hinder an action of resistance. I’m 
sure everyone recognizes it when they see it.


      I still believe a crucial part of our struggle for real reform
      requires us to do our part in here. Failing that, we can’t ask
      for, nor expect, people outside to support us.

The bottom line is our combined, unified efforts, inside and out, have 
been very effective to date. We’ve gained a lot of ground in a 
relatively short time against a powerful entity.

We need to remain on top of things and continue to do our part, and we 
will prevail. We can’t become complacent based on CDCR’s psychological 
tactics – like false hope.

*On agreement to end racial group hostilities*

People need to be mindful that this 2012 agreement was made and based on 
the consensus we came to here in the Short Corridor, and we encouraged 
prisoners statewide to follow suit – for their own benefits – as 
summarized in the agreement! This is an adult system, and we need to be 
mindful of what we all have in common behind these walls and who our 
common adversary is. And we need to be smart about achieving positive 
gains beneficial to all prisoners.

As expected, CDCR has refused to allow us to promote our agreement, and 
there are always going to be those who seek to derail it. All actions 
are accountable at some point, and people need to do their best to be 
wise and reasonably diplomatic. Airing perceived breaches in public is 
not appropriate and looks real bad on those who do so; it perpetuates 
divisiveness.

*On proposed legislation*

There’s a small opening for getting legislation passed this year; 
therefore, it has to be a collective effort, focused on the one or two 
key points which have the best chance of success – beneficial to the 
largest number of prisoners. It’s a mistake to put forward a bunch of 
proposals which have no chance of passing this year, because such takes 
away the focus from the one or two with the best chance of passing. An 
illustrative example is a criminal appeal. When you throw 30 issues at 
the court, it can hurt your chance of prevailing on the one or two 
strongest issues – and result in losing the entire appeal.

I’ve thought a lot about this and have come up with the two issues I 
believe have the best chance of passing. The main issue of contention 
between us and CDCR is the definition of “behavior” resulting in SHU 
placement and retention.

The CDCR’s Security Threat Group-Step Down Program merely seeks to 
require “formal rule violations” to place or retain us in SHU – based on 
the same things they’ve used for 30 years – without writing us up. Via 
the creation of the STG-SDP “Disciplinary Matrix,” CDCR codifies minor 
association-type activity into the regulations as formal, serious and/or 
administrative rule violations, as well as instruction on formal charges 
based solely on confidential prisoner informant allegations, when the 
reliability criteria per Title 15, Section 2231, is met.

Thus, we need to obtain legislation that limits such abuse of power.

In August 2011, Gov. Brown signed into law California Penal Code Section 
1111.5, providing guidelines for “the use of in-custody informants in 
criminal cases.” Thus, legislators are aware of problems with abuse 
involving informants, and I believe a unified push can successfully 
expand the scope of this penal code section to include the use of 
confidential informant debriefing reports in the CDCR rule violation 
process – a big plus for prisoners.

Push to end the use of minor prison rule violations that are not even 
misdemeanors per the Penal Code – see those listed in the STG-SDP 
Disciplinary Matrix for categories 6 and 8 – for SHU placement and 
retention. The way to push it is to focus on the fact that such aren’t 
even misdemeanors, yet CDCR uses them to place and retain people in SHU 
cells for a minimum of four years to life – at a cost of at least 
$20,000 more per year than a general population cell.

And this will potentially result in approximately 85,000 prisoners who 
currently meet STG criteria being subject to these costly SHU cells – 
for four years to life (of torture).

*On Step Down Program participation*

Our position has not changed: We are 100 percent opposed to this! 
However, if people refuse to participate, then how do we obtain the 
proof necessary to support our position that it’s a sham program? The 
journals are a problem – we’ve been told they don’t leave our 
possession, that the facilitators just thumb through it in front of you 
to be sure you’ve written something. Naturally, participation is an 
individual decision, and any abuse need to be documented.

*On class action certification*

We’re still waiting on the judge’s written ruling formally certifying 
the case as a class action! However, at the oral arguments, all present 
agreed, the judge indicated such certification would be allowed. The 
issue is just more complicated since the CDCR came out with their 
alleged “new” gang management policy per STG-SDP; and this is why we 
believe it’s taking a while to issue the order on paper.

Based on our own experiences here, we know CDCR, OCS and IGI are already 
abusing the STG Disciplinary Matrix and issuing a lot of “serious” rule 
violations for minor things, using CCR, Title 15, Section 3023 
“Promotion of Gang Activity” without any evidence of “promotion” etc. 
Any documentation relating to this or any other abuse regarding STG-SDP 
issues needs to be sent to the class action attorneys asap.

With solidarity and respect,

/Todd Ashker/

/This letter was written Feb. 24, 2014, but did not reach the Bay View 
until late April. Send our brother some love and light: Todd Ashker, 
C-58191, D4-121, P.O. Box 7500, Crescent City CA 95532./

-- 
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