[Pnews] Court Must Finally End California Prisons’ Unconstitutional Use of Solitary

[Prisoner News]

https://ccrjustice.org/home/press-center/press-releases/court-must-finally-end-california-prisons-unconstitutional-use 
<https://ccrjustice.org/home/press-center/press-releases/court-must-finally-end-california-prisons-unconstitutional-use> 



  Court Must Finally End California Prisons’ Unconstitutional Use of
  Solitary

October 1, 2020
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Five Years After Landmark Settlement, Violations Continue

September 26, 2020, Palo Alto – Men who spent decades in solitary 
confinement in California prisons are charging that the California 
Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) is violating a 
landmark settlement agreement and continuing to violate their 
constitutional rights. They are asking a federal court to extend the 
judicial monitoring period of the settlement for the second time. The 
motion filed last night argues that, at this point—five years after the 
agreement was reached—the prisoners are entitled not only to an 
extension of the monitoring period, but also to remedies for continued 
violations of their constitutional rights.

In the motion, the men’s attorneys propose steps the court should order 
to ensure an end to ongoing violations, including audio-recording all 
confidential interviews with prisoners implicating other prisoners in 
rule violations, imposing an independent monitor, prohibiting the 
transmission to the parole board of unreliable information about alleged 
gang affiliation, and implementing additional layers of review and 
opportunities to appeal certain decisions that result in continued 
isolation.

Rachel Meeropol 
<https://ccrjustice.org/home/who-we-are/staff/meeropol-rachel>, a Senior 
Staff Attorney at the Center for Constitutional Rights and counsel on 
the Ashker case explained, “The prisoners’ human rights movement has 
demanded an end to the use of fabricated and inaccurate confidential 
information. Until California stops sending people to solitary 
confinement based on unreliable confidential informants, this case must 
continue.”

The settlement agreement was reached in 2015 in a lawsuit initially 
filed by two men representing themselves who had been held for decades 
in solitary at Pelican Bay State Prison. The lawsuit was later expanded 
to a class action case. The settlement was intended to end indefinite 
solitary confinement and the use of specious findings of gang 
affiliation as a justification for isolating prisoners, through specific 
reforms and a two-year monitoring period. But at the end of the initial 
monitoring, the judge found that the CDCR was systemically violating the 
due process rights of class members and “effectively frustrating the 
purpose of the Settlement Agreement,” and ordered an extension. Now, 
nearing the end of that additional extension period, prisoners and their 
attorneys say the rights violations continue.

Specifically, yesterday’s filing—most of which is filed under seal, but 
which includes a summary of the violations that is public—details CDCR’s 
use of fabricated, exaggerated, or inaccurately disclosed confidential 
information to return men to solitary confinement. It says imprisoned 
men are pressured to “debrief” and provide information in exchange for 
favors and better treatment, that obviously false information is treated 
as reliable, and that no steps are taken to ensure lying informants will 
not be empowered to peddle more lies in the future. Attorneys say steps 
to ensure the reliability of the information—independent review by a 
hearing officer, meaningful corroboration, and the opportunity to ask 
relevant questions during hearings—are not being taken. And new 
information shows that men are often isolated for alleged safety 
concerns even after an investigation has ended and even when the 
investigation does not conclude that the men have violated prison rules. 
All of this violates the right to due process, the motion argues.

The filing also describes specific rights violations by CDCR, in 
addition to its improper use of inaccurate information to return men to 
solitary confinement. CDCR continues to impose a de facto bar on parole 
for prisoners allegedly affiliated with a gang, the motion says, 
providing parole boards with findings of gang affiliation—findings that 
are themselves obtained through the unconstitutional use of inaccurate 
information described above. Finally, the motion filed yesterday argues 
that the CDCR’s procedures for designating certain men for housing in a 
restricted form of general population purportedly for the men’s own 
safety violate the men’s due process rights.

At the same time the court will be considering the plaintiffs’ second 
motion to extend the settlement agreement, SB1064, a bill that would 
limit use of unreliable confidential information to deny parole to 
people in California is on the governor’s desk. The bill was championed 
by the family members of prisoners, advocates, and civil rights 
organizations. The Center for Constitutional Rights’ letter in support 
of SB1064 can be read here 
<https://ccrjustice.org/letter-california-assembly-committee-public-safety-support-sb1064>. 


Ashker v. Governor of California amended an earlier lawsuit filed by 
then-Pelican Bay SHU prisoners Todd Ashker and Danny Troxell 
representing themselves. Co-counsel in the case with the Center for 
Constitutional Rights are Legal Services for Prisoners with Children, 
California Prison Focus, Siegel & Yee, Weil Gotshal & Manges LLP, Bremer 
Law Group PLLC, Ellenberg & Hull, the Law Offices of Charles Carbone, 
and the Law Office of Matthew Strugar.

For more information, visit the Center for Constitutional Rights’ case 
page <https://ccrjustice.org/home/what-we-do/our-cases/ashker-v-brown>.

___________________________________________


      We condemn Gavin Newsom’s veto of SB1064

On Thursday, California Governor Gavin Newsom vetoed legislative bill 
SB1064, which was critical in advancing the right to due process for 
incarcerated people.

We _represent men who have been held for decades in solitary 
confinement_ 
<https://ccrjustice.org/civicrm/mailing/url?u=12957&qid=20571254> in 
California prisons, often on the basis of confidential information. 
Despite a landmark settlement agreement in 2015, intended to end 
indefinite solitary confinement throughout California prisons, we have 
uncovered extensive evidence that the California Department of 
Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) continues to use fabricated, 
exaggerated, or inaccurately disclosed confidential information to 
return men to solitary confinement.

SB1064 would have been an important step towards ending these abuses of 
confidential information. In light of Governor Newsom’s veto, it is 
paramount that the courts extend the monitoring period of the settlement 
agreement, provide specific remedies for ongoing violations of rights, 
and enforce the settlement agreement to finally end the abuse of 
confidential information to hold men in solitary confinement.

-- 
Freedom Archives 522 Valencia Street San Francisco, CA 94110 415 
863.9977 https://freedomarchives.org/
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