SF Bappa
Surveillance footage of SHU exercise yard
Inmates in the SHU (pronounced “shoe”) can be there as punishment for commititng a crime while in prison, and are serving a fixed term in the SHU. Others– 1,084 of Pelican Bay’s 1,107 SHU inmates–have been identified as prison gang members and are in the SHU indefinitely. For them, there’s one way out: “debriefing” to prison authorities–meaning identifying another inmate as a gang member.
An editorial in the Bakersfield Californian has a non-traditional take on the debate over closing California’s youth prison system, the Division of Juvenile Justice. In an era where the governor and Republican members of the legislature are in deadlock over budget cuts and tax hikes (with Governor Jerry Brown even threatening to cut services in Republican districts, so they can see what small government feels like), the paper, which is located in Kern County, makes an interesting point:
We love to talk about how we’re overtaxed and overgoverned, and how self-reliance is an underappreciated characteristic in both individuals and societies. Evidence for the merits of those arguments is abundant enough.
Not when it comes to juvenile justice, however. In fact, as a recent snapshot reveals, Kern County is on the state government dole like few others.
Gov. Jerry Brown’s proposed realignment of the state’s juvenile prison system, which attempted to reduce state spending by shifting the burden of incarcerating and treating violent youthful offenders to county-run programs, has shed light on harsh disparities among counties. Some counties fund their juvenile justice systems almost completely; others rely tremendously on the state.
“What’s the leading thing we can do to stop crime?” is the question administrators at Illinois’ Sheridan Correctional Center asked themselves when they were given license to reopen a closed prison with a new mission. Administrators decided that two things could keep inmates from returning to prison: getting them off drugs, and giving them access to education. This PBS piece followed inmates for three years as they spent time in Sheridan, which is the largest prison dedicated fully to those serving time on drug-related crimes. Continue reading
When Shelly Montgomery, a program manager at the Corrections Standards Authority (CSA) was put in charge of drawing up regulations for correctional officers’ hearing tests, she visited prisons all over the state to first determine the answer to a fundamental question: how loud are prisons?
Via Prison Culture, an interesting window into the growing field of law enforcement training, this is an ad for the annual “mock prison riot” put on in part by the National Institute of Justice. It allows active and retired law enforcement to participate in a simulated prison riot, and test out the latest available equipment and techniques in a semi-realistic environment.
This year’s conference is in May at the defunct Civil-War era West Virginia State Penitentiary in Moundsville. Not many reports of previous events are available–they’re closed to the general public–save this article by a US News and World Report reporter who played a rioting inmate at the 2004 event. His takeaways? A fairly unimpressive set of “hokey dokey” technology; a couple of bruises incurred in fighting; and a quote from a fellow mock inmate who happens to be the local director of medical emergency services. “‘I’m pretty much a lady,” she told the reporter, “‘and I would never flip someone off in real life, but it felt kind of good to break over to the other side.’”
The Los Angeles Times today points out why inmates in California’s prisons will continue to get their hands on cell phones for years to come. The article comes in the wake of news that the notorious Charles Manson–who’s locked up in Corcoran State Prison–was recently found with a contraband cell phone for the second time. According to the Times, this problem comes down to contracts and money:
“Prison employees, roughly half of whom are unionized guards, are the main source of smuggled phones that inmates use to run drugs and other crimes, according to legislative analysts who examined the problem last year. Unlike visitors, staff can enter the facilities without passing through metal detectors.
While union officials’ stated position is that they do not necessarily oppose searches, they point to a clause in their contract that requires corrections officers to be paid for “walk time” – the minutes it takes them to get from the parking lot to their posts behind prison walls.
Putting metal detectors along the route, with an airport-like regimen involving removal of steel-toed boots and equipment-laden belts, could double the walk time, adding several million dollars to officers’ collective pay each year, according to a 2008 Senate analysis.”
The California Correctional Peace Officers Association denies that correctional officers are the main source of contraband cell phones. A proposed bill would slap a $5,000 fine on people caught sneaking in phones and would extend prison time for inmates caught using them. Another proposal floating around that would jam cell phone signals around prisons would require a rules change by the FCC.
The new face of prison reform?
On Friday, an op-ed appeared in the Washington Post about the need for reducing the number of people in prison nationwide–hardly a radical idea, but one not whole-heartedly embraced by our nation:
“There is an urgent need to address the astronomical growth in the prison population, with its huge costs in dollars and lost human potential. We spent $68 billion in 2010 on corrections – 300 percent more than 25 years ago. The prison population is growing 13 times faster than the general population. These facts should trouble every American.
Our prisons might be worth the current cost if the recidivism rate were not so high, but, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, half of the prisoners released this year are expected to be back in prison within three years. If our prison policies are failing half of the time, and we know that there are more humane, effective alternatives, it is time to fundamentally rethink how we treat and rehabilitate our prisoners.”
Via Prison Culture, the blog Just Seeds is spending the month looking at books about prisons–and specifically, comparing how the books’ covers play into certain mentalities. To start, the blog (which does a regular feature called, “Judging books by their covers”) takes on books about the 1971 Attica prison riot. Attica was a four-day inmate takeover protesting prison conditions, which ended in the deaths of 29 inmates and 10 hostages by police gunfire, as well as four others killed during the riot. Covered by national media, the riot and subsequent carnage had a lasting impact on the public’s view of prisons and prisoners. Certainly not everyone left with the same take-away from the event, and the books that came out following the riot, Just Seeds points out, reflect different interpretations of what happened. Or at least, their covers do. The books to the far left and far right reflect a more sensationalized approach, meant to shock. The center book covers, text heavy, are variously powerful and a little reminiscent of a certain 1970s sci-fi film by George Lucas. Check out the full post, it’s pretty interesting.
Maybe it’s just the books I’m reading right now, but they seem heavy on the prison wall/fence/bars barriers motif:
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