Gov. Brown’s plans to reduce prison overcrowding ignore early release

by Mutawally Joka Kambon/Cooperwood

The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR), Gov. Jerry Brown and CDCR Secretary Jeffrey Beard have once again failed in their attempt to make California state prisons the main housing program as its solution to the prison overcrowding situation. The U.S. Supreme Court has rejected the governor’s appeal and left in place an earlier ruling by a panel of three federal judges which requires Gov. Brown to reduce the state prison population to 137.5 percent, also to improve the prison medical and mental health treatment system.

Mutawally-Joka-Kambon-Cooperwood-100512-1st-pic-in-20-yrs-web, Gov. Brown’s plans to reduce prison overcrowding ignore early release, Abolition Now! Gov. Brown’s reaction to the rejection was to announce that he would reduce the state prison overcrowding by 1) leasing county jail space in local areas, 2) obtain contracts with private prison operators and 3) send prisoners in California prisons to out-of-state facilities. These three approaches, he said, will allow the CDCR to avoid early release for the nearly 10,000 inmates.

It’s imperative that we as a state prison class come together, rebuff and counter all the inadequacies of Gov. Jerry Brown’s plan to reduce overcrowding in the state prisons. Leasing county jail space, private prison contracts and sending the prisoners to out-of-state facilities is not a solution to overcrowded prisons nor will it improve California prison medical and mental health treatment. The governor’s plan could only serve as a continuance of the conditions which violate the inmates’ constitutional rights against cruel and unusual punishment and prolonged isolation inside of the state prisons.

Over the last decade CDCR has spent billions of taxpayers’ dollars on new medical and mental health facilities! Yet the health care system remains in disarray, confusion and in need of an overhaul of its entire structure.

The changes which the CDCR agreed to make as a result of the Madrid v. Gomez and Coleman v. Wilson class action suits in regards to both medical and mental health care was a deliberate failure. The court subsequently ruled that the state prisons violate the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment and, as a result, were not providing and safeguarding minimum medical and health care to its prisoners. The state had intentionally subjected its prisoners to unwarranted torture.

Leasing county jail space, private prison contracts and sending the prisoners to out-of-state facilities is not a solution to overcrowded prisons nor will it improve California prison medical and mental health treatment.

Gov. Jerry Brown entered into an agreement with the largest private prison operator in the United States, the Corrections Corporation of America, to rent a federal detention facility that holds 2,304 inmates at a price of $28.5 million a year. The CCA prison operator will pay the first $10 million for upgrading a section for California high security prisoners. After that the California taxpayers are paying the bills.

The court ruled that the state prisons violate the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment and, as a result, were not providing and safeguarding minimum medical and health care to its prisoners. The state had intentionally subjected its prisoners to unwarranted torture.

The special panel of three federal judges ruled that CDCR will have to RELEASE tens of thousands of inmates to relieve overcrowding. As we can see, Gov. Brown’s plans have absolutely nothing to do with releasing prisoners but instead herds Afrikans, Hispanics and our White brothers deeper into these concentration camps that are located in far distance countrysides. This plan opposes the reducing of prison overcrowding and contributes to the depopulation of our neighborhoods and cities.

Build to win.

Send our brother some love and light: Mutawally Joka Kambon/Cooperwood, C-46411, PBSP SHU, D1-214, P.O. Box 7500, Crescent City, CA 95532.