Tag: California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR)

George Orwell’s book titled “1984” was about a police state that controlled every aspect of life, including thinking, enforced by the “Thought Police.” This book comes to mind when I hear of the new Step Down Program CDCR is implementing. Its components are not new. California has had and still has programs like this in juvenile facilities as an attempt – which is often successful – to reprogram the youth’s mind to become controlled and subservient to the police state. Submit your comments on the Security Threat Group/Step Down Program regulations by 5 p.m. on April 3 to m_STGRegulation@cdcr.ca.gov by email or 916-324-6075 by fax.

Some activists inside the SHUs have said that the ultimate goal was to bring about a shift in public opinion, and that once public consciousness had gotten to the point where the general public in California knew that solitary confinement was torture and had to stop, the balance of power would finally tip. I believe that we are gathering momentum and approaching that time!

Our resolve remains as strong as ever, and we continue to press forward. No one should receive a sentence from a court and then have those responsible for carrying out that sentence exact revenge and arbitrary punishments at their whim. This is the reality that 30,000 men and women lent their collective voice to opposing.

California’s use of indefinite solitary confinement and the devastating physical, mental and public health impacts of the notorious practice was at the center of today’s three hour hearing by a rare joint session of the California Senate and Assembly Public Safety Committees to address demands made by prisoners during this summer’s massive hunger strike, the largest in U.S. history.

Efforts over the past month to discuss or mediate the prisoner’s concerns with the CDCR have not resulted in any changes in policy and we are therefore now writing to request that you urgently consider conducting an on-site visit to one or more California prisons, including Pelican Bay State Prison (PBSP) to interview prisoners (now on the 38th day of their hunger strike) and prison officials.

Here at Corcoran State Prison, 4B1L Short Corridor on July 11, 2013, at approximately 11 a.m., Sgt. Vogel and two of his COs (correctional officers) entered the Short Corridor with a list of names of guys from all racial groups and went door to door informing them that they were moving immediately – no ifs, ands or buts – willingly or by force!

When the prison system transformed into the Prison Industrial Slave Complex (PISC), it became a profit-making industry and, as a profit-making industry, profit becomes the bottom line. In the PISC the poor underclass is the primary commodity that fuels its profitability, while the poor New Afrikan (Black) man and woman are its prime choice.

The Eighth Amendment prohibits cruel and unusual punishment, which is torture, which is us prisoners being held in solitary confinement indefinitely, without ever breaking a prison rule or state or federal law, anywhere from 10 to 40 years, under conditions of sensory deprivation, isolation, etc., etc. The fact that solitary confinement is torture is recognized by the U.N. – but not by the U.S., yet.

The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation issued new rules in this October 2012 memorandum that profoundly affect the wellbeing of California's 133,000 prisoners. Although these rules are already being implemented and have the force of law, the 125-page memorandum has not been made available online to the public. Therefore, the Bay View is posting it here for easy reference when reading stories commenting on the new program.

Arbitrary and indefinite solitary confinement is an absolute assault on humankind and a barbarity the likes of which cannot be tolerated. We hold the utmost respect for those prisoners who from the depths of Solitary Confinement throughout California risked their lives to be heard. We heard them and now we ask that you do the same.

Is your mail to or from a friend or loved one in prison being intercepted? The data gathered from this survey questionnaire will be utilized as material evidence in an ongoing case aimed at obtaining a permanent injunction in court. At your earliest convenience, please answer the questions and mail in your completed survey questionnaires.

We are illegally being held in the SHU and Ad-Seg while being subjected to sensory deprivation, both physical and psychological torture, inadequate health care and isolation. PBSP and CDCR officials are refusing to comply with CDCR official policy. It is necessary we prisoners get more involved with our destiny.

We oppose CDCR’s policies and practices relating to our subjection to decades of “status”-based, indefinite isolation; this includes our opposition to CDCR’s proposed policy changes, entitled “Security Threat Group Prevention, Identification, and Management Strategy.” We would appreciate your supportive intervention on this issue.

On the one year anniversary of the end of their hunger strikes and the agreements struck with CDCR, prisoners in the Security Housing Unit (SHU) of Pelican Bay State Prison in Crescent City, California, sent an open letter to Gov. Jerry Brown expressing frustration at changes that have failed to materialize.

Adisa (Steve Champion) is doing very well. He is in a strong mindset and very dedicated to his goal. Today he weighs around 76 kilos (167 pounds), having gone down already within nine days from around 99 kilos (218 pounds). He wants us to keep putting pressure on the warden and the CDCR.

Gualberto Lopez and German Cabrera, both in the Administrative Segregation Unit (ASU) at Calipatria State Prison as "alleged associates of a prison gang," write about the inhumane, torturous treatment in segregation, Institutional Gang Investigators and the corrupt validation process, as well as the targeting of Mexicans/Latinos/Hispanics.

It’s hard to believe that prison authorities’ refusal to treat Juan Jaimes’ broken back is not yet another instance of retaliation against him for being a petitioner in the Corcoran hunger strike last December and January. He's in urgent need of legal help.

SHU prisoners have been subjected to years of prolonged segregation. CDCR's method of releasing gang segregation prisoners back to the general population via the new Security Threat Group policy is going to replace the six-year inactive policy, but in name only.

Black August provides New Afrikan (Black) people with a confidence that we can fulfill our historical obligations and win our ideological and political objectives, inspiring us to wrest control of our own destiny from the hands of our historical oppressors and tormentors.

The prison industrial complex (PIC) is a “corporation” whose objective is to profit. In California alone they pay up to $20,000 more per solitary confinement unit than for a general population unit. This keeps officers working, which is why they become willing pawns who have an interest in oppressing prisoners.