California Prisoners Kept For Decades In Solitary Confinement

This article was first posted at Firedoglake.com, where there's a pretty good discussion in the comments section with different points of view on this.

Since this concerns California's prison system, I'm posting it here too.

Usually during this season I try to keep it quiet on this blog because it's a tough time for all involved, and the fewer outside nattering voices, maybe, the better. But this year I do plan to write a few pieces on the Peterson case, so, stay tuned. I feel I've been somewhat neglectful of this blog, being distracted by other stories and other obsessions -- but I have to say that I've met such interesting, thoughtful people through my studies of the Peterson case--and this will be high on my list of things to be thankful for this year. The kind of citizen activism with which independent people have scrutinized and written about this case makes me hopeful for the future in a way not many things have. There are some good discussions about the Peterson case on the Facebook site "Scott Peterson: Truth Be Told". A number of entries asks people to say what they think of the evidence, and people of all stripes weigh in, including the clever ones who say "yeah and I bet OJ is innocent too!" (rolls eyes) So check it out, because the conversations are ongoing.


Source: Solitarywatch.com's report on California's Assembly Hearing last summer on solitary confinement.

Scott Kernan of California's prison system says of 165,000 prisoners in CA, 3,000 of them are in solitary confinement.

He "repeatedly" stated, according to the article, that the average stay in solitary is 6.8 years.


"Harriet," the sister-in-law of a man in solitary for 25 years, asked at the hearing how he could possibly still be in a gang after all that time.

66-year-old Hugo Pinnell has been in solitary for 40 years, despite not having had a disciplinary write-up for 30 years.

Meanwhile, Three inmates who committed suicide in recent months had been kept in solitary confinement at Pelican Bay and Calipatria and participated in hunger strikes in protest.

Details about inmates’ deaths are hard to come by, and what little is known is in dispute because prison officials refuse to be forthcoming about the circumstances of the suicides, prisoner advocates say.

"As far as we understand, these three people were involved in the hunger strike, and as far as we understand, these three people are dead now,” said Isaac Ontiveros, a spokesperson for the Prison Solidarity Hunger Strike Coalition, a network of organizations that advocates for prisoners’ rights.

“The how and the why is a hard thing to say more about, and it’s become more and more devastating when there is such a lack of clear information from the [California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation].”

The fight for basic updates and information from the California Department of Corrections is nothing new for prisoner advocates and their loved ones. During the latest round of prisoner hunger strikes, prison officials disciplined those who participated in the strike by limiting inmates’ access to family members and advocates. Even in the wake of a series of suicides, distraught family members are being given very little information about what exactly happened with their loved ones.

Family members were informed of their loved ones’ deaths via automated recordings left on their voicemails, Ontiveros said, and those who have tried to reach out to the CDCR for more information have been rebuffed.



And....

The CDCR did not respond to repeated requests for comment, though their spokesperson Terry Thornton disputed the prisoner advocates’ story in an interview with SF Weekly.



On the FDL post, "Booradley" commented:

See Matthew 25:31-45 about “prisoners.” It reaches across 2,000 years with great accuracy.

The Sheep and the Goats

31 “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his glorious throne. 32 All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. 33 He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.
34 “Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. 35 For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, 36 I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, ‘I WAS IN PRISON AND YOU CAME TO VISIT ME.’

37 “Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? 38 When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? 39 When did we see you sick or in PRISON and go to visit you?’

40 “The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’

41 “Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. 42 For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, 43 I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in PRISON and you did not look after me.’

44 “They also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in PRISON, and did not help you?’

45 “He will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’