Powell
Guru
Joined: 27 Nov 2004
{Posts: 2460 }
|
 Posted: Fri 21 Jan 2005 20:17 Post subject: Government practices racial segregation in prisons |
 |
|
Needless to say, the prison system does not recognize "mixed race." No wonder the Anglo multiracial white or white mulatto Leo Felton became a white supremacist in prison. It may have been a survival strategy at the time. Note here that "Hispanic" is a "race" in the prison system. In California, it means brown-skinned Mexico mestizo. If you're a Latino inmate who doesn't fit that description, you're out of luck.
_________________________________________
| Quote: | http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2005/01/17/EDGSMAQBAM1.DTL
On Prison Reform
Segregation prospers in the unlikeliest of places
- Gloria Romero
Monday, January 17, 2005
Today, we commemorate the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr., who worked tirelessly to make this a greater nation by ending racial segregation in America. Even as we celebrate, our nation's highest court is deliberating a case originating from the California Department of Corrections, which seeks to end the practice of blanket racial segregation in housing inmates in reception centers, which is where they are housed when they first arrive at prison.
The petitioner is Garrison Johnson, a black inmate, who in his 15 years in
prison has witnessed the state routinely housing inmates with members of
their own race at least for an initial 90 days of incarceration. Department
of Corrections officials contend this is a temporary management practice
designed to quell interracial violence among inmates due to race-based
prison gangs. The department has practiced such for almost three decades without ever adopting it as official department policy.
The state Department of Corrections argues that California is ground zero
for race-based prison gangs. Undoubtedly, these exist. But their practice is
directed not to the gang aspect of it, but to race. The notion that one can
determine a violent propensity by race alone is simply irrational and
contrary to existing evidence.
In fact, Johnson is not a gang member. There is no record of his having ever had an incident of interracial violence. Johnson argues that the routine practice of denying interracial housing has "...effectively erected whites only, blacks only, Hispanics only signs over the portals of the California prison system, and it is a practice ... rooted in racial stereotype ... that all persons of a race think alike and act alike".
President Bush's Department of Justice and the Federal Bureau of Prisons
join Johnson in seeking an end to California's race-based practice. They
note that every other state in the nation, including the federal prison
system, prohibits racial discrimination in inmate housing.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger should immediately abandon his administration's defense of the Department of Corrections' segregationist policy and move California's prisons into the era of integration begun half a century ago with Brown vs. Board of Education.
Remedies exist to assist prison managers in doing this. Yet California
applied this practice more than 350,000 times last year -- not just to the
40,000 new prisoners entering California's prisons, but to all 72,000
returning parolees and hundreds of thousands of transfer prisoners.
Indeed, evidence demonstrates that integrating inmates reduces all forms of prison violence. A study of Texas prisons revealed that only 5 percent of all incidents of violence involved racial motivations; of these, only 1.2
percent were interracial violence. The Department of Corrections has been unable to identify a single incident of interracial violence between
cellmates.
Furthermore, if we don't want inmates to join race-based prison gangs,
aren't we shooting ourselves in the foot by automatically limiting their
choice of a roommate to only members of their own race? Isn't the department signaling to inmates that race prevails in our prisons, and integrated contact and friendship is discouraged? Isn't there a danger that a new inmate is more likely to be subjected to the pressure to join a gang if they are segregated to begin with?
California's prison system is already oversaturated with race, resulting in
race influencing all daily prison operations. For example, inmate lockdown
occur if a member of their race commits an infraction. Following a lockdown, inmates only receive visitation on certain days if they are of a specific race, and exercise privilege are scheduled by race. These practices affect all inmates.
Even as the Department of Corrections seeks to "break" gangs, their own
practices perpetuate a race-based culture and the formidability of
race-based gangs. Because the department has racialized prisons, inmates like Johnson have actually been put in peril by being prevented from crossing prison racial lines.
Race has a role in inmate management when used functionally and wisely. But this "unwritten" department policy holds no merit and must end. Failure to do so perpetuates an era of segregation we thought had long ago ended.
Johnson's closing to the U.S. Supreme Court argued that "this court's
history has demonstrated a commitment to march the country away from the road of segregation, and there should be no turning back."
Whatever the court ultimately decides, the California Department of
Corrections' policy is outdated segregationism and anti-American to its very core. We should reject this remaining vestige of a shameful piece of our history.
-------------------
Hearing scheduled
Sen. Romero will hold a hearing on segregation in California prisons in
early February. Those with questions or information should call the her
office in Sacramento at (916) 445-1418.
Sen. Gloria Romero, D- Los Angeles, is the Senate majority leader. |
+++
| Quote: | http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/breaking_news/10684244.htm
Report: Prison guards claim racial segregation rampant
Associated Press
RIVERSIDE, Calif. - Prison guards say state officials lied to the U.S.
Supreme Court about racial segregation in California's prisons and the
extent to which race is used to set prison policies, The Press-Enterprise of
Riverside reported Wednesday.
The accusations stem from arguments presented last November before the high court. In a lawsuit against the state, black inmate Garrison S. Johnson, who is serving 35 years for murder, claimed his 14th Amendment right to equal protection under the law was violated by the prison system's racial
segregation policies.
One correctional officer filed a whistleblower complaint in December with
the state auditor challenging the testimony by state officials, The
Press-Enterprise reported.
The officer claimed Attorney General Bill Lockyer and officials with the
California Department of Corrections lied about the extent race is used to
set prison policies.
Other correctional officers and inmates corroborated his claim.
California Senior Assistant Attorney General Frances T. Grunder told the
high court that racial segregation is limited to "reception center" housing
of inmates during their first 60 days at a prison. They are initially
segregated to determine their propensity for racial violence, lawyers told
the court.
Attorney General Bill Lockyer said that beyond the reception centers, prison
inmates are fully integrated.
"All other aspects of an inmate's life in prison both while at the reception
center and afterward are managed without reference to his race or that of
his fellow inmates," Lockyer said in a court brief. "There is no distinction
based on race for jobs, meals, yard and recreational time, or vocational and educational assignments."
Inmates and correctional officers, however, told the newspaper that
segregation is rampant.
"It's all about segregation. It's all we do," said Charles Hughes, a
lieutenant at California State Prison in Lancaster. "We segregate
permanently and use race for job placement and everything, and for them to say otherwise is an absolute lie. And for them to lie to the Supreme Court is appalling.
"There is no way I'd put a white and a black together," Hughes said. "I'd be putting my job on the line if I did that."
Five other correctional officers, all presidents of their prisons' union
chapters, also said that, with few exceptions, inmates are assigned
cellmates and dorm-room bunkmates by race.
Inmates and prison officials said racial segregation is essentially demanded by the inmates, who are ruled by prison gang leaders and divided along racial lines.
Johnson's attorney, Bert H. Deixler, said racial segregation has abandoned the inmates to the control of the prison gangs.
"This unexamined, routine practice effectively erected whites-only,
blacks-only, Hispanics-only signs over the portals of the California prison
system, and it is a practice which is rooted in racial stereotype and the
belief that all persons of a race think alike and act alike," Deixler told
the court.
Though race is used as one of the factors to assign inmates to their
permanent cells, the policy does not amount to segregation, said Nathan
Barankin, a spokesman for the state attorney general's office. He said it
was not segregation because housing policies allow inmates to ask to live
with an inmate of their choice.
The U.S. Supreme Court case is Johnson v. California, 03-636. |
|
|
'
FAQ
Search
Register
Log in
