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Lockdown at Pelican Bay State Prison

By Jeralyn, Section Inmates and Prisons
Posted on Sun Feb 13, 2005 at 11:35:59 AM EST
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Pelican Bay prison in California has been on lockdown since Feb. 4 due to an alleged inmate plot by to kill guards.

Pelican Bay is a nightmare of a prison. Inmate conditions are deplorable.

"The 1,154 unit inmates spend about 23 hours a day in 8-by-10-foot cells, released only to exercise daily and to shower three times a week. Contact with other inmates and guards is almost nonexistent. The doors are opened by remote control and meals are pushed through slots in the wall."

The overly influential prison guard's union plays a big role in the prison's crisis, like when it sanctioned whistle-blowing guards for reporting assaults on inmates.

The San Francisco Chronicle has details of the guards' clout, including this one:

They were the sole opponents of legislation in 1999 that would have given the attorney general more power to prosecute prison guards accused of wrong- doing. The bill was killed in an Assembly committee.

So long as corruption and brutality rule California prisons like Pelican Bay, the public can expect violent inmate reaction in response. The Special Housing Unit of Pelican makes mental cases of its inmates. Many of these inmates will be released one day, and they will be angrier and less stable to cope when they get out. The public will just have to deal with them. Or, it can insist the state change its ways and institute meaningful reforms inside its prisons.

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