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FBI Investigates CA's Use of Prisoners As 'Peacekeepers'

By TChris, Section Inmates and Prisons
Posted on Sun Jan 22, 2006 at 11:32:24 AM EST
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by TChris

In the nation’s worst prisons, daily life is governed by inmates, not by correctional authorities. The strong survive and control; the weak submit or perish. And some prison guards are happy with a system that allows them to use inmates as “enforcers” who maintain order in a chaotic environment.

While California law prohibits inmates from having “control over” one another, California's corrections chief, Roderick Hickman, endorses the practice of enlisting favored inmates as “peacekeepers.” Hickman says “peacekeepers” play a useful role in a prison: they can pass messages throughout the prison, and they’re helpful informants. Of course, criminal informants can rarely be trusted to tell the truth, and it's strange to trust inmate “peacekeepers” to keep the peace in a lawful way.

Critics worry that the freedom accorded peacekeepers lets them run drugs, order inmate assaults and commit other crimes. Now the practice has come under scrutiny following two California slayings in which high-ranking gang members serving as peacemakers are alleged to have played a role. ...

Last January, a peacekeeper who had been released from his cell to mediate following a race riot stabbed a guard to death in Chino, said Brett Morgan, chief deputy for the prison system's inspector general.

Just weeks before, a peacekeeper at a Sacramento-area prison ordered an assault that ended with a guard killing an inmate, according to confidential Corrections Department reports obtained by The Associated Press.

The FBI is investigating both killings to determine whether the “peacekeeper” status of inmates contributed to the deaths. California shouldn’t wait for the results of that investigation. It should put an immediate end to the unofficial practice of using inmates to control the behavior of other inmates.

"Reputable corrections people agree it is a very bad idea for prisoners to have influence over others," said David Fathi, a lawyer with the American Civil Liberties Union's National Prison Project.

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    FBI Investigates CA's Use of Prisoners As 'Peacekeepers' | 4 comments (4 topical)
    Re: FBI Investigates CA's Use of Prisoners As 'Pea (none / 0) (#1)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sun Jan 22, 2006 at 01:34:43 PM EST
    Prisons are nasty nasty places.That the meek and the mild, the violent and the non-violent, the psychotic and the sane are all incarcerated in the one melting pot is a recipe for injustice and suffering. When a government pursues jail time as a first option in confronting societies poblems, the result is what is seen today, over crowding and violence and volatile situations. I have little need to expand on this, particularly here at TL. Harsh and strict regimes that were the norm in Victorian times gradualy died out to be replaced by a more humane concept. That gave way to the correct ideoligy that it was the DEPREDATION of FREEDOM that became the punishment. And it should still be that this depradation is the sole punishement. To those that would say, "He/she only received a year, two, five, ten,Before making such statements try a MONTH in such conditions as are described above. Don't ever think it can't happen to you, particularly those of you that you live in the US. Misscarriges of justice happen, and happen far far more than they should. But innocent or guilty, no one should be banged up in conditions where daily survival is the parramount concern of inmates. I will leave you with a few words of my namesake, that poor gentle man, sentenced to two years hard labour, and it was hard, spent in total silence. The sentence was his death, he died shortly after his release, in exile and disgrace. His crime, he loved a man. To digress but briefly, if among you are serious readers, might I suggest "De Profundis" written in gaol, I use the English spelling out of respect for Wilde. Perhaps only two hundred pages it is a letter to his lover, "Bosey" the young Lord Alfred. It is Wildes account of his downfall. The conditions of its writing give hint of Wildes literary brilliance. He was allowed only one sheet of paper at a time, yet after his death this work was published with very little correction. All that we know who lie in gaol Is that the walls are strong; And each day is like a year, A year who's days are long. The vilest deeds like poison-weeds Bloom well in prison-air; It is only what is good in man That wastes and withers there: Pale anguish keeps the heavy gate And the warder was despair. (Oscar Wilde. 1854-1900) "The Ballad of Reading Goal" Thank you for reading.

    Re: FBI Investigates CA's Use of Prisoners As 'Pea (none / 0) (#2)
    by aw on Sun Jan 22, 2006 at 04:36:04 PM EST
    Oscar: Thank you for telling.

    Re: FBI Investigates CA's Use of Prisoners As 'Pea (none / 0) (#3)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sun Jan 22, 2006 at 10:10:42 PM EST
    "oh, come on", we don't have murder and rape and mass torture in our great and fun loving prison system or do we? why don't?, "our great government", just send in the taliban? Bush help to boys on that side for 20 years so he can now just send some to our great state prison's and maybe some day the boys in washington can send some of the " peacekeeper", to your town to help?..good god what a insane country!

    Re: FBI Investigates CA's Use of Prisoners As 'Pea (none / 0) (#4)
    by kdog on Mon Jan 23, 2006 at 06:14:36 PM EST
    and they're helpful informants
    Then they won't be keeping much peace.

    FBI Investigates CA's Use of Prisoners As 'Peacekeepers' | 4 comments (4 topical)