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Corcoran Bad Apple Rehired

by W. Wisely

Bruce Farris, the former Corcoran State Prison associate warden fired for allowing guards to beat, kick, and stomp 36 black prisoners, was reinstated April 6, 1999, in a rare Personnel Board reversal of an earlier administrative judge's decision. Farris was fired after the busload of East Coast Crips, transferred from Calapatria, arrived at the notorious Security Housing Unit June 21, 1995.

Steve Rigg, the former Corcoran lieutenant who blew the whistle on staged fights between rival prisoners, illegal shootings, and official cover-ups to the FBI, has been forced to retire because the department failed to protect him or his family from harassment and threats by guards and prison officials. Senate Majority Leader Richard Polanco, D-Los Angeles, called it, "unbelievable" that Rigg remains in limbo while Farris has been rehired, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.

Farris was rehired as associate warden at High Desert State Prison in Susanville, California. His appointment is "very, very consistent with the department's thumbscrew mentality," Leroy Lounibos, Jr., one of Rigg's attorneys told the Chronicle "It is a mentality that grinds up the heroes and honors the scoundrels. It degrades and demoralizes the good people in the prison system."

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