On Friday, September 27, 1996, rioting broke out among more than 200 black and Latino prisoners in New Folsom's B Facility. The violence lasted some 31 minutes with fighting on the yard, in the medical clinic, and in prison industries. Guards fired over 30 rounds from assault rifles and gas ...
California Governor Pete Wilson issued an executive order banning face to face media interviews with prisoners. The ban comes at a time when most civil rights for the state's 142,000 prisoners have been taken and violence is on the rise in the world's largest prison system. At the obligatory public ...
by W. Wisely
On October 7, 1994, former California prison guard Richard Caruso decided he had enough. The frequent shooting of prisoners forced into fights staged, then covered up, by guards at Corcoran prison's Security Housing Unit (SHU) weighed on his conscience. So, Caruso gathered evidence of the abuse and ...
By all accounts, the three strikes sentencing law in California is a failure according to criminal justice experts. They point out that three strikes is applied more often than not to people of color, that it hasn't reduced crime, that it's overwhelming the court system and bankrupting the state treasury. ...
by W. Wisely
On April 1, 1996, the California Department of Corrections began the first phase of its "180/270" transfer plan for Level IV prisoners. All prisoners housed in Level IV prisons have been classified for retention in either a "180" or "270" degree design facility. The initial wave of ...
Imagine a half-billion dollar manufacturing company that uses slave labor, has little overhead, ignores state and federal laws regulating workplace safety, includes hazardous materials in the construction of its products, forces customers to buy those products under penalty of law, yet loses money. Now, imagine that this company is protected ...
Hundreds of family members, loved ones, friends, and advocates converged on the California Department of Corrections headquarters April 27, 1995, to express their support for family ties and opposition to a proposed administrative regulation which would eliminate family visits for a large segment of the prison population. Speakers, including volunteers ...
As the campaign of hatred against people in prison reaches a frenzied crescendo in this era of reactionary politics, several draconian measure were passed by California legislators in the 1994 session vying with each other for the title, "Toughest On Crime."
A version of the so-called "Three Strikes" law swiftly ...
In the seemingly unending clamor for revenge against people in prison and those accused of committing a crime, a particularly vulnerable, unchampioned, group remain overlooked. Casualties of America's "War On Crime," a growing number of people have lost their lives to the unchecked discretion of judges, prosecutors, and police, and ...
