Desegregate
August 12, 2009
Calif. struggles to desegregate its prison inmates
The riot that ravaged a Southern California prison and injured 175 inmates began with a fight between black and Hispanic gang members, a stark reminder of the difficulty of race relations behind bars and the challenges of desegregating inmates.
In the nation's largest state prison system, black, Hispanic, Asian and white gangs generally don't mix. When they do, trouble typically follows.
"It isn't that everybody in the inmate population is against integration — they like their teeth," said David Miles, a 46-year-old black inmate at another prison, Sierra Conservation Center…
LINK - Google.com Associated Press
July 27, 2008
California to Begin Integrating Prisons for Men
Male prisoners in the nation's largest corrections system, long kept segregated by race in an effort to temper violence, will soon be sharing cells with inmates of other ethnicities.
A program aimed at integrating California's prisons for men will begin in coming weeks at two facilities and will be extended to the state's 28 other penitentiaries over the next year or so, officials said.
Segregating prison housing has long been the system's unwritten policy. But after an inmate's civil rights lawsuit went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, a mediated settlement led the state to reverse course despite many inmates' opposition…
LINK - WashingtonPost.com
July 23, 2008
Prisons to desegregate: Lode facilities first in state to comply with court mandate
Inmates and staff at two California prisons in the Mother Lode face the prospect of turmoil and possible violence this summer as they take the state lead in complying with a court-mandated effort to desegregate prison dormitory bunk assignments and prison cells.
"This is a big change for everybody," said Jerry Vasquez, 38, a member of the Fresno Bulldogs gang who is serving the final months of a nine-year robbery sentence in the minimum-security wing at Sierra Conservation Center. "Everyone's used to living with their own race."
Sierra Conservation Center and Mule Creek State Prison in Ione are the first two California prisons scheduled to end the practice of assigning cellmates and bunkmates by race or ethnicity. The change was scheduled to begin July 1 but has been delayed due to the need to hold discussions with a number of prison employee unions, including the California Correctional Police Officers Association, said Terry Thornton, a spokeswoman at corrections headquarters in Sacramento….
LINK - RecordNet.com
