I can't speak for the conditions of the nation's prisons; only for
those I was in. Each one was its own little house of horrors. The
smell, noise and fear that permeates from these holes of inhumanity
still linger in my system after two and a half years of freedom.
All those holier-than-thou people who pass every single crime
bill should take note of what I say: It only takes three
drunk-driving arrests in a six-month period and you're right in the
mix with your worst nightmare. But then, if you have money, (like)
Jim Mitchell, Charles Keating or O.J., don't worry; our prisons are
just for those poor folk who can't afford proper defense.
Vacaville State Prison was my first stop. In the summer of 1984,
the temperature at midnight was 80 degrees. My cellmate and I were
both on heat-sensitive medications, and with the daytime temps at
110, the cell temperature was nearly 120. Four years later three men
died in the same cell block under the same conditions. Cruel and
unusual?
August of the same year in Vacaville, two men were fighting
without weapons. The guard in the tower decided to blow one of the
inmates' heads off. End of fight. I still had 13 years and 10 months
ahead of me. Cruel and unusual?
Next stop, San Luis Obispo. Late one night I heard a soft
pounding down the tier. An inmate was in severe pain. The guard on
duty said that if they called the ambulance, the inmate would be
charged $125. The next morning, my friend went to check on him. He
was dead. Cause of death -- a ruptured appendix. Cruel and unusual?
On to the eyesore of Marin -- San Quentin. The general conditions
and overall programs at this joint were and still are atrocious.
Inmates are forced to stand for an hour in horrible wind nightly to
eat dinner. The two-bunk cells are so poorly designed that a locker
covers a quarter of the bed on the top bunk. I finally decided to
sleep on the floor, where at least I could stretch out.
The suicides at San Quentin are amazing. I never knew doing time
would subject me to watching guys do swan dives off the fifth tier.
One guy ripped his jugular out with a can opener. How about the
inmate who was shot to death while dangling from the fence? They
left his body there for four hours as a lesson to us all.
But the most cruel and unusual punishment is delivered by the
Board of Prison Terms. I believe that the worst case of cruelty
happened last year to my old cellmate, Eddy Z. Eddie was told by a
parole panel of three men that he was suitable for parole. They told
him as soon as his papers were filed through Sacramento he would be
freed. He celebrated the good news and was gleefully anticipating
his return to his family after 15 years when the governor decided to
invoke a new law and rescind his parole. It was like unstrapping a
guy from the electric chair and then, minutes later, shooting him.
It is very sick what has happened to our society. I know plenty
of beasts that wander the prison halls and no, they should never get
out. But people can change. I really believe that. I did.
No name please -- still on parole.
NAME WITHHELD
I was convicted for possession of stolen mail material and
dealing in a controlled substance (Xanax). I served time in both
state and federal institutions, including several hellish county
jails. In several jails we were forced to sleep in shifts to keep
the cockroaches from crawling in our mouths. Jails are crammed, it
is miserable, and the noise and 24- hour lighting is enough to drive
you mad. I was in intake for three weeks. Intake is a big wing of
tiny rooms with no bathroom, and you and another person are in a
7-by-5-foot space. You spend 22 hours a day in this room, only going
out for meals and showers at 5 a.m.
At the Federal Medical Center in Lexington, Ky., we had a six-day
water outage where 300 women had to use the same stinking toilet
because they would only wash the waste down when it got full. There
were over 2,500 women at the facility during this outage, so you can
imagine the stench.
I also witnessed extreme acts of violence. I saw a woman have her
throat cut from ear to ear over a 25-cent cup of instant coffee.
I have been out of prison since 1994. I still have nightmares. I
am terribly afraid of the dark. I can't stand any amount of noise. I
do most of my business like shopping and such during the night
because I can't stand crowds of people. I am going to school and
consider myself extremely lucky to be going somewhere in my life. I
was only 21 when I went to jail. I am 29 now and know that I could
never go back.
P. L. HORAK
Bloomington, Ind.
A month and a half after my 20th (birthday), I was arrested on a
charge of conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine and use of a
firearm. I'm going on my sixth year in prison. I'm thousands of
miles away from my family and every time I ask to move closer, I get
the same old line: ``It's too crowded.'' It's not like I'm not aware
of that; I live with the overcrowding every day.
Another shame of prison life is lack of rehabilitation. Education
has been practically eliminated, and except for the menial jobs that
you perform, like food service and groundskeeping, there isn't a
chance for a man to learn a viable trade anymore. With the mandatory
sentences that are being handed out, many people are doing long
sentences, and by the time they get out, they will be unprepared to
obtain gainful employment, which is a major reason recidivism is so
high.
Those who are fortunate enough to have loved ones left on the
outside that will help ease the transition will have a better chance
than those who don't.
Society needs to think toward the future. Lawmakers have not
thought of the consequences of these long sentences. They have
pacified the various self-serving associations such as prosecutors
and correctional and law enforcement political action committees.
The public sector needs to take a good long look at these laws and
how they will affect us and our children's children.
RICHARD DANIEL PERRINE
Federal Correctional Institution,
Greenville, Ill.
I just finished three years of parole after three years of prison
for growing pot. I spent time in prisons in Ecuador, Miami, San Luis
Obispo, Wasco State Prison and Avenal State Prison. Soladad State
Prison is where I paroled from. I feel I am in a very good position
to tell you about the California prison system.
I am by no means a strong liberal -- I believe that if you hurt
someone, you have to pay the price. The problem with the system
today is that we are locking up kids for minor drug crimes in the
name of profit for the prison system. Maybe I deserved to be in
prison, as I was growing over $3 million worth of pot, but to see
the kids in there for minor drug crimes is a crime in itself. Lock
up violent criminals -- and believe me, I saw plenty -- but over 60
percent of the people inside are just kids, and we are just making
them anti-society, anti-good.
Someday we will wake up and understand that locking up drug
offenders was so off-base. We as a people will end up paying a dear
price for our terrible mistakes. We need to open our eyes and
realize that, yes, there is a need for prisons, but the nonviolent
drug offenders need to be dealt with in a different way than the
violent element.
STEPHEN P. BOHRER
San Luis Obispo
In 1965 I was sentenced to Angola for sales of simulated
narcotics for 61/4 years with no parole eligibility. The first week
I was there, I was beat up by the prison guards and dragged to the
``hole,'' where I and thousands of other men were fed only two thin
slices of bread and water per day. I spent 30 days one time.
The worst of it all, things like this happen right here in the
USA. I hate our penal system, and I am glad there are people who
want to change things.
I have three sons, and now I worry that maybe one day, one of my
boys will be tortured like I was. I bet my poor mom really suffered,
seeing her only son lose so much weight. Often when she would come
visit me, I would be all beat up and mom would just sit there and
cry like a little baby.
WILLIAM RHODES
New Orleans, La.
Two appointees of ex-Governors Deukmejian and Wilson declared (in
reply to this San Quentin prisoner's demand for restoration of
winter clothing) that the balmy weather caused by global warming
ended any need for warmer clothes once considered necessary at the
bayside prison.
Prisoners are marched outdoors and back in underwear in
sub-freezing wind and rain. Others shiver in thin, one-ply denim as
30-degree wind blasts them, awaiting entry to the chow hall or
canteen.
No staff venture out into this weather without many layers of
winter clothing.
The only thing balmy about this fiasco is the neo-Nazi mind-set
of the prison-jail industrial complex, where semi literate guards
commonly make $60,000 a year, while teachers make half that.
DOUGLAS CLARK
San Quentin
The California Department of Corrections loses, delays or blocks
inmates that appeal cruel or indifferent conditions. We're not all
complaining of broken cookies or chunky peanut butter. We're talking
humane issues -- medical care, programs to occupy our time for some
benefit to society, or even the decency to be able to shower every
day.
JOEL BROWN
High Desert State Prison,
Susanville
There are many avenues to safeguard some federal prisoners
against physical abuse, although many prisoners, women especially,
are subjected to overt sexual harassment. However, there are very,
very few safeguards in place against emotional abuse, which can be
equally devastating to one's general well-being. This is especially
true in the case of inmates who demonstrate any intellect at a level
over plant life.
The one hope many inmates have inside those confines is being
able to reach out to a fellow inmate who has the education and
knowledge to help them out. But those of us who exercise the
initiative and do that are subjected to much harassment from the
administration, which is threatened by someone who can actually wade
through B.S. written in policy and then use it to exact some real
prison justice. But caveat emptor: Don't you dare show you have a
brain cell. When those in charge of the system use your children and
sick parents as leverage to silence you and keep you under their
``mind control,'' I'd say that constitutes a blatant example of
cruel and unusual punishment.
SANDRA SHOCK
New Port Richey, Fla.
For the people who are criminals, taking into full consideration
these last 1,000 years of prison and penology, conditions are not
too awful. No lions versus prisoners, no whips, daily beatings,
manacles on the walls, only a few isolated beatings and deaths.
Let's be frank: How well should rapists, robbers and killers be
treated?
There is a situation today that is cruel and unusual, however,
and that is Security Housing Unit prisons, such as Pelican Bay. It's
the ``treatment'' of the person while s/he's there that I don't
condone.
The corruption caused by the drug laws of this nation have
created the mess in which we find ourselves today. The more correct
question would have been: ``How will the legalization and regulation
(of drugs) either by government or by natural free market controls
improve the cruel and unusual conditions found in our prisons and
jails today?''
ROBERT JAMES RILEY
Federal Correctional Institution,
Lompoc
At the time of this writing, I am in the hole/Security Housing
Unit because I wrote an article regarding the High Desert State
Prison uprising on Nov. 22, 1999. Because of that article I was
assaulted. I was found ``outside'' in a secure perimeter,
unconscious with two black eyes, a broken nose, two cut lips,
hematomas on my face and head, and my front teeth are due to come
out any day.
When I requested that photos be taken of my injuries, I was
denied. When I requested to have X-rays taken of my ribs and to have
my lip sutured, I was denied again. The next day, when I was told
that I would be placed in the hole pending an investigation, I
requested once more that the Investigative Services Unit take
photos, as they should in conducting any real investigation. I was
denied that request.
At one point, I thought I had a seizure, as I do suffer seizures.
However, the prison guards and officials were happy to tell me that
I was assaulted. No suspects were discovered. They informed me that
they will try to find out why I was assaulted. They believe that the
African Americans are upset with me. I have been in prison for seven
years and the only blacks that are upset with me are the ones that
work for them.
L. J. GUILLORY
High Desert State Prison,
Susanville
I had a stroke in March 1999, and I was placed here in the
treatment center. At that time I could not do anything for myself. I
would lay in bed, wet, dirty and unbathed. The staff did very little
for me. The only help I could rely on was a porter (janitor) who
helped me. She would keep my room clean, as well as my body. She
also would get me out of bed so I did not just lay there all the
time. This porter is not a staff member; she is an inmate like I am.
The staff here would bring me food that I could not eat because I
could not cut it or open the packages.
There's so many women here who won't stand up for fear of losing
their ``out'' date, but for myself, I have no date and even if I
did, right is right and wrong is wrong.
SALLY WHITHAM
Central California Women's Facility,
Chowchilla
As an ex-convict still on parole for marijuana trafficking,
having served time in four states in 25 different institutions or
facilities, just being locked up is ``cruel and unusual
punishment.'' If you haven't been to prison, you won't understand --
everyone should go to prison once.
Prisoners are not different from anyone else, except a little
more broken than most. It is OK to incarcerate, but while you have
the ``menace'' contained, please help heal the brokenness with the
time available.
Treatment is a workable option for punishment. Ask me. I finally
received treatment in my last stay and it honestly changed my life
from the inside out.
While you're considering life-positive ideas, think about
changing the war against drugs. The blatant hypocrisy is poison to
our society.
Remember that if how we handle our people isn't working, change.
If that doesn't work, change again.
We consider ourselves an advanced society. Perhaps technically we
are, but socially, humanely, we are as primitive and ignorant as a
caveman.
JON FRANKLIN
La Honda
