It sure doesn’t look like Charlie Manson and his fellow inmates at Pelican Bay have been victimized by inhumane treatment.
Of course, sometimes prison tours can be misleading. I remember when California prison inmates were fed steaks whenever the governor or other VIPs came for a visit. The next day it would be back to regular prison chow. But, in this case I think the tour was for real.
PRISON TOUR COUNTERS CHARGES OF POOR CONDITIONS
By Don Thompson
Associated Press
August 17, 2011
SACRAMENTO -- California prison officials tried to counter inmates' allegations of inhumane living conditions by opening a highly secure unit at Pelican Bay State Prison to reporters Wednesday, days before a legislative hearing into conditions there.
More than 6,000 inmates refused state-issued meals at 13 of the state's 33 adult prisons during a three-week hunger strike that originated at the maximum security prison in Crescent City and peaked over the July 4 weekend. They were protesting the windowless and soundproofed cells where violent inmates and gang leaders are sometimes isolated for 22 1/2 hours a day.
"At Pelican Bay, the hunger strike elicited a lot of misinformation," said corrections spokesman Oscar Hidalgo. "We wanted reporters to see the Secure Housing Unit firsthand. They were able to talk to inmates candidly. They were able to see the true conditions that these inmates live in and hopefully will be able to describe them in an accurate way."
An Associated Press photographer was among those attending, along with about a dozen radio, television and print reporters.
Many of the inmates on the tour were housed in pairs in cells stocked with televisions and books. The cells had doors perforated with dozens of tiny holes, instead of standard prison bars, to make it more difficult for inmates to pass items from one to another.
In one area, two inmates in neighboring cells played virtual chess, calling out their moves to one another.
Inmates do have contact with other prisoners, staff and visitors, including spending more than an hour each day in exercise yards, Hidalgo said. They have 23 cable television channels, reading
materials, access to a law library and learning materials, and can correspond with family and friends.
Conditions are "far from what we think is torturous," Hidalgo said, though some violent inmates and purported gang leaders are kept physically separated.
Three of the state's prisons have such units, housing about 3,800 of the state's 161,500 inmates.
Inmates sent to the unit "have essentially earned their way," Hidalgo said. "They have numerous assaults on inmates, they have numerous assaults on staff, they have to be isolated for their protection and for the protection of other inmates. These are predatory-type inmates, and we need to ensure they are not harmful to others."
Wednesday's tour at the remote Del Norte County prison in far northwestern California came less than a week before an Assembly Public Safety Committee hearing Tuesday on conditions in the isolation units, strike leaders' gang ties and other issues that led to the strike and its resolution. To end the strike, prison officials said they made several changes that were already being considered, including letting inmates have picture wall calendars and winter caps and reviewing how they manage gangs.
"You just can't put lipstick on a pig, no matter how you try," said Assemblyman Tom Ammiano, the committee's chairman. "It's not so much should it be isolated or not. It's what the conditions are."
The San Francisco Democrat said the reports and personal testimony he has seen seem to support critics' assertions that conditions are "inhumane" and more harmful than prison officials admit. He said he could propose legislation after the hearing to require better conditions there.
In March, a federal judge in San Francisco ended a long-running inmate lawsuit that stemmed from conditions and abuse by Pelican Bay corrections officers. U.S. District Judge Thelton Henderson wrote then that he was "proud" that the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation had taken steps to reform a prison that "was once a place where prison officials used force `for the very purpose of inflicting punishment and pain.'"
Hidalgo said the department will try to use next week's hearing to show that isolation units are needed to control some of the prison system's worst inmates.
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