 Aerial view of Pelican Bay State Prison. Pelican Bay State Prison is a California State Prison that houses some of California's most dangerous inmates. It is located in the northwestern part of the state near Crescent City, Del Norte County on 275 acres (1.1 km²). (Geographic coordinates: 41°51.3′N 124°9′W.) Image File history File links Pelicanbay. ...
Image File history File links Pelicanbay. ...
The following is a list of state prisons in California. ...
Crescent City is the county seat, and the only incorporated city, of Del Norte County, California, USA. It is named after the crescent-shaped stretch of sandy beach south of the city. ...
Del Norte County is Californias northwesternmost county, located on the Pacific coast south of Oregon. ...
Organization Pelican Bay opened in 1989 principally to house the growing population of maximum-security and high-security risk inmates in the California prison system. The facility is sited in a remote forested area 11 miles from the California-Oregon state line and far from California's major metropolitan areas, 370 miles north of San Francisco and more than 750 miles north of Los Angeles. Originally designed to house 2,550 prisoners, as of 2006, Pelican Bay houses 3,301 prisoners, nearly all of which are classified as "Level IV" maximum-security.
Pelican Bay's grounds and operations are physically divided. Half of the prison holds Level IV prisoners in a "general population" environment with outside exercise courts. The other half of the prison contains Pelican Bay's best-known feature: an X-shaped cluster of white buildings set apart by electrified fencing and barren ground known as the Security Housing Unit, or SHU. This is a supermax-type control-unit facility where prisoners identified as gang members; prisoners with a history of violence, crimes or serious rules violations within prison; and other prisoners presenting serious management concerns are incarcerated. The Pelican Bay SHU was one of the first such facilities in modern American history explicitly planned and built as a control-unit facility. SHU inmates are held in isolation, 23 hours per day in their undecorated cell and one hour alone in a small indoor excercise yard. Radios and TVs are allowed. Supermax is the name used to describe control-unit prisons, the most secure prisons in the prison systems of the United States and other countries. ...
Supermax is the name used to describe control-unit prisons or units within prisons, representing the most secure and austere levels of custody in the prison systems of the United States and other countries. ...
The outside operations of several prison gangs, such as Nuestra Familia and Aryan Brotherhood, are directed via secret communications from within Pelican Bay's SHU.[1] A prison gang is an unofficial term used to denote any type of gang activity in prisons and correctional facilities. ...
The Norteños (Spanish for northerners), also called Nuestra Familia (Our Family), are a coalition of Hispanic gangs in North America, based in northern California. ...
The Aryan Brotherhood, or AB, is a predominantly Caucasian (White) gang that originated in Californias San Quentin State Prison in 1967. ...
Criticisms and incidents Prisoner advocates have argued that SHU imprisonment is cruel and unusual punishment, due to the lack of stimulation, activity and natural light given to these prisoners. Psychiatrists have identified a psychiatric condition known as SHU Syndrome, similar to Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and that includes especially serious depression. The statement that the government shall not inflict cruel and unusual punishment for crimes is found in the English Bill of Rights signed in 1689 by William of Orange and Queen Mary II who were then the joint rulers of England following the Glorious Revolution of 1688. ...
Criticism has also been raised regarding the procedures used to classify prisoners as gang members or affiliates, who are subject to indefinite assignment to the SHU solely on the basis of an informant’s word. Since the only way out of SHU is to “debrief” – i.e. to become an informant – the word of such a person is subject to doubt.
Vaughn Dortch case Torture was a charge from early in the prison’s history. In April 1992, prisoner Vaughn Dortch who had suffered mental delusions and had been confined to the Violent Control Unit of the SHU, was ordered to bathe after having smeared himself with fecal matter. When he refused, prison guards forced him into a tub with hot water, resulting in third-degree burns to the lower parts of his body. He filed suit and the case was settled, resulting in a payment of $997,000 to Dortch. The settlement was ordered confidential by the presiding federal judge, but it was widely publicized by a 60 Minutes TV show on February 27, 1994.[2] The lead prison nurse later testified about this case in Madrid v. Gomez. Sixty Minutes was also the replacement for the BBC current affairs programme Nationwide. ...
Madrid v. Gomez A massive class-action lawsuit, Madrid v. Gomez, was filed on behalf of some 3,600 Pelican Bay prisoners in 1993, alleging various rights violations and mistreatments. The federal district court judge Thelton Henderson found in January 1995 that prisoners had been subjected to excessive violence, cruel and unusual punishment, and substandard medical care; he ruled that mentally ill inmates could no longer be confined in the SHU and he appointed a special master to oversee the conditions at the prison.[3] The statement that the government shall not inflict cruel and unusual punishment for crimes is found in the English Bill of Rights signed in 1689 by William of Orange and Queen Mary II who were then the joint rulers of England following the Glorious Revolution of 1688. ...
Later, Judge Thelton Henderson took health care out of the hands of the California Department of Corrections and placed it under Federal authority.
Riots On February 23, 2000, a fight involving some 200 inmates broke out among rivaling black and latino gangs in the excercise yard. Guards eventually used shotguns to stop the riot, killing one and injuring 15 inmates. The riot lasted for some 30 minutes. Nineteen inmates suffered stabbing or beating wounds; about 50 prison-made weapons were recovered.[4] A prison riot is a riot that occurs in a prison, usually when those incarcerated rebel openly against prison guards. ...
References - ^ Inside Pelican Bay, The Press Democrat, 22 April 2001
- ^ Former Inmate at Pelican Bay Wins Judgment Against State. The San Francisco Chronicle, 1 March 1994
- ^ "Department of Corrections, Inmate Legal and Medical Issues", California Legislative Analyst's Office, 22 February 1995
- ^ Guards Kill Prisoner In Brawl at Pelican Bay, The San Francisco Chronicle, 24 February 2000
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The San Francisco Chronicle, the self-described Voice of the West, is Northern Californias largest newspaper. ...
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