|
Racial Segregation in CDC
|
February 22, 2005 - CDC made the headlines again - this time on CNN's International News website*. Monday they reported a story about the 60-day reception period of segregation that is policy at California's state institutions.
It should be no surprise that the front-runner and most vocal politician that is pushing for a new segregation policy is Gloria Romero, California Senate majority leader - who often speaks out against the prison system and correctional union. "There are 49 other states in the nation that do not segregate on the basis of race," Romero said in a hearing held on the issue in early February. "To me, we should have integration as a policy… race should not be the deciding factor in running a prison."
CNN adds "drama" to the issue with its lead-in statement in attempts to paint quite a picture for its readers on life in the California prison system. It states: "In one of the darkest corners of California, a state that prides itself on its liberal values, official racial segregation lives on, impacting hundreds of thousands of prison inmates."
The Governor's legal affairs secretary Peter Siggins was quoted, defending the current 60-day policy. "When someone comes to a prison and there is little or nothing known about them because of the various gang and affiliation issues we have had in California," he explained. "That's a shorthand way to know you're not going to have a problem in a reception center." He went on to tell Reuters staff that CDC segregates prisons "more by gang than by race" and was quick to point out that with Latino prisoners especially, you have to "be careful about northerners and southerners and housing them together."
The US Supreme Court has heard the case of prison segregation back in November and will be issuing a ruling on this later in 2005. In 2003 the US 9th Circuit Court of Appeals reviewed the issue previously and backed the existing policy, attributing their support to already high race-base tensions and violence existing within CDC.
Roderick Hickman, secretary of CYA Correctional Agency told reporters that prisons reflect a racially divided America. He said, "To have an expectation that the prison environment was going to stop people from associating with members of their own group - hey, I'd be asking for a Nobel Peace Prize if you'd get that done." He pointed out that in schools and in other areas of American communities people are naturally divided into their own groups. He added, "I think it's a big task to say that we're going to do something more in the prisons than people are doing in their own communities."
Fortunately the article was fairly well-rounded, attributing quotes to prison experts that have noted that prison gangs exert pressure to self-segregate - a fact that anyone who has spent a day on a yard will agree with. Other experts interviewed said that by solving problems such as over-crowding and improving current programs - racial issues and violence would be reduced.
However, Romero disagrees with the experts and says that initial "forced segregation" encourages later self-segregation. "You're seeing to an extent the outcome of what happens because the message from the very beginning, from day one when an inmate arrives is 'You're black, you go there," she told reporters in an interview.
No disrespect Ms. Romero - but if inmates were that easily "trained" to follow rules on their own after a mere 60-day training period - life in prison for all, officers and prisoners alike, would be a completely different situation that we are faced with today.
* Source: www.cnn.com - CNN International
|
|
