Lockdown-rules change for prisoners OKd
A federal judge approved a statewide agreement between California prison officials and inmates’ advocates Thursday prohibiting the prisons from locking down prisoners — confining them to their cells, and denying access to exercise and other programs — based on their race.
A lawsuit filed in 2011 accused the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation of violating constitutional prohibitions on racial discrimination and arbitrary race-based lock downs after incidents or threats of violence. The practice had been going on for a decade and was used hundreds of times a year, said attorney Rebekah Evenson of the nonprofit Prison Law Office.
“They were using race as a proxy for gang membership,” Evenson said Thursday. “It was official policy of the department,” and a policy that no other state used, she said.
The department agreed to the settlement in October 2014, and it gained final approval Thursday from U.S. District Judge Troy Nunley in Sacramento.
The agreement requires the department to consider only an inmate’s behavior, including gang membership, and not race or ethnicity in imposing and lifting lock downs.
If a lock down lasts more than 14 days, the settlement requires the prison warden to allow affected inmates some access to exercise yards.
The prison system started observing the 14-day limit last year, and since then, “the length of lock downs has dramatically decreased,” Evenson said. She said lock downs formerly were kept in place for months or even years in California prisons.
“I think this is a tremendous step forward and is long past due,” the attorney said.
The settlement also requires the state to pay the inmates’ attorneys $2.375 million for their costs of bringing the suit.
Terry Thornton, a spokeswoman for the corrections department, said the department began implementing the terms of the proposed settlement more than a year ago.
“Now that it has been approved, we believe that these changes are creating a more efficient and sustainable system,” she said.