Demands from the San Quentin State Prison Adjustment Center June 10, 2013

Growing movement!
Demands from the San Quentin State Prison Adjustment
Center June 10, 2013
http://sfbayview.com/2013/demands-from-the-san-quentin-state-prison-adjustment-center/

Open letter to the Director of CDCR, the Warden of San Quentin Prison and
the Captain of the Adjustment Center

San Quentin top officials have concocted and enacted an exclusive code of
regulations called the IP 608 Condemned Manual, which mandates that Death
Row prisoners are under the control of the warden of San Quentin Prison.
Therefore, after years of the abuse of authority by Adjustment Center (A/C)
committee members and unit staff and after years of filing 602S that fall
on deaf ears here in the A/C, all the way up the chain of command to
Sacramento, a collective group of Death Row prisoners in the A/C will be
joining in the statewide non-violent, peaceful hunger strike in July 2013
to demand that the warden of San Quentin use his power of authority to
bring about positive change to prisoners housed in the A/C SHU.

For years, Grade B A/C prisoners have been told Grade B is not a
punishment; it's just a program? different from Grade A. So the warden
should be able to use his power of authority to order the following
immediate changes without delay:

1. The warden should immediately implement a behavior based program
that amends the current criteria that permit a condemned prisoner to be
eligible for Grade A privileges and be removed from the punitive punishment
of Grade B status, basing this program on a condemned prisoner's current
good behavior and disciplinary free conduct regardless of a prisoner's
alleged gang status or validation and eliminating the under-the-table and
vague indeterminate status in the A/C. The warden must order the immediate
release of A/C prisoners who are not validated as alleged gang members and
associates and have remained disciplinary free for years.
2. The warden must order the A/C committee to stop the controversial and
unfair classification practices of using illegal inmate informants and
anonymous informants and the so-called roster list of names to label
prisoners gang members and associates and to stop the illegal and vague
mandatory debriefing and vague validation process. San Quentin officials
must put in place a set of standards and safeguards to protect a prisoner's
right to be free from cruel and unusual punishment
- Any information used in A/C committee decisions must be first-hand
information and must be corroborated by three different independent sources:
- A/C committee must state on the record why such information is
indicative of gang activity and state on the record what California laws
are being broken;
- Any information used against a prisoner must be provided to the
prisoner and all copies of documents, such as 1030s and 128s, and
debriefing reports placed in a prisoner's C-file must be immediately
disclosed to the prisoner so he will have ample time and opportunity to
contest and challenge any allegations in writing through administrative
602s and legal redress to confront his accuser or confidential source.
3. The warden must (a) order the end of the administrative segregation
of condemned prisoners to segregated yards that have been designed to label
a condemned prisoner unjustly, (b) order an end to the constant use of
bogus confidential inmate informants and bogus 1030 disclosure forms to
deny A/C prisoners access to Grade A status and access to the A/C group
yards, and (c) order that all four group yards in the A/C be labeled
re-integrated yard 1, 2, 3 and 4 and remove the racist yard labels of
Southern/White and Northern/Black that A/C staff and committee have used
for decades to instigate racial division and segregation among prisoners of
different races who would like to program and co-exist on a group yard
together. Every A/C prisoner should be given group yard unless the prisoner
chooses to stay in a walk-alone cage. The warden must order that all
walk-alone cages have roof coverings like the cages in East Block and
Carson Sections, and add a dip bar in each cage for exercise.
4. The warden should cease all group punishment tactics. Group
punishments and lockdowns were designed for large-scale riots, not for
alleged isolated incidents. The warden should cease the unlawful use of the
interview/interrogation process and never allow the vicious attack and
assault on prisoners by A/C staff just because a prisoner invokes his Fifth
Amendment right to remain silent and refuses to answer questions during an
interview/interrogation. This illegal policy of forced interrogations makes
no sense because if staff utilize chemical agents on a prisoner, which have
proven to be lethal, and attack him and then drag the prisoner into an
interview/interrogation room, he will say, I have nothing to say, and
take the Fifth. Or the prisoner might give a statement based on his fear
and the fact he was brutally attacked, in which case the information would
be deemed given under duress and torture, therefore unreliable. So the
use of violence on prisoners, particularly on prisoners of color, is just
an excuse and a blatant act of the worst kind of torture and racially
motivated retaliation. Also, the administration should cease passing out
interview questionnaires to prisoners after an alleged isolated incident
because the informants read these questionnaires and re-word them and use
them as first-hand information when the informants did not get the
information from a prisoner but directly from a prison official. Simply
put, these forms describing the incident are only done so rat inmates can
exploit these incidents for gain by giving staff bogus and false statements
to be used on 1030 disclosure forms and be rewarded by obtaining Grade A
and other privileges and favors.
5. The warden should order the end to the degrading policy of stripping
out A/C prisoners outside during yard recall, violating Title 15, Section
3287(4)(8), which partly states that all such inspections shall be
conducted in a professional manner which avoids embarrassment or indignity
to the inmate. Whenever possible, unclothed body inspections of inmates
shall be conducted outside the view of others. Stripping out in the cold
and rain is inhumane, and its time for this policy to stop. The warden
should allow A/C prisoners to wear tennis shoes or state shoes on all
escorts, especially in the rain, to visits and medical escorts, and put an
end to the shower shoes only policy and allow A/C prisoners to be fully
dressed in state blues when going to the law library.
6. The warden should order that the third watch sergeant return the
scheduling of A/C prisoners for SHU law library to the SHU law librarian
clerk and start utilizing all available SHU law holding cells so Death Row
prisoners can do important research at least three to four times a month. A
lot of prisoners are being denied access to SHU law library on a regular
basis. The third watch sergeant should be ordered by the warden to end the
practice of putting dinner food on paper trays to sit on the bed in the
cell while prisoners are at law library as this practice is unsanitary and
eating cold food is unhealthy.
7. The warden should order the end of excessive use of property
restrictions. No other CDCR prison in the state of California uses property
restriction as a punishment and its only done in extreme cases. Title 15
mandates no longer than 90 days. The excessive use of property restriction
punishment in the A/C is based on nothing more than A/C committee members
abuse of power and authority and is never based on a prisoner's behavior.
8. The warden of San Quentin should use the power of his authority to
expand A/C Grade B privileges for prisoners housed in the A/C through no
fault of their own and who have remained disciplinary free for years.
- Allow contact visits with family, friends and attorneys, or allow
2-hour non-contact visits in Booths A-l, A-2 and A-3 in the
visiting room.
- Allow two phone calls per month.
- Allow hobby and educational programs for the A/C.
- Allow more educational channels like the Discovery Channel, the
History Channel and National Geographic.
- Allow $110.00 canteen draw a month.
- Allow four food packages a year or two food packages and two
nutritional packages of vitamin supplements and protein meal supplements
from approved vendors.
- Allow A/C prisoners to participate in the food charity drives.
- Allow 10-book limit in cell, not to include any legal or religious
books.
- Allow A/C prisoners to purchase white boxer underwear, T-shirts,
socks and thermals from approved vendors at least four times a year (each
quarter).
- Allow clear headphones, non-clear earbuds and headphone extension
for TVs and radios or leave speakers connected in TVs and radios.
- Order the return of exercise equipment on the group yards, return
the basketball court and the pull up bars, and add dip bars and
a table and provide group yard activity items such as basketballs, handballs, board
games and cards.
9. The warden should order that all medical chronos issued and approved
by the chief medical doctor be honored and order all A/C staff not to
interfere with the medical needs of prisoners. Custody staff should have no
say-so in medical needs of prisoners. If the medical needs of a prisoner
cannot be met in the A/C, then the prisoner should be housed in a unit
where his medical needs can be accommodated. The A/C unit staff must not be
permitted to impose unjust punishments upon prisoners who have a proven
need for medical appliances. When it is deemed medically imperative for
modified cuffs, staff puts the prisoner on leg restraints claiming safety
and security, when in fact it is an attempt to discourage prisoners from
seeking medical appliances by punishing them with unnecessary, painful,
degrading and excessive mechanical restraints.
10. Order the Institutional Gang Investigation (IGI) unit to stop the
harassment of interfering with A/C prisoners mail. Incoming mail has been
denied and held by IGI under the excuse of promoting gang activity with
no further explanation of exactly what constitutes promoting gang
activity! Many times incoming mail takes anywhere from 20 to 40 days from
the postmarked date on the letter to reach prisoners in the A/C. Legal mail
has been taking far too long to reach A/C prisoners, and it should be
passed out with regular mail call at 3 p.m. so that prisoners can have
plenty of time to respond to their attorneys by the 9 p.m. mail pick-up.

All of these issues are fair and reasonable and create no serious threats
to the safety and security of the A/C but can only create a more positive
and productive environment in the A/C for prisoners who have been put in a
punishment situation with no disciplinary write-ups for years. We ask that
the warden of San Quentin and the captain of the A/C look into these issues
as soon as possible.

Thank you.

Main A/C Representatives: Smokey Fuiava, E-35592, 2AC56; Richard Penunuri,
T-06637, 3AC55; Billy Johnson, F-35047, 2AC51; Todd Givens, V-42482, 3AC52;
Marco Antonio Topete, AK-7990, 1AC12; Cuitlatuac Rivera, T-35975, 2AC67

Body of Representatives: Bobby Lopez, K-76100,1AC16; Reynaldo Ayala,
E-10000, 2AC59; James Trujeque, K-76701, 3AC13; Mike Lamb, G-30969, 2AC1;
Hector Ayala, E-38703, 3AC4; Marty Drews, C-88058, 3AC2