Interview with a person, P, on Feb 24, 2021.
P has been working at California Department of Corrections (CDC) for past 10 years in various locations throughout California.
What is the “real” purpose of facility? Remove people from society. Not so much of rehabilitation.
Then, why is the facility named “correctional”? Just to make it sound better.
Who is in charge of each facility? Prison Captain.
Do each facility have different management styles? Yes, mainly depends on Prison Captain. There are better facilities, which provide rich information/knowledge to prisoners to rehabilitate.
Are there a lot of fights between Gang members? Yes, especially in LA area. Bay Area is a lot better than LA area. Prison guards cannot control, and there are spots that camera cannot capture. Prisoners call it “block wall.”
What are Prison guards do? Who applies for Prison guards? Mostly people from army; police. And often time, they do not care as they just stay there for retirement. Normally the ratio is 1 guard to 50 or more prisoners. Therefore, they can’t take care of every fight that happens in Prison. Also, it’s difficult to babysit prisoners as they are all grownups.
Are inmates segregated by Race? Not really by race but mostly by Gang members. However, most gangs are formed by same race. Even if it’s same race, they will be segregated if it’s from different Gang. (E.g. Norteños and Sureños).
If California Law forces facilities to desegregate and mix prisoners, how will it work in the system? It depends on each prison. Each prison is managed by Captain. Captain can decide whatever he wants. And the problem is not really about desegregation.
Then what is the problem? Prisoners can be friends. However, when there are fights, members from opposite gang must fight. If they don’t, they will get punished by gang.
What about people who are not in Gangs? There are repercussions. “Green Light” on people in prison means these people are marked to be targeted by Gangs in prison. Usually, Child Molester and Dropout of Gang are marked with “Green Light.” Prison put these people in protective custodies for safety reasons.
After I had more conversation with P, I Just felt it’s not a single issue in Prison. It sounded like a society problem. Prison is just another reflection of the society as how we live. In California, we can estimate certain populations in certain areas, like Milpitas – Vietnamese; Fremont – Chinese; Saratoga – Caucasian; East Palo Alto – Latinx. Why are there any type of racial segregation in society? Is this something we can even resolve?
And Prison system is another big topic I think. When I look at the Map on CDCR for facility locations, a lot of them are located along with Highway 5, which is out of nowhere. In such an isolated place, it’s really hard to manage these places. It’s more like a little society ran by Prison captain. But again, will any citizens vote for relocation in their areas? I doubt anyone would do that.
In addition, rehabilitation programs in Prison system is another issue. P said Prison captain will allow different organization/churches to provide catalogs and classes to help prisoners but these programs are only selected by Captain not by prisoners themselves. Once people are in the Prison system, it’s a track, which is extremely difficult to derail. What kind of intervention can make people out of that track is one of the biggest problems. Again, it goes back the purpose of these facilities. Maybe it started with a good intention.