Pelican Bay State Prison
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| Pelican Bay State Prison (PBSP) | |
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| Location: | Del Norte County, California |
| Coordinates: | 41°51.3′N 124°9′W / 41.855°N 124.15°WCoordinates: 41°51.3′N 124°9′W / 41.855°N 124.15°W |
| Status: | Operational |
| Capacity: | 3,461 as of FY 2006/2007 |
| Opened: | 1989 |
| Managed by: | California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation |
| Director: | Robert Horel, Warden |
Pelican Bay State Prison is a California State Prison that houses some of California's most dangerous inmates.
The prison is a "supermax" facility located in the northwestern part of the state near Crescent City, Del Norte County, on 275 acres (1.1 km²).
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[edit] 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. It is 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 whom 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 considered major management threats 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 22.5 hours per day in their undecorated cell and one hour alone in a small indoor exercise yard. Radios and TVs are allowed.
The outside operations of several prison gangs, such as the Mexican Mafia, Nuestra Familia, the Black Guerrilla Family, the Aryan Brotherhood, and the Nazi Lowriders are directed via secret communications from within Pelican Bay's SHU.[1]
[edit] Criticisms and incidents
Prisoner advocates have argued that SHU confinement is cruel and unusual punishment, due to the lack of stimulation, activity and natural light given to these inmates. Psychiatrists have identified a psychiatric condition known as SHU Syndrome, similar to post-traumatic stress disorder, symptoms of which include severe depression.
[edit] 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 burns[citation needed] 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.
[edit] 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 cases of mistreatment. 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, John Hagar to oversee the conditions at the prison.[3]
[edit] Riots
On February 23, 2000, a fight involving about 200 inmates broke out among rivaling black and Southern Mexican gangs in the exercise yard. Guards eventually used Mini-14 rifles, firing rubber bullets, to stop the riot. This did not control the situation and eventually, the guards chose to use real ammunition, killing one and injuring 15 inmates. The riot lasted for about 30 minutes; 19 inmates suffered stabbing or beating wounds. About 90 prison-made weapons were confiscated.[4]
[edit] In popular culture
In the 1995 crime-drama film Heat, the character Waingro (played by Kevin Gage) is looking for a score and tells a bartender that besides being housed at Folsom State Prison's B-Wing, he also was at the SHU in Pelican Bay. In the film Training Day, Denzel Washington's character, Detective Alonzo Harris, mentions Pelican Bay close to the end of the film: "You'll be playing basketball in Pelican Bay when I get finished with you. SHU program ... 23-hour lockdown."
[edit] See also
- California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation
- California Correctional Peace Officers Association
- Johnson v. California, , 543 U.S. 499 (2005)
[edit] 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
