Pelican Bay State Prison

Pelican Bay State Prison (PBSP)

Location	Del Norte County, California
Coordinates	41.855°N 124.15°W / 41.855; -124.15
Status	Operational
Security class	Supermax
Capacity	2,280
Population	3,461 (152%) (as of fy 2006/07)
Opened	1989
Managed by	California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation
Director	Eric Cardin, Warden (acting)

Pelican Bay State Prison (PBSP) is a supermax California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation state prison near Crescent City in unincorporated Del Norte County, California. The 275-acre (111 ha) facility is explicitly designed to keep California’s alleged “worst of the worst” prisoners in long-term solitary confinement.

Facilities

Pelican Bay opened in 1989. 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 and barren ground known as the Security Housing Unit (SHU). An electric fence surrounds the entire perimeter.

The 8 x 10 foot cells of the Pelican Bay SHU, or Secure Housing Unit, are made of smooth, poured concrete. They have no windows. Instead, there are fluorescent lights, which the inmates can control. For at least twenty-two hours every day, prisoners remain in their cells, looking out through a perforated steel door at a solid concrete wall. Food is delivered twice a day (breakfast, sack lunch, and dinner) through a slot in the cell door.

A guard in a central control booth controls these doors; he can press a button and allow one prisoner at a time to go out to a shower, or to his court-mandated five hours per week of outdoor exercise. This exercise takes place in a cement yard, often called a “dog run,” which extends the length of three cells, and has a roof partially open to the sky. The guard in the control booth is always armed; from his central vantage point in the control booth, he can shoot onto any one of six pods, each containing eight cells.

Controversies

Pelican Bay SHU

As of 2007, prisoners in the Pelican Bay SHU spent an average of just over two years in solitary confinement, before being released back into the general prison population, or onto parole. Prisoners have spent as long as eighteen years in the Pelican Bay SHU before being released back into the general prison population, or onto parole. While some prisoners have spent decades in the Pelican Bay SHU, most prisoners are eventually released. On average, sixteen prisoners per month are released directly from the Pelican Bay SHU onto parole in California. The majority of inmates housed within the SHU are validated prison gang members/associates. A validated prison gang member/associate will spend an average of six years in the SHU. However, inmates are afforded the opportunity to "debrief" and give a written account of their gang participation. If they are proven to be truthful and forthcoming they will be transferred to a different prison and allowed to "do their time" in a positive and productive manner. However, most inmates chose not to participate in the debrief process.

Psychological Impact

Prisoners, lawyers, and Prisoner advocates have argued that SHU confinement is cruel and unusual punishment, due to the severe conditions prisoners are forced to live in. Psychiatrists and psychologists have documented something they call “SHU syndrome,” which affects prisoners who spend more than a few months in isolation. The symptoms resemble those of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, including hallucinations, depression, anxiety, anger and suicide.

Contrary to progressive posts, there are very few inmates in solitary confinement. Prisoners are required to have a cell mate. Convicts who are in solitary confinement are usually there because they refuse a cell mate. There are however, a few in solitary because they are preditors and prey on other criminals. The SHU pods are actually a very social enviroment in that they can watch the same program,(most cells have 1 or 2 TVs) colectivly cheer when a goal is made, bet with each other, share food and whatever. When out of their cell, the felon will often stop at other cell fronts to socialize, exchange items etc.

Hunger Strikes

Pelican Bay SHU prisoners have organized hunger strikes in protest of the conditions they live in. In 2002, at least 60 SHU prisoners went on hunger strike.

As of July 1, 2011, a large number of prisoners in the SHU have been on hunger strike. According to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, "less than two dozen" were refusing food; however the Prisoner Hunger Strike Solidarity Coalition reported close to 100% participation in the SHU on the first day, with the strike spreading to Pelican Bay general population on the second. The Coalition also reported that the strike had spread to Corcoran and Folsom prisons, with over 100 prisoners participating in solidarity with the SHU prisoners' demands. The CDCR subsequently admitted that 6600 prisoners had refused food for the first days, and that even after five days over 2000 remained on strike. However, most inmates consumed food purchased from the canteen, others were refusing all food with the stated intention to strike indefinitely. In the words of SHU prisoner Mutop DuGuya, "No one wants to die. Yet under this current system of what amounts to intense torture, what choice do we have? If one is to die, it will be on our own terms."

Television and Film

In the fictional series Life, Detective Charlie Crews spends twelve years in Pelican Bay for a triple homicide he did not commit, forming the basis of the series' plot. In the 2001 film Training Day, Alonzo Harris, the character portrayed by Denzel Washington, tells everyone in one of the last scenes that they are going to "be playing basketball in Pelican Bay" if they mess with him. Pelican Bay is also referenced in two films directed by Michael Mann. In Heat, the psychopathic character Waingro, portrayed by Kevin Gage, admits to having spent time in "the SHU at Pelican Bay" during his most recent stint in prison. In Miami Vice, the characters of Crockett and Tubbs, portrayed by Colin Farrell and Jamie Foxx, are given fictitious criminal identities before they go undercover, which among other things imply that the two met while serving time in Pelican Bay.

External links

External images
	Photos

• Pelican Bay State Prison official website
• Pelican Bay Prison Project
• Christian Parenti article
• NPR: At Pelican Bay Prison, a Life in Solitary