LA Times — The union that represents corrections officers at California prisons seeks to intervene in a federal lawsuit over how long the state may keep inmates locked up in solitary confinement.
A group of 10 inmates, each held a decade or longer in isolation at Pelican Bay State Prison near the Oregon border, contend that the practice of indefinite solitude is cruel and inhuman and violates their constitutional rights. A federal judge is hearing their request to turn the case into a class action.
The California Correctional Peace Officers Assn. this week asked the judge to include it as a party in the lawsuit. The guards union contends that decisions on who is put into Pelican Bay's Security Housing Unit, and how long they are kept there are a matter of security that affects the safety of union members throughout the state prison system.
Prisoners argue that the state uses secret evidence to determine who is a member of a prison gang and therefore must be put in isolation, and that long stretches of such confinement cause severe psychological harm. They urge limits on how long prisoners can be kept under such conditions.
That "eviscerates" the process of deciding whether an inmate presents a security threat, the union argues. Limiting isolation "jeopardizes the security of the institution and CCPOA's membership," and would "lead to increased violence throughout prisons in California," the union stated in its federal court filing this week.
The CCPOA represents nearly 27,400 correctional employees.
In protest of solitary confinement conditions, inmate leaders in Pelican Bay's isolation unit are calling for a statewide hunger strike to begin in two weeks. U.S. District Chief Judge Claudia Wilken in Oakland is currently requiring settlement negotiations between some of those same Pelican Bay inmates and corrections officials over the solitary confinement lawsuit. Wilken has set an August hearing for the class-action motion.
4 comments:
Why would our union ask to be in a lawsuit? Makes no sense. So they can lose some more money? Is it just me or are they getting dumber everyday?
Why don't they focus on lawsuits that benefit the membership? Oh, that's right they quit doing that a while back.
As for the prisoners at Pelican Bay, you earned your quarters. Now shut up and lye in the bed you made.
The focus on what benefits the membership has been lost a long time ago, it went out the door with Novey when he retired. Need proof of that particular fact, just observe the conditions we are currently working under.
What is suppose to be the ratio between officers and inmates in the housing units and the actual numbers as they are at this very moment? Where is that third officer for each of those units? We are above the magic number the bean counters brilliantly conjured up.
No worries though, as soon as something tragically happen to one of our members the support may then magically materialize. Oops my bad for thinking the numerous attacks on custody and other CDCR staff in the prisons across California, would be an alarm, a wake up call of sorts. Unfortunately for us, the top leaderships of both the CDCR and CCPOA just keep hitting their snooze buttons.
All in favor of dismantling our union and starting over from scratch say I. What do we have to lose to start over. We could start with the Teamsters. Just saying.
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I, seems the membership enjoy getting screwed by a union leadership lead around by the nose on the state's very very short leash!
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