An Insider's View of Chino Prison

Around the turn of this century, I became one of those gay men whose recreational meth use turned occupational, as I turned to dealing to support my habit. After a novel's worth of drama (including successfully forging my own death certificate), I ended up being sentenced to 16 months in prison. With "half-time" I served nine and a half months, including four months at the California Institute for Men at Chino -- the very prison torn apart by rioting last weekend.

Chino is considered by inmates as one of the "armpits" of the California prison system, old and "shot-out," built on old cow pasture that wakes you up every morning with the smell of years-old manure wafting with the morning dew. As unpleasant as it was to be there, I did realize it was also an opportunity to observe a world few with my education and background ever see, and observe I did. I was even able to share my experiences in real time when my sister offered to start a blog for me, daily typing up the entries I sent her.

The overcrowding at Chino was such that I was first placed in a disciplinary unit with an Aryan supremacist doing extra time for making homemade knives. There was nowhere else to put me. The conditions on the tier were horrific -- a deafening din from dawn till lights-out that severely tested my sanity for the one week I was there. When I was finally able to tell a sympathetic guard while going to take a shower that I was gay and HIV+, I was immediately transferred to protective custody. We were crammed into a former gym, but at least I was safe.

After a month there I was transferred to a dorm where I barely dodged the "tax" on packages from home routinely levied on gay prisoners. I had to let them know I would fight -- even though I wouldn't have -- and scare them with the prospect of being infected with my blood. With some judicious generosity from my well-stocked lockers, I eventually won over the head of the whites, and was able to serve out the rest of my sentence without a scratch.

I was in Chino in 2004, several years before the court orders to desegregate the California prison system. As a matter of official policy, everything broke down along racial lines. You were assigned a cell or bunk beds with a member of your own race, always ate together in the same section of the cafeteria, had the days your race controlled the TV, etc. The "shotcaller" would enforce discipline within his race, calling meetings and negotiating with other shotcallers when there were intra-racial issues. When I wanted to use the clippers, my shotcaller had to negotiate with the Latins and the black shotcallers, whose "dawgs" were paranoid about HIV transmission. Ignorance rules in prison.

The possibility of "trouble" was frequently discussed, as if a riot could break out at any moment. It was only during my last month that I told my shotcaller that I would not fight under any circumstances. Not only was I nonviolent to the core (even as a drug dealer) but I had gotten to know the black and Latin guys on either side of me and liked them a lot better than most of the white guys.

I was told that non-fighters were punished after riots were over. But I knew there were many others like me who just wanted to do their time and get out of there, who dreaded being told they would have to beat someone up or be beat up themselves.

There are too many things wrong with the prison system to possibly cover in one blog entry, but there is one constructive step that I'd like to propose. While inmates are being integrated on the basis of race, they should also be segregated on the basis of something else: a commitment to nonviolence.

Those inmates willing to sign a statement committing to nonviolence and a rejection of racial politics during their sentence would be housed separately from those unwilling to do so. These "N" inmates would get extra privileges, like Saturday mail and more phone time. They could bunk or cell with any race. Any "N" inmate caught in a fight would be sent to housing in which inmates had not signed a pledge, where they could continue to fraternize exclusively with their own race, etc.

Most prisoners come from backgrounds where corporal punishment is a given and violent resolution of differences is the norm. A large plurality of them would not choose the "N" classification. What makes prison tolerable for them is the almost military camaraderie they find when they "have the back" of other inmates they often know from the streets or previous sentences. It is the closest they get to friendship.

But what of the inmate who wants to "opt-out" of such a system? Shouldn't there be a fundamental right to be nonviolent? In the California prison system, inmates are deprived of that right routinely.

An "N for Nonviolent" classification system needs to be seriously studied and implemented, particularly as a reduction in violence could lower costs. And an atmosphere in which inmates are encouraged to treat each other humanely on the inside could prove an essential step to changing their behavior toward the rest of the world after they are released.

Follow Mark Olmsted on Twitter: www.twitter.com/Marquis Marq

Comments

[2sleepy]

The only way to protect an inmate in a California prison who does not want to participate in 'prison politics' would be to put them in isolation. Prison gangs are pervasive in California prisons and now run sensitive needs yards which house high profile offenders, sex offenders, transvestites, gang drop outs etc. They are as victimized as they would be in a general population setting.

There is little 'downside' to being in a prison gang, and it generally guarantees the inmate that someone will 'have his back' if he is attacked. As long as a 'shot caller' doesn't get too out of hand, the whole practice is ignored by the prison officials. After all, it's alot easier to have prison inmates who fight with each other rather than directing their frustration and anger toward the prison guards.

A few years ago some California inmates set up an 'honor yard' in which inmates would agree to a pledge of zero tolerance of drug use, violence, gang or prison politic activity. http://www.prisonhonorprogram.org/ It has been very successful and has reduced violence by 85%. In 2007, Legislation to permanently establish these programs was passed and was vetoed by the Governor..­one can only wonder why...

[Mark Olmsted - Huffpost Blogger]

And I thought I had come up with something all by my lonesome. Ah, the grandiosity! Thank you for alerting me to the prison honor program. I remember the irony of the inmates complaining the most about "politics" would then be the most zealous about slavishing enforcing every edict emanating from the shotcaller.

[2sleepy]

The California Correctional Officers Unions 45,000 members each paying dues of $89 a month, that buys a lot of legislators and finances many draconian 'tough on crime' initiatives. They, and their cadre of puppet legislators, will oppose any kind of reform unless it involves hiring more prison guards. The state is facing a federal mandate to release 45,000 inmates and the budget calls for a cut to corrections of 1.2 billion dollars this year, but yesterday, George Runner, Republican legislator, suggested that the solution to the prison problem is to build more prisons.

California's recidivism rate is 70%, Nevada's is 29%. Nevada allows for the early release of inmates who participate in educational or substance abuse programs and there has been no change in the crime rate as a result. Nevada has indeterminate sentencing, which allows a judge to use discretion in sentencing and gives the prison system the ability to reward good behavior by releasing inmates at the lower end of their term. Jerry Brown did away with indeterminate sentencing and passed 1,000 new criminal laws when he was Governor in the 80's, look out, he's going to run for Gov. again! California is the only state that puts 100% of released inmates on 3-5 years parole after they serve their full sentence. Parole officers are almost all former prison guards who returned 94,000 parolees to prison last year, only about 14% of whom committed a new crime.

[makemarc]

On the whole I'm really heartened by most of the comments and many of you make points I will elaborate on in future posts. I am very much against the drug war even as I think meth is a terrible drug that does terrible damage. But I'd rather see it taxed to provide treatment beds than the current state of affairs, in which no one i know was deterred from using it because of it illegality.
My primary point was a simple one: No matter what someone has done, whether guilty or innocent, they should have the right not to hurt another human being. In prison, whether through self-defense or peer coercion, this because an extremely difficult right to exercise.

[SirHempsworth]

This is one of the smartest ideas I've read in a long time. Good work. Now lets hope those that run these systems will listen.

[pmorlan]

Correction to previous post (I had one too many words LOL).

Great idea, Mr. Olmstead. It seems like such a no brainer yet they probably won't do it because so many people have this pathological obsession that people should suffer as much as possible while in prison. For these myopic individuals a prisoners sentence should also include being raped and brutalized, as much as possible. I often wonder which group is more dangerous to our society, the "lock 'em up, brutalize them and throw away the key mob" on the outside or the prisoners on the inside?

[pmorlan]

Great idea, Mr. Olmstead. It seems like such a no brainer yet they probably won't do it because so many people have this pathological obsession that people should suffer as much as possible while in prison. For these myopic individuals a prisoners sentence should also include being raped and brutalized, as much as possible. I often wonder which group is more dangerous to our society, the "lock 'em up, brutalize them and throw away the key people" mob on the outside or the prisoners on the inside?

[Eclectic Radical]

An excellent article, well written and communicating an excellent idea.

I saw in the comment section that this is Mr. Olmstead's first post here. It's a damn fine debut.

[lastpost]

Isn’t it the case that you either adapted to the environment you were placed in, or else suffered the consequences?
Suppose a small mixed group of inmates were exposed to circumstances, where they found themselves totally reliant on the collective abilities of their associates. Do you think each might put the merits of survival before other concerns, and learn something fundamental?

[dotlizard]

This is a perfect example of how drug prohibitions turn addicts into criminals - you, with your resources from the outside and your ability to navigate your way around the worst of it, are the exception. For most non-violent drug offenders, doing state time is a trip to crime college, where they're broken down by a system designed to do so, while forming attachments to the only support system they can, prison gangs.

Decriminalization and treatment would save billions of dollars and hundreds of thousands of lives and families. For every person who goes through such an experience and emerges to re-join the workforce, there are hundreds or thousands whose first prison commitment leads to doing "life on the installment plan", around and around through the revolving door.

Just housing non-violent offenders separately would be a good start to the massive reforms needed. There's no benefit to having the developed world's highest per-capita prison population.

[Flokk]

Very good piece, Mr. Olmstead. Thank you for that.

[hargrcx]

Until we start caring about our children and how they are raised, prison reform will do nothing. I would bet that 90% of prisoners come from abused childhoods. I have worked for Social Services and now work for DOC/Probation. My job security walks through the door every day with their parents. We have 3 generations of families on probation or in prison. Until we start caring about how these children are raised and intervene, we will keep filling prisons.

[Flokk]

We have the highest incarceration rate and the largest prison population in the world. So when we're done starting wars it'll be time to start investing in privately run prisons. Maybe the last high growth frontier we'll see for a long time.

[Eclectic Radical]

Oh, we didn't wait to stop starting wars to do that.

I wrote this way back in February of this year on my own blog:

http://eclecticradical.blogspot.com/2009/02/corporations-strike-again-jailing.html

Prisons are big business. Even some judges are in on the action. Joyful, no?

If we defined 'police states' solely by the number of people in prison, we would be the biggest offender in the world.

[Notapathetic]

We already have privately run prisons, hundreds of them. They are amongst the most degraded prisons because the profit motive leads to cheaper, lower quality food, facilities, supervision, administration, etc.

The real cure for our nutty prison system is to alter the misguided drug policy we have allowed a few moralizing crusaders to set for the rest of us. Tens of millions of Americans can easily fall into the "corrections" system at any moment because they use recreational drugs. Probably a quarter or more of the population has used marijuana, and millions more use pills or other drugs that are technically illegal.

Mind you, these drug prisoners (each one costing us thousands of dollars every year) are not in the system for violations against the rest of us. We already have laws against DUI, assault, theft, and other behavior violations. If druggies break these laws, lock 'em up. If the druggie wants to put himself in a drugged state and NOT break other laws, it is not my business what he does to his own mind and body.

Truly, our attitude towards drug use stems not from a desire to have social peace and order, it stems a desire to control "sin". The source of drug policy is the same group of nuts, zealots, greedy businesspeople, and bootlicking politicians that generate most of the problems we face.

[jimrs]

correct...­.

[Beth Riches]

Fantastic piece, Mark. Your unique perspective is one that not many can or will write about.

[JScott]

What was it I read somewhere all the money spent on incarceration would be enough to send each prisoner to Harvard for four years.....­..but then again when you look as some of those grads from there were the same ones who brought down the economy maybe it's not such a good thing after all.

[Artos]

This whole thing just makes me very sad for Humanity. We are a lost species. My observations about our societies leads me to believe our chances of surviving our own foibles is incredibly slim. How we ever made it this far is beyond my understanding.

[hangdogit]

As a society, we have all but given up on public education -- but keep building prisons, partly because of the unwillingness to provide top-notch schools for all -- just the elite.

[WilliamL]

Leonard Peltier has served around thirty years in Leavenworth after being convicted by a trial that has been proven to be so grossly flawed it would have been thrown out for anyone else.

Recently, the man behind the Pan Am, Lockerbee (sp) bombing as well as the women who tried to assasinate Pres. Ford were released.

Leonard Peltier, and his supporters, have simply requested a new trial which has been denied again and again.

I am sorry Meth controlled you and forced you to sell and Meth put you in jail. I am sure as hell it was no fun.

Leonard Peltier, on the other hand, was attempting to bring decency and dignity to his tribe while dealing with murders of Native Americans who were organizing to bring justice to their lives.

I do not want to say I have no sympathy, because on one hand, I do, but on the other hand, Leonard Peltier has served around three decades, has been denied a new trial again and again, a terrorist bomber get RELEASED, a Presidential Assasin gets released, yet a Native American can not even get a new trial.

So in the light of the injustice that Leonard Peltier has served, I suppose, one has to count their blessing and work for the justice of other prisoners who have been unjustly sentenced and most people, even amongst the liberal/social justice community, know nothing about.

I would consider my self lucky.

[SSGVABEACH]

Political prisoner

[Eclectic Radical]

"So in the light of the injustice that Leonard Peltier has served, I suppose, one has to count their blessing and work for the justice of other prisoners who have been unjustly sentenced and most people, even amongst the liberal/social justice community, know nothing about."

It is not true that Leonard Peltier is someone that 'most people, even amongst the liberal/social justice community, know nothing about.' In the early 1990s, he was part of a very well done set of interviews with prominent American social figures from the 1970s titled 'American Heroes: Triumph and Tragedy' which included an eclectic range of individuals including Peltier himself, Principal Joe Clark, and so on. While one can say that the publication carrying the interviews, Penthouse Magazine, is not on the cutting edge of journalism it is difficult to say no one reads it. On at least one occasion he has been the presidential nominee (from prison, no less) of the Peace and Freedom Party.

I would say that most people in the social justice community know about Peltier. Anyone involved with Amnesty International know that he tops their list of political prisoners around the world every year.

With all due respect to Peltier's own suffering, the holding of a political prisoner against all American precepts of justice is a separate issue from the equally important discussion of penal reform. Peltier would probably agree.