Early in my incarceration at L.A. County Jail, I was in a gay dorm that had as its greatest drawback the near constant intrusive volume emanating from the big screen T.V. Until I arranged to get my bunk moved to the back of the dorm, I was so incensed by the impossibility of not being subjected to the noise that I actually wrote to the ACLU Prisoner’s Project, inquiring if anyone had ever asked if there was a constitutional right to quiet. Or, said in a more ungainly manner, the right not to be subjected to undue noise.
Of course, rather than use my complaint in a test case, it was simply reported back to the C.O.’s, who pulled me out of the dorm to see if I still “had a problem.” By that time, I was so anxious not to incur the wrath of either the guards or the other inmates, that I completely downplayed my complaint, essentially withdrawing it. Much more that the right not to be “louded” in prison, I now would place the right not to be subjected to violence. The prison system would claim that they try to do exactly that. But this would be a lie. Their priority is may be to prevent violence, but it is violence against correction officers that they most care about. They don’t really care what the inmates do to each other, except to the degree that an inmate armed against another inmate is also armed against a guard.
An inmate who fears being subjected to violence must usually be the victum of violence before he is moved into protective custody. The alternative is to complain his way into a single cell, living in isolation from other inmates, a safe but lonely existence. Most just endure.
For any forward looking reformers and ACLU–types among you, I hereby repeat my suggestions of a few days ago, albeit in a more fleshed-out rendering.
To my knowledge, only California segregates inmate according to race, with the rationale of preventing interracial violence. This is absurd. It is a classic divide-and-conquer strategy that merely reinforces the idea that the enemy is each other, and that a gang identity is the only refuge from the violent domination of other racial groups.
Still, it is so entrenched in the California Penal System that I’m not sure self-segregation wouldn’t ensue if it wasn’t already imposed by the administration. But it virtually guarantees the inmates will seek to arm themselves to protect against a perceived threat from other races, and those that do not are caught in the impossible position of being told they must conform to gang dictates or be subjected to discipline from within. I've heard of inmates being ordered to “stick” another inmate from another race, or be subject to being “stuck” himself (though this is far more common in Medium and Maximum security yards than here in Minimum.)
But even in Minimum, I have been privy (without wanting to, I assure you) to conversations about the transfer of knives from one hiding place or inmate to another. I should not have to endure proximity to violence in order to do my time in an environment where I get to socialize and have access to privileges.
My solution is simply to allow prisoners to classify themselves as "N,” standing for “Non” i.e., nonracial and non-violent. Whatever their skin tone, ethnicity or sexual orientation, such self-designated inmates would reject housing based on any such considerations. They would be placed in housing where all inmates therein were committed to one overriding criteria, a rejection of violence as a means of resolving differences or as a form of expression. Anyone violating this principle (including hate speech or incitement) would be removed from “N” housing and placed into the general population. This group would be independent from the Protective Custody population, (whose ranks would be thinner in the first place) but would also be segregated from the general population, although completely integrated amongst themselves.
I would contend that this is not only achievable, but would meet the conditions of any successful legal claim that in an environment imposed by the state, there is a constitutional right to freedom from violence within the power of the state to grant it. And while we’re at it, I’d throw in volume control on the TV’s.
MCO 2004
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