An Excerpt from My First Prison Thriller, Race Riot

Race Riot

The Mexican from Tijuana acted normal in his greeting as he led the way and gave the Mexican

from LA a shadow to hide in. The Mexican from Tijuana clapped hands in a handshake with Danger,

who had his arm sticking out the steel bars enclosing the showers.

His black arm got slammed at an angle against the steel bar at his elbow and the Mexican kept

pushing it that way. I heard the bone fracture and Danger screaming in pain. He tried to resist by arm

wrestling his arm back into the safety of the shower but it was useless. His fractured arm wouldn’t

respond it was uselessly folded at the elbow.

The other Mexican came out from behind and thrust a thin steel ice pick at an angle through the

shower bars into Danger’s face as he leaned away to use the steel bars for protection, while at the same

time still trying to get his fractured arm back through the bars. After getting hit in the cheek just below

his eye he backed hard enough to free himself.

The other Black Crip, T-Rock fired punches at the second Mexican attacker. The steel bars

enclosing the shower were blocking any further action and the outraged T-Rock yanked the door open,

yelled, and slipped in shower shoes. The second Mexican took advantage of his slip and used his left

arm to hold the shower door open and with his right hand jabbed the steel into T-Rocks shoulder. TRock

gathered himself with even more rage. The warrior took the ice pick poking as if it were only bee

stings and fired so many punches that the Mexican backed out of the shower, but closed the door on the

forward charging T-Rock. He made it through the narrow closing door but took the impact on his

shoulder and head and was made even more furious. His anger alone separated him from the two

attacking Mexicans. Incited by his partners rage, Danger came running out of the shower with his

fractured arm hanging at an unnatural angle.

The sound of the block gun was next, “Boom!”

I slid down Popeye’s cell with my back against it to sit on my haunches and realized inmates in

cells were yelling and kicking their cell doors. I looked at the tower and saw the smoke from the tip of

the rifle and at the same time heard the alarm send a siren of decibels in screeches that rose and fell.

Another tower guard at the control booth yelled into the microphone, “Get down! Get down!”, then

ran to the opening in the tower window with another rifle.

The two Black Crips were engaging the Mexicans with punches, kicks and grapple throws with

arms going everywhere. All four inmates were bouncing off cell doors with the fight going further

away from the tower, down the tier. Prison guards poured through the vestibule and got as close as they

could and fired block guns, then pointed canisters of pepper spray at them from four feet away, a

stream of painted orange followed the combatants still fighting and bouncing off cell doors.

The gun tower yelled into the microphone, “Get the fuck down! Live rounds coming!” I saw the

four inmates fighting hesitate for a millisecond, like they knew what they’d heard from the tower

changed this melee into deadly consequences or life sentences but they kept fighting for honor waiting

for the other side to back down first.

“Boom!” The block gun spoke, then “Ping”, a live round ricocheted, and it was enough. All four

inmates sprawled out on the floor just as another army of prison deputies with gas masks came pouring

through the vestibule with plastic shields thrust in front of them.

Popeye said, “That was weak.”

Twenty minutes later the four inmates were led out of the building in handcuffs. The building’s

occupants inside cells emanated energy that blew rage, frustration and confusion through the air like

wind. I walked up the stairs wondering if any Mexicans or Blacks heard Popeye say in disgust, “That

was weak.” I agreed with him, it was weak.

Not the battle, the reason for it and the position it would put every single one of the inmates in,

along with the deputies, along with the families of both, along with the communities outside the prison

walls.

My cell door popped open and I took a last look with my shirt over my mouth. The tear gas fog

floated slowly in a cloud and I could see the canisters it came out of under the tower still whispering

gas. Almost every inmate and guard coughed and felt the sting burning their eyes.

Down the tier from the canisters, the floor was painted orange in a path the pepper spray

extinguishers’ sent, followed by a line that went up and on a few of the cell doors the combatants had

bounced off. Blood stains soaked some of the floor and stained a few of the cells. Almost every cell

still had a bald head with a pair of eyes at their cell doors, studying the building the way I was, with

shirts bunched up covering their mouths.

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Pelican Bay: The Hunger Strike and The Government's Response ( Article from my associate )

On July 1st 2011, Californian prison inmates commenced a three week long hunger strike. The prisoners, who were predominantly, but not exclusively, incarcerated within Pelican Bay State Prison, struck in protest of the torturous and inhumane conditions that those incarcerated within California's Department of Correction and Rehabilitation (CDCR) prison isolation units were forced to endure.

The Prisoner’s Demands The strikers developed five core demands. First, the prisoners requested that group punishments be eliminated and individual accountability be practiced. This, they asserted, would prevent prison officers from unfairly punishing groups of rule abiding prisoners for misdemeanours committed by an individual prisoner.

Second, prisoners demanded the abolition of debriefing policies and the modification of gang status criteria. They claimed that the system, as it stood, allowed for the classification (and consequent isolation), of prisoners as active gang members. Further, they asserted that, as prisoners were only able to downgrade their gang member status by becoming informants, prisoners were required to risk their safety in order to leave isolation.

Third, prisoners demanded that CDCR policies be made compliant with the recommendations of the US Commission on Safety and Abuse in Prisons (2006) in relation to the ending of an individual's long term solitary confinement. They highlighted that this bipartisan commission had recommended that segregation of prisoners be made a ‘last resort’ and suggested that this recommendation was not being implemented within the state of California. In support of their assertion, it was highlighted that, as of May 18, 2011, California kept 3,259 prisoners in Secure Housing Units (SHUs) as well as hundreds more in administrative segregation awaiting SHU cells.
Fourth, prisoners requested the provision of adequate and nutritious food. Prisoners reported that they were provided with food which was inadequate both in terms of quality and quantity. They raised concerns that there were no procedures in place to check that their food provision complied with prison stands.

Finally, prisoners demanded that the provision of constructive programs and privileges be expanded for indefinite SHU inmates. Prisoners claimed that they were routinely denied chances to gain access to educational opportunities. They asserted that this was the case even when they were willing to fund their own distance learning programs. Further, they claimed that they were regularly denied access to warm clothing, telephones and watch caps.

End of the Strike
On 21st July 2011, prisoners agreed to end their hunger strike. It was reported that this agreement was reached following a number of small concessions by the CDCR which related to prisoners’ possessions and educational opportunities. In addition, the CDCR promised a comprehensive review relating to ‘gang management and secure housing’. The CDCR press release stated:
‘We will now seek to stabilize operations for all inmates and continue our work to improve the safety and security of our prison system state wide’.
Though many concluded that the concessions achieved by the prisoners were small, the level of press coverage and international support that strikers achieved is noteworthy. During the course of the strike, demonstration and solidarity messages emerged from the US, Canada, Australia and Turkey. As per Molly Porzig, spokesperson for Critical Resistance:
‘ What is really significant about this is that people are risking their own lives in joining this action’
‘What the challenge is for supporters outside the prison is that we need to by tirelessly working at, in a very urgent way, taking the risks that we can to match the courage of these hunger strikers’.

The Subsequent CDCR Report
In March 2012, the CDCR released its plan pertaining to the methodology to be applied moving forward when placing or withdrawing prisoners from isolation in SHUs. The report, which focuses on gang management within California’s prisons, states that improved provisions within secure housing units will be achieved by adopting uniform certification of criminal gangs by the Operation Community Shield (OCS) into Security Threat Groups (STGs), identifying and validating criminal gang affiliates, providing a Step Down Program (SDP) for prisoners placed in isolation and providing a comprehensive evaluation of prisoner behaviour.
Further, the report states a commitment to make use of the step down process and use privileges to promote good behaviour, in particular when that good behaviour constitutes a disengagement in gang related activities. The CDCR will also conduct debriefing for offenders who choose to disassociate themselves from criminal gangs.

Criticisms of the Report
Two key criticisms have been levied at the report. First, Attorney Charles Carbone believes that the changes may, conversely, result in increased numbers of prisoners being housed in isolation. This, he argues, is because the new plan serves to widen the definition of ‘gang’ to include street gangs or any groups of more than two inmates who are believed to pose a risk to security within the prison. Such inmates, he points out, could then be eligible for isolation within SHUs.
Another criticism, which transcends this report, is the concern that the inhumane conditions which have been inherent within California’s prisons have, historically, been justified amongst prison staff, who consider inmates as ‘the lowest of the low’. In many instances, however, SHU inmates have been incarcerated for non-violent, often drug related crimes. Those supplying illegal drugs, or those operating illegal unlicensed pharmacies which allow individuals to buy dangerous prescription only drugs without medical authorization, could be incarcerated in an SHU, should they be identified as a gang member'.
Rose Wilkinson is a freelance human rights and politics writer from London, England. She travelled extensively in Asia in her twenties and was lucky enough to meet several dedicated campaigners during her travels. Many of these meetings inspire her today.