To all potential criminals! I am seeking to expose and cast light upon all those who are incarcerated and on the conditions in California's Prison System.
The CDC, California Department of Corrections, and the Guards Union are now the most powerful organization in the state of California. Some say they are essentially a third political party. This tremendous power has been accomplished by lobbying other special interest groups, and many millions of dollars in campaign contributions. In the twenty-plus years I have been incarcerated in this prison I have watched as the CDC and the California Prison Guards Union have grown into the hugely powerful entities they are today. The union has now become such a force on the political stage that most Politicians fear it and cater to all of its demands. As for the CDC, its budget has now exceeded six billion dollars! Much of which is lost to waste, payoffs, and corruption.
Even though many new prisons have been built in California in the last 50-plus years, the living conditions and life itself have changed little. Each prison, and the entire system, is run much like a medieval feudal system; with its feudal lords (wardens), overseers (guards), and peasant workers (inmates), and little or no attention is given to proper management, responsibility or accountability throughout the system. For the most part, staff and guards in these facilities are obsessed with their own agendas; i.e., devising schemes to milk the CDC money cow, covering one's own ass, and inflicting petty torments on powerless prisoners. The one golden rule of the entire system however, is to keep the voices of prisoners within from being heard. This is done through careful control and manipulation of the media. "
Inmates within the system mostly live in Stone Age conditions. Experts estimate that the cost to house one prisoner in the system is upwards of $25,000 a year! Yet the CDC continually strives to do it on the cheap, preferring that the vast majority of budgeted dollars go into its employee's pockets. The CDC's daily meal allowance today for each inmate is $2.20! That's for the entire day, not just one meal. And most prison kitchens take no pride or care in the preparation of meals it's assembly line work. The quality and quantity of the food that is served is deplorable and revolting, and lacks almost any nutritional value whatsoever. Inmates instead rely on family and friends and even their attorneys for basic nutritional needs by providing money for them to buy foods from the prison canteen as well as quarterly packages from the outside vendors. Those without outside help go hungry and slowly waste away.
The medical treatment given in the CDC prisons is not just bad, it is downright dangerous! Many prisoners die each year from malpractice, or simply from no treatment at all: Every day prisoners are being overdosed or under-dosed, but in most cases just not treated at all. Here at San Quentin Prison recently, the Warden was fired from her job for instructing medical staff to lie to the Federal Investigators who were looking into the recent deaths here. After her firing, medical personnel went ahead and lied to the investigators anyway they just resented being told which lies to tell.
As for life inside a CDC prison cell, here's a brief view: I was brought here to San Quentin's Death Row in December 1985, the 178th person to be put here, and was assigned to a 4½ ft by 10½ ft. cell. The "row" is simply a structure within a building that is five levels (tiers), tall on each side, with a total of 54 cells (all the same), on each tier. I am in this cell. 24/7; except for the times I’m allowed out to the exercise yard. Before being allowed out of my cell I am strip searched and then handcuffed (behind the back), then escorted to a concrete slab 40 ft. by 60 ft. in size, that's surrounded by chain link and razor wire. This is the "yard". The same goes for returning to my cell. It's daily life, and it is a living hell.
The simple fact is that for every inmate inside the CDC prison system there was a crime committed that put each one in there. Today there are 650 inmates on death row and over 170,000 in the general population prisons. Not one of those prisoners ever intended to go to prison, but there they are. Don't become one of them, a faceless nobody in an orange jumpsuit. Do something today to change the way your life is heading. If you have difficult issues seek help with them either with a minister, (any church!), or with a counseling center.
Do it today! God bless you.
