Chapter 5

California Corrections

The component of the criminal justice system that supervises offenders is commonly referred to as “corrections” or the “correctional system.” In California, adults convicted of felony crimes are placed under supervision either at the local level (jail and probation) or the state level (prison and parole), depending on the seriousness of the crime and the length of incarceration. Juvenile offenders can be adjudicated to local probation to be supervised in the community or housed in local juvenile facilities, or they can be sent to state facilities in some cases. Most offenders, including felony offenders, are supervised by local corrections agencies, while a smaller number of the most serious and violent offenders are supervised by the state.

BRIEF HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA’S PRISON SYSTEM

In 1849, California initiated its first state-run prisons, largely due to the influx of gold seekers after the discovery of gold at Sutter’s Mill in 1848.

Use of Prison Ships

Although the San Francisco Town Council purchased the brig Euphemia (1849) for the purpose of a prison ship, the new State of California began its state prison system with the Waban, an old 268-ton wooden ship. The sheriff of San Francisco, a former Texas Ranger, bought the ship for $850 and had it converted to a “prison ship.”

In 1852 it was anchored off Puenta de Quintin, later to be called “San Quentin,” thus becoming California’s first state prison. Four inmates were kept in 8-foot by 8-foot “cells.” By 1853, there were 148 convicts living in the ship. By 1854, the first structured building, called “the Stones” was built out of quarried rock on Marin Island. The cedar beams from the Waban may be found in the atrium top of the hospital and in wooden jewelry boxes as memorabilia.[1] Interestingly, Quentin or Quintun was a Miwok Indian whose home was in the Petaluma area. He had gained fame in the 1820s for resistance to the Spanish mission at San Rafael.

Prison ships were not unknown and had been used in both England and Australia. Often referred to as nothing more than “Hulks,” they were instrumental in initiating prison reforms when John Howard, in 1777, condemned the prison system as barbaric and unsanitary. Followed by Jeremy Bentham (who designed the Panopticon system of basically a 360-degree view of inmates from a centralized core) and other penal reformers of the time, the “Hulks” were eventually phased out, and prison systems began to turn toward the more acceptable centralized method of inmate housing, improved diet, sanitation, and separate quarters for women.[2]

San Quentin

At the turn of the century, men and women were housed at San Quentin. They were kept in a place called the “Bear Pit,” a space only 60 by 90 feet, in the middle of a cell building 40 by 20 feet. In this space, 30 women were confined. They were not allowed out to get air or to exercise. There was no heat, rats scurried about, and a system of “slop buckets” was in full use for serving food. Also, there were no toilets other than a perfunctory hole in the floor. A separate women’s building was not built at San Quentin until 1927. In one early California case, Anna Manual was brought to trial for a forgery case. She had an all-woman jury because the court felt a mixed jury “would not be nice” if night sessions were needed.[3] Although Alcatraz may be more famous, it actually was, at one time, a federal prison. The oldest prison in California is San Quentin, built
in 1852.

Alcatraz[4]

With the beautiful backdrop of the city of San Francisco, perhaps one of the best known prisons in the world is Alcatraz. It is not in operation any longer, but it has a mixed history in the evolution of corrections.

The name “Alcatraz,” which literally means the “Island of Pelicans,” or “La Isla de los Alcatraces,” was “discovered” in 1775 by Spanish explorer Juan Manuel de Ayala, as he charted the San Francisco Bay. The indigenous Indians had obviously known about the island for centuries, but it wasn’t until 1847, when the U.S. Army took an interest in it as a strategic base, that it began to be developed. Eventually, it became a stockade and then a military prison. During the Civil War, it was considered an impregnable bastion, but it soon outlived its usefulness as a military fort. As late as 1895, Indian prisoners were still sent there. Prisoners from the Spanish-American War were also placed there. After a rich history that included such notorious inmates as Al Capone, Alvin Karpis, and Robert Stroud (the “Birdman” of Alcatraz),
it finally closed in 1963. A tough, no-nonsense concentration that literally isolated inmates from the rest of the world, it became a model for the SuperMax federal prison at Marion, Illinois.[5]

Folsom Prison

The second oldest prison in California was Folsom prison. Folsom received its first 44 inmates on July 26, 1880. They were transferred by boat and train from San Quentin. Originally designed to hold inmates serving long sentences, habitual criminals, and incorrigibles, Folsom State Prison gained the reputation of having a violent and bloody history. Inmates spent most of their time in the dark behind solid boiler-plate doors in stone cells measuring 4 feet by 8 feet, with 6-inch eye slots. Air holes were drilled into the cell doors in the 1940s, and the cell doors are still in use today.[6]


Pelican Bay Prison (PBSP)

Today, in contrast to some of the earliest and storied prisons, Pelican Bay Prison is perhaps the most secure facility in California, reserved for the toughest inmates. The prison is housed on 275 acres in the northwest corner of California and is designed to house the state’s most serious criminal offenders in a secure, safe, and disciplined institutional setting. The prison opened December 1989 to accommodate a need for a growing population of maximum-security inmates.

Half of the prison houses maximum security inmates in a general population setting. The other half houses inmates in the Security Housing Unit (SHU) designed for inmates presenting serious management concerns. The SHU is a modern design for inmates who are difficult management cases, prison gang members, and violent maximum security inmates.

PBSP operates a Psychiatric Services Unit (PSU), which is a 127-bed unit designed and staffed to treat mentally disordered offenders who are serving SHU terms; a 400-bed Level I Minimum Support Facility, which houses nonviolent offenders outside the secure perimeter of the main institution; and a Fire House with 8 full-time inmate firefighters.[7]

The name of today’s state prison system is now the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR). It has grown to 33 prisons across the state since 1852. Initially, the system was known as the California State Detentions Bureau in 1912. In 1951 it was renamed California Department of Corrections. In 2004 it was renamed the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR).

DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS AND REHABILITATION (CDCR)[8]

The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) is the largest state agency in California, with approximately 66,000 employees. CDCR is responsible for overseeing one of the largest prison populations in the United States, and has more than 36,000 custody staff that support the 24-hour, 7-day-a-week operations. The department incarcerates adult and juvenile offenders and provides parole supervision and rehabilitative strategies to successfully reintegrate offenders into our communities.

The Department encompasses 33 adult institutions, 46 conservation fire camps, 9 community correctional facilities, and 5 juvenile justice facilities along with 5 contracted out-of-state facilities in three states. There are approximately 168,000 adult inmates and 1,400 juvenile offenders overseen by the CDCR. Statewide there are 190 parole units supervising nearly 118,000 parolees.[9]


Parole in California

Parolees are granted parole only after being sent to state prison and having spent at least some time “inside.” The Board of Parole Hearings (BPH) conducts parole and parole revocation hearings for prisoners sentenced to state prison for a term of life with the possibility of parole and various custody hearings for mentally disordered sex offenders. They also conduct revocation hearings for parolees who violate conditions of parole. Additionally, the BPH makes recommendations to the governor regarding applicants for pardon and executive clemency.

The BPH also:

•  Establishes terms and conditions for all persons released on parole in California

•  Conducts parole revocation hearings for persons who violate the terms and conditions of parole

•  Conducts certification, placement, and parole revocation hearings for mentally disordered offenders

•  Conducts probable cause hearings for prisoners or parolees in revoked status who meet the criteria to be identified as sexually violent predators

•  Considers requests from foreign-born inmates who wish to be transferred to their country of citizenship to serve the remainder of their sentences

•  At the request of the governor, investigates and makes recommendations on all applications for reprieves, pardons, and commutations of sentence, including death penalty commutations; and may also report to the governor the names of any prisoners who, in its judgment, ought to be considered for reprieve, pardon, or commutation

•  Has the discretion to recommend to the court that a prisoner’s sentence and commitment be recalled and that the prisoner be re-sentenced, such as in situations calling for compassionate release

The BPH conducts parole consideration hearings, parole rescission hearings, parole revocation hearings and parole progress hearings for adult inmates and parolees under the jurisdiction of the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.

The duties of the BPH also include, but are not limited to, mentally disordered offender and sexually violent predatory screenings and hearings, investigation of requests for pardons, reprieves and commutation of sentences, foreign prisoner transfer requests and the duties of the former Narcotic Addict Evaluation Authority.

JAILS AND HOLDING FACILITIES

Board of State and Community Corrections (BSCC)[10]

The Board of State and Community Corrections (BSCC) works in partnership with local corrections (jails and holding facilities) systems and assists efforts to achieve continued improvement in reducing recidivism through evidence-based decision making. It provides service to the local corrections systems through inspections of local detention facilities, assistance in training of local corrections personnel, funding opportunities through grants, programming, and facilitating detention facility construction and funding.

This state board oversees local corrections organizations (such as county jails and municipal or “police” jails), as well as the various departments of corrections, probation departments, juvenile halls, and juvenile camps. This includes establishing minimum standards for all institutions, including jails and juvenile facilities. The following is a description of the different levels or “types” of facilities in California. (See: Adult Title 15 Regulations.)

•  “Temporary holding facility” means a local detention facility (constructed after January 1, 1978) that is used for the confinement of persons for 24 hours or less pending release, transfer to another facility, or appearance in court. In corrections, a holding cell such as in a local police station would be a “law enforcement facility.” This means a building that contains a “Type I” jail or temporary holding facility.

•  “Type I facility” means a local detention facility used for the detention of persons for not more than 96 hours excluding holidays after booking. A Type I facility may also detain persons on court order either for their own safekeeping or sentenced to a city jail as an inmate worker, and may house inmate workers sentenced to the county jail, provided such placement in the facility is made on a voluntary basis on the part of the inmate. As used in this section, an inmate worker is defined as a person assigned to perform designated tasks outside his/her cell or dormitory, pursuant to the written policy of the facility, for a minimum of four hours each day on a five day scheduled work week.

•  “Type II or III” facility means a local detention facility used for the detention of persons pending arraignment, during trial, and upon a sentence of commitment.

•  “Type III facility” means a local detention facility used only for the detention of convicted and sentenced persons. Here, a sentence for misdemeanors could be for a few days to up to a year. Only if the sentence is a felony would an inmate be sentenced to a state prison, and the sentence would be more than one year. Or it could be a felon awaiting transfer to state prison or the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.

•  A “Type IV facility” means a local detention facility or portion thereof designated for the housing of inmates eligible under Penal Code Section 1208 for work/education furlough and/or other programs involving inmate access into the community.[11]

BOC-CSA-CDCR

In 1944, the Board of Corrections (BOC) was established as part of the reorganization of the state prison system. On July 1, 2005, the Corrections Standards Authority (CSA) was established within the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) and the BOC was abolished. Effective July 1, 2012, the Board of State and Community Corrections (BSCC) was established as an entity independent of the CDCR and the CSA was abolished. The BSCC is vested with all of CSA’s rights, powers, authorities and duties, as well as a new mission with duties and responsibilities to improve public safety through cost-effective, promising, and evidence-based strategies to manage statewide criminal and juvenile justice populations.

The Standards and Training for Corrections (STC) Program [12]

The STC program of the Board of State and Community Corrections (BSCC) is similar to the Police Academy Training Curriculum. STC has developed a Testing Administration Policy for trainers of the core curriculum effective July 1, 2013. The purpose of this policy is to assist core providers in adhering to standardized procedures for test administration and meeting the federal uniform guidelines on employee selection practices. The policy must include the following components:

•  Exam administration staff

•  Exam administration procedures

•  Test security

•  Maintaining security in the exam room and proctor responsibilities

•  Procedures for reporting and handling exam irregularities and compromises