State Senate Panel Approval: Progress in Cate’s Confirmation

A State Senate Panel has voted to confirm Cate as CDCR secretary, but the conversation included some difficult questions, as reported in the Sac Bee and in the Daily Roundup from Capitol Weekly.

The vote came after Cate complied with a request to submit a “benchmarks” report to members setting rehabilitation and education goals.

Steinberg called Cate “the right person for the job” but said the secretary would need “a lot of help.”

. . .

Steinberg asked why, out of a population of 155,000 in traditional state prisons, Cate’s goal is to have only 15,837 prisoners in academic classes by June 2010.

“It does beg the question: What about the rest of the inmates?” Steinberg said.

. . .

Steinberg also asked about Cate’s goal to have 300 mentally ill parolees receiving comprehensive housing and mental health services by June 2010.

Right now, about 22,000 parolees receive limited services at clinics, but no parolees are in a comprehensive program.

Cate, whose resume includes extensive prosecutorial experience, spoke at our conference last month about the difficulties and expenses involved in making programs available to prisoners. He now has his hands full implementing his plan for making $400,000,000 budget cuts.

Keeping Track of Inmates: CDCR to Revamp its Offender Database

Here are some highlights from the CDCR press release (the full story is here):

SACRAMENTO – The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) announced today the intent to award a contract to EDS, an HP company, to begin a multimillion-dollar effort to automate and streamline offender data systems. The project, called the Strategic Offender Management System (SOMS), will consolidate existing databases and records and replace manual paper processes over a four year contract period. . . SOMS will replace more than 40 aging electronic and paper database systems, which are becoming increasingly difficult and costly to maintain. The system will contain an “Electronic C-file” for inmates and provide the opportunity for electronic data exchange–with Jails, Courts and the Office of Prison Healthcare Services.

This is an excellent idea. And, if this happens in the time allotted, and with the available resources, it could do wonderful things, such as make sure that folks aren’t subject to parole/probation requirements in three counties at the same time.

Incidentally, it probably wouldn’t be a bad thing to similarly improve the criminal court database, too. Currently, the data is on several different silos, and is rather inaccurate, which, among other problems, also hinder the ability to do research work on CA courts.

Judge Alsup: Death Row Conditions in San Quentin Reach Constitutional Threshold

(images courtesy CDCR.ca.gov)

Some of the recent discussion of prison costs has to do with the expenses associated with running San Quentin’s Death Row. As some of you may recall, a planned expansion of Death Row, deemed costly, was killed by a bipartisan initiative last year. The struggle around the planned expansion occurred against the background of 30 years of litigation regarding conditions on Death Row.

Yesterday, the Chron reports, Judge William Alsup of the California District Court ended this lengthy era of court supervision, after ruling that the improvements made to Death Row were enough to satisfy constitutional requirements. The improvements included getting rid of dirty water and rodents.

The nation’s largest Death Row now houses 665 men. Only 10 inmates were held there when the suit was filed shortly after capital punishment was reinstated in California in 1977.

Fama said the inmates’ original complaints were dirty and decrepit housing and a system that classified all condemned prisoners as security risks who had to be confined to their cells nearly 24 hours a day.

The 1980 consent decree required prison officials to evaluate condemned inmates individually and allow the less-dangerous ones the same exercise time and visiting privileges as non-Death Row inmates. It also required improvements in food, medical care, cells, showers and access to a law library.

As the Death Row population multiplied, the state periodically sought to end court supervision. But a series of reports by judicially appointed monitors over the years found a variety of violations, including a flawed cell assignment system that led to violent clashes and disciplinary rules that sent offenders to “strip cells” wearing only a pair of shorts.


One thing that strikes me as interesting is that the improvement in conditions consists, in some respects, of making the Death Row experience more like “regular” life imprisonment. Does this reflect a realistic understanding that Death Row has become no more than a very lengthy imprisonment period, with a possible (but not certain) ending by execution? The time between sentencing and execution has gradually increased since the reinstatement of the death penalty in 1977. San Quentin Death Row currently houses 665 men; between 1977 and 2008, 14 men were executed. The recent trend we have documented, of cost-driven moratoria on the death penalty, is complicated by the costs of death penalty-related litigation (Brandon Garrett of Virginia Law School presented an interesting work on this, in its early stages, at the Conference for Empirical Legal Studies last year); one possible scenario is that, at some point, Death Row will quietly become a thing of the past, and conditions (as well as inmates) will be indistinguishable from those pertaining to life without parole.

This actually has a precedent; after the Roper v. Simmons decision, which rendered the death penalty for juveniles unconstitutional, all death sentences against juveniles were shifted to Life Without Parole (for an argument that Roper deems LWOP unconstitutional for juveniles, as well, check out what the good folks at the Sentencing Law and Policy Blog have to say). The cost argument may be supplemented by some studies that doubt the efficacy and humaneness of death by lethal injection.
In any case, the improvement of conditions may make Death Row more akin to the general population prison, and may be an invisible step toward a CA moratorium that will go beyond a de facto lag in executions.

California Prison Mental Health – A Failed Delivery System

I have just received the following email from a reader, who introduces him/herself as “a concerned prison mental health clinician” and who prefers to remain anonymous. I am publishing it verbatim.

A suicidal inmate with a diagnosis of Major Depression with Psychosis is handcuffed for up to three hours before he is transferred to a crisis bed.
A correctional officer yells out “you are full of it” to an inmate who requests permission to return to his cell from the yard, because he says he feels that “people are watching him, and he is feeling paranoid.” This inmate has a diagnosis of Schizophrenia, Paranoid Type.
A correctional counselor (CC) says to an inmate diagnosed with rapid cycling bipolar disorder, “you are just a con, you were up and about yesterday, I saw you, and today you won’t come out of your cell.”
A psych tech refuses repeated requests of an inmate to see a psychiatrist, for nearly three weeks, this inmate suffered from racing, and obsessive thoughts – because this psych tech decided that the inmate was “playing.” This inmate is diagnosed with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder.
A mental health clinical supervisor says to his clinical team, that these are all criminals, and they know what to say.
A sergeant in response to an inmate yelling at the TV (because he believes that the TV is talking to him) decides to “clean out his cell” because inmates are not allowed to yell.

These are just a few examples from just one week at a California correctional facility that is supposed to be complying with the Mental Health Service Delivery System, based on the Coleman v. Schwarzenegger decisions. The current prison mental health system is one horror story after another, and here we are talking not about “general population,” but about units that are supposed to specialize in providing mental health treatment.

There are many reasons for this, but primarily it has to do with the way prisons are designed, and the custody culture, that, for the most part, does not consider mental illness to be legitimate. The misperceptions, and stigma that exists in the larger society is hugely magnified inside a prison. Further, the custody staff, and even some of the clinical administration staff do not seem to understand mental health treatment, and the course of recovery.

An example of this stigma, and lack of understanding about mental health treatment is the statement by Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation Secretary Matt Cate:
“… We don’t need a treatment room and a yoga room and a music room and a basketball court for our most seriously ill inmates — we need to get those inmates better so they can return to the general population.” From Oakland Tribune by Josh Richman, February 3, 2009

Fact is that most of those with serious mental illness are not going to return to the “general population.” Most of the tens of thousands of seriously mentally ill inmates, if in the community, would qualify for disability (SSI) and would only be expected to work part-time at the very most. They would be living in supportive housing, such as licensed board and care facilities, or supported independent living, with onsite case management. The prison general population is a very high stress environment, and many of the mentally ill inmates would decompensate, and end up being hospitalized, or in crisis within a matter of weeks, if not days.

I was heartened to read by U.S. District Judge Lawrence Karlton’s statement that he is considering placing the mental health services also under a receivership. CDCR does not have the capacity, or understanding to provide effective mental health care. Their role is custody, not mental health treatment.

With 40-50% of California inmates seriously mentally ill, we need to enter into a process of rethinking, and redesigning prison mental health treatment. A few recommendations/suggestions that I, as a prison mental health clinician, have are as follows:

1. Under a future receiver’s office create a clinical oversight body within each prison-institution, comprising of both administrative and line clinical staff (psychiatrists, clinical psychologists, and clinical social workers) that would be charged with addressing clinical/treatment issues and obstacles.

2. Recognize that with such high numbers of seriously mentally ill inmates, prisons are effectively locked mental health institutions. The custody staff must re-think their roles as security, and mental health providers. Develop a new classification of “mental health custody” that would specialize in working within mental health units. A very small number of custody staff do have this kind of specialization, and where we have such staff, the units operate smoothly, and some level of mental health services are delivered. Where we do not have this level training, and/or interest, the services are spotty at best – and that would be the case in the vast majority of cases.

3. Begin developing a separate agency outside of the CDCR that would be charged with providing mental health services. This agency would then be held accountable for standards and practices, and would relieve the CDCR from trying to implement services that are outside of its custody role and scope.

4. Mental Health services in prison should be held at the same, or higher level of standard as those delivered in the community in California. This would include confidentiality, and clear protection against abusive or stigmatizing treatment.

5. And finally, but no means least, construct new facilities designed to provide mental health care.

The above recommendations are by no means exhaustive, but we need a public open conversation, and implementation of mental health treatment at the same time. We cannot continue to wait, while the civil and constitutional rights of California prisoners are violated daily. Such stigmatizing treatment would not be tolerated in the community, and there is no reason why such abuse is being tolerated in prisons.

It is time to take mental health out of the hands of the an incompetent state body, and placed in the hands of mental health receivership who would have the necessary mental health background to implement immediate change to the delivery system.

Secretary Cate: Seeking Prison Expansion

The Associated Press reports that Secretary Cate plans to ask state legislators to expand three prisons.

The construction projects would be the first to draw money from a nearly $8 billion bond measure approved two years ago. The money was stalled, though, until Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed the state budget into law in February.

Corrections Secretary Matthew Cate said he plans to seek approval within weeks to build more cellblocks at two prisons near Delano and to convert a juvenile lockup near Paso Robles. Those moves combined would house 2,800 inmates.

The $810 million Cate will seek from legislative budget committees would pay for those three expansions, plus building a re-entry center in Stockton for 500 inmates who are nearing the end of their prison terms. It would be the first of several planned regional re-entry centers to help inmates adjust in the months before they are paroled.

(this was one of the urgent projects seeking approval and financed by bonds approved in 2007, per the L.A. Times)

(and another aspect of the whole thing: prison construction is regarded as one way to generate construction jobs. One person’s problem is another’s salvation).

I have no doubt that prison authorities are sincere in regarding prison expansion as a viable way to reduce overcrowding; however, I can’t help but think about conversations I’ve had with my father, a transport planner, who often marvels at how new roads built to relieve congestion generate incentives to buy more cars, thus increasing traffic. I know the metaphor is not perfect, but it has been preying on my mind.

Prisons and Media

(image courtesy sfgate.com)

This Sunday’s Chron reported on the inmate newspaper at San Quentin. According to the article, rather than being merely a mouthpiece for the administration, the paper holds itself to objective standards of reporting.

Witness the tough-minded piece that ran in the January issue about San Quentin’s administrative segregation unit, “The Hole,” where recalcitrant prisoners are disciplined by being locked up for most of the day in one-man cells. The News described the wing’s dirty cells, ripped and shredded mattresses and generally appalling conditions.

Before the story was published, however, the News’ senior volunteer adviser, retired Associated Press newsman John Eagan, told editor-in-chief Ken Brydon, serving a life term for murder, and managing editor Michael Harris, doing 28 years for attempted murder and drug crimes, that they had to get the other side.

They did, quoting prison Sgt. D. Kilmer to the effect that officers go through a checklist of a cell’s condition, but that “the maintenance repair on lights could be better.” The article was approved by Luna and ran in the newspaper, and the next issue carried a follow-up quoting prison officials at length.

(incidentally, the Pulse of San Quentin’s report is timely and important; yesterday’s New Yorker has a fascinating and disturbing piece on the effects of solitary confinement.)

Prison newspapers are not a new phenomenon. Some of you may find interest, for example, in this historical issue of The Prison Press from 1899. And there has been constant litigation regarding the right of inmates to participate in outside media, whether it be mainstream media or specialized projects like Prison Radio. For some of California’s legacy of outspoken inmates, I strongly recommend Eric Cummins’ excellent The Rise and Fall of California’s Radical Prison Movement.

————————–
Props to Emily Hoag for pointing me to the New Yorker article.

Litigation over Medical Services in Prison

Our next panel, chaired by my terrific colleague Aaron Rappaport, highlighted one of the hottest issues on the correctional agenda today: the issue of litigation over medical services.

Don Specter, Director of the Prison Law Office, opened the panel by telling us some of the realities of prison litigation. The Prison Law Office has been litigating prison health care in CA for three decades, and with the exception of the first trial, they have won every single case by judgment or consent by proving Eighth Amendment violations, which are extremely difficult to prove. Despite these victories, the conditions persist. In the latest chapter, the courts were motivated to make the Plata/Coleman tentative ruling in light of truly alarming data (provided by the Receiver’s office) on the standards of care, such as the shockingly high avoidable death rates in prison. Why did such conditions persist? Not only does overcrowding prevent the system from reaching acceptable standards of care, but the State is not committed, in the deep sense of the word, to the provision of medical treatment to inmates. The system focuses on the custodial aspects of its function; the medical services are an add-on, an afterthought, which the system is not designed, and unmotivated, to cope with, especially in cases of exigencies. Courts are rather poor institutions when it comes to solving such problems with injunctive relief, and are often dismayed at the State’s noncompliance, to no avail. The current move to block the Receivership, said Specter, is one such example. Instead, said Specter, the priorities should be as follows: a reduction of prison population to manageable levels (104,000 prisoners); proper classification of prisoners; and providing the Receiver with proper resources to do his job.

The next speaker, Lori Kohler from the Department of Family and Community Medicine at UCSF, reminded us of an important value: compassion. Prison is an invisible city, and as a society we fail to accept its existence and needs, and simply assume that people just “go away”. But this “city” in particular poses real challenges to medical staff: not only are minorities and poor people overrepresented – which raises questions of medical care prior to entering prison – but also, prison creates some of the most complex cases medical professionals have to deal with. Kohler spoke of the “culture clash” for medical professionals in prison: the doctors walk in with compassion and care, but prison environment constantly reminds one why people are there. There are plenty of opportunities to connect with the compassion of custodians and work together, since the guards themselves have vested interest in the provision of proper medical care; however, the need for safety, and system exigencies, complicate this. Safety rules (such as the inability to transfer people to appointments in the fog, or if someone lost a pair of scissors) complicate the provision of services. Also, the incredible low-tech environment problematizes the ability to take care of complicated medical situations such as HIV, Hepatitis C, and chronic pain. Another challenge is the hiring of proper staff; financial revenues are not enough to guarantee quality and care. Kohler reports having witnessed some truly horrific care, not just in the realm of passivity and neglect. She highlighted the importance of generating a culture shift within the institution by modeling compassion and care.

Clark Kelso, the Federal Receiver for the medical system, spoke of the health system as a symptom of the broader problems in prison: a prime example of insufficient resources to care for an exceedingly large number of prisoners, as well as bad allocation of the resources we already have. The receivership – a court-designated instrument to remedy the situation – is only one solution out of the four class actions dealing with medical, mental, and dental care, as well as with violations of the Americans with Disabilities Act. Part of the receiver’s job is to coordinate with the institutions designed to solve the other pieces of the puzzle.

Since the Receiver cannot change sentencing policies in California, his role in that respect is limited to providing technical information and advice to policymakers, such as the possible impact of sentencing policies on prison population. His primary responsibility, though, is to provide care for whatever population the state decides to incarcerate. In that respect, he focuses on providing mroe access to care, a higher quality of service, more staff, and construction suited to house these needs. Despite the fierce battles with the State, the State and the Receivership actually agree on most of these.

One important point made by Kelso had to do with the need to invest more money as an initial cost, which will go down in time. For example, in order to use telemedicine in prison, network lines need to established, which is very costly (150,000,000) because of the distant locations of the prisons.

Kelso is able to marshal data to assess how much progress has been made, and is pleased to see some important improvements. 85% of medical appointments are successfully made. Staffing is increasing. The challenges in making faster progress have to do with the need to play “catch-up” with thirty-five years of a failure to invest in the medical services, as well as from the need to make the medical services applicable in a system that has custodial and security needs.

Finally, Joyce Hayhoe, Legislation Assistant Secretary at CDCR discussed some of the recent improvements the Department made. Reminding us of the situation prior to the Department’s reorganization in 2003, she highlighted the punitive aspect of sentencing (ratcheting up sentences as a response to punitive public sentiments) as well as the lack of attention to rehabilitation. The recent Plata/Coleman litigation has impacted the CDCR quite deeply. First, the Receiver has managed to greatly improve health care for inmates (we were all invited to San Quentin to see for ourselves; we think we’ll take the CDCR’s invitation seriously!); and second, the three-judge panel decision requires a three-pronged approach to the overcrowding situation, which will include building more capacity, sentencing reform, and rehabilitation programs. She argued that the population is currently at a three-year low, and that the number of “bad beds” in gyms and cafeterias has been decreased by 7,000.

What’s the Big Deal? Federal Receiver or Special Master?

As discussed in the previous post, the Governor has filed a motion asking Judge Henderson to replace the Federal Receiver, Clark Kelso, with a “Special Master.” What’s the difference? Is it really that big a deal? Well, yes it is.

Here’s a helpful and concise explanation of the difference between the two from the Legislative Analyst’s Office:

“A Receiver, such as the one appointed by the court in the Plata case, differs from special masters that have been approved in other legal cases affecting the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR). A Receiver has direct executive authority, and acts in place of the Secretary of CDCR in regard to the management of the medical care system. We are aware of only a few federal court rulings involving prison systems that have involved the appointment of a receiver. They include a 1979 federal court order that made the Governor of Alabama the receiver of that state’s prison system and the 1995 federal court appointment of a receiver for the Washington DC jails. Special masters, such as the one appointed in a separate legal case known as Coleman v. Schwarzenegger involving improvements in inmate mental health care, are a more common remedy in such cases. Special masters monitor the compliance activities of other parties (in this case, CDCR). They lack, however, direct executive authority and must rely on the federal courts to order changes when they discover problems in compliance with court orders.”

The excerpt makes clear what an unusual and extraordinary remedy the appointment of a Federal Receiver represents. But of course, sometimes extraordinary problems demand extraordinary remedies…..

More About Zen Prisons and Other Magical Gardens


The 1960s were revolutionary years in penology; they mark a thriving period in prison research. Many big names in the field, influenced by Erving Goffman’s concept of total institutions (and, more broadly, by Howard Becker’s framing of labeling theory), became interested in the social dynamics of prison and its impact on human behavior. This interest in prison yielded a number of classic studies, whose findings now seem obvious to us, and who may be somewhat dated, but whose basic insights are still true.

One such classic was Gresham Sykes’ 1965 article The Pains of Imprisonment, in which he made the then-revolutionary argument that imprisonment does not consist solely of a loss of freedom, but carries with it a number of other impairments to the inmate’s quality of life. He named four such pains: the loss of material goods; the loss of heterosexual relationships; the loss of autonomy; and the loss of personal security. Each of these merits a discussion of its own, and since the original publication, several people have suggested additional pains of imprisonment. In his book Reforming Punishment, Craig Haney develops the idea of the psychological impact of imprisonment. Long before our current crisis, he argued that prison management and funding adversely impacted inmates and, therefore, contributed to the problems within walls and after release.

(Incidentally, Sykes’ full original study, The Society of Captives, has recently come out again, with a new and excellent introduction by Bruce Western. )

As faithful readers may recall, Melissa’s post a while ago highlighted the current heated debate about prison conditions in light of the initiative to end the medical system receivership; the receiver’s aim to create a “holistic environment” for prisoners caught much flak from critics. One way of framing this controversy is by realizing that Sykes’ point has been turned on its head; we seem to take for granted, and agree with, the imposition of pains of imprisonment in addition to the deprivation of liberty.

A good illustration of the pains of imprisonment is the comparison between the food and hygiene items offered to prisons and to other institutions. Basic comfort items are difficult to come by in prison, and families and friends who want to help inmates naturally would like to supplement these. One of the simplest ways to send a package to an inmate in the U.S., without having to face searches and confiscations, is to do so through My Care Pack, an internet service offered by Canteen. Canteen also offers food services for institutions and vending machines. I encourage you to pick a facility and browse through the products. Here, for example, is a $17.95 gift pack:

Most products sold by Canteen are quite cheap and basic. Still, in prisons dominated by gangs and a strong illicit economy, a pack like this might provide a lot of comfort. The profit margin for Canteen is significant (grad student readers will be interested in examining the price of instant ramen), but the service provided is hassle-free, in the sense that delivery is relatively painless, and freedom from administrative searches is a good thing. Obviously, other Canteen clients (restaurants, institutions, and NASCAR) get an entirely different set of offerings, for a different price range. And, naturally, prison economy does not equal communism; prisoners with more means, and more affluent supporters outside prison walls, will be living better, comfortwise, than prisoners who lack friends and relatives, or whose friends and relatives cannot afford to furnish them with supplementary goods. These inequalities, and the importance of creature comforts, are some of what fuels the prison economy, which is to a large extent driven by supply and demand for drugs (see this little piece from Prison Life Magazine). Again, this is nothing new; Lloyd McCorkle and Richard Korn provided the foundation for a discussion of the prison’s internal economic system in their classic 1965 piece Resocialization Within Walls.

This commentary should not be taken as a simplistic critique regarding the meager offerings to prisoners, or a cry for more coffee brands, but rather as a way to conceptualize the fact that simple comforts, like readily available brand snacks, are not readily available to inmates. Another aspect is the capitalist concept of choice. The dazzling array of, say, toothpaste types, does not exist for inmates. Whether or not this should be a part of punishment is not really the question (admittedly, one could not accommodate full access to capitalist economy from within walls even if we wanted to); the point is that it is, de facto, part of the prison experience, which is often hidden from commentators and critics.

Craig Haney, author of Reforming Punishment, will be on the opening panel of our upcoming conference.

Stimulating Corrections: Federal and State Levels

image courtesy ebudget.com

As many of us were relieved to find out this week, the State of California FINALLY has a budget, (albeit dependent upon voters) of which corrections expenditures constitute 7.3%. A summary is here and the full breakdown by numbers is here. As in all state agencies, you’ll note cuts across the board for all departments. Several things in particular that stand out, in no particular order:

  • The general budget decreases from $431,285 in 2008-2009 to $394,996 in 2009-2010.
  • Treatment programs are cut down from $83,059 in 2008-2009 to $58,937 in 2009-2010. The cuts will be particularly felt in mental health treatment programs, which will be losing about 60% of their budget. However, the cuts in medical services are far less dramatic.
  • Prison security will suffer much less than treatment programs: from $91,651 in 2008-2009 to $87,077 in 2009-2010.
  • There seem to be less cuts to the juvenile justice system. Educational programs for juveniles will not suffer very much, and juvenile parole services will be funded at almost the same level. There’s even a modest increase in medical services to juveniles.

And, on the federal level, our friends over at the Criminal Sentencing blog have observed that the stimulus favors punitive over rehabilitative programs. Others at TalkLeft have numbers to support these arguments. This doesn’t seem to reflect what we have been promised by the White House.