May 15, 2014 Senator Kevin de Leόn Senator Loni Hancock Chair Senate Appropriations Comm. State Capitol, Room 2082 State Capitol, Room 5108 Sacramento, CA 95814 Sacramento, CA 95814 Senator Jerry Hill Senator Ricardo Lara State Capitol, Room 5064 State Capitol, Room 5050 Sacramento, CA 95814 Sacramento, CA 95814 Senator Alex Padilla Senator Darrell Steinberg State Capitol, Room 4038 State Capitol, Room 205 Sacramento, CA 95814 Sacramento, CA 95814 Senator Mimi Walters (Vice Chair) Senator Ted Gaines State Capitol, Room 3086 State Capitol, Room 3070 Sacramento, CA 95814 Sacramento, CA 95814 Re: SB 892 (solitary confinement)

Dear Senators de Leόn, Walters, Hill, Lara, Padilla, Steinberg, Gaines, and Hancock:

This letter is submitted on behalf of the undersigned organizations and individuals. The California Families Against Solitary Confinement (CFASC) and the Center for Human Rights and Constitutional Law (CHRCL), which represents approximately 450 California prisoners in solitary confinement, as well as many other organizations, have previously communicated to Senator Hancock deep concerns with certain provisions in S.B. 892 with suggested amendments. A redlined version of the suggested changes is attached. We have been informed that our concerns will be considered but to date have received no response indicating whether Senator Hancock will seek to amend her bill to address these matters.

We are writing to explain exactly how harmful Senate Bill 892 in its present form will be to California prisoners in solitary confinement, how costly implementation will be to the State, and how if enacted the bill will codify for the first time in history the widely condemned and ill-considered policy of placing prisoners in solitary confinement for many years who have engaged in no serious wrong-doing whatsoever but are simply suspected of being in a gang. This policy has been rejected by numerous States and the federal Government (with no adverse consequences and substantial cost savings), and has been severely criticized by prison security experts, mental health specialists, members of Congress, and groups including the American Bar Association, Amnesty International, and the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture. This unsound policy has caused three costly hunger strikes by thousands of California prisoners in solitary confinement. Enactment of the bill will lead to further hunger strikes, high costs, and drawn out litigation.

To be clear, we have no disagreement with the concept that certain prisoners who have engaged in serious wrongdoing may be placed in some form of solitary confinement for defined periods of time. Every state in the country and the U.S. Bureau of Prisons have adopted such policies. What we oppose is codifying into California law a widely criticized and untested policy of placing prisoners in solitary confinement for several years based upon mere alleged gang membership when they have engaged in no serious wrongdoing.

Letter to CA State Senate Appropriations Committee May 15, 2014 Page 2    

To date the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) has produced no data showing that placing thousands of prisoners in solitary confinement based upon mere alleged gang membership with no accompanying serious rule violations increases prison security. Indeed, some sections of SB 892 would require CDCR to produce such data for review by the legislature and we support these provisions. However, legislation on whether to codify the policy of placing prisoners in solitary confinement for mere alleged gang membership is premature and should be deferred until this data is collected and considered by the legislature, both from public policy and fiscal standpoints.

Although SB 892 contains some positive provisions to which we don’t object (for example treatment of prisoners with mental illnesses and data collection), it includes critical provisions codifying “gang validation,” moving California in the opposite direction of modern prison security trends adopted in many other states and US Bureau of Prisons. The cost of implementation will run into the tens of millions of dollars while (1) perpetuating the inhumane treatment of prisoners, (2) severely compromising the goal of rehabilitation, (3) encouraging costly legal challenges that could drag on for years, and (4) causing hundreds of “validated” prisoners to suffer severe physical and mental disabilities with added costs of treatment.

We would endorse SB 892 if it prohibited the placement of prisoners in long-term solitary confinement for mere alleged gang membership with no accompanying serious wrongdoing. This is the approach taken in AB 1652 now before the Assembly Committee on Appropriations. While SB 892 proposes a “step down” program for “validated” prisoners which may result in released from solitary confinement after several years, the program as proposed will be ineffective. CDCR already follows an almost identical step-down program but only a small number of “validated” gang members have been released from solitary through the program. Whether or not they are actually in gangs, prisoners for obvious reasons refuse to “disavow” gang association in any way, shape or form, a central part of CDCR’s and SB 892’s approach. In addition, the standards and procedures to “validate” gang members are so discretionary and the factors relied upon (including other inmate uncorroborated testimony) so broad as to result in a significant number of erroneous “validation” determinations. Prisoners and prison reform experts likewise agree that the minimal efforts in SB 892 to “improve” the due process rights of “validated” prisoners will be costly while having little practical effect on prisoners’ rights. Overall, SB 892 will leave California with the largest population of prisoners in solitary confinement of any country in the world, or any state in the United States, at enormous cost to the taxpayers.

We respectfully request that the Senate Appropriations Committee not support SB 892 in its present form unless amended to (1) delete language codifying CDCR’s widely criticized “gang validation” policy, (2) insert language prohibiting placement in solitary confinement unless a prisoner has engaged in serious misconduct, and (3) require independent corroboration of an inmate's testimony used to place a prisoner in solitary confinement.

In the event you have any questions, we urge you to please contact Irene Huerta, California Families Against Solitary Confinement, 310-562-1144, or Peter Schey, President, Center for Human Rights and Constitutional Law, who is representing over 450 prisoners in solitary confinement, 323-251-3223. Thank you for your consideration.

Respectfully,

Letter to CA State Senate Appropriations Committee May 15, 2014 Page 3    Sign-ons to April 25 letter to Senator De Leon, to be confirmed for this letter: California Families Against Solitary Confinement : Center for Human Rights and Constitutional Law Center for Prisoner Health and Human Rights Centro Legal de la Raza Community Futures Council on American-Islamic Relations - California (CAIR) Families to Amend California’s Three Strikes (FACTS) Hermandad Mexicana Humanitarian Foundation Homeboy Industries Homies Unidos Interfaith Communities United for Justice and Peace International Longshore and Warehouse Union, Local 13 (ILWU) Justice Now League of United Latin American Citizens Mexican American Political Association (MAPA) Students Against Mass Incarceration (UC) William C. Velasquez Institute Father Gregory Boyle, Executive Director, Homeboy Industries Rabbi Joshua Brumbach, Ahavat Zion Synagogue, Beverly Hills, CA. Dolores Canales (son incarcerated in Pelican Bay SHU) Dennis R. Childs, Ph.D., Associate Professor, University of California, San Diego Maria Elena Durazo, Executive Secretary-Treasurer, Los Angeles County Federation of Labor (AFL-CIO) Mike Farrell (Actor-Activist) Mike Garcia, President, Service Employees International Union- United Service Workers West (SEIU-West) Irene Huerta (spouse incarcerated in Pelican Bay SHU) James Lafferty, Executive Director, National Lawyers Guild – Los Angeles Chapter Sharon Martinas (prison reform advocate) Sister Elisa Martinez, MSW Heidi L. Rummel, Co-Director of Post-Conviction Justice Project (PCJP) Kimberly Starr (prison reform advocate) Sarah Torres (prison reform advocate) Kimberly Rohrbach (prison reform advocate) Beth Witrogen (life partner incarcerated in Pelican Bay SHU)