Corruption at California's state prison, S.A.T.F. in Corcoran (New Corcoran State Prison) continues unchecked despite inmates' efforts to expose and stop these practices of corruption. The inmate grievance system in California's prisons contains many problems. Most of these problems with California's prisoner grievance system are created by corruption in administration and staff that maintain these prisons. These types of corruption include complaints being lost or meeting with long delays (caused by the complaints being buried in bureaucratic red tape). Many complaints are even rejected or the inmates are denied access to the inmate grievance system.
Many of these grievances concern living conditions, but the grievances can vary greatly. Some of these grievances involve staff corruption such as staff assaults on inmates, illegal prison conditions, and oppressive action by prison administrators. Some prime examples of administrative corruption in SATF/State Prison in Corcoran happened in early June of 2002. The prison administration on a high security yard let rival gang members with administrative created tension into dayrooms and recorded with cameras the use of a new experimental rubber shot (for 35mm guns) on these inmates and repeated this experiment a few days later. Staff assaults on inmates at this prison are usually covered up by charging the involved inmate with battery on staff and placement of that inmate in administrative segregation. The prison administration very often will place segments of non-involved inmate population on long lock-downs as a punitive reprisal against that inmate group, even when there are no safety concerns in that prison yard. These inmates are confined to their cells for months at a time with no exercise yard, or other basic necessities like receiving monthly purchases of cosmetic items such as soap, shampoo, and deodorant. These illegal activities by prison officials go unabated because the prison administration controls the inmate grievance system. Therefore, it can be very difficult for prison inmates to call attention to these illegal practices.
Some prison inmates at SATF/State Prison in Corcoran tried to stop this corruption by the prison administration by writing letters but to no avail. Prison inmates have little recourse and letters to California's Inspector General or to state assembly members usually produce no results. The only recourse left to these inmates is to instigate legal litigation in form of civil suits and petitions for writs of habeas corpus.
-- a prisoner in California (SATF), December 2002
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