PRISONS: CONDITIONS BREED NEUROSIS, VIOLENCE Failed policies likely to lead to more violence

SACRAMENTO, Calif. – Prison reform advocates blame failed public safety policy as the cause for recent inmate riots and ongoing problems throughout California’s prison system. Critics point to staff incompetence, instigated security breaches, overcrowding conditions and a continuous violation of rights as contributing factors to the heightened violence.

This type of environment feeds neurosis and breeds dangerous behavior. “Human beings have some very basic needs which must be met if they are to sustain their mental health,” says Dr. Terry A. Kupers, M.D., psychiatrist, Professor at The Wright Institute, and author of Prison Madness: The Mental Health Crisis Behind Bars (Wiley, 1999). “Those needs include safety and security, food, clothing, quality contact with loved ones, decent medical and mental health care, and the opportunity to learn and be productive. When these needs are not met, emotional problems emerge, and can make individuals more prone to angry outbursts. Prisoners at San Quentin are obviously being denied adequate medical care, they are not receiving adequate nutrition, and visiting has been incrementally restricted over the last few years – all these developments underlie recent unrest.”

In the past few months more than a dozen California prisons have had violent riots which have injured both inmates and staff. Guards put rival gangs together, leave security doors open and push inmates to their breaking point through abuse; they should share in the responsibility for these riots.

Prisons are deprivation environments. Loss of liberty is supposed to be the entire punishment but guards throw-in missed meals, excessive cell confinements, lack of privacy, ongoing derogatory verbal comments and occasional beatings sometime for no reason at all.

“It’s not enough that these uneducated guards get paid more than teachers and they mostly just sit around all day,” says Matt Gray, Director of Voters Corrections Reform Coalition. “Some of the guards have to also bully and taunt those who are under their care and custody.”

A recent riot at Folsom State prison resulted when two rival inmates were mixed out on the yard. A video tape of the incident has an audio feed and one of the staff members is ordering another staff member to "wait" before intervening and ending the riot. As a result, a warden resigned and some staff members were reassigned, but nothing else was done to prevent it from happening again.

In addition to denying basic needs, riots in the prison system demonstrate that prison staff has failed to do their job. The job of every correctional employee is to protect public safety and the safety of those under its care and custody. The riots are a product of the influenced and inflicted environment within our prisons.


About Voters Corrections Reform Coalition
Voters Corrections Reform Coalition is a privately held, non-partisan umbrella organization representing the prison reform community at large. Its members and member organizations are dedicated to improving public safety through smart and effective measures which utilize tax dollars. For additional information, visit www.CorrectionsReform.com, or mail your comments and questions to Webmaster@CorrectionsReform.com or to the following address: 1029 K Street, Suite 25, Sacramento, CA 95814.