May 15, 2014

Senator Kevin de Le!n 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 Le!n, 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 but are simply suspected of being in an ill-defined Security Threat Group.
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.
We oppose codifying into California law a widely criticized and untested policy of placing
prisoners in solitary confinement for several years based upon mere alleged membership in an ill-
defined Security Threat Group when they have engaged in no serious rule or law violations.
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
Letter to CA State Senate Appropriations Committee
May 15, 2014
Page 2


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 dont 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 membership in a Security Threat Group 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 prisoners being released from solitary confinement after several years, it essentially requires
that prisoners disavow gang membership and activities rather than focusing on whether they have
violated any rules while in solitary confinement. Whether or not they are actually in gangs, prisoners
for obvious reasons refuse to disavow gang association in any way, a central part of SB 892s
approach. In addition, the standards and procedures to validate prisoners 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. 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 delete language codifying CDCRs widely criticized gang
validation policy and insert language prohibiting the placement of prisoners in solitary confinement
who have not engaged in serious wrongdoing. We recommend that the bill also include language
requiring independent corroboration of an inmate's statements 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,
Sign-ons to April 25 letter to Senator De Leon, to be confirmed for this letter with additional
individuals/groups:

California Families Against Solitary Confinement
Letter to CA State Senate Appropriations Committee
May 15, 2014
Page 3


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 Californias 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)