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Prisons prepare to integrate cellmates
SF Gate ^ | May 27, 2008 | Tanya Schevitz

Posted on 05/29/2008 5:38:55 AM PDT by forkinsocket

San Quentin State Prison inmate Lexy Good is white, hangs out with whites on the prison exercise yard and must be careful not to associate with blacks and Latinos. No cards, no basketball outside the color lines.

Those are the unwritten inmate rules of prison life. People stick to their own race.

Good, who's doing a short stretch for receiving stolen property, likes it that way.

"We segregate amongst ourselves because I'd rather hang out with white people, and blacks would rather hang out with people of their own race," said Good, 33, of Walnut Creek. "Look at suburbia. Look at Oakland. Look at Beverly Hills. People in society self-segregate."

Soon that may change in the prisons.

San Quentin and 30 or so other state penal facilities are gearing up to carry out a federal court mediation agreement for integrating double cells and ending the use of race as the sole determining factor in making cell assignments.

Men in California's prisons have long been segregated in cells to quell racial tensions.

But Good, along with California's other 155,700 male inmates, may soon be forced to live in a 4-by-9-foot cell with an inmate of a different race.

A 1995 lawsuit filed by a black California inmate, Garrison Johnson, said that the California Department of Corrections' practice of segregating prisoners by race violated his rights. A 2005 ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court led to federal court mediation and the agreement that double cells would be desegregated.

While most inmates and correctional officials agree that it is a noble idea, many fear the worst.

"They should be thinking about what kind of war they are going to start," said a San Quentin inmate who identified himself only as S. Styles, 36, of Vallejo.

(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; US: California
KEYWORDS: california; diversity; integration; prisons; race
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1 posted on 05/29/2008 5:38:55 AM PDT by forkinsocket
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To: forkinsocket

Prisons prepare to integrate cellmates ... what could possibly go wrong?


2 posted on 05/29/2008 5:42:52 AM PDT by NonValueAdded ("Just because you're running for President doesn't mean that you are the center of the universe")
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To: NonValueAdded

Liberal do gooders are about to find out.


3 posted on 05/29/2008 5:48:30 AM PDT by Graybeard58
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To: NonValueAdded
Prisons prepare to integrate cellmates ... what could possibly go wrong?

It will certainly cut down on prison overcrowding... There will be a nearly 50% reduction of the number of inmates surviving incarcerated at those prisons...

Mark

4 posted on 05/29/2008 5:50:25 AM PDT by MarkL (Al Gore: The Greenhouse Gasbag! (heard on Bob Brinker's Money Talk))
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To: forkinsocket

Liberals are INSANE! Integrate CELL MATES, for example sticking a CRIP in the same sell as an ARYAN BROTHERHOOD member? My God, how could ANYONE be STUPID enough not to see where this is going to lead?


5 posted on 05/29/2008 5:50:46 AM PDT by piytar
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To: MarkL

Yeah, but the overcrowding in the infirmary will be epic.


6 posted on 05/29/2008 5:51:45 AM PDT by NonValueAdded ("Just because you're running for President doesn't mean that you are the center of the universe")
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To: forkinsocket
155,000 + prison population I had no idea there were that many. My guess would have been 20 thousand. The big number will be sure to come down after cell integration. Whose crazy idea is this??
7 posted on 05/29/2008 5:52:35 AM PDT by BatGuano
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To: piytar
sticking a CRIP in the same sell as an ARYAN BROTHERHOOD member? My God, how could ANYONE be STUPID enough not to see where this is going to lead?

Then, mix in the election results of Obama winning (empowering the black inmate and enraging the white inmate), or Obama losing (enraging the black inmate and empowering the white inmate).

8 posted on 05/29/2008 5:54:50 AM PDT by TexasNative2000 (Is this tagline governed by McCain-Feingold?)
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To: BatGuano
Whose crazy idea is this??

Citizens Reducing by Anymeans Prison Populations or CRAPP. You too can be a crapp-head by sending in the monthly dues.

9 posted on 05/29/2008 5:56:52 AM PDT by BipolarBob (Yes I backed over the vampire but I swear I didn't see it in my rearview mirror.)
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To: forkinsocket
"A 1995 lawsuit filed by a black California inmate, Garrison Johnson, said that the California Department of Corrections' practice of segregating prisoners by race violated his rights."

Sounds like ol' Garrison Johnson wanted some fresh white meat.

10 posted on 05/29/2008 5:57:14 AM PDT by avacado
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To: NonValueAdded

They should do the opposite - segregate prisons. Most prison violence is racial-gang related. But that would not be PC, would it? Better to have the guards constantly threatened by racial violence than dealing with the issue in a coherent manner.


11 posted on 05/29/2008 6:02:37 AM PDT by dirtboy
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To: forkinsocket
You would think the Federal government would have more important matters to attend to than this sort of thing, but that aside, how can someone be so stupid as to suggest doing something that has the potential to cause so much violence and chaos? Prisoners still have human rights, and they are entitled to be safe during their incarceration.
12 posted on 05/29/2008 6:03:18 AM PDT by pnh102 (Save America - Ban Ethanol Now!)
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To: forkinsocket
You right wing neanderthals need to get with the program.

The self-congratulatory feeling of doing the right thing, regardless of the resulting dead/injured prison staff and prisoners, is much more important than the fallout of doing the right thing.

Hell, even the Mexicans don't get along with each other - the northern Mexicans cannot be housed with southern Mexicans because there will be violence.

13 posted on 05/29/2008 6:04:47 AM PDT by Lizavetta
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Getcha popcorn boys, this should be interesting.

In a nut shell, we can see here the difference between liberal and conservative thought.

Liberals believe everyone is good, they won’t game the system, and they will do what’s right.

Conservatives also believe everyone is invariably good, but we know that if given the chance they will game the system, so don’t give them that opportunity.

Now, we have a situation where if left alone that things would stay the same with no one getting hurt, but liberals don’t like it when people are left to their own devices and do what’s natural, no, they want to make people do what they think is right, and in the end, there’s no good that can come from that.


14 posted on 05/29/2008 6:05:50 AM PDT by gjones77
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To: forkinsocket

These idiot judges don’t do any research before issuing these moronic rulings, do they? Like, eh, maybe watch a little National Geographic “Lockdown”?

You don’t have to be a rocket surgeon (or a brain scientist) to figure out that this is pretty much like mixing gasoline and fire. It’s not going to end well.

}:-)4


15 posted on 05/29/2008 6:06:51 AM PDT by Moose4 (http://moosedroppings.wordpress.com -- Because 20 million self-important blogs just aren't enough.)
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To: piytar

> Liberals are INSANE! Integrate CELL MATES, for example sticking a CRIP in the same sell as an ARYAN BROTHERHOOD member? My God, how could ANYONE be STUPID enough not to see where this is going to lead?

When you think about it carefully, it is an ingenious idea!


16 posted on 05/29/2008 6:11:19 AM PDT by DieHard the Hunter (Is mise an ceann-cinnidh. Cha ghéill mi do dhuine. Fàg am bealach.)
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To: forkinsocket

Wow how many people will die from this because they’ll go back to old prison rules?


17 posted on 05/29/2008 6:12:29 AM PDT by MinorityRepublican
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To: forkinsocket
This may be the government's way to end over crowded prisons, let the inmates kill each other off.
18 posted on 05/29/2008 6:15:38 AM PDT by 2001convSVT ("People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence")
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To: MinorityRepublican

The next big problem is that whitey is vastly outnumbered and there won’t be enough white meat to go around.


19 posted on 05/29/2008 6:16:41 AM PDT by umgud
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To: umgud

Well, the White Man is the Devil like Malcolm X used to say.


20 posted on 05/29/2008 6:28:56 AM PDT by MinorityRepublican
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