An investigation into the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation has uncovered horrific cases of deprivation and extreme brutality against black prisoners that include isolation, beatings, withholding medical treatment and routine use of racial slurs against black inmates at High Desert State Prison and other California prisons.
The California Senate said they will investigate allegations revealed by the Sacramento Bee into what is happening in the largest prison system in America.
“We are deeply concerned about the allegations of abuse and racist treatment of inmates at California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation behavior management units at several institutions covered in the recent Sacramento Bee series,” Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento, and Public Safety Committee Chairman Mark Leno, D-San Francisco, wrote in a letter to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, The Sacramento Bee reported Wednesday.
“We are even more troubled … by the accusations that investigations into these allegations were either ignored, or worse, covered up,” Steinberg and Leno wrote.
Publicly, Schwarzenegger demands an immediate and comprehensive inventory of the processes and prosecution of those whom have operated outside of the law.
Corrections researchers concur with the governor’s sentiments and want alleged abuses, which apparently were suppressed, exposed.
“Prisons must be managed for the safety of staff and inmates and to rehabilitate offenders,” Schwarzenegger said Tuesday. “The (corrections) department has zero tolerance for abuse and we support their vigorous and comprehensive review of the matter.” –terry shropshire
