The California prison system violates the U.S. Constitution when it places inmates on lockdown based on their race after a riot, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.
The practice violates the 14th Amendment according to court papers filed in October.
Gangs inside California prisons are generally structured along racial lines, with riots often occurring between gangs of different races or within that one race, reports The Associated Press.
As a way to curtail any further violence, and as a form of punishment, prison officials usually lock down all inmates of the same ethnicity as those involved in the melee, regardless of whether they were involved in the disturbance, The AP report states.
The policy is “not based on any individual analysis of prisoner behavior, but rather on generalized fears of racial violence,” according to the court documents signed by the chiefs of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division.
Court papers point out that California Department of Correction and Rehabilitation officials are aware that most inmates in the prison system have no gang affiliations.
The Justice Department contends that current policy is too vaguely worded to be constitutional.
The court determined that corrections officials could adopt race-neutral policies, such as only locking up those inmates that are suspected of being directly involved in the incident, or placing the entire unit where the riot occurred on lockdown. In addition, the court found that the state could make a better effort at identifying those inmates in advance who are involved with gangs and more likely to participate in race-based violence, and then separate them from the general population.
Terry Thornton, spokesman for the corrections department, pointed out that the state’s policy is not to make a determination for a lockdown based “solely on the inmate’s race or ethnicity.” According to state law, corrections officials “shall not target a specific racial or ethnic group unless it is necessary and narrowly tailored to further a compelling government interest.”
The lawsuit was originally filed in 2008 by Robert Mitchell, an inmate at High Desert State Prison in Susanville. Mitchell was placed on lockdown following a disturbance at the prison.
“They lock down people who were not involved in the incident, not involved in the gang and just happened to have the same skin color,” Rebekah Evenson told The Associated Press. Evenson is an attorney with the Prison Law Office, a nonprofit civil rights group which is representing the inmates in this suit.
The Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, on average, has more than 600 lockdowns a year throughout the prison system, Evenson said, adding approximately 200 of those are based on the race of the involved inmates. There are no other states where there is a similar policy, Evenson added.
