All California prisoners in Segregated Housing Units received notice that those who no longer meet the criteria confirming gang involvement will be released from SHU units. Four advocacy groups signed the memo and prison officials confirmed its accuracy.
Prison officials are planning to review the files of every prisoner currently housed in the state’s four SHU units and retroactively apply new conditions that determine who is housed in the facilities and for how long.
California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation Undersecretary Scott Kernan retired shortly after directly negotiating this agreement with Pelican Bay prisoners to end their second hunger strike in three months.
“Gangs [are] one of the biggest problems that the prison system faces,” Kernan said in a radio interview.
Conversely, Kernan acknowledged, “We weren’t consistent in all the SHU’s and so [the striking prisoners] were right in some of their issues.”
According to department data obtained by California Watch, 79 percent of the prisoners held in the segregated units are classified as prison gang associates rather than full-fledged members.