“On a regular basis, prisoners can be heard screaming and yelling in fits,” while “security gates and cell doors constantly slam open and close,” according to court papers filed in a federal District Court in Northern California by six men on Death Row.
The class action lawsuit was filed on behalf of all prisoners housed inside the Adjustment Center at San Quentin State Prison, who spend 21 to 24 hours per day behind the solid steel doors of cells that measure approximately six feet wide and nine feet long.
No inmates are held in cells for hours a day, because they’re entitled to 10 hours a week in the prison exercise yard, the CDCR press office reports.
“Some days … all you can hear all day long is screaming, hollering, and banging from prisoners who can no longer endure the isolation,” according to the June 17 lawsuit. “High ceilings and the enclosed steel cells in the unit amplify this noise. The cacophony continues throughout the day and night.”
The lawsuit claims prisoners remain in the Adjustment Center with no exposure to natural light, no access to religious services, and devoid of recreational, vocational and educational programming. They are denied contact visits and regular telephone calls.
Prisoners subjected to extreme isolation suffer from a host of psychological disorders, including anxiety and nervousness, headaches, lethargy and chronic tiredness, trouble sleeping, obsessive ruminations and oversensitivity to stimuli as a result of isolation, the lawsuit claims.
The lawsuit further alleges that prison officials persistently and intentionally deny these men the normal human contact and socialization necessary for a person’s mental and physical well-being.
All men sentenced to death in California must begin their incarceration in the Adjustment Center. A few remain there indefinitely; some return for lengthy and indefinite stays.
The plaintiffs are:
Bobby Lopez is a 50-year-old prisoner. He has been housed in the Adjustment Center for 17 years. Lopez has been on Death Row since November 1997.
Marco Topete is a 42-year-old prisoner. He has been housed in the Adjustment Center for three years. Topete has been on Death Row since February 2012.
John Myles is a 43-year-old prisoner. He has been housed in the Adjustment Center for 11 years. Myles has been on Death Row since May 2001.
Ricardo Roldan is a 44-year-old prisoner. He has been housed in the Adjustment Center for eight years. Roldan has been on Death Row since January 1993.
John Gonzales is a 38-year-old prisoner. He has been housed in the Adjustment Center for four years. Gonzales has been on Death Row since December 1998.
Ronaldo Medrano Ayala is a 65-year-old prisoner. He has been housed in the Adjustment Center for 26 years. Ayala has been on Death Row since February 1989.
A new security check system, Guard One, adds to the noise in the Adjustment Center. It is designed to account for correctional officers’ suicide checks. The system uses a hand-held wand and a sensor affixed to cell doors that must connect to register that a suicide check was conducted.
Every 30 minutes, correctional officers must visually check each prisoner in the Adjustment Center and then touch the end of the wand to the sensor as confirmation of a suicide check. In practice, the lawsuit claims, guards slam the wand against the sensor creating a loud bang against the cell door.
Some plaintiffs say they wake up whenever the Guard One check is conducted, resulting in sleep for 30-minute increments at best.
Topete says he is awakened every time the Guard One check is performed and experiences exhaustion daily as a result of constant sleep interruption.
Ayala says the sleep deprivation makes him agitated and immediately angry at any little thing.
Lopez says he feels drained of energy all the time.
With the exception of men in special health care or mental health care management programs, the men of Death Row are housed in one of three units at San Quentin: Northern Segregation, East Block and the Adjustment Center
Condemned prisoners are classified as Grade A or Grade B, based on the vague standard of whether they present a “high risk” of violence or escape or are “difficult management cases,” according to the lawsuit.
Grade A classified prisoners can work, get an advanced education, call their families every day, touch their loved ones during 2 ½-hour visits, receive quarterly packages and special purchase orders, order additional food and recreation items from the commissary, create art, recreate with equipment, access the vast San Quentin Library and worship in group settings while on Death Row.
Prisoners classified as Grade B are denied all possibilities for work, enrichment and socialization. They receive only minimal recreation; limited, non-contact visiting; access to a book cart; and only an annual package and special order, the means by which they can receive new clothes, a radio or a television.
All the prisoners in the Adjustment Center are Grade B.
The lawsuit alleges that there is no meaningful review of plaintiffs’ Grade B classification and there is no reasonable means of earning their way into Grade A.
Plaintiffs live with the constant knowledge that, despite their compliance with rules, prison officials have almost complete and unchecked control over their release from the Adjustment Center, the lawsuit states.
As of April, there were 93 condemned men housed in the Adjustment Center.
Nearly 78 percent of the condemned population has been on Death Row for a decade or more.
Between 1976, when the national death penalty moratorium was lifted, and 2006 when it was put back in place, California executed 13 men. California has not executed a condemned prisoner since 2006. The average time they spent on Death Row was 17.5 years.
It takes approximately 25 years to exhaust death penalty appeals.
