A multi-racial group of prisoners is calling for an end to all racial hostilities in California prisons and jails, and a “return to a rehabilitative-type system of meaningful programs/privileges, including lifer conjugal visits.”
The group said, “all racial group hostilities need to be at an end…and if personal issues arise between individuals, people need to do all they can to exhaust all diplomatic means to settle such disputes; do not allow personal, individual issues to escalate into racial group issues!!”
Terry Thornton, CDCR deputy press secretary, said the department “is hopeful that the inmates are sincere in their desire to reduce violence in prisons. CDCR’s mission to operate its prisons safely and humanely is paramount and offenders should also be accountable for their own behavior and take responsibility for reducing violence.”
The advocates are serving time at California’s super-max facility, Pelican Bay. Some were part of a class-action lawsuit against Gov. Jerry Brown and the state’s top prison official, Matthew Cate, alleging their living conditions produced “harmful and predictable psychological deterioration” by keeping them “for an unconscionably long period of time without meaningful review of their placement solitary confinement.”
In the letter intended to reach all California prisoners, the group wrote, “we must all hold strong to our mutual agreement from this point on and focus our time, attention and energy on mutual causes beneficial to all of us and our best interests.”
The prisoner advocates inside Pelican Bay are:
- Todd Ashker, C58191, D1-119
- Arturo Castellanos, C17275, D1-121
- Sitawa Nantambu Jamaa (Dewberry) C35671, D1-117
- Antonio Guillen, P81948, D2-106
- Danny Troxell, B76578, D1- 120
- George Franco, D46556, D4- 217
- Ronnie Yandell, V27927, D4- 215
- Paul Redd, B72683, D2-117
- James Baridi Williamson, D-34288 D4-107
- Alfred Sandoval, D61000, D4-214
- Louis Powell, B59864, D1- 104
- Alex Yrigollen, H32421, D2- 204
- Gabriel Huerta, C80766, D3- 222
- Frank Clement, D07919, D3- 116
- Raymond Chavo Perez, K12922, D1-219
- James Mario Perez, B48186, D3-124
