STATE PRISON VIOLENCE PERSISTS, REPORT SHOWS

Corrections Department Defends Prevention Efforts

SACRAMENTO - Three prisoners were shot to death by guards
breaking up inmate fights, and a dozen other inmates died in clashes
between prisoners as violence persisted in state prisons last year.

The number of deaths attributed to violence was just one fewer than in
1997, and non-lethal fights among inmates in California's overcrowded
prisons increased over the previous year, a recently released state
Corrections Department report shows.

While acknowledging new department policies aimed at curbing the use
of deadly force by guards, prisoner rights advocates criticized state
corrections officials.

"We're here to protect prisoner rights, and you can't get much less
rights than getting killed," said Donald Specter, director of the
Prison Law Office in San Rafael. "There's not enough space to separate
out the prisoners who need to be separated."

California, the nation's largest corrections system, houses 161,000
inmates in its 33 prisons, about twice as many as they were built to
hold.

"Our goal is to have no violence in the prisons, but I don't know if
that's realistic or not, considering who you're dealing with," said
Corrections Department spokeswoman Terry Thornton.

She cited violence-prevention efforts that include work training,
substance abuse treatment and ombudsman programs.

Inmate deaths for 1998 and 1997 were the highest since 1987, when 20
inmates were killed. In the intervening years, the death tolls ranged
from four to 13.

California's prison system is the deadliest in the United States,
according to the Criminal Justice Institute, an independent research
group in Middletown, Conn.

In 1997, while California had 16 violent inmate deaths, Texas reported
nine and the federal prison system 10.

A total of 443 inmates have died violently in California since 1970.
Of those, 52 were shot by guards breaking up fights, and four were
shot while trying to escape.

Last year, 12 violent inmate deaths were at the hands of fellow
inmates, four by stabbing, two by beating and six by strangling.

The total of three inmates shot by guards breaking up inmate fights
was up from one the previous year.

The Corrections Department has changed its policies after allegations
that guards abused inmates and successful lawsuits against the state
over inmate deaths and injuries.

April 1, the department barred guards from using high-powered rifles
in all but extreme cases of inmate violence, and it is exploring new,
non-lethal ways to keep the peace.

The 1998 deaths occurred at eight of the state's prisons that house
some of the most violent inmates. Three each were at Pelican Bay near
Crescent City, High Desert near Susanville and the new Folsom prison;
two at Soledad; and one each at Corcoran, Vacaville, Calipatria and
Pleasant Valley.

Assaults and batteries between inmates that did not result in deaths
totaled 6,392, up 167 over the previous year. About a third involved
use of prisoner-fashioned weapons, as they did in 1997.

Inmates injured 2,870 staff members in assaults in 1998, 281 more than
in the previous year.

Lance Corcoran, vice president of the California Correctional Peace
Officers Association, said his union is concerned about the rise in
assaults on staff members.

"There's a number of factors -- overcrowding and we're getting
younger, more violent criminal offenders with longer sentences who
have less to lose," he said.