REPORT: PRISON VIOLENCE KILLED 15 STATE INMATES LAST YEAR

SACRAMENTO (AP) -- 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 due to violence was just one less 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 build 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 that
total, 52 were shot by guards who were breaking up fights and four were shot
while attempting to escape.

Last year, a dozen of the violent inmate deaths were at the hands of fellow
inmates, four by stabbings, two by beatings, 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 following allegations
that guards abused inmates and successful lawsuits against the state over
inmate deaths and injuries.

On April 1, the department barred guards from using high-powered rifles in
all but extreme cases of inmate violence, and is exploring new non-lethal
ways of keeping 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 new Folsom prison; two at Salinas Valley;
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 in 1998 injured 2,870 staff members in assaults, 281 more than 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.

"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.