SHOOTINGS IN PRISONS CONTINUE

High rate of killings by state guards

Despite efforts to cut down on prison shootings, guards in California
continue to kill and wound inmates engaged in fistfights and melees, a
practice unheard of in every other state.

Since late 1994, when the Department of Corrections shooting policy came
under criticism for its role in widespread inmate deaths, 12 prisoners have
been shot dead and 32 wounded by guards firing assault rifles to stop fights.

In all other states combined, statistics and interviews show, only six
inmates were fatally shot by guards in the same period -- all of them while
trying to escape. In no other state do guards shoot at inmate fighters,
choosing instead to break up brawls and melees with pepper spray, tactical
teams or warning shots.

Even in Texas, a state whose sprawling prison system is often compared to
California's for its hard-nosed tactics and violent gangs, correctional
officers shot and killed only one inmate -- an escapee -- during the past
four years.

None of California's 12 recent fatal shootings took place at Corcoran State
Prison, where seven inmates were shot dead from 1989 to 1994, making it the
deadliest prison in America.

The 44 fatal and serious shootings since late 1994 have occurred at
maximum-security prisons up and down the state. Only one of the inmates was
armed with a weapon or was inflicting serious injury at the time the fatal
shot was fired, a Los Angeles Times review of the cases has found. No
corrections officer was facing peril, and not a single inmate was
attempting to escape.

More than three-quarters of the shootings were deemed proper by Department
of Corrections review boards. Only three gunners received any form of
discipline -- two were given reprimands and one served a 180-day suspension.

Drop in shootings noted

``In the vast majority of cases in California, there's really no excuse for
shooting,'' said Lanson Newsome, a former deputy commissioner of Georgia
state corrections and now a consultant who has reviewed dozens of
California prison shootings. ``It's just the way they've been trained.''

State corrections director Cal Terhune said the 12 fatal shootings and 32
injuries, although disturbing, represent a sharp drop from a few years
earlier when Corcoran, Pelican Bay, Old Folsom and Tehachapi prisons were
convulsed with fights and gunshots.

46rom 1989 to late 1994, according to official figures, correctional
officers in California killed 24 inmates and wounded 175 statewide, many of
these shootings during fistfights and other altercations in which no
inmates wielded weapons.

Terhune, who took over the top job in 1997, cites revisions in the official
shooting policy and better training for the declining numbers over the past
four years. ``I am very pleased in the direction that it's gone. We're
going to continue to push, through alternatives and training, to really
make the use of lethal force . . . a last resort,'' he said.

California is one of a handful of states in which guards carry high-powered
rifles inside maximum-security units. Most states limit firearms to a few
guard towers that ring a prison.

Corrections officials cite the singular nature of California's vast and
complex system -- 33 prisons with 159,000 inmates, many of them rival gang
members -- as rationale for gunner posts inside the units. They contend
that the uniquely violent nature of California prison gangs compels them to
use deadly force on occasion.

Moreover, the state's prison guard union contends that guns are a necessary
equalizer in a prison system that has one of the lowest officer-to-inmate
ratios in the nation.

Critics say that prison guards have used their guns far too often. They
maintain that changes in shooting practices -- changes that the state
undertook in 1994 amid newspaper reports and an FBI investigation of one
shooting -- have not gone nearly far enough. They say the continued
practice of shooting and killing inmates to prevent fights from turning
deadly is illogical and runs counter to the methods of every other state.

Lawsuits often result

The practice has resulted in numerous lawsuits costing California taxpayers
at least $6 million in legal fees and damage awards since 1994.

``The other states have found a way to protect officer safety and yet at
the same time prevent the taking of life,'' said James Chanin, a Berkeley
attorney who won a $300,000 settlement from the state on behalf of the
victim's family in a 1993 prison shooting death. `It's too high a price,
both in dollars and in lives.''

In the wake of recent state legislative hearings that focused on
allegations of brutality and official cover-up at Corcoran, the Times
examined dozens of inmate shootings beyond the walls of the San Joaquin
Valley prison and interviewed lawyers, shooting experts and corrections
officials in every region of the country. The review of California
shootings over the past decade shows that guards may not be setting up
rival inmates to fight as they allegedly did in Corcoran, but the end
result is often the same.

Deadly force is used to break up fights and melees that haven't turned deadly.

Like so many of the recent incidents, the events leading to the death of
inmate Mark Anthony Perez last February seemed routine. Perez, a
25-year-old San Jose man convicted of assault with a deadly weapon, was
fighting in a tiny recreation yard at Salinas Valley State Prison.

His opponent, Darren Halliwell, was bigger and stronger. Halliwell had
already shaken off the blows of another inmate wielding a sharp object.
That inmate had left the scene and it was just Halliwell and Perez, neither
landing anything close to a knockout, according to the Monterey County
District Attorney's Office and inmate witnesses.

Then came a shout to stop fighting and a warning shot of non-lethal wood
blocks fired by an officer in the control booth above. Before the officer
could discharge a second warning round, a gunner in a nearby tower fired
the fatal bullet.

The district attorney cleared that gunner of any wrongdoing even though he
had fired despite the other officer having control of the scene.

46amily asks `why?'

Perez's family is pursuing a civil lawsuit. ``Why did he shoot? They were
just fighting. They were just punching each other,'' Emma Perez, the
victim's widow, said. ``These guns are shoot-to-kill guns, not guns to stop
someone from fighting.''

Many of the 44 fatal and serious shootings since 1994 took place in
recreation yards or housing units built with special features that allow
guards almost complete control. Inside these high-security units, every
movement to and from a cell is monitored, and guards perform complete body
checks for homemade weapons.

Such control, experts say, should reduce the need for deadly force. In
other states, these units are the settings in which guards utilize
non-lethal measures such as batons, pepper spray and tear gas.

Checked-by: Mike Gogulski