Inmates At Pelican Bay Prison Ask Guards To Keep Quiet
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) - California corrections officials said Thursday that they are handing out earplugs and telling guards to walk softly around some of the state's most dangerous prisoners after the inmates complained about noise.
The inmates say new welfare checks at Pelican Bay State Prison's notorious security housing unit are keeping them up nights because noise caused by guards rouses them every half-hour around the clock.
"We know that people have not been able to sleep at all, and that's pretty dangerous," said Laura Magnani, an advocate with the American Friends Service Committee.
Nearly 70 noise complaints have been filed by the 1,100 inmates segregated at Pelican Bay since the checks began early last month. The segregation unit, which houses gang leaders and those who commit serious crimes behind bars, is at the center of a landmark court settlement announced earlier this month that will effectively end indefinite solitary confinement in California state prisons.
The checks have been used at other prisons for nearly a decade and are intended to deter suicides.
"This has been successfully done all over the state without disruption, and it saves lives," said Michael Bien, an attorney who represents mentally ill inmates and has fought to lower California's high inmate suicide rate. Pelican Bay inmates are considering hunger strikes, some have required medical treatment resulting from sleep deprivation while others are experiencing psychological stress, Bien said in an email to corrections officials.
Officials are training correctional officers to complete the checks as quietly as possible while exploring ways to quiet the prison's clanging doors, said Terry Thornton, a spokeswoman with the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. Pelican Bay is using an electronic system that requires officers to punch a time clock beside each cell, but officers have been instructed to turn the system to mute so as not to awaken inmates.
Programs including inmates' showers and recreation time also have been improperly affected, though Thornton said the problems are decreasing, Bien and Thornton said.
Nichol Gomez, a spokeswoman with the union representing most correctional officers, declined comment.
Copyright 2015 The Associated Press.