Solano justice.

• Author: Lowers, Aaron
• Position: California State Prison-Solano - Prison Law Writing Contest

Prison discipline has come a long way since Attica, at least in California. The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) administers California's thirty-three adult correctional facilities, including California State Prison-Solano (CSP-Solano). Inmate discipline at these facilities is governed by Title 15 of the California Code of Regulations (CCR), which provides uniform rules and behavioral expectations for all California prisoners. (8) With uniformity comes a certain rigidity, however, and in many instances this rigidity leads to an unfair application of discipline in California prisons.

The primary purpose of CCR Title 15 is to ensure the safety and security of California prisons. It provides for violent or disruptive inmates to be isolated from the general population in administrative segregation (solitary confinement) for a period of time based on the gravity of the misconduct. If violent or disruptive behavior persists, the inmates can be isolated for progressively longer periods. While the level of violence varies from prison to prison, the disciplinary generally system works well to minimize violence.

Nonviolent misconduct is handled differently. Possession of most contraband, for example, is usually punishable by a loss of privileges and "good time" credit. "Good time" is time off of one's sentence for good behavior. The reality is that these sanctions have little impact on the availability of contraband. Drugs and tobacco are commonplace, as is inmate-manufactured alcohol. In recent years, cell phones have also become prevalent. In 2012, for example, CDCR staff discovered over fifteen thousand cell phones in California prisons and camps. (9) During that same year, staff at CSP-Solano confiscated 672 cell phones--at a prison housing approximately forty-five hundred inmates. (10)

There are several reasons the sanctions provided within CCR Title 15 have so little impact on the amount of contraband in California prisons, but perhaps the single biggest factor is that prison inmates are seldom caught red handed. Contraband items are typically found in and around inmates' living quarters, not on the inmates themselves. This allows a certain level of deniability to individuals who actually posses contraband. Prison overcrowding has exacerbated the situation. California's inmates are housed either in cells or dormitories. In some dormitory situations, as many as eighteen inmates have been crammed into living areas designed to...