ACLU/SC Executive Director Hector Villagra delivered the following remarks at a press conference at the KRST Unity Center in South Los Angeles.

It has been said that to measure the degree of civilization in a society, you must enter its prisons. If you enter our prisons, you will see evidence of a barbarous and savage society, one where torture is apparently not only legal but commonplace.

The ACLU of Southern California joins its allies today to support the striking prisoners’ demands to end cruel and inhumane conditions in the Security Housing Unit at Pelican Bay State Prison and at other prisons across the state and country. Today, 44 states and the federal government have built so-called "supermax" prisons similar to Pelican Bay -- housing at least 25,000 people nationwide.

At these institutions, prisoners face solitary confinement in small, often windowless concrete or metal boxes. They remain confined there up to 24 hours a day. They have little human contact or interaction. There are severe restraints on visitation, and they are restricted from group activities, like eating or exercising with others. They are often denied reading material, radios, or other property.

In California prisons, time in solitary confinement can drag on years or even decades. Such prolonged isolation crushes the mind and kills the spirit. We call it torture when it is done to prisoners of war. In fact, prisoners of war say that prolonged isolation is as bad, if not worse, than any physical abuse, and it may lead more directly to permanent psychological damage.

According to one study conducted at Pelican Bay itself – prisoners subjected to months or years of complete isolation lose the ability to initiate behavior of any kind. In the most extreme cases, they literally stop behaving at all – they become catatonic.

But solitary confinement isn’t just a brutal policy; it is a policy that ultimately puts public safety at risk. That’s because prisoners subjected to extreme isolation cannot properly reintegrate into society and are more likely to commit crimes in the future. An alarming number of prisoners are released directly from secure housing units into the community.

It’s time for the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation to correct itself – to implement policies that enhance safety both inside and outside prison walls.

We call on the state to bring the hunger strike to a swift and peaceful conclusion.

We call on Governor Brown and CDCR Secretary, Matthew Cate, to significantly curtail the use of the SHU at Pelican Bay and other California prisons.

We call on them to provide all prisoners confined to the SHU items, services, and programs necessary for psychological and physical well-being including warm clothing, out-of-cell time, and participation in rehabilitative programs.

Ron Wallen Testifies at Senate Judiciary Committee Hearing on Defense of Marriage Act

 

This blog post is third in a series written by our summer LGBT Project legal interns. The other posts are "LGBT Human Rights Gone Global", "The Roots of Homophobia" and "Changing the Culture of Bullying".

When my partner came out to her ninety-two-year old grandmother and announced her plan to marry me, the reaction wasn't great. Not because of a fire-and-brimstone lecture about immorality and the evils of lesbianism. She was worried that, on top of the gender wage gap, we'd be facing an uphill battle just to get the same legal and economic protections under the law as opposite-sex married couples. (If only every grandmother were as awesome as she!)

It was an unexpected conversation, but she had a point: even though my partner and I could legally get married in California (at the time), we would still be denied hundreds of benefits that federal law reserves for one-man-one-woman marriages. President Clinton made that a virtual certainty in 1996 when he signed the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), defining marriage as the union between one man and one woman under federal law. Fifteen years after DOMA went into effect, gay and lesbian couples—even those who are legally married—are still denied these rights. Although President Obama instructed the Department of Justice to stop defending DOMA against constitutional challenges in February 2011, the law is still on the books. But things are starting to look up.

On Tuesday, Obama announced his support for the Respect for Marriage Act (H.R. 3567), which would repeal DOMA and require the federal government to recognize marriage equality once and for all. Just Wednesday morning, the Senate Judiciary Committee held its first hearing on the Respect for Marriage Act. The hearing revealed that, while federal recognition of marriage equality would be great in and of itself, it means more than simply acknowledging the legitimacy of LGBT relationships. The numerous economic benefits available to married opposite-sex couples would finally extend to married same-sex couples, as well. For example, married same-sex couples are currently denied federal estate tax spousal exemption, which over the next two years will force survivors of same-sex spouses to pay over $4 million more (.pdf) in estate taxes than survivors of opposite-sex spouses. Also, the government currently taxes health benefits for same-sex spouses of private sector employees, but not for opposite-sex spouses. Because of this, employees with same-sex spouses are forced to pay, on average, over $1000 more per month than employees whose opposite-sex spouses receive the very same benefit. Should DOMA be repealed, same-sex couples would no longer be denied these—or countless other—benefits. Here at the ACLU of Southern California, we believe economic justice is inextricably intertwined with civil liberties, so leveling the financial playing field for LGBT families is a cause we can stand behind. The Respect for Marriage Act is a good start.

Kate Allen is a rising 2L at USC Law School and a summer legal intern at the LGBT Project of the ACLU of Southern California. This fall, Kate will join the staff of the Southern California Review of Law and Social Justice and serve on the board of OUTLaw, USC's LGBT law student organization.

In a letter sent today, the ACLU of Southern California is calling on Los Angeles County District Attorney Steve Cooley to stop the criminal prosecution of a Los Angeles County jail inmate whom two sheriff’s deputies brutally attacked in the Twin Towers Correctional Facility on January 24, 2011.

Both the Los Angeles Sheriff’s department and the FBI are conducting separate criminal investigations into the attack on James Parker, but have not yet completed their findings. While conducting a routine inspection of the jail, ACLU/SC Jails Project Coordinator Esther Lim witnessed deputies kicking and tasering Parker repeatedly. She witnessed the two deputies shouting “Stop resisting!” and “Stop fighting!” while he lay limp on the floor.

The ACLU/SC requests that the criminal proceedings stop until the investigations are finished, because Parker’s prosecution will both interfere with those investigations and undermine the appearance of impartiality that the criminal justice system requires.

“Racing to hold his trial before the investigations are complete creates the impression that District Attorney’s office is more interested in convicting Mr. Parker than it is in ensuring a fair trial,” said Peter Eliasberg, legal director for the ACLU/SC. “Furthermore, the DA is undermining the legal system by rushing forward with this trial, while criminal investigations of the deputies’ actions are ongoin

“A prosecution of the inmate, James Parker, will require the District Attorney's office to urge that the officers' account of events be believed,” said Professor Daniel Richman a former Assistant United States Attorney who teaches at Columbia University Law School. “Going forward with the trial of Mr. Parker while a criminal investigation of the deputies is ongoing will also allow the inmate to cross-examine the officers on their powerful motive to protect their jobs and avoid prosecutions themselves. Under these circumstances, it’s hard to understand why the DA's office wants to pursue this case before it clarifies what happened during the entire encounter.”

Parker’s trial is scheduled for July 27, 2011.