Last May, reports of pernicious prison abuse came to the attention of certain people in

the state of California. Prison abuse in California state prisons has always existed and
accepted for a very long, long period of time until, as the story allegedly went, a certain
warden decided to break the ‘code of silence’ that had nurtured and protected the abuse.

A letter of complaint was sent to the governor, but he has since resigned from his post.
And surely the abuse in the California state prison system is guaranteed to flourish. The
abuse seen in California is also very common throughout the whole of the US prison
system and definitely there is going to be no light at the end of the tunnel for all those
seeking refuge from abuse. The reasons are very many, but they include long-established
prison rules or traditions encouraging the employing of abuse to ‘break’ prisoners, the
growing lack of funds to maintain prisons, the privatisation of prison facilities, the deep
levels of corruption among prison staff, prison overpopulation, and many other causes.

Prisons that inflicted widespread and/or systematic abuse against inmates included the
Sacramento prison and the High Desert State prison where guards and prison wardens
routinely heaped all kinds of abuse and even acts of outright physical torture on inmates.
The many cases of abuse in these prisons were greatly exacerbated by very deep-seated
corruption, and the rigid racial composition of both the staff and the inmate population.
Even worse, prisoners who were mentally ill were allowed to remain in the same cells
as other normal prisoners. Anyone who complained was quickly denied usual privileges
doled out to the incarcerated. Any further noises would be met with hits from batons
or even nasty choking treatment with pepper sprays. Anyone still daring to be obstinate
would be dragged to the punishment wards where 24-hour solitary confinement, strip
searches with physical assaults and verbal abuse awaited them. Prison staff were very
fond of chaining the inmates and forcing them to march or crawl along the corridors,
sometimes totally naked in order to break their spirit and also to demean them. Prison
staff were also guilty of provoking quarrels between inmates and using prison bullies to
keep control over the others. Those who resisted were singled out for special treatment,
including long-duration strip searches conducted in full view of other people. So far,
it is still business-as-usual for the California state prisons .. and for others in the US !