California’s high-security prisons have tight restrictions on movement, calls, and visits while authorities look into a rise in crime this year.
The rules went into effect on Saturday and affect the highest security areas of almost twelve prisons, such as the California Correctional Institution, the California State Prison-Los Angeles County, and the California State Prison-Sacramento.
The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation said in a statement that movements must be “controlled,” meals must be brought directly to housing units, and showers and other activities must also be controlled.
Visits and phone calls using the ViaPath mobile are also limited.
Corrections officials said that prisoners can still get medical care, go to court, and make other “critical appointments.”
The statement said, “It is important to note that this modified program is not the same as a lockdown and only applies to Level IV housing units.”
When asked for more information about the limits, Terri Hardy, a spokeswoman for the CDCR, only said that officials are “comprehensively investigating the causes of violent incidents at Level IV facilities across the state.” The probe is still going on.
Seven deaths since the beginning of the year are being looked into as murders by corrections officials. Three of those things happened the day before the Corrections department said there would be limits.
In a statement, jail officials said that Joshua L. Peppers, 39, was attacked by another prisoner at the Los Angeles County facility on March 7. He later died at a medical facility. He was in jail for stealing something in the second degree.
Corrections officials say that same morning, 32-year-old Jake T. Kennedy was found stabbed several times in his cell at the Sacramento jail. A makeshift weapon was found at the scene of his death in a staging and treatment area. He was in jail because he had been caught carrying a hidden bladed weapon and then attacking someone in prison.
A few hours later, German M. Merino, 37, died after being beaten up by two other prisoners at Kern Valley State Prison, according to the police. He was in prison for life for killing someone in the first degree.
People with life terms have little to lose, so violence in prison has been a problem for a long time.
Prison officials say that in January, Mario Campbell, 36, was attacked on the main exercise yard at the Sacramento prison by two inmates who were serving life sentences with the chance of parole. About an hour and a half later, he died at a hospital, and police found three homemade guns on him.
The rules will stay in place while the review is going on. It’s not clear how long that might take.
The California Correctional Health Care Services say that 32 people were killed in state prisons and jails last year.
