Calif. struggles to desegregate prison inmates

updated 6:57 a.m. ET Aug. 12, 2009

SACRAMENTO, California - The riot that ravaged a Southern California prison and injured 175 inmates began with a fight between black and Hispanic gang members, a stark reminder of the difficulty of race relations behind bars and the challenges of desegregating inmates.

In America's largest state prison system, black, Hispanic, Asian and white gangs generally don't mix. When they do, trouble typically follows.

"It isn't that everybody in the inmate population is against integration — they like their teeth," said David Miles, a 46-year-old black inmate at another prison, Sierra Conservation Center.

Mindful of that, California has for decades segregated inmates by race in their cells and sleeping areas. In general, whole cell blocks and open dormitories are mixed race.

But four years ago, the U.S. Supreme Court found the practice discriminatory, citing Brown v. Board of Education. The court said it reinforced a cycle of racial hatred and violence and ordered the state to desegregate its prisons.

At the California Institution for Men in Chino, segregation is still in place. The weekend riot started in a dormitory-style housing wing where many races are in a large room, but the sleeping arrangements are segregated. The exact cause of the riot remains under investigation.

All the state prisons were supposed to be integrated by the end of last year, but the process is far behind schedule.

Budget cuts
Last fall, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation began desegregating two prisons in the Sierra foothills, southeast of the state capital. They are not yet fully integrated, and officials haven't started on any other prisons.

The delay is due in part to state budget cuts that have reduced prison staff, corrections department spokesman Seth Unger said. The system has 1,000 vacancies and is to be reduced by 5,000 positions over two years.

The beginning of a desegregation effort also has hit a number of obstacles, many of them coming from the inmates themselves.

Powerful race-based gangs oppose integration and have threatened inmates who participate. That leads wardens, guards and inmates to predict it will take years to fully integrate the state's 33 prisons, which hold 150,000 inmates.

"If I hung out with this black man on the street, that's cool. But in here, the rules are different," Tim Heffernan, a heavily tattooed 41-year-old white inmate at Sierra Conservation Center.

Video   Calif. prison riot ends in flames Aug. 10: A prison riot in California ends in flames as inmates set fire to their housing units. Msnbc.com’s Dara Brown reports. msnbc.com

He and Daniel Mabson, a 25-year-old black inmate, sat across from each other on bunk beds as they spoke to a reporter about prison race relations and the halting desegregation efforts.

"How can we comply if it puts our lives in danger?" Mabson said.

California's inmates are racially diverse: 26 percent white, 29 percent black, 39 percent Hispanic and 6 percent of other races.

Under the new policy, inmates are assigned housing based on their compatibility with members of another race, their age, the type of crime they committed and their physical characteristics. They are given a "racial eligibility code" showing their ability to be housed with others.

The department's regulations permit segregating individual inmates if officials can show it is necessary for their safety. For example, members of the Aryan Brotherhood are not housed with members of the Black Guerrilla Family. The divisions even occur within races: Hispanic gang members from Northern California are kept apart from Hispanics from Southern California.

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