Pennington is not accused of giving or carrying out orders on behalf of any gang. In fact, there is no evidence that he's ever communicated with a member of a gang in his entire life. "I've never been, never want to be a part of no gang," he wrote me. (He is currently trying to challenge his validation in court.)

To validate an inmate as a gang member, the state requires at least three pieces of evidence, which must be "indicative of actual membership" or association with a prison gang in the last six years. At least one item must show a "direct link," like a note or other communication, to a validated gang member or associate. Once the prison's gang investigator has gathered this evidence, it is reviewed in an administrative hearing and then sent to CDCR headquarters in Sacramento.

In Pennington's file, the "direct link" is his possession of an article published in the San Francisco Bay View, an African American newspaper with a circulation of around 15,000. The paper is approved for distribution in California prisons, and Pennington's right to receive it is protected under state law. In the op-ed style article he had in his cell, titled "Guards confiscate 'revolutionary' materials at Pelican Bay," a validated member of the Black Guerilla Family prison gang complains about the seizure of literature and pictures from his cell and accuses the prison of pursuing "racist policy." In Pennington's validation documents, the gang investigator contends that, by naming the confiscated materials, the author "communicates to associates of the BGF…as to which material needs to be studied." No one alleges that Pennington ever attempted to contact the author. It is enough that he possessed the article.

The second piece of evidence was a cup Pennington had in his cell bearing a picture of a dragon, an image CDCR considers an "identifying symbol" of the Black Guerilla Family. The third was a notebook he kept, which the gang investigator alleges "shows his beliefs in the ideals of the BGF." Its pages are filled with references to black history—Nat Turner, the Scottsboro 9, the number of blacks executed between 1930 and 1969, and quotes from figures like W.E.B. Du Bois and Malcolm X. There are also passages in which Pennington ruminates at length on what he calls "the oppression and violence inflicted upon us here in maximum security," referencing a Time exposé.

Pennington never mentions gangs or unlawful activity in his writing. But in his validation documents, the gang investigator points out that the notebook contains quotes by Fleeta Drumgo and George Jackson, two former Black Panthers who are revered by members of the BGF and politicized African American prisoners generally. The single Jackson quote Pennington wrote down reads, "The text books on criminology like to advance the idea that the prisoners are mentally defective. There is only the merest suggestion that the system itself is at fault."

California officials frequently cite possession of black literature, left-wing materials, and writing about prisoner rights as evidence of gang affiliation. In the dozens of cases I reviewed, gang investigators have used the term " training material" to refer to publications by California Prison Focus, a group that advocates the abolition of the SHUs; Jackson's once best-selling Soledad Brother; a pamphlet said to reference "Revolutionary Black Nationalism, The Black Internationalist Party, Marx, and Lenin"; and a pamphlet titled "The Black People's Prison Survival Guide." This last one advises inmates to read books, keep a dictionary handy, practice yoga, avoid watching too much television, and stay away from "leaders of gangs."

The list goes on. Other materials considered evidence of gang involvement have included writings by Mumia Abu-Jamal; The Black Panther Party: Reconsidered, a collection of academic essays by University of Cincinnati professor Charles Jones; pictures of Assata Shakur, Malcolm X, George Jackson, and Nat Turner; and virtually anything using the term "New Afrikan." At least one validation besides Pennington's referenced handwritten pages of "Afro centric ideology."

As warden of San Quentin Prison in the 1980s, Daniel Vasquez oversaw what was then the country's largest SHU. He's now a corrections consultant and has testified on behalf of inmates seeking to reverse their validations. As we sat in his suburban Bay Area home, he told me it is "very common" for African American prisoners who display leadership qualities or radical political views to end up in the SHU. Similarly, he recalls, "we were told that when an African American inmate identified as being Muslim, we were supposed to watch them carefully and get their names."

42 Years of Solitude
By Ryan Jacobs

81,622 Number of prisoners in solitary confinement across the United States in 2005, the last year for which the federal government released data

11,730 Number of inmates held in isolation in California prisons today

7 Percentage of California inmates who are in isolation

39 Percentage of inmate suicides that happen in isolation units

78 Percentage of Security Housing Unit (SHU) inmates not classified as gang “leaders” or “members”

$12,317 Extra annual cost to taxpayers for each prisoner in the Pelican Bay shu

11'7" x 7'7" Dimensions of a SHU cell at Pelican Bay

6' x 8' Dimensions of the average American home’s walk-in closet

51 Percentage of Pelican Bay SHU inmates who have spent at least five years in isolation

89 Number who have been in solitary for at least 20 years

1 Number who have been there for 42 years

Edited by Crow (Feb. 6, 2013 01:47:36)

Goethestein posted:

in any well-structured revolution, excons will be cannon fodder. theyre far too broken to relate to a society based on fairness and idealism

itd definitely be you that's the cannon fodder

getfiscal posted:

yeah. what do people think about teenage runaways? we could give them a bit of cash, maybe some drugs, maybe some soup. like really fucked up women who work as prostitutes. i mean i agree we should prey on marginal people for our weird messiah fantasies, but let's prioritize.

do you know anyone that's in prison? thats what i thought

Crow posted:

do you know anyone that's in prison? thats what i thought

stegosaurus posted:

African with one k not three. Duh.

discipline posted:

if leftism could offer the same kind of physical and spiritual support as islam I guess they could have a go at it, sure

this is a ridiculously viable critique of the left as a whole