Violence Provocation as Counter-Insurgency: Yard Integration in California Prisons

• In Event: Convict Criminology Panel #6: Emerging Research in Convict Criminology

Abstract

In the wake of the landmark Ashker et al. v. Governor of California case settled in 2015, which
resulted in the release of inmates in solitary confinement, the California Department of
Corrections and Rehabilitation has struggled to contain peaceful relations between inmates in
the California prison system established by the Agreement to End Hostilities, which brought an
end to decades of open warfare across racialized gang lines in California carceral environments.
Since the Ashker case was settled, hundreds of members and associates of the four principle
inmate organization in the CDCR system have been released onto General Population yards,
which have seen a dramatic reduction in serious inmate on inmate violence as a result. In
addition to the proliferation of RICO charges brought in retaliation against members of the
inmate organizations where were involved in the peace process, CDCR has implemented a new
strategy in American carceral history, integrating General Population and Special Needs Yards in
order to provoke violent conflicts between GP and SNY inmates and undermine the structure
provided by inmate organizations in the CDCR General Population. This paper provides a critical
analysis of CDCR policy as counter-insurgency praxis in the CDCR system.

Author

• Robert D. Weide, California State University, Los Angeles