Calif. Prisons Will No Longer Punish All Inmates of the Same Race for the Actions of 1

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Prison reform is alive and well, and it can start from the inside out.

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According to an Al-Jazeera report, an inmate filed a civil rights lawsuit against Californiaโ€™s prison system and got it to reverse a policy that caused every inmate of a particular race to lose privileges whenever an inmate of that race got into a fight.ย An agreement was reached before a judge even had to intervene.

โ€œFrom now on, guards will only be allowed to impose lockdowns based on an inmate's location in the jail or through an โ€˜individualizedย threat assessment.โ€™ Race or ethnicity cannot factor into the decision,โ€ the report explained.

Robert Mitchell, an inmate at High Desert State Prison, filed a lawsuit in 2008 because he was fed up with how โ€œwhen there is an incident involving any race, all inmates of that race are locked up.โ€

His lawyers argued that the policy โ€œviolated prisonersโ€™ constitutional rights,โ€ but prison officials initially defended the practice, saying that it allowed them to quickly get control of a large segment of the population during violent incidents.

The Justice Department agreed with Mitchell.

โ€œThe U.S. Justice Department intervened in the case a year ago and sided with the inmates, stating that Californiaโ€™s racial lockdowns were based on โ€˜generalized fears of racial violence,โ€™ according to court filings,โ€ Al-Jazeera explained.

Read more at Al-Jazeera.

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