Butte County Jail “flooded” with prison-educated inmates, longer sentences

Butte County Jail “flooded” with prison-educated inmates, longer sentences

Long-term sentences, prison-educated inmates flood jail

By Almendra Carpizo, Chico ER, 5/2/14

Oroville >> A new culture of prison-hardened inmates has erupted at the Butte County Jail, and with it an increase in assaults, drug use and the workload of staff attempting to keep up.

Officials claim the jail’s changing environment began after the implementation of Assembly Bill 109, which left would-be prison inmates taking one of the Oroville facility’s 614 beds.

The change is attributable to the population the Butte County Sheriff’s Office has been assigned, Undersheriff Kory Honea said. Inmates, who have done something that would have made them eligible for state prison, are now being sentenced to “county prison.”

Inmates convicted of less serious crimes are placed on the alternative community supervision program to keep the overflowing jail manageable, but inmates who have a more egregious criminal history are not being released or sent to prison, according to the Sheriff’s Office.

The inmates in jail have a higher level of criminal sophistication, and coupled with their lengthier sentences, they have become more disruptive and more likely to engage in violence against inmates and staff, Honea said.

Compacting the issue are the parole violators and those inmates who fail to meet their supervision requirements, who for the most part are being left for the county to deal with.

Those inmates have been “indoctrinated in that prison culture,” Honea said.

“Because that prison culture is now taking hold in our facility, they (inmates) begin to conduct themselves the way they would in prison, but now they’re doing it in our jails.”

AB109 brought a different type of inmate, Butte County District Attorney Mike Ramsey said.

“Now, the jail is flooded with folks who have been to prison before,” he said. “It’s a more sophisticated, prison-educated inmate that brings that prison mindset, that brings that prison culture to Butte County Jail, where it wasn’t before.”

Other counties in California are seeing the same problem.

In a January guest commentary in the Monterey Herald, Monterey County Sheriff Scott Miller stated his jail was “intended for the lower-risk inmates of the past, not the criminally sophisticated, prison-savvy population we now house.”

At the time, the jail was investigating the deaths of two inmates.

Shasta County Sheriff Tom Bosenko has also previously stated his county’s jail has more prison-acclimated inmates.

During a cell search on March 20, Daryl Hovey, a Butte County Jail correctional lieutenant, was involved in a physical altercation with an inmate after finding contraband.

Prior to Assembly Bill 109, there was a mutual respect between jail staff and inmates, and “putting hands on or resisting was nothing shy of a cardinal sin,” Hovey said.

However, violent incidents inside the jail are becoming more of the norm than the exception.

“We’re seeing prison-made weapons at a much, much higher rate than we have in the past,” Honea said.

From July 2013 to March 20, one gang has been involved in 14 violent incidents, which included the slashing of a person’s face and cutting the scalp of another inmate. Both victims were members of the attacking gang, according to the Sheriff’s Office.

The same gang has allegedly also targeted black inmates, as tensions on the street spill into the jail.

Inmates who had a “beef” with someone would wait until they were transferred to prison and settled it on the yard, but now they’re not going to prison, Ramsey said. “The prison is in our own backyard.”

Other violent assaults have erupted in the past, including several attacks by white gang members on other white gang members who were not following “prison politics.”

Prison politics are a code of conduct inmates need to follow to remain safe, like not associating with members outside of their race, and even sitting at the wrong table can lead to an assault.

Every housing unit in Butte County Jail has a “shot caller” who sets the tone and makes the decisions for the inmates in that unit, Hovey said.

The Butte County Jail is seeing more jail-made weapons that it ever has in the past.

Items found in the possession of inmates include a piece of a medical leg brace, a disposable razor, glasses and a piece of fencing that had all been fashioned into potentially fatal weapons.

Commissary forms, which are a thick paper, have been wrapped with toothpaste and water to create a weapon as hard as a piece of wood, Hovey said as he banged the item on a table. It’s intended to discipline someone.

One disconcerting item found inside a Butte County cell is a “hatch trap.”

The trap is made of braided strips of a bed sheet and placed around the hatch used to deliver food to inmates. When an officer puts his or her hands through, the inmate can catch the officer’s hands and mutilate or break them.

“It’s a state prison tactic,” Hovey said.

The rope-like item is too short to attempt to commit suicide, Ramsey said.

In addition to weapons, Butte County Jail staff found five cellphones and have caught people attempting to smuggle in the devices.

“They’re brazen enough to take pictures inside jail and post them on Facebook,” Honea said about how one inmate was caught.

Inmates use regular batteries and wires to keep the cellphones charged, Hovey said. One tip off for jail staff was when they noticed an increase of inmates turning in dead batteries.

Having a cellphone is not an innocuous thing in a jail, Honea said. Inmates can set up drug drops, intimidate witnesses and set up assaults inside and outside of jail.

If a witness is contacted it hampers a case because that person may not feel protected, Ramsey said.

Among those offenses are smuggling narcotics into the jail.

On a regular basis, jail staff finds paper and envelopes impregnated with methamphetamine.

The paper is soaked in meth and people can chew tabs or place the pieces of paper underneath their tongues, Hovey said.

Dealing with people under the influence is potentially dangerous and it also introduces the issue of drug debt, where an inmate buys from another inmate and is expected to pay it back, officials said.

Drugs have also been brought into the jail by inmates inserting them into their anal cavities, including one inmate who tightly wrapped a syringe in toilet paper and a latex glove.

Jail crimes have skyrocketed from about 10 cases a year to a 350 percent increase this past year, Ramsey said.

“It’s clearly a changed environment,” Honea said. “I think this is our new reality. I don’t see it changing which is why we need to become more sophisticated in our response.”

The Butte County Sheriff’s Office was recently rejected by the state to receive the Adult Local Criminal Justice Facilities Construction Program grant to build a new facility, but officials continue to find ways to get funding to build a jail that can accommodate its new population.

Butte County Jail was meant to house inmates who weren’t going to be here more than a year, Ramsey said. Recently, one inmate was sentenced to 11 years.

In the meantime, correctional officers are continuously receiving training and detectives are being brought into the jails.

Honea said it’s a challenge, but the Sheriff’s Office will continue to work to stay on top of it, train staff and deal with the issue, and improve the facility over time.

Serving 5-10 years: 24

Serving 10 years: 1

Serving 8 years: 1

Serving 7 years: 3

Serving 6 years: 7

Serving 5 years: 12

2013 California Sheriffs Association Survey