Prisons prepare to integrate cellmates Court order raises concern in a system where peace and violence revolve around racial lines

In June the prison system, including San Quentin prison will implement a U.S. Supreme Court ruling requiring the integration of inmates in double cells. Inmates David Johnson (front), from San Diego, and Michael Takis (middle), from San Jose, comment on the issue in their cell in San Rafael, Calif., on Tuesday, May 20, 2008. Photo by Liz Hafalia / The Chronicle less In June the prison system, including San Quentin prison will implement a U.S. Supreme Court ruling requiring the integration of inmates in double cells. Inmates David Johnson (front), from San Diego, and ... more Photo: Liz Hafalia, Chronicle Photo: Liz Hafalia, Chronicle Image 1 of / 5 Caption Close Prisons prepare to integrate cellmates 1 / 5 Back to Gallery

San Quentin State Prison inmate Lexy Good is white, hangs out with whites on the prison exercise yard and must be careful not to associate with blacks and Latinos. No cards, no basketball outside the color lines.

Those are the unwritten inmate rules of prison life. People stick to their own race.

Good, who's doing a short stretch for receiving stolen property, likes it that way.

"We segregate amongst ourselves because I'd rather hang out with white people, and blacks would rather hang out with people of their own race," said Good, 33, of Walnut Creek. "Look at suburbia. Look at Oakland. Look at Beverly Hills. People in society self-segregate."

Soon that may change in the prisons.

San Quentin and 30 or so other state penal facilities are gearing up to carry out a federal court mediation agreement for integrating double cells and ending the use of race as the sole determining factor in making cell assignments.

Men in California's prisons have long been segregated in cells to quell racial tensions.

But Good, along with California's other 155,700 male inmates, may soon be forced to live in a 4-by-9-foot cell with an inmate of a different race.

A 1995 lawsuit filed by a black California inmate, Garrison Johnson, said that the California Department of Corrections' practice of segregating prisoners by race violated his rights. A 2005 ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court led to federal court mediation and the agreement that double cells would be desegregated.

While most inmates and correctional officials agree that it is a noble idea, many fear the worst.

"They should be thinking about what kind of war they are going to start," said a San Quentin inmate who identified himself only as S. Styles, 36, of Vallejo. "It is like putting a cat and a dog in a cell together."

Lt. Rudy Luna, assistant to the warden at San Quentin, said there is some concern among prison officials about the change because much of the violence is already based around racial gangs.

State mandate

"There is always concern, but that is a rule that has been sent down. There are a lot of times we don't like what we have to do," Luna said. "I think we will have a spike in fighting because we have races that don't get along. If it was up to us, we'd keep it the way it is. But it is a state mandate."

Among the state's male inmates, about 28.9 percent are black, 39.3 percent are Latino, 25.9 percent are white, and 5.9 percent are classified as other, according to figures from the state Department of Corrections.

"There are a lot of incidents in prison where you have a group of inmates going against another group of inmates," said Terry Thornton, spokeswoman for the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. "You have these groups aligned along race but it is about control. It is about criminal activities."

As currently planned, the cell integration will begin July 1 as a pilot project at two prisons - Mule Creek State Prison in Ione (Amador County) and the Sierra Conservation Center in Jamestown (Tuolumne County). Next year, the plan calls for integration to begin at other prisons.

Interviewing inmates

In carrying out the plan, prison officials will interview and evaluate each inmate. Department of Corrections officials know some inmates cannot be placed with inmates of other races. But those who are deemed eligible and still refuse will face discipline ranging from loss of privileges to solitary confinement.

Guards and staff have also been undergoing training for the past year on procedures and have been told to be alert for signs of abuse or fighting, Thornton said.

"The benefit is for inmates to live how they are supposed to live. It is rehabilitative. This is how we live in the world. It should be the same way in prison too," Thornton said. "It breaks down all of those prejudicial barriers."

Inmate David Johnson said that all the races sit together peacefully in the prison church and they work together with few problems. But he wouldn't socialize with inmates of another race outside of those settings where he is forced to mingle.

Loyal to his race

"Prison politics" dictate that he stay loyal to his race, Johnson said. And the repercussions for a violation are swift and severe.

"You would be taken care of in some way. You could get stabbed or worse," said Johnson, 38, of San Diego. "Whether you agree with the (unwritten) rules or not, you have to follow them."

That's why prison officials said the new plan will help the prisons manage the criminal prison gangs, which are divided racially and strictly control who their members associate with.

"Ninety percent of the gang members don't want to be in a gang but they can't get out. But now we are giving them a way out. It will be an excuse for a white to be with a black and a black to be with a white," Luna said.

The race lines are stark throughout the prisons. One recent sunny afternoon on the exercise yard of San Quentin, a group of two dozen or so African American inmates congregated around the basketball court, shooting hoops or just talking. White inmates were in the middle of the yard, playing ping pong or cards. And the Latino inmates were at the far end of the yard where there was some exercise equipment.

In a nearby courtyard, inmates who had recently arrived sat in small groups, mostly segregated except for those doing an intake exam.

Carnell Bradley, 23, Gregory Ealey, 27 and Wayne Griffin, 22, all of Oakland and all black, sat together and agreed that the integration plan is flawed.

'That is how jail is'

"It is going to cause problems. As soon as the cellmates get into a fight, it will become a race against race thing," said Ealey. "It is going to bring everybody into it because that is how jail is. It is just more comfortable being with your own race."

However, experts say it can work. The Texas prison system integrated its cells in the early 1990s and eventually saw a decline in racial tensions, said Professor Jim Marquart, chair of the criminology department at the University of Texas at Dallas, who studied the transition and is advising California during its process.

"The people said, 'It can't be done, you are going to have helter skelter in the prisons.' On the other side, you had people say it can be done. But basically, it was somewhere in between," said Marquart, who authored a report called "The Caged Melting Pot."

He said there was a spike in interracial violence at first. But after a while it died down, and the levels of interracial violence are now less than in the general population.

"We are not here to say that everybody is holding hands and singing Kumbaya. There is a lot of hate. There is a lot of animosity. But inmates are intelligent and they want to just do their time and they want to go home," said Marquart. "It worked here. It is an uneasy peace and truce, but it worked. I have ultimate faith in their ability to do it in California."