Transcript from a portion of the August 27 edition of the KPFA Evening News

"Sex offender detainees at Coalinga State Hospital are in the third week of a nonviolent strike seeking restoration of their civil rights. The men have served their prison sentences but authorities have judged them likely to offend again, and they're being kept in preventive detention. The men say they're being treated the same as inmates still serving time.
Wendell Harper reports: More than 600 Department of Corrections prisoners, now civil detainees point to what they say is a staff shakeup of the facility wide shut down as evidence of their strike’s effectiveness and the administration's desperation in containing the revolt. Representing the prisoners on the outside, Friends and Families of California Detainees Director Allan Marshall. He said the former inmates effectively have shut down all sex offender treatment.

Marshall: As it is now, sex offenders are an incredibly wide ranging group of individuals, some of whom, doubtless, are dangerous people. Unfortunately, I'm afraid; almost all of them are being tarred with the same brush. And the term sexually violent predator has come into some popularity in this country and has come to mean something quite different from what any reasonable person would expect sexually violent would mean. Factors such as the age of the victim, the number of the victims and whether they are related or not. Those are factors which they take into consideration in calling someone sexually violent -- not at all what we would typically think of [as] violent. So they have sort of redefined terms which I believe is a means to inflame public opinion, and I think that has resulted in very Draconian, citizen based demand for further punishment of sex offenders.

Wendell Harper: In the Coalinga State Hospital the civil detainees have been on strike since August 6th, demanding the restoration of their civil rights having previously served their entire sentences in prison. These former inmates insist that conditions under which they are being held are unconstitutional and inhumane and go far beyond the narrow constraints under which the laws were enacted.

Michael St. Martin: Our number one issue is the assessments which they have never done on any of us. I’ve been here at this hospital for eleven months and I’ve never seen a psychiatrist. They’ve never done an evaluation to determine where I’m at or what I need for treatment or what’s necessary for me to be released or any of that stuff. They don’t have any staff here. They had 11 psychologists. They’re now down to 8 psychologists because three just left. Of those 8 psychologists, only four of them are licensed so they only have 4 licensed clinicians. They have 3 psychiatrists here at the hospital for about 700 people and those psychiatrists have been brought in from India. The second thing is that we have this huge, huge deficit of doctors here - medical doctors.

Wendell Harper: [that was] patient representative Michael St. Martin. The US Supreme Court, according to St. Martin and civil detainee Tom Watson upheld the constitutionality of laws detaining sex offenders beyond their prison terms to protect society and treat offenders. But the Court’s order requires that further detention not have the effect of punishing offenders twice for the same offense. But the detainees have been told, according to the strikers, that they have no rights.

Tom Watson: The patients have got just basically tired of the way they’re being treated. The patients here are civil commitments, and they have been treating them like they were prisoners. So the patients went on strike.

Wendell Harper: During each year for the last generation, Prison Justice Day is observed in Canada as prison rights advocates hold a one-day strike to honor and support inmates in that country.

Woman Reporter: Brenda, a former prisoner - who was not a sex offender but did endure the medical system in a Canadian prison: Even though the Canadian government and the Corrections Service of Canada acknowledges that over-representation, and has made legislation to deal with it through conditional sentencing and alternatives to incarceration, those numbers continue to increase. So today is 1974’s, when Eddie Naylon died in solitary confinement in Millhaven Prison and Eddie was a lifer and he had been on a working unit in the prison. He wanted to transfer to a non-working unit and one of the guards had told him the only way to get a transfer was to sign a [garbled].

Wendell Harper: The Department of Corrections was not available for comment.
The sex offender detainee system is nationwide. As in the state of New York, the National Association of Mental Illness decries the housing of sexually violent former inmates without psychiatric diagnoses in mental health facilities for reasons of cost, capacity, safety and stigma.
Michael St. Martin: One of the major things that needs to be done is Dr. Mayberg needs to be removed as the Director of the Department of Mental Health. He’s been in control of the Department of Mental Health for over 20 years. He made a statement when they had the hearings about two years ago on the Justice Department findings that were scathing, and his response was “well, we noticed we had a problem about 12 years ago and we’ve been working on it.” Well, if anybody in a normal job knew that they had a problem 12 years ago and they continued to fail, none of ‘em would be their position for 12 years to be able to continue to fail. Dr. Mayberg has run a reign over an organization that is almost in total collapse. The medical treatment here is so substandard. The staff shortages in all the hospitals are so far-reaching that people are just in danger for their lives the way that they’re running this place.
Reporting for KPFA News, this is Wendell Harper".

Coalinga Strike Update: 8/27/2007

Now in the third week of a non-violent strike, Civil Detainees in California's $388 Million Coalinga State Hospital point to a staff shakeup and a facility-wide shutdown as evidence of the strike's effectiveness and the administration's desperation in containing the revolt. Detainees, refusing to participate in most programs during the strike, have effectively shut down all Sex Offender Treatment.
More than 600 Former Department of Corrections prisoners, now being held as Civil Detainees by D.M.H. (Dept. of Mental Health) under California's stringent sex offender laws at Coalinga State Hospital, have been on strike since August 6 to demand the restoration of their civil rights. Having previously served their entire sentences in prison, they insist conditions under which they are being held are unconstitutional and inhumane and go far beyond the narrow constraints under which the laws were enacted. The U.S. Supreme Court, while having upheld the constitutionality of laws detaining sex offenders beyond their prison terms to protect society and treat offenders, requires that further detention not have the effect of punishing offenders twice for the same crime. However, the Hospital's Director, Clinical Administrator, Chief Medical Officer, and Police Lieutenant have all recently informed Detainees "you have no civil rights."

Coalinga Strike Update: 8/23/2007

Acting Director Rocky Spurgeon and Program Clinical Administrator, Gary Renzaglia resigned but may remain in D.M.H. Nighttime surprise searches, including strip-searches, rousted Detainees from bed-many of them elderly, infirm, or in wheelchairs- and herded them into an inner courtyard outdoors while staff conducted searches.

Coalinga Strike Update: 8/22/2007

Detainee James Allen Hydrick, 48, was assaulted by Police Staff for refusing to relinquish a protest leaflet. After a tug-of-war for the leaflet, Hydrick was placed in a choke-hold and nearly passed out. Another inmate's medical emergency was ignored by staff who instead insisted that he remove a "protest tag" from his clothing.

Coalinga Strike Update: 8/21/2007

An unsigned directive to Hospital Police stated "...effective immediately, patients are not to gather in the halls... Patient I.D . tags are to be cleared of any attachments. ...Patients have "no right to assembly" at this time. "Sit-downs" are not allowed."" [NOTE: Many Detainees have been wearing "protest tags" asserting their civil rights since the strike began].

Coalinga Strike Update: 8/17/2007

Memos issued today from administration state that, effective August 20, those detainees participating in the strike for a total of three days will be dropped from the Sex Offender Treatment Program. Detainees will also lose work assignments for participating in the strike. Since the strike began Detainee spokesperson Niles Carr has reported that the Administration has imposed further restrictions on movement and increased punishment, including loss of work assignment, for many participating in the strike. They have also announced that they will disband RPAC (Resident Policy Advisory Council, elected by Detainees). In response, Detainees Wednesday voted overwhelmingly to retain RPAC and its representatives and to stage two days of "non-movement/non-cooperation" scheduled for Monday and Tuesday, August 20-21.

Coalinga Strike Update: 8/16/2007

Sex offender Civil Detainees in California's Coalinga State Hospital strike to demand civil rights

Former prisoners now being held as Civil Detainees under California's stringent sex offender laws at Coalinga State Hospital have been on strike since August 6 to demand the restoration of rights denied them since their transfer to that facility. Now classified as "Civil Detainees", having served their entire sentences in the Department of Corrections and placed into the custody of the Department of Mental Health (DMH), they insist that conditions under which they are being held are flagrantly unconstitutional and inhumane. They argue that restrictions and privations imposed upon them go far beyond the narrow constraints under which the laws were enacted. The U.S. Supreme Court, while having upheld the constitutionality of state laws detaining sex offenders beyond their prison terms to protect society and treat offenders, insist that such further detention not have the effect of punishing offenders twice for the same crime.

Despite a $400 million price tag, Coalinga State Hospital is now widely viewed as an ill-conceived failure. The strike, its organizers assert, had become necessary in the face of an administration unaccountable to the rule of law or its mandate from voters. Strike participants seek to expose medical and mental health abuses in excess of those in California prisons, tax funding fraudulently misspent and a mission subverted to the career interests of officials.

Staff who express concern with the facility's management and "counter-therapeutic" treatment programs are seen by residents to leave the institution quickly and this, at a time when DMH acknowledges staff shortage as a major factor in its failure. The decision to build in Coalinga has been criticized by State officials due to difficulty in attracting qualified professionals to the area. Staffing is less than half of that required so half of the Hospital's units remain unopened while the other half is overcrowded, an exigency due to severe understaffing. As in State prisons, recreational areas are converted into makeshift dorms while more recent detainees languish in other DMH facilities or county jails awaiting a bed space in Coalinga.

Detainees allege they have been lured into treatment programs with the false hope that they may one day reenter society, saying that in the eleven years since civil commitment laws were enacted, only two castrated Detainees have won their freedom while several others have been placed in residential treatment programs. All of those released were through court order.

Key issues leading to the strike:

• Clinical assessments are rarely performed on individual Detainees. State evaluators whose recommendations are critical in civil commitment trials spend little or no time with detainees before issuing their reports, relying instead on aging court or police records. Lacking current information, test results, or objectivity, their reports are routinely skewed against Detainees, who see them as merely tools for the prosecution.
• Abysmal medical care. Life-threatening conditions are often ignored or inadequately treated. Medical staff recommendations for Detainee health are routinely overruled by non-medical staff.
• Many program staff have quit. Detainees say that, amongst those few clinicians genuinely interested in providing effective patient treatment, many have left due to encroachment by administration and police staff into the management of treatment.
• Conflict of interest. Acting Hospital Director, Rocky Spurgeon (the third Director in a little more than a month), is a defendant in ongoing Detainee lawsuits dating to before his current appointment. Clearly, Detainees seeking legal redress continue to be under the authority of those very individuals from whom they seek relief.
• Lack of independent and professional oversight by outside organizations. The Hospital falls short in standards of care and management set by federal guidelines and even by those of California 's Department of Corrections, an agency now under court order to address gross deficiencies in health care, overcrowding, and humane treatment. Coalinga has been left largely unmonitored by either state or federal oversight or by professional organizations, such as the American Psychiatric or Psychological Associations.
• Many custody police are compelled to enforce punitive restrictions imposed by administrative officials. Mandatory searches of each detainee's property are conducted weekly without probable cause. One police complained that, having previously worked in California's prisons before coming to DMH, he found the conditions in DMH to be far more restrictive than those imposed on inmates in state prison, despite the emphasis received in his training that "this is a hospital, not a prison".
• Nutritional deficiency and dreadful food quality. Coalinga meals are widely regarded as much worse than state prison food, itself known for poor quality. Staff discard extra food but deny seconds to hungry Detainees, despite ever smaller portion sizes. Nutritious food purchased by family and friends on the outside to send in monthly packages are forbidden but junk food-chips, cookies, candy, and ramen-are allowed.
• Communication with the outside world. Letters and communications, even those with attorneys, are subject to staff scrutiny. Many believe that staff listen in on phone calls. Staff arbitrarily refuse mail, including treatment and college materials, without notification.
• Absence of Detainee rules for conduct and rights under an appeals process. There is nothing equivalent to CDC's Title 15 delineating rules to which inmates must adhere or rights which they possess. Nor are there precedents that actions contravening Detainee rights will result in discipline for staff or Detainee remedy. Instead, rules are issued arbitrarily by individual staff as directives, many of which are mutually contradictory and have no legal basis. Rules from one housing unit to the next differ widely, with Unit Supervisors making abrupt policy decisions without accountability to the law or administration. Property room staff, while allowing one detainee an item, will deny another an identical item, even when on an "approved" list. This, combined with the capricious enforcement of rules as a form of harassment, has created an atmosphere of constant uncertainty and turmoil for Detainees.
• Inmate library consists largely of children's books and juvenile-level materials. Titles featuring "Cinderella" are well represented in the library's collection and Detainees who desire more intellectual reading challenges find no support from staff. Beyond the library, censorship to absurd levels is imposed on all books, periodicals, and other media which the Detainee wishes to buy with his own money. Also, all items purchased by inmates must be ordered through a handful of institutionally approved vendors, a selection process without transparency and one which effectively imposes trade restraints on legitimate vendors.
• Inmate financial resources, earned as a result of work performed in the prison (averaging about $1.25 a day) are controlled by staff who must approve any expenditure in excess of $100, even if it is cash to be sent to family, and can refuse without explanation. Detainees do not receive interest accrued from their funds.
• Complete lack of privacy. Detainees have no privacy in any aspect of their daily lives, save for stall doors in restroom toilets, and they are in continuous view of staff and other Detainees. As Justice Louis Brandeis, in his now-famous dissent in the 1928 Supreme Court decision of Olmstead v. United States articulated: "the right to be let alone is the most comprehensive of rights and the right most valued by civilized men." . How is it then that "Civil Detainees", not being held for the purpose of additional punishment, are shorn of this fundamental right of human dignity?
• Inmates are prevented from experiencing the outdoors or seeing beyond the institution walls. The largest accessible "outdoor" area is a tiny inner courtyard referred to by prisoners as "the terrarium".
• Despite its stated purpose as a forensic investigatory hospital, DMH has published nothing of their sex offender treatment research in peer-reviewed journals.
• Detainee family support. Visitors must be approved by administration and can be denied for any reason. There are very few telephones for use by hundreds of Detainees.
• Bingo, conga drumming, mural painting, and popcorn snacking are often shown in reports to be "treatment" in the continuous challenge staff face in justifying the hospital's existence as a treatment facility. While many suspect outright fraud in these "treatment" expenditures, they have received no scrutiny by State regulators or the Legislature.
• CDC prisoners , not Civil Detainees, have recently been dumped in Coalinga State Hospital alongside Civil Detainees who, after all, are not there for punishment.
• On the use of the term "Sexually Violent Predator " (S.V.P.) to describe Civil Detainees. The term "S.V.P." has a meaning under California law quite distinct from that of any reasonable person. As it is now defined, neither actual violence nor coercion is needed for a crime to meet the statutory definition of "sexually violent". The age of the victim, non-familial victims or past convictions are some criteria useful in branding someone " S.V.P." That this definitional shift has occurred during a period of mass hysteria over sex offenders cannot be seen as coincidental. California prisons and state hospitals have been launched on a wave of distorted public opinion.
• Recidivism rates are no higher for Civil Detainees than for other offenders not detained; between four and six percent. If the state is unable to demonstrate a difference in recidivism rates, then the very existence of the Civil Commitment program is called into question. Public safety would be truly served were funds reallocated to programs demonstrating actual success.

Since the strike began Detainee spokesperson Niles Carr has reported that the Administration has imposed further restrictions on movement and increased punishment, including loss of work assignment, for many participating in the strike. They have also announced that they will disband RPAC (Resident Policy Advisory Council, elected by Detainees). In response, Detainees Wednesday voted overwhelmingly to retain RPAC and its representatives and to stage two days of "non-movement/non-cooperation" scheduled for Monday and Tuesday, August 20-21.