Jan. 11, 2008 Press Release, C.S.H. Civil Detainees

California Department Of Mental Health Explains Why Gang Members Who Rape Women Do Not Need Treatment

For Immediate Release, January 11, 2008

Coalinga State Hospital Detainee, John Lofton, spoke by phone with Brenda Epperly-Ellis, Chief of the Sexual Offender Commitment Program, from her office in the California Department of Mental Health in Sacramento on November 19, 2007.

Lofton had called Epperly-Ellis to discuss D.M.H. criteria for selecting candidates for involuntary civil confinement after completing their prison sentences. His question to her follows:

"Of those people who are detained here under the S.V.P.A. (Sexually Violent Predator Act) since 1996, its year of enactment, it has become clear that there are few, if any, gang members convicted of sex crimes within our commitment, despite high rates of sexual offense among gang members.

Why are gang members, who usually are violent, excluded from S.V.P.? Instead, sex offenders with gang affiliation are free to return home after serving their prison terms while we face lifetime confinement in the Department of Mental Health even though many here are not violent at all?

(Epperly-Ellis letter: http://detainees.googlepages.com/BrendaEpperly-Ellis_LTR.gif )

November 26, 2007

To: John Lofton
Coalinga State Hospital
24511 West Jayne Avenue
Coalinga, CA 93210

From: Brenda Epperly-Ellis, S.O.C.P.

Subject: SVP/Gang Affiliation

Dear Mr. Lofton,

I am writing to you in regards to the questions we discussed by telephone regarding gang members in the Sexual Offender Commitment Program. I have checked with both our Legal Department and our experienced evaluators to provide a response to your concern.

There are no statutes that protect gang members from a sexually violent predator commitment. Gang affiliation is considered in the evaluation because it is a significant risk factor for sexual re-offense. The sexual offenses of gang members are one of many types of criminal offenses they commit. Gang members often commit a rape in concert and it is motivated by violence not by deviance. Generally, this is not due to a mental disorder and they stop doing those types of offenses as they get older.

I hope this letter has addressed your concerns. If you have any further questions please feel free to contact me via mail at the address above.

Sincerely,

Brenda Epperly-Ellis, Chief
Sexual Offender Commitment Program, 1600 9th Street, RM 250, Sacramento, CA 95814, 916-653-1843

Response From Detainee Mike St. Martin to Brenda Epperly-Ellis:

Statistics consistently show that our rate of reoffense goes down with age, too. But that doesn't keep you from holding us here until our 70's or 80's while gang members often get out of prison while still in their 20's or 30's. And gang members have a rate of recidivism of more than 70% while ours are less than 5%. What's more, the average age of Detainees here is nearly 60 and most committed their crimes more than twenty years ago. Thirty people have died in custody, three times as many as the courts have released after completion of the program.

So how is it that those gang affiliated sex offenders with a documented history of violence who have raped and abused women are not considered "Sexually Violent Predators"?"

It's very telling that you find “deviance” to be more of a threat to society than “violence”. The public has been lead to believe that the offender profile most to be feared is that of the socially isolated sex offender, not of the violent gangster who, amongst all other things, is a rapist.

By excluding the “violent” and focusing on “the deviant”, you simultaneously appease the public and avoid the difficult custody problems encountered by the Department of Corrections when incarcerating gang members.

Those not conforming to your preferred offender profiles find no place in your program and do not appear in the statistics which purport to demonstrate its value. Indeed, it has been suggested that you would find their introduction to be a contamination of your narrowly-focused study of offenders, although I find the suggestion that your treatment teams are capable of conducting any “scientific study” laughable on its face.

The demonstrated statistical reality is that the dangerousness of gang members who rape is far greater than that of the individual pedophile who, alarming headlines to the contrary, is rarely violent. But keeping gang members in cages is far more difficult, isn't it?

The California Legislature's Greatly Revised Dictionary of the English Language (Abridged)

Prisoners in California's Department of Corrections, upon completion of their prison sentences for sexually related crimes, are evaluated for consideration as "Sexually Violent Predators". At that point, State Evaluators make a recommendation to have the individual detained in Civil Confinement under the authority of the Department of Mental Health if they consider him to be “S.V.P.”, or to be allowed to leave the prison system onto parole and out into the community if they do not.

What is a "Sexually Violent Predator (S.V.P.)" under California law? The State's criteria for determining "Sexual Violence" is very different from the definition for the word "violent" found in any dictionary or any reasonable person's understanding of the term. As it is now defined, neither actual violence nor coercion is needed for a crime to meet the statutory definition of "sexually violent" under California law. In the case of child sex offenders, all that is needed to classify an offender as "violent" is that they have “substantial sexual contact” with a person under the age of 14, regardless of consent. Even if the "victim" had been perfectly willing to engage in sexual contact with the "perpetrator", he will be considered, for the purposes of classification and consideration for lifetime commitment, a "sexually violent predator".

What's more, "Sexual contact" can consist of mere touching, even through clothing and even if what is being touched is not genitalia (such as feet or back or shoulders). In this case, the "thoughts" of the perpetrator are what matter, since any physical contact whatsoever is a felony given "sexual intent". "Thought Crimes" are punishable under California Criminal Code 288 with the very real possibility of a life sentence!

The term "predator" itself is also intended to mislead. According to California's "dictionary" a "predator" need not employ actual violence, force or coercion. In this context, a "predator" may simply be someone who is unrelated as family to the "victim", such as a friend or "casual acquaintance". It is for this reason that those convicted of incest are less likely to find themselves being civilly committed after serving their prison sentence than those who had a friendship (a voluntary relationship) with their "victims".

The "Static 99" is a scoring system which purports to estimate risk for reoffense and is used in further determining eligibility for civil confinement. In practice, it especially penalizes men (and it's only used on men) who are unmarried and homosexual (with male "victims") and not related by family to their "victims". Such an offender will receive two additional "points" indicating reoffense risk. He will receive one more point if he has not known his "victim" for at least 24 hours before sexual contact. The maximum number of points that can be scored on the Static 99 is only 12.

Ironically, one of the definitions for "violent" which is found in Webster's dictionary is the following: "of, pertaining to, or constituting a distortion of meaning or fact." Does this sound like a Legislature we know?
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Contact:

Civil Detainee Spokesperson:
Mike St. Martin
CO-414-3, Unit 7
P.O . BOX 5003
Coalinga , CA 93210-5003
Telephone: 559-934-0391 / 559-934-0392
email: michaelst.martin@hotmail.com

this document is also available from: http://detainees.googlepages.com/whygangmemberswhorapewomendonotneedtreat

Coalinga State Hospital Refuses U.S. Mail To Detainee

**UPDATE**: Coalinga State Hospital has today (Jan. 11, 2008) released the brochures without comment to Mike St. Martin (see below)

Administration has Civil Detainee, Mike St. Martin, reports today that Hospital administration has refused to give him brochures from Friends & Family of California Civil Detainees sent by the U.S. Mail. (download brochure)

He was told that his mail would have to be further "reviewed" by the Administration before a determination could be made if he would be allowed to receive it.

The ostensible reason for this "review" was stated by Officer Wallace to be that the words "Coalinga State Hospital" and a stylized depiction of the institution (which is part of the "Friends & Family" logo) appear in the brochure.

"This is an ongoing policy of the Hospital which claims that Detainees have no civil rights and that we only have the civil rights that they (the Hospital) gives us', said St. Martin. "This is according to Lieutenant Sharon Rogers and previous Clinical Director Gary Renzaglia."

"Hospital administration is having a really hard time coming to grips with the fact that we DO possess civil rights including the right to send and receive mail and to keep it from being read without a court warrant. The U.S. Supreme Court has clearly stated that we are not to be punished and that we are to be held in the least restrictive manner possible. What part of 'No, you won't abrogate our rights' don't they understand?".

Not only is this latest abridgment of Detainee civil rights in contravention of U.S. Federal Statutes but is also in defiance of California Department of Mental Health's own rules governing mail:

"Unit staff will deliver the mail to the Individual to whom it is addressed and, in accordance with the hospital's rules, open and inspect incoming mail for contraband, without reading written material, and in the presence of the Individual". California Department of Mental Health Administrative Directive: "SUPPORTIVE SERVICES ADMINISTRATIVE DIRECTIVE NO. 624

The Federal Law on the subject reads as follows:

"Whoever takes any letter, postal card, or package out of any post office or any authorized depository for mail matter, or from any letter or mail carrier, or which has been in any post office or authorized depository, or in the custody of any letter or mail carrier, before it has been delivered to the person to whom it was directed, with design to obstruct the correspondence, or to pry into the business or secrets of another, or opens, secretes, embezzles, or destroys the same, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than five years, or both." TITLE 18, PART I, CHAPTER 83, § 1702 Obstruction of correspondence

As of this writing, Executive Director Norm Kramer could not be reached for comment.

C.S.H. Civil Detainees Press Release

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Friday, November 23, 2007

Under Increasing Public Scrutiny, Coalinga State Hospital Shifts Into Crisis Mode

Since Thursday's Los Angeles Times article¹ on deficient medical care and the denial of basic civil rights to Detainees being confined in Coalinga State Hospital, its Administration has moved fully into crisis mode, confidential sources from within staff report.

They report that the Hospital, unable to attract and retain employees in the drastically understaffed facility, have been hiring “temp agency psychologists” at up to three times the current going rate just to get “warm bodies” into the facility.

In addition to investigators and auditors from Sacramento who have begun to descend upon the Hospital, two representatives from Protection and Advocacy, Sean Rashkis and an assistant arrived at C.S.H. Friday to investigate the circumstances into Detainee Frank Valado's death [Detainees allege that he was left untreated on the gymnasium floor] and to interview patients regarding their medical treatment, including David Smith. Smith, who has alleged that he was denied tests and treatment over a number of months despite disturbing medical symptoms, was ultimately diagnosed with cancer of the larynx. Since its removal, he has also been diagnosed with two brain tumors.

The day after the L.A.Times article appeared, staff arrived at the the gym to install a defibrillator but then discovered that there was already one behind a locked door to the gym, as had been reported by Mike St. Martin in our press release of the week before. Also since Valado's death, Kathy Bryant has made a point of showing Detainees her “Mouth Guard” for use in performing mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, claiming that she had had it all along. By this, she clearly wishes to refute the allegation by Detainees witnessing Valado's death that she had said “I'm not putting my mouth on his mouth” in reference to performing mouth-to-mouth upon Valado. Other mouth guards suddenly appeared in the gym itself but, strangely, then disappeared again soon after.

Detainees were encouraged when Hospital Director Norm Kramer agreed to meet with representatives of the Detainee Strike Committee and acknowledged in that meeting that Hospital medical care has been substandard, pledging to create a database to track patient illnesses and to begin performing triage. He asked Detainees to bring forward those Patients with immediate medical needs for treatment consideration.

Deirdre D'Orazio, Director of Program Development and Evaluation Services at C.S.H. was quoted extensively in both the Times article as well as in the KSEE-24 segment which aired later that same day. D'Orazio, with a Ph.D. In Clinical Psychology with a proficiency in Forensic Psychology from “Alliant” University, oversees Coalinga's S.O.C.P. (Sex Offender Commitment Program also known as the “Phase” Program) arguably one of the largest and most expensive sex offender treatment programs in the world. She helped to open C.S.H. in September 2005 having just received her license by the State of California in December 2004.

A search using “Google Scholar” and “BASE” for locating published works in academic journals failed to produce any evidence of her scholarship in any area of psychology.

In September of this year, she told the Ventura County Star² that the five-phase treatment program created in 1996 is too young to determine its long-term effect and that the number of patients is too small to have statistical value, hardly a ringing endorsement for a program costing taxpayers upwards of $200,000 per year per patient.

The centerpiece of this treatment modality is what D'Orazio refers to as "a psychological autopsy." Patients describe this process as part of an overall “deconstruction” of the individual, in which past events or fantasies are recounted endlessly-literally for years-by the Patient at the insistence of therapists. This approach is said to be nothing more than a “recycled” version of the failed “S.O.T.E.P.” program, dismantled years ago, and which was itself a replacement for the failed “M.D.S.O.” program.

Amongst therapists facilitating this process are self-proclaimed “survivors” of sexual abuse who, Detainees report, abuse their positions of power to exact revenge against sex offenders as a class.

As reported in the San Diego Union Tribune³, May 22, 2006, Dr. Gabrielle Paladino, a psychiatrist at Atascadero State Hospital, the facility which housed all Civilly Committed Sex Offenders before the completion of C.S.H. said, "The odds that a participant will be judged suitable for release are greater than 100 to 1.” Those who decline treatment and seek judicial release stand a better chance of winning their freedom.

Nationally recognized experts in sex offending such as Fred Berlin, Robert Prentky and Canada's Karl Hanson, have been scathing in their criticism of state treatment programs, including California's, and its civil commitment laws. One leading expert, well-acquainted with California's S.O.C.P., has described it as “miserable”.

Michael Feer, a psychiatric social worker with more than three decades of experience and who worked at Coalinga until earlier this spring, stated “The Hospital is a setup. Ostensibly, it is a treatment hospital but one built with a wink to a public that has little compunction about locking up sex offenders forever”. Feer said that he believes that many Detainees held in C.S.H. would pose no threat to the public if released.¹

Marita Mayer, a Contra Costa public defender, compares the predator law to the 2002 film "Minority Report," in which people were imprisoned for future crimes envisioned by women with a gift for prophecy. “We have lowered the standard so much that we are locking up people who probably won't recommit because of a few who might." ⁴

According to Detainee Spokesman Michael St. Martin, an Atascadero Psychiatric Technician, Lana Garcia, once told him that she was appointed by God to punish him. “But the more serious reality is this”, he added, “I'm being held for a crime I might commit in the future by people who are committing crimes in the present.”

Howard Zonana, a Professor of Psychiatry at Yale University and Spokesperson for the American Psychiatric Association has said, “S.V.P. laws are not an attempt to gain treatment or anything close to that... What it really is is an attempt to extend prison sentences.”

"They are using a psychiatric facility to pursue a legal end," said, Mark Graff, a San Fernando Valley psychiatrist who led efforts by the California Psychiatric Association to oppose the sexually violent predator law. The law is about punishment, punishment, punishment.“ ⁵

Civil Detainee Spokesperson: Mike St. Martin, CO-414-3, Unit 7, P.O . BOX 5003, Coalinga , CA 93210-5003 Telephone: 559-934-0391 / 559-934-0392 email: michaelst.martin@hotmail.com

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1. The Los Angeles Times, November 15, 2007 2.Ventura County Star1 September 2, 2007 3. San Diego Union Tribune, May 22, 2006

4.San Francisco Chronicle, Sunday, July 11, 2004 5. Contra Costa Times, Sunday, Oct. 10, 2004

Coalinga Strike Update: 10/1/2007

October 1, 2007

Despite Administration assertions to the contrary, Civil Detainees in California's $388 Million Coalinga State Hospital remain on strike in the second month of a non-violent action.

They charge that the Hospital's new Director, Norman Kramer, has also reneged on his recent promises to:

• Meet with Representatives of the Detainee Provisional government by Friday of last week.
• Transcribe tape recorded minutes of their prevous meeting with him and to make these available to Detainees and the media.
• Remove Clinical Director Rocky Spurgeon, one of the primary Defendants in a Detainee lawsuit recently reconfirmed by the U.S. Court of Appeals, 9th Circuit Court and sent back to the Federal District Court for trial (1).

Detainees report that, despite lacking professional qualifications for his position, Spurgeon remains in a position of authority at the Hospital where he is referred to by staff and Detainees alike as "Rocky the Roadblock" for his reputation of deliberately frustrating attempts by Detainees to exercise the few rights they enjoy.

The Administration's repeated denial to media that a Detainee strike is underway at C.S.P. is seen by strike organizers as a means to circumvent adverse press coverage and establish a sense of normality which they hope will prevail by the time of the U.S. Department of Justice's visit there later this month. The scope of the D.O.J. inspection is quite broad and seeks to determine the conditions of confinement and treatment of Detainees in the dramatically understaffed facility. A drastic reshuffling of Administration staff since the strike began including one senior staff member being escorted off the premises by police escort gives little credibility to the Administration's assertion that a strike is neither underway nor having an effect on the Hospital's operations.

Detainees plan further, as yet unspecified, strike actions in the coming weeks.

For background on the strike including the issues leading to it, please go to: http://www.sexgulag.org .

###
Contact:

Friends & Family of California Civil Detainees
Allan Marshall, Director
Tel: 702-421-0467
Email: detainees@gmail.com

Civil Detainee Contact:
Mike St. Martin
CO-414-3, Unit 7
P.O . BOX 5003
Coalinga , CA 93210-5003
Telephone: 559-934-0391 / 559-934-0392

1 Hydrick, et al. v. Schwarzenegger, et al. http://vlex.com/vid/20630509

Coalinga Strike Update: 9/29/2007

Despite Administration assertions to the contrary, Civil Detainees in California's $388 Million Coalinga State Hospital remain on strike in the second month of a non-violent action.

They charge that the Hospital's new Director, Norman Kramer, has also reneged on his recent promises to:

• Meet with Representatives of the Detainee Provisional government by Friday of last week.
• Transcribe tape recorded minutes of their prevous meeting with him and to make these available to Detainees and the media.
• Remove Clinical Director Rocky Spurgeon, the primary Defendant in a Detainee lawsuit recently reconfirmed by the U.S. Court of Appeals, 9^th Circuit Court and sent back to the Federal District Court for trial¹.

Reportedly lacking professional qualifications for his position, Spurgeon remains in a position of authority at the Hospital where he is referred to by staff and Detainees alike as “Rocky the
Roadblock” for his reputation of deliberately frustrating attempts by Detainees to exercise the few rights they enjoy.

The Administration's repeated denial to media that a Detainee strike is underway at C.S.P. is seen by strike organizers as a means to circumvent adverse press coverage and establish a sense of normality which they hope will prevail by the time of the U.S. Department of Justice's visit there later this month. The scope of the D.O.J. inspection is quite broad and seeks to determine the conditions of confinement and treatment of Detainees in the dramatically understaffed facility. A drastic reshuffling of Administration staff since the strike began including one senior staff member escorted off the premises by police escort gives little credibility to the Administration's assertion that a strike is neither underway nor having an effect on the Hospital's operations.

Detainees plan further, as yet unspecified, strike actions in the coming weeks.

¹ Hydrick, et al. v. Schwarzenegger, et al. http://vlex.com/vid/20630509

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.