Resistance Behind Bars: The Struggles of Incarcerated Women

How do we know what really goes on in California's prisons? Is there any place where transparency and accountability are more important than a system that puts tens of thousands of people under the control of a state institution and spends over $9 billion of our money each year?

Assembly Bill 1270 restores the ability of journalists to conduct pre-arranged interviews with individual prisoners and to exchange confidential correspondence with them. It allows journalists to write down and record their conversations with inmates.

Here's one example of the power of the media:

In 1999, Nightline aired a six-part series on conditions at California’s Valley State Prison for Women. After prisoner after prisoner told Nightline anchor Ted Koppel about being given a pelvic exam as “part of the treatment” for any ailment, including stomach problems or diabetes, Koppel asked the prison’s chief medical officer, Dr. Anthony DiDomenico, for an explanation.

“I’ve heard inmates tell me they would deliberately like to be examined. It’s the only male contact they get,” DiDomenico answered in front of the cameras. That DiDomenico made such a statement on network television demonstrates the belief that, no matter how egregious their actions, prison officials will not be held accountable. When a local TV news program aired DiDomenico’s statement, however, he was reassigned to a desk job in Sacramento and an investigation was begun.481 Without media coverage of this sexual misconduct, DiDomenico most likely would have stayed at his position. Prisoner advocacy organi- zation Legal Services for Prisoners with Children had been reporting the prisoners’ complaints about medical staf f’s sexual misconduct to the CDC for four years with no result. After the Nightline series aired, not only was DiDomenico reassigned, but a second doctor was relieved of his duties six months later. As of 2001, both doctors had been criminally indicted.1

Assembly Bill 1270 has passed the Assembly and the Senate Public Safety Committee. But the bill is on hold now, and the Department of Corrections is opposing AB 1270, saying it would cost too much money - when in fact the costs are minor. As members of the public, we and our policymakers deserve in-depth information about how this multi-billion dollar state agency is doing its job, and that means increased media access to prisons and prisoners.

Will you sign this petition? If so, click here:
http://signon.org/sign/let-the-light-in-restore?source=s.em.cp&r_by=2442712

• 1. This section taken from Resistance Behind Bars