Take a rare look inside California's youth prisons

Over the course of this summer, the staff of Books Not Bars will be touring all of
the youth prison facilities. We'll get a chance to talk with some of the youth,
experience the visiting process firsthand and bear witness to the conditions inside
the prisons. To convey our thoughts and feelings and to share the words and
impressions of the youth themselves, we'll be doing report-backs on our blog. I
invite you to read the blog and share some of your thoughts. Click here to read
more:

http://www.ellabakercenter.org/blog/?cat=5

First, we toured the enormous Heman G. Stark, or just "Stark," in Chino. The largest
youth prison by population, it's located east of LA. Its name describes it well.
Books Not Bars Policy Director Sumayyah Waheed, the blog author, asked one of the
youth why his family hasn't visited him in two years:

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"Y'know, it's not worth it for me," he said. "They gotta come all the way down here,
get a room for the night and then get disrespected."

"From the guards?" I asked.

He nodded. "And y'know, they're not used to that."

Read more: http://www.ellabakercenter.org/blog/?cat=5

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Just a couple weeks ago, Books Not Bars toured the youth prison complex at Stockton.
There are three facitilies on one site at Stockton, including the notorious N.A.
Chaderjian, or "Chad," where guards have been caught on tape beating the youth in
their care. Books Not Bars Associate Jennifer Kim relates her visit of the lockup
unit:

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The most emotionally difficult time of the tour came when we visited the lock-up
unit. Staff members refer to it as "SMP" or special management programming. A quaint
euphemism for a cell unit designed after the adult prisons. We had the opportunity
to speak with one youth privately in an office. He entered the room in a bright
orange jumpsuit, shackled. We spoke briefly with him about the prevalent violence
perpetrated by the guards against the youth in the lock up unit.

Read more: http://www.ellabakercenter.org/blog/?cat=5

* * * * *
Over the rest of the summer, we'll be touring all the other youth prison facilities
and reporting back on the Ella Baker Center blog, with a new post every couple
weeks, so be sure to check back. To keep more up to date, you can signup for our
blog RSS feed:
feed://http//http://www.ellabakercenter.org/blog/?feed=rss2

Thanks for all you do to build our vision of closing California's youth prisons and
opening youth opportunities.

Jakada Imani
Books Not Bars
Ella Baker Center for Human Rights