Nightmares on Cell Street
If you think you have it bad in jail in Orange County, you do, but there’s a world of worse places you can be. In Honduras, a prison built to house 200 houses about 700 inmates and the guards do not enter the grounds at all; inmates run the cell areas and assign the jobs of getting water from the prison well (there’s no running water). The country spends about 33 cents a day per person in prison and that is for everything. So prisoners do a lot of foraging for anything that can be eaten and do their own cooking per cell area. Yum. Not only do cell areas fix their own food, sell the bedding to other inmates, and a military-type internal hierarchy composed of inmates maintains order of sorts.
Netflix has a series of investigations “Inside the World’s Toughest Prisons” produced by the BBC and the first season doesn’t even get to the United States … compared to the others, they might never get here. So you when you’re jailed in the US, you are really in a paradise by comparison. If you progress to the next level, you might get onto next year’s season as the show will probably have to profile one US prison (Pelican Bay, Attica?)
What to Expect of Jail Violence in Orange County
The Orange County Sheriffs Department is aware that violence can and does happen within their facilities and has takes precautions to limit or isolate more violent persons. All the jails have special programs and contacts for reporting threats, sexual assault, and employ practices that keep gang affiliates and rivals separated.
Several factors determine which jail facility you go to for serving your jail sentence after it is assigned by the judge:
- level of violence of the crime for which you were tried
- weapons used during the commission of the crime for which you were tried
- gang affiliations (your ink)
- previous arrests for the same offense with time served
- hostilities exhibited during arrest (even if you were under the influence)
- hostilities while incarcerated and waiting for due process (arraignment, trial)
It’s a pretty simple assignment system, if you were arrested committing violence, you will serve with others of who have the same potential.
Of the Orange County facilities, Theo Lacy houses the most dangerous felons, persons known to have affiliation with gangs, persons exhibiting repeated violent behavior, and violent sex offenders. The James A. Musick facility (nicknamed the Honor Farm) houses inmates who may be serving first or second sentences for crimes that are more individually damaging than public threat: DUI, possession of controlled substances, soliciting a prostitute, possession of stolen property, probation violations. The OCSD Main Jail houses those inmates who are a mix of non-gang affiliated felons, who have been sentenced.
They include special treatment areas where inmates who might be suffering from progressive mental conditions, PTSD, or have been unsuccessful at playing well with others (aggravated assault and domestic violence); these inmates have more limited visitation rights than others.
In efforts to maintain peace during incarceration, the different facilities employ varying recreation schedules, meal-times, and prevent the potential of interaction. One guaranteed safety (that’s even exhibited in other-world prisons) is to just avoid contact with anyone else’s property and avoid vocalizing any direct hostility.
Threats, Rape, or Other Personal Violations in Orange County Jails
Part of your introduction to a facility is a 24 minute video about rape and it will identify all the details of what constitutes rape (it’s not just about penetration) and how to deal with the threat. It’s not an issue of “gay” it’s an issue of intimidation and dominance.
“Ratting” is not a crime, but within a community raised on street justice it is perceived as one. Every facility has a channel through which you can and are entitled to report incidents of violence or assault to your person. Code of conduct for the deputy or corrections officer to whom you make the complaint is supposed to be reported upward in the chain of the command and if you feel that it won’t be, you need to make your allegations through the only remaining means at your disposal: the US Mail.
PREA memorize the letters because if it didn’t ever happen, there would be no need to have a federal process called “Prison Rape Elimination Act” signed into law in 2003. You need to have your claim substantiated by a clinic visit, a witness if possible or a CO report that corroborates your claim to get to the clinic, and a willingness to confess the situation.
Posters in the common area identify your rights under PREA, and usually identify a contact through whom all facility charges are investigated by the probation department.
Presently the Orange County PREA Coordinator office number is 714-935-6100. The current coordinator is:
Brian Johnson
Division Director
(714) 935-6100
If you don’t want to be a rat, or fear reprisals, put a letter into a letter to your attorney or an outside contact to forward correspondence and contact to the PREA contact.
Everyone (offenders and even officers) in a PREA claim may be subject to punishment.
General Code of Conduct and Prisoner Rights in Orange County
All the level II facilities operated in Orange County have the same rules for inmate conduct, visitor conduct, and offer the same “amenities.” If you are in for a duration of days, months or even a year, you must remember that you’ve already had your trial and been sentenced and unless you are involved with a severe incident you will be able to leave once the sentence is served.
There are places in the world where people wait years to get to the trial, and some jails aren’t segregated by gender (so what do you think the intimidation and rape numbers are there?)
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Remember that PREA is a Federal mandate that applies to all correction facilities in the nation. At least someone has your back, not your backside.
