There was a riot today in Yard 2 of California’s Avenal State Prison, in Kings County. Avenal State Prison is designated a low-medium security institution and has six yards.
Two inmates were stabbed, and shots were fired. Reports say that after the riot, visiting was canceled and all visitors had to leave the prison.
Important legislative hearings begin this week and prisoner advocates say this is the reason the guards are stirring up the inmates, to cause problems and make it appear to lawmakers and voters that funding for the prison system is paramount, and that inmates cannot be released.
As an example of guard-initiated agitation, inmates are called names and otherwise verbally abused, while being kept standing out in the sun for five or six hours a day and told they will never get packages they are waiting for. Apparently, this happened on three separate days this week.
The goal of some of the guards is to make the inmates sunburned, frustrated and angry enough to react.
While there is no way to know the cause of this riot yet, it could be the guards succeeded in their goal. If this is true, we should expect more riots.
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