by James P. Anderson
After spending 45 years on San Quentin’s death row, I’m one of those transferred to the California Men’s Colony (CMC-East) which is located in San Luis Obispo and is sometimes referred to as a “country club,” even though it’s a Security Level III prison (see Wikipedia listing).
One of the first and most obvious aspects of the prison was the extremely minimal number of Black (African-American, negro) faces of corrections “officers” and employees. That is, compared to San Quentin, there are so few that I was compelled to actually ask a Black female officer about the percentage of Blacks employed here. Her response was simply and cautiously, “There’s some.” Needless to say, her facial expression – she was surprised that a prisoner would ask such a question – and lack of any elaboration made a very powerful statement – without actually saying it.
Another example was a middle-aged male negro (aka “boot-licker”) officer announcing on the tier, “There’s no talking on the tier during count, or I’ll write you up!” As prisoners are standing at the window of the solid steel doors for count, a sergeant walks behind him and states, “Move away from the window,” at which time he looks into every cell. It’s the kind of scenario that’s repeated in various forms every day. So no matter WHAT prisoners do, they’re wrong and may suffer the consequences of receiving a disciplinary report, usually for “disobeying a direct order.”
When slavery was legal in America, slaves were beaten with a whip. Today they’re whipped with a pen! Needless to say, the public is very seldom aware of these kinds of “incidents,” which is primarily the reason I’ve written articles published by Covert Action magazine.com (Nov. 9, 2023), Space 4 Peace.blogspot.com (Aug. 23, 2021), SFBayView.com (Sept. 26, 2021, and Oct. 2, 2022, and in the near future LATimes.com, an article by Keegan Hamilton. Additional articles can be reviewed at prisonwitness.org/jamespanderson.
It’s also quite the coincidence that three days after sending a text message to a long time, trusted friend and comrade informing her that I could feel and see the racist mentality here at CMC-East within the first few days of my arrival, – San Luis Obispo is undoubtedly Klan Country – I’m unable to send any texts or make any phone calls on the dayroom kiosk or the personal GTL tablet issued on May 10, 2024.
There’s perhaps 100 yards distance from Building 2 to the exercise equipment area, basketball and handball courts. Against the same wall there are six octagonal metal tables for board games. Building 2 has only one working public address system speaker attached to its front for A-yards announcements – medical appointments, education, classification committee, visits, legal mail pick-up etc.). Unfortunately, the antiquated P.A. system is more of a mumbling echo system as opposed to an actual working P.A. system. A very simple solution to this problem would be to install a P.A. system speaker on the handball-six tables wall and another radio speaker on each tier in the CMC-East facility.
It’s believed by many of all races that the “mumbling echo system” is operated by design – intentionally – as prisoners in the exercise areas as well as inside their assigned cells’ solid steel doors can’t hear, understand or decipher what’s being announced. This can ultimately result in abuses of authority by staff issuing disciplinary reports, again citing, “disobeying a direct order” for intentionally failing to appear for an announced appointment. And no, it doesn’t matter that the prisoner simply didn’t hear the announcement, as the disciplinary hearing officer will always be guided by the wording of the alleged infraction and usually knows absolutely nothing about the circumstances or conditions of the alleged offense.
This aspect of the disciplinary rules violation reports (RVRs) process is easily reflected in the two separate “deadly weapons” disciplinary reports issued to myself. The first in 1980 was for a small screw driver made from a copper staple of a cardboard box and the second was the 2021 electrical cord prong domino etching tip (see space4peace.blogspot.com for Sept. 30, 2021). It’s very difficult – almost impossible – to believe that a prisoner would receive a RVR for simply “saving uneaten food” from the dining hall in a plastic bag to take back to his cell to eat later. But a thorough investigation of prisoners’ RVRs issued recently would reveal this reality. There’s an old adage, “Misery loves company.” Believe it, as it not only loves company, it demands it!
I thought it was interesting that both the L.A. Times journalist Keegan Hamilton and Scripps College Professor Mar Golub found it to be so fascinating that I’d lie on the grass here for five minutes, just to appreciate how it felt to simply lie on grass, that it feels different walking on grass, as opposed to walking on concrete for 45 years. Most people would never think about such little things.
Sixteen days after my arrival here, I was finally issued most of my property, after complaining to several administrators and filing a 602 grievance. I doubt that its another instance of misplaced or “overlooked” containers and boxes, as my name and CDCR number were clearly printed on the tops and all four sides of my four 56-quart clear plastic transpacking containers, which were ordered through the special purchase order program specifically for the transfer.
I doubt that it’s a coincidence that the one missing container was filled with legal petitions and documents, including most of those directly related to the currently pending civil suit in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, case number 23-1535, for the theft of my property, as well as excerpts from the DSM-5 (Diagnostic Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders-5) and other educational materials. It’s also astounding that any and all death row prisoners transferred to CMC-East are only allowed to have ONE box (16” x 12” x 10”) of legal materials. There are traffic and parking ticket cases that fill more than one box of legal documents!
It’s important to note as well that a reliable and reputable free world source has confirmed that the California Appellate Project, a San Francisco-based legal firm which ALL death penalty cases are processed through, has received innumerable complaints from transferred and transpacked death row prisoners that some of their property has been lost, severely damaged or stolen. The questions to be asked are, “Who will be held accountable for the property?” and “How many death penalty appointed attorneys will make an effort to email the prisons’ wardens or administrators to inquire and make a record for possible future civil and criminal litigation, as there are clearly constitutional violations of due process?”
And then there’s the question of who checks and inspects the property cards of the inmates who work in R&R (Receiving and Release), also known as SPIs, Special Privileged Inmates. I mention this as the property “officer” was handing one of my almost empty plastic containers – it still had three Starburst strawberry drink mix packets in the corner of the clear container – to the inmate worker, I looked the inmate straight in his eyes and said, “Enjoy the kool-aid.” He didn’t say a word, as he knew I’d seen my property being given to him.
Interesting too is that a pair of knitted gloves, purchased from Walkenhorst’s through the Special Purchase Program, were thrown in a clean gray trash can, along with a black knitted watch cap that a death row prisoner had made for me at San Quentin. When I asked the property “officer” why my gloves and cap were being thrown in the trash can, his response was, “You’re not allowed to have gloves here or black caps.” Needless to say, after I left the R&R area, the inmate worker simply retrieved the gloves and cap from the trash can for his own use or to sell to another prisoner.
Then there’s a few of the same Willie Lynch negroes who seem to only know the words “lend me,” “give me,” “can you spare” who are always looking for something for nothing in exchange. Even worse, they’re so comfortable and complacent with the “K-9s” (guards) that they collect and pass “ingredients” for their juice in the immediate presence of the K-9s in the dining hall on a regular basis – as though the guards don’t know why they’re collecting the ingredients. Needless to say the guards turn a blind eye to these characters’ blatant and obvious activities in exchange for information about other prisoners’ activities.
Upon arriving here at CMC-East, I was stunned to see the same three or four inmates casually strolling across the yard with a guard engaged in conversation – in the same manner as two seasoned convicts would walk and talk. I’ve since learned that this is the new “acceptable” abnormal. I’m a stranger in a strange land – the Twilight Zone.
Another interesting (and disappointing) aspect of the prison existence is the regularity in hearing the abuse of the “N-word” by obviously ignorant Willie Lynch negroes. They abuse it so frequently, as though the more they say it, the “cooler” or “hipper” they are? Perhaps even worse is that they abuse it in the immediate presence of ANYONE – Whites, Latinos, Asians, guards etc. Conversely, very seldom have I heard Whites refer to or call each other a “cracker,” “honkie” or “peckerwood” or Latinos refer to each other as a “wetback” or “bean-picker,” or Asians refer to each other as “gooks” or “slant-eyes.”
In short, ignorance is one thing, and stupidity is another, but combined they’re an extremely dangerous combination. The old adage, “If common sense were common, everyone would have it,” most certainly applies here.
I’ve also listened intently to numerous right-wing radio programs (from Riverside to San Francisco counties) and continue to be amazed and dumbfounded by how many of the hosts will regularly state with absolute certainty to their listening audience what they “know,” as in, “Everyone knows” whatever the subject matter may be. It’s as though these hosts know all of their listeners’ individual life experiences; how else can one person know what another person knows? It’s as though they think that there’s no difference between “thinking,” “believing,” “having faith in” or actually KNOWING a specific truth or fact based in reality, as opposed to their “opinions” or “beliefs.”
The programs with co-hosts makes matters even worse as they’ll always agree with what the other says by stating, “That’s right” and re-wording the same statements. Then there’s the combined fake laughing whenever any left-wing ideology or quote is jokingly stated as a fact. It’s the “blame the victim” mentality throughout the programs, which never challenge the listeners to actually THINK about what’s being said. It’s strongly suggested that readers obtain a copy of Ernie Bernay’s 1928 paperback book “Propaganda” – Bernay is the nephew of Sigmund Freud – and absorb the wisdom.
In closing, besides my own decades of observations, I’ve been fortunate enough to connect with a few REAL brothers and others who have the same principles and rules of conduct as my own, and ALL have been adamant in sharing their knowledge of how vitally important it is to be very careful in who I speak with and what is said, as not only are the guards watching ALL death row prisoners with microscopes, so are the SNYs (Special or Sensitive Needs Yards), SPIs and other beasts of CMC-East.
Send our brother some love and light: James P. Anderson, C-11400, CMC-East, P.O. Box 8101, FAC A, 2116, San Luis Obispo CA 93409.
