In re Gomez
Annotate this CasePelican Bay State Prison (PBSP) inmate Gomez, classified as a violent felon when he arrived in 2000, was relocated to solitary confinement, where he stayed for more than a decade. He is one of many California prisoners who have been housed in solitary confinement, including indefinitely, based on findings of gang affiliation. Gomez was found to have refused nine consecutive meals over a three-day period coincident with a larger hunger strike and work stoppage by state prison inmates protesting solitary confinement practices. PBSP authorities ruled that Gomez had engaged in “behavior which might lead to violence or disorder, or otherwise endangers facility, outside community or another person” in violation of the California Code of Regulations and assessed him 90 days of conduct credits. The court of appeal found that there was not sufficient evidence to support the disciplinary ruling and ordered the PBSP disciplinary ruling reversed. Even assuming that the disorder prohibited by section 3005(a) did not have to rise to the level of endangering “facility, outside community or another person,” nothing in the account of the delays and cancellation of services, and the reallocation of prison personnel, to monitor the hunger strikers, suggests prison operations were thrown into disorder.
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