Proposed United States Penitentiary Lompoc

From Executive summary: This report focuses on the government's efforts to enforce federal civil rights laws prohibiting religious discrimination in the administration and management of federal and state prisons. Prisoners in federal and state institutions retain certain religious exercise rights under the Constitution and statutes including the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act (RLUPIPA), the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA), and the Civil rights of Institutionalized Persons Act (CRIPA). Many states have similar provisions in their state constitutions and in state law modeled on RFRA. These rights must be balanced with the legitimate concerns of prisons officials, including cost, staffing, and most importantly, prison safety and security. Reconciling these rights and concerns can be a significant challenge for penal institutions, as well as courts.

Walk the mainline inside the United States Penitentiary Lompoc with a 21 year veteran federal correctional officer. The "New Rock" was one of the toughest federal prisons in the United States. What is it like to enter the front gate into the world of penitentiary life. It is a journey from the interview board, training academy, to working a cell block, and in the end, if you are lucky retirement. Every day can change from the quiet boring routine to assaults, riots, escapes and death. Sex, drugs, misconduct, and the every day battle to survive and to go home at the each of each shift. Not everyone can complete the journey. Enter the front gate if you dare!

From overcrowding to violence, the American prison system is facing its worst crisis in decades. And, as if to add to the problem, more and more inmates are classified as violent--permanent dangers to society. How does an already overcrowded system "warehouse" its worst cases--and still maintain a semblance of order and non-violence behind prison walls? The author, an anthropologist who served as a line corrections worker at a maximum security prison in California, points to the success of at least one program in warehousing society's most violent cases. Fleisher describes how even the hardest cases can be kept relatively placid behind bars, through a mixture of hands-on management, strict control, and innovative prison industry. These ethnographic accounts of prison life from inmates, staff, and administrators--and the ever present threat of violence--make for fascinating reading and an invaluable contribution to our knowledge base in developing sound corrections policies.