Copied from the AICAP - Please check into this petition!

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QUOTE:

Visits are not only important to prisoners, but urgent to their families who
have done nothing wrong. Most of the new limitations prisons are coming up
with now are simply a matter of over-kill, done because they can.

I don't know who among you live in Caifornia, but rules like this tend to
spread throughout the system.

Please sign the petition against proposed changes to the visiting rules for
CA prisons

Body of this Petition (1159):
http://power.actionize.com/search.php?refid=873989&jumptoit=1159

Against proposed changes to the Director's Rules #02/03 Regarding: Visiting
Rules
We, the undersigned, strongly oppose the proposed changes to the Title 15,
Visiting
Rules for California State Prisons.

We are particularly opposed to:

1) 3175 (e) Limiting the greeting and goodbye hug and/or kiss to a maximum
of five seconds

~ Since it would be impossible for visiting staff to accurately time each
person's greeting when multiple inmates with their family and friends are
present, this rule would only lead to assumptions and guesses by staff as to
time spent for each person, leading staff to make false decisions about
non-observance of rules and causing numerous complaints. After a long
absence from a loved one, allowing only 5 seconds for a kiss and/or hug is
inhumane.

2) 3175 (f) Disallowing children seven years and older from sitting on a
male inmate's lap

~ The current age limit of 12 years and older should remain or be stricken
altogether!

This infers that all male inmates are pedophiles. Children and their
incarcerated family members need physical contact for a healthy, meaningful
relationship. There are safeguards in place already disallowing sex offender
's physical contact with certain individuals. If these safeguards are not
working, they should be revised instead of punishing all inmates by way of
limiting contact with their children.

3) 3171 (1) (d) Disallowing new inmates convicted of drug charges from
having contact visits for their first year

~ Being in prison is already punishing the inmate. Drug trafficking should
be a separate safety & security issue. You are implying that only drug
suppliers will visit drug offenders. The families have not been convicted;
therefore you're discriminating against them by unsubstantiated assumptions.

4) 3170.1 (c)Disallowing non-family members from visiting SHU inmates

~ Again, CDC has safeguards in place already through the CDC106 application
process to approve or deny any person wishing to visit an inmate. To
arbitrarily deny all visits of non-family members will punish the innocent
free person who may be a fiancée, a childhood friend, a priest or preacher,
etc.

5) 3173 (b) Requiring legal ID cards for minors aged 7 or older

~ Due to security reasons it would be understandable if the age limit was
raised to 12 and older.

6) 3172 (b) Requiring CDC106 Applications for all persons, including minors.

~ It is ridiculous to run a DOJ or CLETS search on a newborn or any child
under the age of 14.

Children under the age of 14 are highly unlikely to have outstanding
warrants or be considered ex- felons. Most prisons have a turn around time
of 4 weeks or more to process requests for visits. With current staff
shortages, it would mean no extra staff available to process over double the
applications created with this new rule, pushing the turn around time to
several months!

7) 3179. Appeals Relating to Visiting

~ We, the visitors, have no speedy recourse against accusations of
misconduct or erroneous interpretations of rules and regulations by CDC
Visiting Staff. This oversight has caused many of us to suffer during the
months of waiting for written replies from Wardens and the Director's office
to remedy the situation. Each institution should assign an impartial contact
person available that has the authority to investigate and take action on
disputed visiting rules infractions from free persons (visitors)


This Petition will be Sent to:

1.) Dept.of Corrections -RPMB
pmchenry@executive.corr.ca.gov
This Petition will be sent to this recipient with a list of supporters on
2002-03-04.

2.) Heidi Jones
ew117@peoplepc.com
This Petition will be sent to this recipient with a list of supporters on
2002-03-04.

3.) Senator Polanco
Senator.Polanco@sen.ca.gov
This Petition will be sent to this recipient with a list of supporters on
2002-03-04.

Shared by

Kay Lee, MTWT
Pacific Institute of Criminal Justice
1868 San Juan Avenue
Berkeley, CA 94707
510-528-4603
kaylee1@charter.net or kaylee@idiom.com
MAKING THE WALLS TRANSPARENT In Florida
http://www.angelfire.com/fl3/starke





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Being one of many Californians who visit a loved one. Thank you for signing the petition. I finally was allowed a contact visit after nearly two years. That hug meant so much to me. Of course it was longer than five seconds as we hid each others face while tears flowed freely. I could have absorbed that boy like a sponge absorbs water.

I have since been nervous that the hello and goodbye hug may be a second too long resulting in punishment or a lost visit. It really impedes the natural compassionate greeting. Cesorship of feelings....he is my son and affection is all I can give him. It is all he can give me.
JP

JP- I could not agree with you more. It seems so inhuman that the DOC wants to take away what both an inmate and his or her family members need and crave the most--love, affection, a touch, a hug--
Recently at a visit, the guard whispered to Ron that he had to take our four-year old daughter off of his lap--we did not challenge this instruction but of course the rest of our visit was affected by such an unreasonable order--
I appreciate the fact that we are able to have contact visits, and realize that others are not as fortunate but a daddy should be able to hold his little girl!!! And i like your phrase "censorship of feelings" because that is exactly what it is, and it is wrong. I hope we can all come together and make change happen.

Sherri