Pelican Bay State Prison Forum Introduction

**David** · #1 04-11-2003, 07:50 PM

Welcome to the Pelican Bay State Prison Forum.

This is the first PTO forum dedicated to a specific question and is a test bed for the possibility of adding more for other prisons in the future.

All posts and threads in this forum should be connected somehow to the Pelican Bay State Prison and the families and friends with loved ones inside.

If you have a loved one in this prison, please be sure and post a "Hello" or short Introduction thread inside this forum letting others know you are here.

Please also take a few minutes the next time you are at visitation to tell others around you of the existance of this dedicated forum. We would very much like to bring as many families & friends dealing with Pelican Bay State Prison together to discuss issues and events occuring there. If you would also let your loved ones know via mail and on the phone and ask them to spread the news to other inmates so they may inform those that care about them on the outside, we would very much appreciate it.

I would also like to announce at this time the Moderator for this forum, BSS (Barbara). She has been a great support to all of us in the Prison Talk Online community and knows quite a bit about Pelican Bay.

Thanks!
Fed-X

**Barbara** · #2 04-11-2003, 10:29 PM

HI, I would like to thank David for his most gracious words so thank you David. As some of you know my son has been in the SHU at Pelican Bay for the last 10 years. I have gotten to know a number of the other convicts through him and I have found them to be very appreciative of all the work and concern that has been shown here at PTO. I would like to see a lot of attention brought to this prison because its infamousness is world-renowned and it is not because it has a Country Club atmosphere. There have been a number of studies done on the SHU program at Pelican Bay and from what I have read the average person could not retain his sanity in this kind of environment. From a mothers point of view it has its good points also, when my son was on a main yard I went to bed every night wondering if the next day I would get that all so dreaded phone call. I can honestly say that I do not worry about my son’s physical safety anymore, now I just have to wonder if he can withstand the mental stress of being locked up in a cage like an animal only coming out of his cell less than an hour a day. He is a very strong man with many prison years behind him and it appears to me that he is going to win this battle also.
I am asking the guys I know at the Bay to please tell me what things they would like to share with you. I will be posting on a regular basis about the changes that could be made without jeopardizing the security at the prison. I would very much like to hear from anyone with loved ones that are at the Bay or that have done time there. Love Barbara

**David** · #3 04-11-2003, 10:33 PM

Thanks Barbara.

California Sunshine · #4 04-13-2003, 02:11 AM

BSS and Fed X I will ask my friend his thoughts on what he has experienced there thus far and post them here when I get a response.

KConnor56 · #5 04-14-2003, 03:33 AM

David, I want to thank you so much for this forum. It will be a great help to many members, & for having Barbara moderate it is great.

Barbara, I can't think of anyone who is more capable of moderating this forum than you are. I have been in & out of Calif. prisons for over 15yrs, yet you know more about the Bay than I ever will.

**Barbara** · #6 04-14-2003, 10:39 AM

Thank you Ken for your kind words. Maybe I know more about the Bay than most because I get it right from the horses mouth (Richard) LOL. I really wish he wasn’t such a professional at this too.

I am going to make a flyer for us so we will all have one to take in with us, if anyone has any ideas on this please let me know. Love Barbara

**Barbara** · #7 12-22-2003, 04:42 PM

Update my son is home 8-9-07 it was a very long 15 years.

Hi, I have noticed that we have a lot of folks here with loved one at Pelican Bay. We have this sub-forum for the Bay; it is kind of a test run to see how sub-forums do. We need to hear from you and your relationship to Pelican Bay. I would like to make this thread a mini introductions thread. So if you have or have had loved ones at the Bay we want to hear from you.

As you probably know my son Richard is in the SHU at the Bay, he has been there about 12 years now. If there is anything good to come out of this it has been that we have really gotten to know each other better. To those of you do not know what the SHU is I will try to tell you a little bit about it. PB is at the north end of California on the Oregon border, it’s in the small town of Crescent City on the coast. The SHU is Secure Housing Unit, that is where you are locked down 23 hr a day and you have no contact with other humans. You get what they call Yard once a day for less than an hour, you are taken there by the guards (always by yourself). It is not really a yard it is an enclosure four walls and a frosted glass ceiling. You never really get to see the sun or the stars, just gray walls and subdued sunlight. Visiting here is weekends only and always behind glass.

I would like to invite you to do an introduction here so we can all get to know each other better and learn how you have managed to deal with this kind of life. If enough of you visit here I would like to see if we could meet up sometime this summer. Love Barb

Valerie · #8 12-22-2003, 07:28 PM

Hi Barb..This is a great idea! I also have a son at PB/ SHU and this is his 2nd. time there. He managed to parole out of the Bay once and has now returned .I'd love to hear ways people have learned to cope with loved one's at P.B.

Joanna · #9 12-24-2003, 04:34 AM

Hey Barb,

Well most of you know I'm an English gal

and I started to write to a guy in Pelican Bay SHU about 3 years ago.

I have now visited there quite a few times and my then pen pal is now my husband, we got married at the Bay in August 2003

My hubby has been at the Bay for 6 years of an 11 year sentence and we have 17 months to go (max time served)

I will be an honorary Californian come beginning of 2005

SugarWitch · #10 12-26-2003, 05:08 AM

hello again Barb. as you already know, i started writing to a man at PB about 3 years ago, he was then in the SHU and had been for almost 12 years by then. he recently was returned to general population, after 14 years in that god awful situation. he's a lifer, so what he has now is more than likely the most fredom he will ever see. his hope though, is MAYBE, if all goes well, to be transfered to another facility. i'm not really clear on how all that works. he's not family, nor have i ever laid eyes on him. i'd like one day to be able to visit him, but it's a highly doubtful chance since i live in iowa and am poor as a church mouse. i count him among my true friends though. thru writing back and forth, we've seen each other thru some dark times, and as far as i'm concerned, he will always be a friend to me. i have a great respect for him, having lived thru his years there, and remained sane. we are now able to talk by phone and i know his situation is much improved. he can see the sun now, and after 14 years, one can only imagine what a joy that must be. i know i can't claim to feel what those with family there feel, but i certainly know, NO ONE should have to endure years in the SHU. who knows, perhaps the new governor can make some changes there...we shall see. best wishes to you all, Renee

SJ_Latina · #11 01-22-2004, 01:02 PM

Hello everyone. My husband has been at Pelican Bay State Prison for 2 years now and has been in the SHU since October 2003. Even though he has been in the system for almost 8 years now, SHU did come as quit a shock to him. He says the worse part is the isolation. He is in a one man cell and misses having someone to talk to. He is in his late 20's so he is one of the younger inmates there. He tries to keep himself busy writing letters to me or other family memebers, but with the way the mail is going now, we can never keep up a current dialouge. I met my husband while he was already incarcerated, we were together 2 years before marrying last year. The first thing that everyone always asks is how can you fall in love with someone who's in Prison. I don't have any one answer. It is for so many reasons. We had and still always have so much to say to each other, we have so much in common, I know all his deepest thoughts and secrets and he knows mine as well. I often wonder if we would know each other this deeply and completely if we had met under different circumstances. Meeting and communicating through writing, especially in the beginning, gave us a chance to ask and say things that we probably wouldn't have the nerve to in person. We often comment on how scary it is to know each other so well. Many times we will send each other letters at the same time saying the exact same thing. So no, I have never touched my husband, or seen him without a piece of glass in between us. I do not know what he smells like, of feels like, I do not know how he kisses or how his arms feel around me, or those other more intimate things, but I do know that I know him better than anyone and I love him becasue of that. So I do not know how I fell in love with him, I guess I just didn't have a choice. I go see my husband once a month and I drive up from the Bay Area. If anyone has any questions or suggestions about the trip, please let me know.

**Barbara** · #12 03-23-2004, 10:41 PM

I have noticed that there are more and more members who have loved ones in the SHU at Pelican Bay so I thought I would make this a sticky so we can hear from all the new members. Love Barb

California Sunshine · #13 03-23-2004, 10:48 PM

Hi all

I live in the Sacramento area and my boyfriend(the love of my life since I was a teen who I loved and lost but later found again!) in the SHU at Pelican Bay,he has 8 more months left to do.He has been in about a year and a half,in general population during that time but got into a fight and was placed in The SHU.

Jus' Mom · #14 03-25-2004, 10:14 PM

My son was in Pel Bay for just a few weeks when he was transferred back to CSP (Sac) for charges he got while there. He is back at Pelican Bay now til he is able to transfer back down here closer for visiting.

I've heard so many different things but as for right now I guess I won't be able to visit him at all for a year and then window visits for a year after that.

CSP told me he would be locked down for about 3 months also because of his latest trouble in the prison but thank God he has been calling (nearly everyday) since he left reception and he is on main-line in the A yard.

I'll be reading through the Pelican Bay forum next week as I havn't had a chance to do much lately with so many different things happening with my life out here and both my sons lives in 'there'. For now, I'd just like to hear from someone that Pelican Bay isn't as scarey a place as all the documentaries on t.v. make it out to be. Hearing it is for 'the worst of the worst' really does me in every time I hear it. I know my son isn't even close to being in that category as I am sure there are many, many others. Why do they have to say things like that....I'll never understand(?)
Teri

California Sunshine · #15 03-25-2004, 10:55 PM

If he is on mainline in the A yard it really isn't that bad! My boyfriend was in A before the altercations that led him to Ad Seg and then the SHU.He said it was NOT as bad as everyone said.He really had it ok there until the fights which in all honesty were as much his fault then anyone elses so your son should be ok at least from what I have heard from my guy.I hope that helps ease your mind a bit.