This does not surprise me. I have been told by a couple of reliable sources that the SNY yards in California have a big gang problem due to the number of gang drop outs there. It seems the gang members are attempting to extort some of the sex offenders.

Regarding the "Code of Silence" among the COs, yes that happens. But inmates do the same thing. They will never report any wrong doing on the part of another inmate as it is regarded as snitching and it is a good way to get killed in prison. I think in all the "Us vs Them" situations, and especially in prison, you will have this code of silence among different groups. They had it when I was there and it will always be there.

As far as the SNY yards in California, I found an article written by an inmate how to survive on a SNY yard. I present this article here because there is some very good information for ANY sex offender going to ANY prison in ANY state. I read the article and I agree with most of it. This guy knows what he is talking about and he has obviously been there. And, as I mentioned, much of the information mentioned in this article is not conclusive to just California SNY yards, but to any prison in the United States.

http://tinyurl.com/zaxtng5

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High Desert Prison is located in Lassen County just outside of Susanville. aka red-neck-ville. High Desert prison was built primarily to give employment to the locals ( to ensure loyalty from fundamentalist / conservative voters) N. Cali is "ranch country" but the ranches are going bust. Most prisons in Cali are located in the north/ redneck country built to employ locals It's a simple "business plan" by Conservative Politicians to keep their "base" happy and buy votes.(Prisoners don't seem to get enough credit for keeping those little towns alive!) Used to, when High Desert released a prisoner they handed him a one-way bus ticket to Reno. LOL

If I remember right they released one SO but since that whole community was against him living anywhere near Respectable Folks...the Cali parole Dept. "released" the guy but made him live in a small trailer on the prison grounds at High Desert. (as though that was freedom?) Maybe I've got the story screwed up but I don't think it's apocryphal. Most prisons in Cali are located in the North/ redneck country built primarily to employ locals who are un-reconstructed fundamentalist bullies-in-uniform. Conservative Politicians funded and those prisons in order to buy votes and keep those little towns from drying up. (Look at Lovelock Prison in NV and some prisons built in Oregon during the hay day of Tough on Crime. Sex Offenders are a windfall for those prisons now that the cost of incarceration has caught up with tax payers. Everyone believes SO's are forever dangerous and hence "special" units for SO's are becoming popular, not to "protect" SO's from the general population but to keep the guards employed. The Prison Guards Union is the biggest Union and the highest paid Union in OR (sort of like the police Unions?)

SNY = Sensitive Needs Yard???

(I had to look it up...)

California's SNY yards, also called Sensitive Needs Yards.

http://tinyurl.com/puxstfn

If any mother, wive, GF, or family of a SO has a loved one who is a sex offender headed to prison in California, make sure he gets to a SNY. It will be much safer for him there. To their credit, I think in most cases California will automatically place a SO at a SNY yard, but send an email to classification there and make sure he gets there.

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Yeah Rew... That's where I found it...

Janet, the prisons are scattered throughout the state. Many of the newer prisons are in rual areas (farming), where jobs are hard to come by. I'm that respect, many are located in central CA.

The only other prison up that way is a federal prison and a fire camp.

Rew, you are right. In CA, there is a mix of gang and SO mix in the CA prison SNY yards. The level 4 yards are more dangerous, but level 3 yards are OK. As long as the SO doesn't give off "creep" vibe, a SO does ok.

The problem with the SNY yards is this-----gang drop outs are there for their protection from other gang members, but most of them can be violent. Sex offenders are not usually troublemakers and anything but violent. Mixing the two without close supervision can cause problems.

The ex-gang members at a SNY yard have pounced on that fact and are extorting the sex offenders, snitches, and the older inmates who are easy targets for them to harass.

Sex offenders who carry themselves well usually do fairly well in prison. The ones who get really hurt are the ones who are creepy or weird acting or just generally act like idiots.

Many state prisons throughout the country are placed near a small, struggling community. The community usually welcomes the prison as it acts as a source of jobs for the area.

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