Guards at Corcoran Beat 36 Inmates, Records Say

Thirty-six prisoners were beaten as they arrived at California State Prison-Corcoran from Calipatria Prison, where five officers had been stabbed, according to newly released state Department of Corrections records.

The documents contend that the shackled prisoners were choked and hit, and those with tightly braided hair were forced to lie on the floor, where their hair was sheared off. The alleged assault on incoming prisoners June 21 led to the firing of eight officers, including an associate warden, at the maximum security Corcoran prison. A dozen other officers were disciplined.

An appeal hearing for the eight who were fired will begin Thursday in Sacramento.

The department records said Corcoran guards grabbed the incoming inmates one by one and threw them off a bus, breaking one prisoner’s ribs and smashing a window with another prisoner’s head. The report contends that one convict’s face was bounced off a concrete wall, and a towel was stuffed down another inmate’s throat.

The Corcoran prison was already being investigated by the FBI over seven shooting deaths of inmates in five years.

Warden George A. Smith said Corcoran officials “do not tolerate our staff abusing inmates. We never have and we never will. We are not a bunch of knuckle-dragging thugs.”

But Smith added, “We do have our share of problems here. We have the worst, most violent inmates of any institution.”

They include such prisoners as Charles Manson, convicted in the notorious Tate-LaBianca killings, and Sirhan Sirhan, who assassinated U.S. Sen. Robert F. Kennedy.

The prison in the center of the San Joaquin Valley also houses 1,200 of the state’s worst prisoners in a security unit.

The firing notices sent to the eight Corcoran guards said rumors swept the prison that the 36 inmates transferred from Calipatria were involved in the stabbings and “were assaultive and violent.” It was also rumored that they fought with guards while leaving Calipatria, some inmates refused to undo braids so their hair could be inspected for hidden objects.

The notice terminating Bruce Farris as associate warden said he was unable to verify any of the rumors but nevertheless told a captain and lieutenant that the rumors were true.

Attorney Curtis Sisk, representing Farris, said the allegations are false and are based only on complaints from prisoners.