Which Way, L.A.?
CA Solitary Confinement Case Could Change Practice Nationwide
Hundreds of inmates at Pelican Bay are held there in solitary confinement — often for more than a decade. A federal class-action lawsuit might deem that unconstitutional.
By Warren Olney • • 27m ListenPelican Bay in Northern California is the prison convicts fear most. Hundreds of inmates are held there in windowless cells, reportedly without normal human contact — often for more than a decade. This week, a federal judge agreed to consider a class-action lawsuit that might deem that practice unconstitutional. We hear both sides of a case that could have consequences nationwide. Also, officials close to Governor Jerry Brown are accused of scuttling a deal to clean up radioactive waste from a nuclear accident near Los Angeles. The accident happened in 1959.
Later, on To the Point, India has been embarrassed by revelations of the brutal gang-rape and murder of two young girls. Pakistan is under fire after the "honor killing" of a pregnant woman. Is sexual violence on the increase in that region or just getting more attention? Will an international spotlight bring much-needed change?
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In this episode
2 storiesIs Solitary Confinement 'Cruel and Unusual?'
Pelican Bay is California's prison for the so-called "worst of the worst." In the state's northwest corner, it's designed for inmates called too dangerous to stay in the prison population. Some reportedly are kept in windowless cells for 22 hours a day — sometimes for more than a decade.
Read the story19 minHow Boeing Blocked a Nuclear and Chemical Clean-Up in LA's Backyard
In 1979, a nuclear power reactor at Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania suffered a partial meltdown. There was widespread anxiety nationwide. As a reporter at KNBC, Channel 4, I reported that a similar accident, a much smaller research reactor in the Santa Suzanna Mountains, had occurred 20 years earlier — near Los Angeles.
Read the story8 min
