Rights Group Cites Prison Cruelty : Penology: Study, which includes several California facilities, criticizes use of physical restraints, withholding of clothes, lack of family contact, food deprivation.

The American prison and jail system is responding to the growing problem of inmate violence by housing dangerous inmates in “prisons within prisons,” where extraordinary security measures can contribute to human rights abuses, according to a report by a private human rights organization.

Incarcerating inmates in such “super maximum security” sections with harsh regimens is only one of the trouble spots cited in a report to be released today by Human Rights Watch.

The New York-based international organization studied more than 20 facilities in California, New York, Florida and Tennessee. In addition to severe crowding, it found punishments including physical restraints, lack of family contact and food deprivation.

“As long as we are criticizing other countries we feel incumbent to look at our own,” said Aryeh Neier, executive director of the group, which has recently issued scathing reports on prison conditions in Central America and Mexico and monitors human rights practices of foreign governments.

“Our feeling is that the United States, which takes the lead in criticizing other governments when it comes to human rights abuses, has to be held up to the light according to those same standards.”

Although the team investigated only select prisons and jails, Neier said, the aim of the anecdotal report is to identify issues that probably affect the national prison population.

Conditions were measured against the United Nations standard minimum rules for the treatment of prisoners, adopted in 1955. It calls for a minimum of one hour a day of outdoor exercise and prohibits degrading forms of punishment.

In Los Angeles, the report cited several questionable disciplinary practices at Sybil Brand Institute, a women’s jail, and at Men’s Central Jail, including punishment by feeding troublesome inmates a diet of tasteless blocks of nutritional substances twice a day. It also cited the two facilities for severe crowding.

Crowding and gangs are in large part responsible for violence behind bars, the report said.

The most disturbing finding in the report, Neier said, is the growing trend of housing the most violent inmates in “maximum-maximum” facilities.

At the Disciplinary Segregation Unit of the Oregon State Penitentiary, for example, inmates can be punished by being stripped of all clothing and bedding, the report said. They can “earn back” the items piece by piece with good behavior. In extreme cases, inmates can be restrained in leg irons and belly chains.

Such disciplinary measures result in inmates being sentenced twice, once by a court and again by prison administration without benefit of counsel, the report said. It recommends that independent boards review inmate incarceration in special maximum wards.

“One particular form of deprivation may not seem cruel,” Neier said. “But the severe totality of the regime spread over a long period can rise to the level of cruelty.”

Capt. Dennis Dahlman, commander of the Los Angeles County Men’s Central Jail, defended the use of such “high-powered” sections, saying that they are needed for the protection of the inmate population and jail staff.

“These are the most dangerous of people. They have killed before, probably more than once, “ Dahlman said. “They really have nothing to lose. . . . The only way to deal with them is to lock them up.”

He said inmates are fed the “discipline diet” after repeated offenses in the jail, such as assaults.

Human Rights Watch investigators visited two California state prisons, the California Penal Institution for Men in Tehachapi and the California Institute for Women at Frontera, where they found crowded conditions symptomatic of state prisons throughout the country.

At the Institute for Women, which in July held 2,533 inmates in a facility designed for 1,026, showers often broke and water accumulated on floors.

Christine May, spokeswoman for the state Department of Corrections, said maintaining safe and sanitary conditions at California prisons “can be challenging,” especially at the Frontera facility, one of the oldest in the state.

“The Department of Corrections, like the rest of the state, is dealing with a downturning economy and diminishing resources. We make renovations whenever possible.”

Among the reforms recommended in the report:

* Improved record keeping in jails so that violent and nonviolent inmates are separated.

* A federal study of inmate violence to determine where repeated incidents have taken place.

* An end to the use of physical restraints and denial of exercise time as punishment.