8 Prison Officials Fired Over Beating of Black Inmates

Eight supervisors and correctional officers at the Corcoran State Prison--including an associate warden--have been fired for their alleged roles in the June 1995 beating of several black inmates as they were being processed into the maximum-security prison.

The state Department of Corrections confirmed the firings but would not say who was fired or why. The head of the union for state correctional officers said Associate Warden Bruce Ferris Jr., Capt. Lee Fouch and two sergeants were among those dismissed.

The union said all eight prison officers deny any wrongdoing and are appealing the action.

But attorneys and prisoner rights groups say the firings were long in coming and underscore what they have charged for years: that Corcoran is a prison out of control where guards routinely exploit gang rivalries and bait prisoners into fights so they can be shot for sport.

Since 1988, seven inmates have been shot and killed by guards at Corcoran, the Central California penitentiary that houses Charles Manson and Sirhan Sirhan, among other notorious criminals. That is more shooting deaths than at any other prison in the state.

The 1994 shooting death of Preston Tate, a 26-year-old Crips gang member from Los Angeles, prompted a lengthy FBI investigation into charges of officer brutality and cover-up at the prison. For more than a year, a federal grand jury in Fresno has been hearing allegations of abuse, but no indictments have been issued.

“Corcoran is a nightmare,” said Catherine Campbell, a Fresno attorney who has filed a wrongful death lawsuit on behalf of Tate’s father. Associate Warden Ferris and Capt. Fouch are among the 11 defendants.

“The people who work there don’t consider themselves part of the legal system that controls and constrains the rest of us,” Campbell said. “It’s an outlaw fortress.”

Don Novey, president of the California Correctional Officers Assn., acknowledged that it was extremely rare for an associate warden and three of his top men to be fired for an alleged beating. But he said the appeals hearing will show that their actions during the incident were justified.

“They were doing what they were instructed to do in our line of work,” he said.

The facts of the incident are in sharp dispute. More than 30 prisoners--all black and mostly gang members from South-Central Los Angeles--were being transferred on a bus to Corcoran from the Calipatria State Prison near the U.S.-Mexico border.

The transfer was apparently prompted by a May uprising at Calipatria in which five guards were stabbed or beaten by members of the gang. The move was meant to quell further violence but both sides agree that some of the transferred inmates had no involvement in the violence.

Novey says the prisoners had been roused from their sleep, chained and not informed where they were going or why. He said they arrived at Corcoran--a half day’s trip--in a foul mood. Novey said officials at Calipatria had failed to remove braids from the prisoners’ hair, a security violation. When the guards at Corcoran proceeded to cut off the braids, a few minor scuffles broke out.

“It was nothing major,” said Novey, who conceded that he had not seen all the medical reports in the case. “These guys were only doing their job. Unfortunately, the braids should have been removed at Calipatria. You can’t blame Corcoran for that.”

Millard Murphy, a staff attorney with the Prison Law Office, an inmate advocacy group in Davis, said there was no mistaking the intent of the guards as the busload arrived from Calipatria. They were dressed in riot gear and black gloves and lined in a gantlet, he said.

“One by one the inmates were thrown off the bus, forced to the ground and beaten with clubs,” he said. “They were kicked and punched and anyone who had braids, they were cut off. . . . This was done while they were handcuffed and without provocation.”

Late last year, after Murphy’s group filed a complaint with the state, Ferris, Fouch and three sergeants were escorted out of the facility and placed on administrative leave.

In addition to Ferris and Fouch, Novey said, those fired include Sgt. Richard Garcia, Sgt. John Misko, R.A. Parra, Ellis McCant, Harold McEnroe and Robert Dean.

None of the identified men could be reached for comment Wednesday.