Opinion ID: 2637824
Heading Depth: 5
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Adjustment potential

Text: James Esten, a retired correctional consultant, testified that defendant, if sentenced to life without the possibility of parole, would be assigned to a maximum security level 4 prison. Esten reviewed defendant's records related to the present case, records from Los Prietos camp, and interviews of staff at that camp, county jail, and juvenile hall. Esten also interviewed defendant on several occasions in order to assess his maturity level and his ability to function within a maximum security prison setting. When Esten initially interviewed him, defendant did not believe he could adequately adjust to a long-term prison commitment. But after his trial and conviction, defendant's attitude changed. Esten believed defendant had matured enough to make the changes required for prison life. In making this assessment, Esten discounted incidents at the Los Prietos Boys Camp where defendant was mad-dogging a female camp counselor and drew an inappropriate picture of her being sexually assaulted by a dog. Esten also downplayed an incident in which defendant had conspired with other boys to assault another boy, which resulted in defendant being expelled from the camp. Esten believed that these behaviors reflected defendant's lack of maturity at the time and the need to impress a peer group, but testified that prison inmates tend to warn each other about this type of immature behavior. Esten also downplayed the significance of the plastic eating utensil found in defendant's cell while he awaited trial. Esten did not believe the item should have qualified as a weapon and would have been more concerned if it had been a sharpened piece of metal. Esten was concerned about defendant's past methamphetamine use, which he believed was a factor in the present case, but pointed out that it was not possible for a prison inmate to maintain a methamphetamine habit. Esten also thought it positive that many of the interviewees in the reports he read could not clearly remember defendant, which suggested defendant blended in and did not stand out in a bad way. On cross-examination, however, Esten acknowledged that defendant had been the subject of numerous disciplinary writeups on almost a daily basis while he was at Los Prietos, and many of the interviewees believed defendant was not trustworthy. Esten also believed that defendant was intelligent and capable of being productive in prison by completing his high school education, becoming a teacher's aide or clerical assistant, and showcasing his artistic skills, and as a lifer might serve as a mentor for younger inmates and exercise a stabilizing influence in prison culture. He did not believe defendant was interested in joining a prison gang or would succumb to any pressure to join, even though defendant had claimed gang membership as a juvenile. On cross-examination, Esten acknowledged that until January 1998, lifers were allowed to marry and have conjugal visits, and that such regulations could change again based upon the political leanings of a future state governor. He also acknowledged that prison gangs are a problem and that it is well documented that initiation into a prison gang may require a killing as a rite of passage.