Opinion ID: 2815883
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Institutional history

Text: In order to mitigate defendant‟s violent conduct during his prior incarcerations, defendant presented testimony concerning his placement in an adult prison and the conditions in that facility. The original prosecutor in the Estrada manslaughter case testified that, because defendant was 18 years old at the time of his sentencing, defendant was eligible for placement in the former California Youth Authority (CYA), which focused on rehabilitation rather than punishment. But the trial court refused, instead housing him as an adult in the former Department of Corrections (CDC), which was at the time an unusual sentence for defendants under the age of 21. According to William Riggs, who worked for the CDC for approximately 17 years, the facility where defendant was placed, California State Prison, Corcoran, was one of the worst prisons in the state and “extremely violent”: between 1989 and 1999 more inmates were shot and killed in Corcoran than all other prisons in the United States 13 combined. Riggs explained that a prisoner who had four fights in 13 months would be regarded as a relatively well-behaved inmate. It was impossible for prisoners to avoid fights and survive. Younger looking prisoners such as defendant were particularly vulnerable and subject to predators.