Kraft Says 5 Years in Protective Custody Imperils His Sanity

Randy Steven Kraft has complained to a federal court that he is “being driven to the limits of sanity” by his housing conditions at Orange County Jail, where he has lived the past five years while awaiting trial on 16 murder charges.

The cumulative result of five years of protective custody--away from the jail’s general population--is not only degrading and humiliating, Kraft says, but is “an assault on (my) spirit and will to survive.”

The 43-year-old Long Beach man has asked the court, in a petition he wrote himself, to either order better living conditions for him at the jail or order his release until after his trial.

U.S. District Magistrate Ronald W. Rose has ordered Orange County officials to respond to Kraft’s petition by the end of next week.

After more than a dozen delays, Kraft is scheduled to go on trial next week in the biggest murder case in the county’s history. He is charged with 16 murders, and prosecutors have accused him of 21 additional murders that they will use as evidence against him. The victims, all males, were mostly between 18 and 25 years old. Most had been either sexually assaulted or mutilated, investigators said.

Since his arrest on May 14, 1983, Kraft has been kept away from the main jail population. In his petition, Kraft stated that he was first housed in an isolation cell on the medical floor. About a year later, he was transferred to a section of 28 single-man cells that jail officials call protective custody.

Deputy County Counsel Edward N. Duran, who represents Sheriff Brad Gates in most legal matters, appeared both amused and irritated at Kraft’s petition.

“Randy is in protective custody for his own protection,” Duran said. He added caustically: “If Randy wants to sign a waiver, we’ll move him out into the general population today and save the expense of a trial.”

Duran was referring to jail officials’ belief that Kraft would not be safe in the jail’s general population. Inmates facing charges involving either homosexuality or sex-related crimes are often targets of physical abuse from other inmates. And such inmates are usually placed in protective custody for their own safety.

Protective-custody inmates eat in their cells, not in the common dining room. They mingle with other protective-custody inmates only a few hours a week. Most of the time, they are alone in their cells.

Kraft, who maintains his innocence of all charges, says in his petition that he recognizes the right of Gates to detain him pending his trial. But detention after five years turns into punishment, Kraft contends.

Kraft complains in his petition that he has no pillow, inadequate blankets for cold weather, is allowed no personal effects, and cannot get basics such as tissues, acid tablets, mouthwash, bandages, shaving lotion or dental floss. He also complains about an inadequate change in jail clothing, which he calls “hobo-like.”

Kraft states that he is alone in his cell 22 hours a day and has dayroom privileges with two to seven other inmates for two hours a day.

He also complains that he cannot put personal items on the walls and is not allowed to even know the time of day.

Duran points out that Kraft is subject to the same rules as other inmates and is not being singled out.

Kraft acknowledges that, but he says other inmates in protective custody experience only a “brief hiatus” of their constitutional rights.

“What is tolerable detention for the overwhelming majority of jail inmates has become (my) entire life, the horizons of life being inexorably ground down to the dimensions of (my) cell,” he stated in the petition.

Duran’s response: “We haven’t taken away any of his constitutional rights. We have interrupted his non-constitutional rights.”

Kraft wrote a similar letter of complaint to the state courts in 1986, asking that he be allowed to play music on a tape-cassette player given him to hear legal tapes. That petition was dismissed.

The 1986 complaints had a similar theme to the present ones.

“The jail operates on the belief that . . . a prisoner is an outcast, an undesirable, and that its only responsibility is to keep him alive until his legal process is completed,” Kraft stated in 1986.

But the 1988 petition not only complains about a broader range of restrictions, it reflects Kraft’s growing frustration at remaining in protective custody during the intervening two years.

“It is intolerable, abusive, withering and debilitating, and may eventually visit permanent harm to (my) mind and body,” Kraft stated in the latest petition.

Gates’ spokesman, Lt. Richard J. Olson, said the Sheriff’s Department would not comment on Kraft’s petition, referring all questions to Duran.

Duran said he was not impressed with Kraft’s basic theme that the cumulative effect of five years of jail has turned detention into punishment.

“Randy had a right to trial within 60 days,” Duran said. “It was Randy who asked for delays in his trial. If he’s at the Orange County Jail for five years, it’s his own decision.”

Kraft attorney James G. Merwin said he had nothing to say about Kraft’s petition. But he pointed out that Kraft wrote it on his own and “no taxpayer money went into it.”

Kraft’s three attorneys, who are court-appointed and paid by the county, still bristle at accusations that the longer it takes to bring Kraft to trial, the more money they make.

“I will say that I find it inappropriate that (Duran’s) only response is that Randy would have to subject himself to danger to improve his living conditions at the jail,” Merwin said.

Times staff writer John Spano contributed to this article.

KRAFT’S COMPLAINTS

Randy Kraft’s complaints about jail conditions:

Being kept in isolation for a period of five years.

Not allowed pillows, or adequate mattress and blankets.

Not allowed personal effects, including tissues, stomach acid tablets, nail clippers or dental floss, among others.

Lacks an adequate change of clothing.

No access to a clock or watch.

Not allowed to put personal property, such as pictures, on cell walls.

Not allowed hobbies or diversionary activities.