The Fight Against Crime: Notes From the Front : Court Comes to Lancaster Prison Inmates

Justice is swift in Department Z of the Superior Court in Lancaster, but the defendants aren’t going anywhere, anyway.

Department Z, which convened for the first time Tuesday, meets inside the California state prison. It was set up for inmates charged with crimes committed on the prison grounds.

“It certainly is different,” said Judge Frank Jackson, taking his seat behind a well-worn wooden desk inside a cinder-block building normally used for visitations and occasional parole hearings.

Furnishings were spare--folding tables for the prosecutor and defense lawyers, a small desk for the clerk and a few chairs brought in from a nearby office for the court reporter and visitors. The walls were bare.

Officer A. Williams (prison security personnel asked that their full first names not be printed) was one of the organizers of the in-prison court. She had some advice for legal secretary Tania McAmish, who was there from the public defender’s office.

“They tend to breathe all over you,” Williams told her, motioning her away from sitting near the chair reserved for the defendants. “Especially the ones that have been down 10, 20 years.”

It was the first time inside the prison for the judge, McAmish and for Alan Budde, the public defender who would handle most of the inmates coming into the makeshift courtroom that day.

“I think we are well protected here,” Budde said with a laugh. There was only one security guard in the courtroom, but of course there were several more nearby and fences between the courtroom and the nearest inmate compound.

“We’ll do here what we do anywhere else,” he said, shifting through documents to familiarize himself with the cases. He had never met any of the defendants.

First up was Antonio Rodriguez, escorted into the room from a nearby holding cell. A chain around his waist kept his arms at his side and another chain linked together his ankles.

He was charged with possession of what was described as an “inmate manufactured stabbing weapon.” Like all the other defendants in Department Z that afternoon, he had already agreed to plead guilty in return for a relatively mild sentence.

He and Budde had a quick, quiet conversation. Then the public defender signaled to the judge he was ready. And court was convened at 1:47 p.m.

Less than one minute later Rodriguez left the room, having been given a sentence of three years to be added onto his current sentence.

“It’s no problem for us to deal right in the prison with most of the cases that come up here,” said court clerk Howard Millings, who helped set up the program. “And this saves a lot of money.”

Before the establishment of the in-prison court, inmates charged with a crime usually were transported to the lockup in downtown Los Angeles, then, on the day of their court appearance, to the courthouse in Lancaster.

“You can just imagine how much it cost for all that transportation,” said prison Lt. J. R. Andrews. “And all the paperwork. I think this is the trend for the future.”

The Lancaster prison, which already hosted a Municipal Court session last month, was the first in the state to have a regularly scheduled court session within its walls, Andrews said. Other prisons have, since then, begun their own similar programs and more are to be started shortly.

In all, seven men were sentenced that day. All were there for assault or possession of a weapon, with the exceptions of Juan Maestas and Jessie Adame, who simply walked away from the minimum security sections of the prison last month. Adame, who got two years for the crime of prison escape, was caught the next day in Los Angeles when he allegedly tried to steal a car (he will go on trial on the theft charge at a later date).

Maestas, who got 16 months, was caught a couple days later near a mall where he had been shopping in Orange.

At 2:32 p.m. the first Superior Court session inside the prison was over. “I’ve got a courtroom of people waiting for me back in Lancaster,” said the judge, as he hurried from the room.