I Thought Solitary Confinement in Iran Was Bad -- Then I Went Inside America's Prisons

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The second piece of evidence was  a cup Pennington had in his cell bearing a  picture of a dragon, an image CDCR considers an " identifying symbol" of the Black Guerilla Family. The third was  a notebook he kept, which the gang investigator alleges " shows his beliefs in the ideals of the BGF." Its pages are filled with references to black history— Nat Turner, the Scottsboro 9, the number of blacks executed between 1930 and 1969, and quotes from figures like W.E.B. Du Bois and Malcolm X. There are also passages in which Pennington ruminates at length on what he calls "the oppression and violence inflicted upon us here in maximum security," referencing a Time exposé.

Pennington never mentions gangs or unlawful activity in his writing. But in his validation documents, the gang investigator points out that the notebook contains quotes by  Fleeta Drumgo and George Jackson, two former Black Panthers who are revered by members of the BGF and politicized African American prisoners generally.  The single Jackson quote Pennington wrote down reads, "The text books on criminology like to advance the idea that the prisoners are mentally defective. There is only the merest suggestion that the system itself is at fault."

California officials frequently cite  possession of black literature, left-wing materials, and writing about prisoner rights as evidence of gang affiliation. In the dozens of cases I reviewed, gang investigators have used the term "[BGF] training material" to refer to publications by  California Prison Focus, a group that advocates the abolition of the SHUs; Jackson's once best-selling  Soledad Brother; a pamphlet said to reference " Revolutionary Black Nationalism, The Black Internationalist Party, Marx, and Lenin"; and a pamphlet titled " The Black People's Prison Survival Guide." This last one advises inmates to read books, keep a dictionary handy, practice yoga, avoid watching too much television, and stay away from "leaders of gangs."

The list goes on. Other materials considered evidence of gang involvement have included writings by  Mumia Abu-Jamal; The Black Panther Party: Reconsidered, a collection of academic essays by  University of Cincinnati professor Charles Jones; pictures of  Assata Shakur, Malcolm X, George Jackson, and Nat Turner; and virtually anything using the term " New Afrikan." At least one validation besides Pennington's referenced handwritten pages of "Afro centric ideology."

As warden of  San Quentin Prison in the 1980s,  Daniel Vasquez oversaw what was then the country's largest SHU. He's now a corrections consultant and has testified on behalf of inmates seeking to reverse their validations. As we sat in his suburban Bay Area home, he told me it is "very common" for African American prisoners who display leadership qualities or radical political views to end up in the SHU. Similarly, he recalls, "we were told that when an African American inmate identified as being Muslim, we were supposed to watch them carefully and get their names."

Vasquez testified in federal court  in the case of a former inmate, Ernesto Lira, who was gang validated in part based on a drawing that included an image of the huelga bird, the symbol of the United Farm Workers. While the image has been co-opted by the Nuestra Familia prison gang, Vasquez testified that it is " a popular symbol widely used in Hispanic culture and by California farmworkers." Lira's validation was one of a handful to ever be reversed in federal court—though not until after he was released on parole, having spent eight years in the SHU. And though the court ruled that the huelga bird is of "obscure and ambiguous meaning," it continues to be used as validation evidence.