(Now updated at the bottom with CCA's comment.)
You can't just check your skin color when you're looking for a time to visit the Corrections Corporation of America's La Palma Correctional Facility in Eloy.
You need to know where you're from — as in, "Are you a northerner or a southerner?"
I looked at the facility's website last week as I was doing research for Sunday's story on private prisons. It lists a visitation time for "Northern Hispanics," a time for SNY (Special Needs Yard) inmates, and a time for the general population, made up of whites, blacks and .... southerners. Here's the text:
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Visitation Schedule:
Friday: 7:00 a.m. - 7:00 p.m. for Northern Hispanics
Saturday: 6:30 a.m. - 12:30 p.m. for SNY
Saturday: 1:00 p.m. - 7:00 p.m. for General Population*
Sunday: 6:30 a.m. - 12:30 p.m. for General Population*
Sunday: 1:00 p.m. - 7:00 p.m. for SNY
*General population includes: whites, southerners, blacks & others
Southerners? I've got an email in to CCA's spokesman, Steve Owen, asking what this means. I'm guessing it's not a reference to people from south of the Mason-Dixon line. Maybe it's a distinction from "Northern Hispanics"?
More importantly, why the ethnic/geographic distinctions for visiting time. My guess it it's because La Palma houses California inmates, and that state's prison system remains segregated despite a 2005 supreme court decision calling racial segregation illegal.
Update: Here's what CCA's Steve Owen's said to me via email:
"SNY," which stands for Sensitive Needs Yard, refers to inmates that are housed separately from the general population. "Southerners" refers to Southern Hispanics. Historically there has been friction between the two Hispanic groups in prisons, thus the separately scheduled visitation times. All of the inmates at the La Palma Correctional Facility are scheduled for visitation in accordance with the expectations of our government partner, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.
