Audio Interview: Salvador Venegas Talks About Resisting the Terror Inside Riverside County Jails and a Recent Appellate Court Decision
The following audio comes from conversing over the phone with Salvador Venegas, a veteran of multiple hunger strikes inside carceral facilities, including inside jail in Riverside County.
Venegas, who’s who’s currently locked up in the California Substance Abuse Treatment Facility and State Prison, Corcoran (SATF‑CSP, Corcoran), expressed interest in an interview after an appellate court overturned a conviction handed down to him previously. The case stemmed from an altercation he had inside jail here in Riverside County
In THE PEOPLE, Plaintiff and Respondent, v. SALVADOR VENEGAS, Defendant and Appellant, the State of California Court of Appeal, Fourth Appellate District, Division Two, reversed the judgment of the trial court that had convicted him, for reasons discussed during the phone interview. I’ve edited the interview due to the distractions and interruptions that inevitably occur in prison when people try to have phone conversations.
When we spoke, Venegas recounted how officers in Riverside County tried to set him up in jail, arranging for him to be attacked by a much larger detainee. A small prisoner solidarity crew I co-created, Inside-Outside Solidarity, now defunct, published a commentary Venegas penned about it on the also now non-existent IO Solidarity website about two years ago. I’m re-posting a version of his write-up below, for added context beyond what he and I spoke about over the phone.
I also asked him about the deaths inside county jails this year, the big demonstration at Riverside’s Robert Presley Detention Center against the flippant disregard for human life evinced on the inside in Southern California’s Inland Empire (reported on by Christopher Damien at The Desert Sun), and what advice he has for incarcerated folks in terms of surviving and resisting the terror and torture that tends to be commonplace within the county’s penal system walls. He spoke to the role of outside community assistance and solidarity as well.
If you’d like to get in touch with Mr. Venegas, you can send him postal mail at the following address: Mr. Salvador Venegas, #BM0201, SATF-CSP, Corcoran, P.O. Box 7100, Corcoran, CA, 93212. You can also input his name and CDCR-assigned number (#BM0201) on GettingOut to message Mr. Venegas from that platform.
As noted in our dialogue over the phone, Venegas shared some of his Riverside County jail experience with me for use in an investigative piece I wrote for Shadowproof, published February 2022, which you can read here.
Brief Commentary on the Depravity of Riverside County Jails and the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department
Background: Salvador Venegas spent several years in administrative segregation inside Riverside County Jails. (As a 13-year-old, he served time in juvenile hall. He spent time under the custody of the California Youth Authority, and he also experienced captivity in state prison and in Los Angeles County Jails.) The Riverside County Sheriff’s Department (RCSD) kept Mr. Venegas in isolation in the Southwest Detention Center in Murrieta, Calif., and the RCSD kept him in isolation inside the Robert Presley Detention Center in Riverside, Calif. Mr. Venegas engaged in and helped organize hunger strikes in both the Southwest Detention Center and in the RPDC. In a 2019 report highlighting issues with administrative segregation classification and the related appeals process, the Riverside County Civil Grand Jury reprimanded the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department. Of course, criticism of Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco abounds. In the following text, Mr. Venegas rips into the cruelty, cowardice and arrogance of the Sheriff’s Department and the local carceral apparatus.
By Salvador Venegas
The Riverside County Jail system is a corrupt, callous, capricious, apathetic and inhumane public entity. The objective of the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department [RCSD] is to obtain control by any means necessary. It’s worked for them. The courts and the district attorney’s office employ deputies to conduct their activities by proxy. The RCSD, the courts and the DA’s office in Riverside County are all in cahoots. There is no venue for justice.
I was placed in isolation in Robert Presley Detention Center [RPDC] on 5-13-14 because I refused to conform to the RCSD’s plan and objective. I sought to blow the lid off the corruption I witnessed. From day one, I was kept in a cold holding cell for three days. That violates my rights. It flouts due process. What is more, it imposed punitive conditions on a pretrial detainee.
Salvador Venegas helped organize a hunger strike inside the Southwest Detention Center in Murrieta, Calif., located about 35 miles south and slightly east of Riverside in the Inland Empire.
Inmates are not to be housed in holding cells for more than 12 hours, per Title 24, Part II, §1231 of the California Board of State and Community Corrections “Minimum Standards for Local Detention Facilities” directives. This is state law.
Inmates are not to be subjected to unsanitary and harsh conditions. All RPDC inmates are subjected to extremely cold cell temperatures – all day, every day, as noted by the 2017-2018 Civil Grand Jury. The holding cells in intake are extremely unsanitary. Some inmates are stuck there for days without opportunity to make free phone calls pursuant to CCR Title 15 and California penal code.
Inmates are not provided any products for personal hygiene, like soap or toothpaste.
Inmates are not provided an inmate orientation pamphlet (so that they might learn and understand their rights) until after they are housed and classified. Thus, incarcerated persons are denied basic due process rights in Riverside County jails. What is more, the RCSD imposes sanctions on those who refuse to answer incriminating questions posed by classification staff in a highly subjective classification assessment.
When I was eventually housed, I challenged the unsanitary conditions – the filthy showers, the filthy cells and the filthy dayrooms, to name just a few of the more disgusting spaces. In turn, I was retaliated against with unnecessary cell searches and verbal harassment from cowardly deputies who thought their intimidation tactics would work on me. These purportedly public officers cannot even be sworn deputies under California law. They got used to intimidating innocent women into confessing to crimes they didn’t commit, and they used intimidation to coerce those in custody into falsely accusing another person of a crime in order to maintain the RCSD corrupt status quo. These degenerate deputies are predators that prey on weak and innocent people who often cannot fathom what these “trained” predators are doing. They have created a “protective custody” class whom they have no interest in protecting. They tried to coercively arrange a gladiator fight, a David and Goliath showdown of sorts, between me and a 6’11” protective custody inmate by the name of Douglas Smith. He was knocked unconscious and suffered fractures. The deputies were nowhere in sight. He has sued the county – the tax payers will pick up that tab, as the county will settle that lawsuit with a payout. This describes just one of the many plots orchestrated by the RCSD, and just one of many in 2017 alone.
Mr. Venegas spent the overwhelming majority of his time in administrative segregation (ad-seg) during his protracted stay inside Riverside County Jails.
Once an inmate is placed in administrative segregation [ad-seg], as I was, there is no way to be released into general population. There is no meaningful 30-day review. It doesn’t matter how good you are for those 30 days; you will not be considered for release. RCSD policies are circumvented to impose control, not safety or security as the RCSD overzealously assert.
I have researched many lawsuits against the RCSD and Riverside County, and every time the RCSD is accused of purging evidence, which is against the law.
Photos provided by Salvador Venegas.