With only 7 months left to serve of his sentence, my brother Darin Volk, an inmate at Centinela State Prison, sits in his cell overcome with stress and despair rather than hopeful excitement for his return home. Our Father suddenly died recently, the prison won’t grant him family visitation,   and the ICC committee has now unjustly put him up for transfer to the “180 yard” at Salinas Valley State Prison. This transfer would place Darin, a nonviolent offender both inside and outside of incarceration, amongst the most violent and volatile prisoners of the California Prison system. Placement in a 180 yard is generally reserved for inmates that have routinely committed violent crimes while incarcerated, with Salinas Valley State Prison having been named “the most dangerous prison in the USA” by National Geographic (2014). 
This threat is especially unjustified being that Darin meets none of the requirements for transfer:

1. He has never committed a violent crime
2. He have never made any attempts to escape (even during his time at Fire Camp)
3. He has NO felony convictions
4. He has NO gang affiliations

From a moral standpoint, Darin should be granted a suspension of or pardon from transfer because:

1. He is grieving from the recent loss of his Father
2. He is attending and excelling in college classes at Centinela (which will earn him an additional 6 weeks off of his sentence)
3. He only has 7 months left to serve
4. The transfer and transportation would be a waste of tax payer’s money (fiscal budget)
5. The punishment of max-security on a nonviolent offender is excessive and unnecessarily puts my brother’s personal safety and rehabilitation at risk. The arbitrary and unwarranted use of transfer, so close to my brother’s release date, is borderline cruel.

 For these reasons, I hope you will join me and my family in signing this petition, urging the Warden of Centinela State Prison to use his authority to suspend the transfer of my brother, Darin Volk, to Salinas Valley State Prison. Help us during this devastating time to return our loved one home and ultimately resist the bureaucratic tricks of the prison industrial complex.

For a surface understanding of the intensity of this yard, watch this short documentary on the dangers of Salinas Valley State Prison https://youtu.be/Cn66Nq3iUuI