(Abstract Only)

Since the end of penal welfarism in the 1970s, prisons in the United States have served as human warehouses, with carceral management focused primarily on maintaining a secure environment through the minimization of violence between inmates. California's prison system has faced a particularly difficult and hazardous situation in this regard, due not only to gross overcrowding but also to the prevalence of racially aligned prison gangs. The California Department of Corrections has attempted to curtail violence between these gangs by utilizing an unwritten policy of segregation separating new admits based on race/ethnicity during the intake and classification process. In 2005 the Supreme Court ruled that this policy was unconstitutional under the Equal Protection Clause. Their decision in Johnson v. California pitted the power of the government to punish and control criminal offenders with the government's responsibility to protect the rights of all citizens. Drawing upon both legal and sociological thought, this paper examines the Court's decision, the role of the state in exercising its power to punish, and the state's responsibility to protect Constitutional rights.