Former leaders remember turbulent times of change
By Brian Hamlin/Senior /Staff Writer
Dr. Thomas Clanon (Brad Zweerink/The Reporter)
In their roles as the last medical superintendent and the first designated warden of the California Medical Facility, Dr. Thomas Clanon and warden Eddie Ylst saw history unfold at the Vacaville prison.
They recall a time of intense change, innovation and explosive growth at the facility, which, in the 1980s, had the dubious distinction of having the largest inmate population of any prison in the free world.
Clanon, who received his medical degree from the University of Michigan in 1955, came to CMF in 1961 as a staff physician.
At that time, Clanon said, CMF was one of only three prisons in the nation that specialized in psychiatric treatment of inmates. The other two were in Maryland and Wisconsin. From the start, Clanon saw CMF as a place where significant strides were being made in understanding mental health issues affecting prison inmates and criminal behavior.
A major force in the formulation of a comprehensive diagnostic and treatment program at the prison, Clanon said, was superintendent Dr. William Keating.
"Bill Keating was having a burst of creativity at that time and he started many, many programs," Clanon recalled. "Bill Keating was a very creative person and had been given very enthusiastic support from the Department of Corrections."
Understanding prison violence - and continued violent behavior after parole - was a major focus of the prison's psychiatric program.
"One big area of concern was violence," said Clanon, who became superintendent of the institution in 1972. "We established a program at CMF after some inmates had been released and almost immediately committed a lot of robberies. The Adult Authority wanted to find out why and have something that would curtail that kind of problem."
The prison also launched a program whereby roughly 600 inmates participated in group psychotherapy twice a week.
"It helped positively influence the outcome of their imprisonment because it emphasized treatment of specific problems," Clanon explained.
"We also formed treatment teams consisting of a psychiatrist, program administrator, social worker or psychologist who'd work together to address problems," Clanon added.
It was during Clanon's time that CMF also began to address the problems associated with homosexuality in prison, a subject that had been largely sidestepped during previous decades. In the prison environment, Clanon said, gay men were frequently the targets of hostility and violence as well as being used as sexual possessions by some inmates.
Among the most successful projects at CMF, Clanon said, were the inmate arts and music programs.
The annual prison art show, he said, drew scores of art lovers to the Vacaville prison grounds each year and earned the facility international recognition for inmate-created art works.
The art program, he said, proved to be an important therapeutic tool, served as way the outside world could interact with the prison and also provided a source of revenue.
"The art program brought more money in than prison industries," Clanon said of the art show, which has since been discontinued.
During his tenure, Clanon tried to build understanding between the community and the institution, including links with service clubs, local organizations and even a bridge club.
Public sentiment and the Department of Corrections, he said, gradually shifted from rehabilitation toward a punishment orientation.
"I think if people could take a good look at the kind of things we were doing when we were trying to rehabilitate, I think they would find that things were better," said Clanon, who retired from the superintendent's post in 1980.
Eddie Ylst, a 20-year Department of Corrections veteran, succeeded Clanon in 1981 and became CMF's first warden in 1983.
Although some saw the
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change from superintendent to warden as a turn toward a more corrections-oriented institution, Ylst said the change was in name only and that the prison's medical mission actually grew in succeeding years.
"Nothing changed except the title," Ylst said. "There was just a tremendous amount of pressure for the medical-psychiatric function. There were so many challenges at CMF, but the big one for me was to get that place state hospital accreditation."
Ylst, who began his career in 1961 as a group supervisor with the California Youth Authority, found himself embroiled in the daunting task of getting state licensing for CMF's acute psychiatric and medical wards based upon the same criteria as hospitals operating outside prison walls.
He succeeded, but the challenges kept coming.
One of the biggest was handling a growth crisis that, within a decade, more than tripled the prison population - from 2,400 inmates in 1981 to 8,665 in 1991.
It was also under Ylst's leadership in the mid-1980s that CMF became a diagnostic and treatment center for inmates suffering from AIDS.
The Vacaville prison was the first such penal institution to establish a separate treatment wing for inmates who had been diagnosed with AIDS and it was a daunting task because little was known about the cause or treatment of the condition. Many viewed AIDS as a death sentence.
"In those days, AIDS was a very frightening thing, a very unknown thing," Ylst said. "Society wasn't as ready to accept AIDS as it is today. We had a lot of staff fears, a lot of inmate fears, a lot of community fears. We were breaking new ground."
Ylst also had to oversee the construction of a sprawling prison expansion adjacent to the existing CMF site.
Initially known as CMF South, the prison construction was completed in 1986 and eventually grew into a separate facility, now known as California State Prison, Solano.
Together, CMF and CMF South represented the largest prison in the free world (at that time, accurate prison population figures were not available for prison facilities within the Soviet Union or China).
Ylst said the project was a daily challenge.
"I walked that field back there every day," Ylst recalled. "I was the last, the only, warden there who had both CMF and CMF South."
Like his predecessor, Ylst was a big proponent of open communication with the community.
"I always prided myself on openness," Ylst said. "What's to hide? Come look at us - if it's a mess, then I ought to clean it up."
It was during Ylst's tenure as warden that a citizens' advisory group was formed and regular public meetings held to address local concerns, particularly with the construction of CMF South and the AIDS Wing.
"I went to more public meetings than I could shake a stick at," Ylst said. "Things were done totally in the open and the relationship we had with the community was just great."
Ylst, who left CMF in 1991, is now a happily retired, full-time grandfather who remembers his time at the Vacaville prison as one of the toughest, but most rewarding, periods of his career.
"I genuinely liked corrections and I had one heck of a staff at CMF. They were top-notch, quality folks," Ylst said. "Vacaville was one of the toughest jobs I had, but I enjoyed it the most."
Brian Hamlin can be reached at courts@thereporter.com.