make a mess. they sometimes have a field day. when you walk them back and forth to housing units, you try to avoid it. it s an ongoing battle because they keep coming back. you can chase them off, they keep coming back. the maintenance guy s got a machine, kind of a combination of a street sweeper and zamboni. it does a good job. it cleans it up. while the jail strives to keep the yard clean for sanitary reasons, ronnie padilla has a different motivation for regularly cleaning his cell. padilla s gang, the serenos, require all members keep their cells clean and orderly. but deputies are more concerned with the contents of his cell. ronnie padilla is really good at making weapons out of anything and everything. he s really good at that. you have to constantly check his cell, check his person to make sure he doesn t have any weapons on him. while padilla is away at court, deputy freely checks his cell for weapons or other contraband.
constantly making threats to deputies, challenging them to fight. padilla is a member of the serenos, an offshoot of the mexican mafia, whose members are usually from southern california. he wants to be respected. if he feels disrespected, he definitely lets you know. they know i ll go off on them and let them know. you a cop, i m an inmate. you a man, i m a man. i won t care if we go to court, going to pick a new case. i ll handle this man to man. when we re around him, we make sure we have two deputies with him at all times just because he can be a serious risk when you re around him, you don t want to drop your guard any time with him. padilla was arrested seven
years earlier and has since been convicted on five counts of assault with a firearm and one count each of firing a weapon from a moving vehicle and attempted murder. his sentence has been delayed pending appeals but his violent ways have continued during his long stay at santa rita. ronnie padilla, when he came in here, he started causing problems and getting charged with assault in here. one of those assaults resulted in an additional conviction for attempted murder after padilla stabbed another inmate. the victim had a fairly good-sized cut on his side of his neck. due to his behavior, padilla has been confined to his segregation cell 23 hours per day for the past six years. it s hard for me to do time like this. being here by myself. i start to think about my case. family. my future. feels sometimes like i m going to be here forever.
sometimes inmates can be here for many years by the time their cases are settled. it s not necessarily out of the ordinary that padilla has been here for such a long period of time. it s mainly because of the court system. it takes time to go through. their lawyers might push back court dates. they can use that time to their advantage so they can defend their client better. despite the rugged exterior he s built up while living here, padilla says the relentless isolation has taken its toll. it s hard to be in here by myself. sometimes i feel like the time goes slow. sometimes we lost everything when it comes to jail. padilla says the most significant of those losses is not being there for his three young children. [ they feel like they lost me. they crying. daddy, when you get out? all the time they ask me questions like that. it broke my heart. i don t know how to answer those questions. i know one day i am going to go home.