A dozen hard grey metal benches sit in the middle of the enclosure.
RICHARD J DONOVAN CORRECTIONAL FACILITY WINDOWS
Large windows look out onto a cement courtyard surrounded by more tall chain link fences topped with razor wire. Next to the desk is a bookcase with several shelves of games. With the casual ambiance of the room and a spirited conversation, you momentarily feel as if you are just two ordinary people catching up in a restaurant - until you look to the side and see that some visitors are talking to inmates over a phone, separated by thick, heavy glass.Ī sign over a small desk and chair in a corner reads “CHILDREN’S VISITING AREA.” Many visitors can only afford the food from vending machines that line one wall. With the remaining $8, I bought drinks, chips, and Lyle’s favorite - an ice cream sandwich. I had a carne asada burrito with rice and beans ($14). He told me this would be his lunch and dinner. He ordered two salads ($10 each) and added grilled chicken (an extra $4 each). On my most recent visit, Lyle was hungry. The menu now includes burritos and several salads and burgers. Lyle enjoys having a meal from an outside food vendor. With the $50 I carry in, I am allowed to buy food for Lyle and myself. Visitors are not allowed to wear anything blue or tan - the colors of the inmate and guard uniforms. The prisoners wear dark blue pants and light blue shirts with the yellow block letters CDCR on the back. The atmosphere in the visiting room is noisy but low key. In the ceiling, a dozen security cameras scan the room. Several uniformed guards sit behind a desk on a raised platform. On most visits, Lyle appears within a few minutes, always smiling as we hug. The tables are only knee high so the guards can watch everything that’s going on. There are long rows of about 60 individual tables each surrounded by four hard plastic chairs. A sign says the capacity is 422, but I’ve never seen that many people in the room. It takes a few minutes until Lyle comes down from his dorm. You walk a hundred yards into a drab, gray concrete building where you hand your pass to a guard who buzzes you into the large rectangular visitors’ room. (My first time there, I was startled after a half dozen visits, it has become routine.) Locked in that cage, you feel like a character in an old 1930s prison movie. You are temporarily inside a 12-foot high chain-link fenced cage with razor wire surrounding the perimeter until a gate on the other side opens. After showing an ID, you are handed a light green paper pass with a smiling mug shot of Lyle.Īfter passing through a metal detector, you walk outside and a heavy metal gate slowly rolls open. Getting approval to visit takes about six weeks. You have to be on the brothers’ visiting list.
RICHARD J DONOVAN CORRECTIONAL FACILITY DRIVERS
The only things you are allowed to take inside are a drivers license, car keys and $50 in cash - just $5s and $1s.
Previously you had to make appointments online, park far away, ride a small bus to a processing building and then take another bus to the brothers’ visiting room in E Block. You can now drive right to Lyle’s building. The CDCR recently made visiting much easier at Donovan. The doors are locked until six the next morning. I’ve heard shouting and other loud noise when Lyle has had to suddenly drop the phone.Īfter dinner, some prisoners are allowed outside again.Īt 9 pm, everybody is back in their cells. Other conversations have been unexpectedly interrupted by yard calls or lockdowns - when guards investigate an incident and inmates must immediately lie on the ground. I’ve had to end calls with Lyle for the count. Inmates can go outside in the individual prison yards during the afternoon.Īt 4 pm, there is a formal count of all inmates they are required to stand in place. Lunch is a sandwich and fruit in a brown bag that can be eaten at any time. Prisoners are allowed recreation and exercise in the morning. The brothers are both Group A prisoners and have earned special privileges. He makes his own food throughout the day with ingredients from packages that can be mailed to him. The prison day begins with breakfast at 6:30 am. He has one of the two individual beds in a corner. Lyle and Erik sleep in separate small dorm rooms each hold six inmates. There are large dorm areas housing many of the inmates. Small cells that were originally built for one now hold two. The current prison population is just under 5000 - in a facility designed to hold 2200. Lyle and Erik Menendez are both inmates here now, 22 years after being forbidden from seeing or talking to each other. I always know when I’m close to the jail because my cell phone buzzes with a text message: The penitentiary tops a mesa near an industrial park, just over a mile from the Otay Mesa border crossing. Donovan Correctional Facility are about a half hour east and slightly south of downtown San Diego.
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