[8] After Pelican Bay State Prison opened in 1989, guards eager to assert their dominance over the inmates established a culture of violence.

[7] Vaughn Dortch, who was serving a ten-year sentence for grand theft and whose mental illness had worsened since being moved to the SHU, was taken in April 1992 to be bathed by guards after smearing himself with feces.

[7] Media attention, including a September 1993 60 Minutes report about the brutality against Dortch, and lawsuits ultimately led to changes at Pelican Bay State Prison.

They demanded warm clothes and a handball for use during their one-hour a day in the outdoor exercise yard, the ability to make one phone call per week, adequate food, and the possibility of reconsideration of their long periods of isolation after several years.

[7] Strikers demanded reform of "cruel" policies used to identify and subsequently isolate or punish alleged gang members, including lengthy solitary confinement and the quality of living improvements.

However, this was made unnecessary shortly after when Senator Loni Hancock and Assembly member Tom Ammiano promised to investigate the state's policies around solitary confinement and consider legislation.

Alonzo Harris (Denzel Washington) threatens gang members with a sentence in Pelican Bay and the SHU program in the movie Training Day (2001).

In the novel The Lincoln Lawyer (2005), defense attorney Mickey Haller suggests to his client that he will serve his sentence in Pelican Bay due to his dishonesty and noncooperation.