The settlement of a federal civil rights lawsuit has California prisons agreeing to no longer base lockdowns on inmates’ race or ethnicity. 

From Los Angeles Times:

The suit, filed in 2008 on behalf of male prisoners, alleged that the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation violates inmates’ constitutional rights by imposing excessively long modified programs and lockdowns.

Corrections officials have said in the past that segregation units are needed in maximum-security lockups to control prison gangs responsible for violence and crime.