The hunger strike taking place in California prisons continues for the 52nd day, as the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) maintains its uncompromising stance against the prisoners demanding humane treatment.
“Governor Brown speaks volumes by remaining silent,” says Isaac Ontiveros of prisoner’s rights advocacy group Critical Resistance. “The strikers are patient and generous people, they need to be given their conditions, so what do the CDCR officials have to lose?”
Ontiveros says that a recent uptick in the number of prisoners on strike is indicative of their reaction to CDCR’s inadequate integration of measures designed to reduce the unfair treatment the prisoners face on a daily basis.
Over 70 men remain refusing meals, with more rejoining the strike or beginning anew. Beginning on July 8th, 30,000 prisoners statewide coordinated and refused meals for 9 consecutive days, and this is the third hunger strike in two years protesting the arbitrary use of solitary confinement for extended periods of time and the controversial gang validation process.
“Even prisoners in extremely poor health are taking part in rolling strikes, where they fast for two weeks and take two weeks off, to preserve what little energy they have left,” says Ontiveros.
Under the guise of “medical reasons,” the CDCR relocated 51 strikers on Friday Aug. 23, to prisons across California, and “many families are left clueless as to their loved one’s whereabouts, disrupting the prisoners’ support from the outside,” continues Ontiveros.
The latest press release issued by CDCR is contradictory, on one hand they indicate that all the prisoners’ demands have been met or are in the process of being dealt with, while maintaining a policy of zero compromise with strikers.
For more information and a schedule of future events, go to CriticalResistance.org or PrisonerHungerStrikeSolidarity.wordpress.com.