The Pelican Bay Prison Hunger Strike has gained considerable\u00a0momentum. The renewed strike began last week and is the second such\u00a0mass action staged by inmates in less than six months to draw attention to
\noverly punitive treatment.<\/p>\n
Thousands of inmates have reportedly joined the effort in prisons\u00a0throughout California and across three additional states, despite efforts by\u00a0prison administration to crackdown on inmates.<\/p>\n
The effort began at the Secure Housing Unit at California\u2019s Pelican\u00a0Bay State Prison on September 26, and inmates from a dozen facilities\u00a0throughout the state are now participating. According to the federal\u00a0receiver\u2019s office, 12,000 prisoners are now participating in the hunger\u00a0strike, including 3,000 inmates housed in out-of-state facilities in Arizona,\u00a0Mississippi, and Oklahoma.<\/p>\n
Conditions in the prison\u2019s Secure Housing Unit (SHU) have\u00a0not improved according to prisoners\u2019 original demands. In July,\u00a06,000 inmates went on strike to protest inhumane prison policies, including\u00a0one that allowed nearly half of Pelican Bay\u2019s 1,111 prisoners to be held in\u00a0solitary confinement for more than ten years.<\/p>\n
The strike has now become the largest such action in recent\u00a0history, and the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation\u00a0(CDCR) has addressed it as such. CDCR classifies the strike as an\u00a0organized disturbance, thereby institutionalizing disciplinary actions\u00a0against prisoners. Some strike leaders have been transferred to solitary\u00a0confinement units.<\/p>\n
Families of inmates have also been denied visits to Pelican Bay,\u00a0according to Jay Donohue of the Prison Hunger Strike Solidarity Coalition\u00a0(PHSS). \u201cTheir visits for the weekend were not allowed, and they\u2019ve been
\ntold that they won\u2019t be at all until the strike ends.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cDenying visits only heightens the isolation that the prisoners and\u00a0family members experience, especially at this critical time,\u201d said Dolores\u00a0Canales, the mother of an inmate being held in the Pelican Bay SHU.<\/p>\n
Inmates reportedly fear that the initial concessions made by CDCR\u00a0will get buried in the administrative process. The advocacy group California\u00a0Correctional Crisis posted two memos that were released by the CDCR\u00a0on Sept. 27, the first day of the renewed strike. One states that while\u00a0the department has authorized items such as exercise equipment and wall\u00a0calendars in SHU, \u201cthe policy review and change will take several more
\nmonths to implement.\u201d<\/p>\n
The second memo details the crackdown on participating inmates\u00a0since the summer. Since the suspension of the hunger strike in July, prison\u00a0guards have reportedly employed intimidation and retaliation tactics such\u00a0as raiding inmates\u2019 cells and issuing excessively harsh write-ups.<\/p>\n
The CDCR has also expelled two attorneys chosen by inmates to\u00a0represent them on the mediation team. That team has been representing\u00a0prisoners in negotiations with the CDCR since July.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is very worrisome to say the least, \u201d said Carol Strickman,\u00a0one of the mediation team lawyers who have been banned from CDCR\u00a0facilities, according to Prison Hunger Strike Solidarity. \u201cWe obviously
\ndon\u2019t want to imagine the worst, but we are legitimately concerned about\u00a0violence on the part of the prison administration.\u201d<\/p>\n
On Friday, the two attorneys appealed to Gov. Jerry Brown\u00a0requesting a meeting to ensure completion of proposed reforms. They are\u00a0still waiting for a response.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, the strike continues to spread.<\/strong> The Pelican Bay Prison Hunger Strike has gained considerable momentum. The renewed strike began last week and is the second such mass action staged by inmates in less than six months to draw attention to
\n\u201cWe\u2019re hearing from groups internationally, and the support only\u00a0continues to grow,\u201d said Donohue. \u201cThis is just an indication\u2014the fact that\u00a0there\u2019s international support as well\u2014that something is seriously wrong in\u00a0California throughout the prison system, not just in the SHUs and ASUs,\u00a0and that prisoners actually recognize and understand that, and they have\u00a0no recourse except to strike.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\noverly punitive treatment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":88891,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"newspack_popups_has_disabled_popups":false,"newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_show_updated_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[1078,1272,1076,1077],"coauthors":[18460,18445],"class_list":["post-10652","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-california-department-of-corrections-and-rehabilitation","tag-pelican-bay-prison-hunger-strike","tag-pelican-bay-state-prison","tag-secure-housing-unit","entry"],"yoast_head":"\n