|
PELICAN BAY PRISONER HUNGER STRIKE ENDS IN HISTORIC VICTORY
CDCR TO REVIEW ALL CASES OF GANG VALIDATION OF CURRENT SHU PRISONERS
The hunger strike succeeded so far in:
- moving CDCR to begin an immediate review of their gang validaiton and use of solitary confinement in the Security Housing Units (SHUs).
- bringing the issue of torturous SHUs (supermax/control units) to public attention and to mainstream media.
- mobilizing broad support throughout California, nationally, and internationally for their reasonable demands.
Make your voices heard in the weeks to come!
- Keep the pressure on CDCR until the 5 core demands are fully met!
- Continue to encourage friends and supporters to sign the online petition.
- Public awareness is all that protects the hunger strikers from retaliation.
UPDATE: October 13, 2011
- Representatives of the Pelican Bay hunger striking prisoners' mediation team met with CDCR officials today to discuss on-going reforms to the Security Housing Units (SHU) policy
- For the first time, CDCR committed to reviewing the cases of all prisoners currently in SHU who were placed there due to gang validation.
- The new criteria are being reviewed and should be in place by the beginning of next year, according to CDCR officials. This plan was confirmed in a memo signed by both CDCR officials and mediation members.
- The end of this hunger strike marks an historic victory for human rights in which prisoners unified across the system to push and obtain changes that are fundamental to human rights.
UPDATE: October 2, 2011
- Federal Receiver's office confirms nearly 12,000 prisoners refused meals this week
- CDCR only counts prisoners who miss nine consecutive meals (4,100+)
- Many prisoners are refusing some meals on some days but not consecutively
- Thus, participation in this protest has been three times as much as CDCR has stated
UPDATE: September 23, 2011
- The good news is that the CDCR is considering some reforms.
- The bad news is that any privileges to win release from solitary confinement (SHU) require a "discinplinary free" record, and the guards have been writing up prisoners (especially those in the short corridor of Pelican Bay) for minor acts such as walking too slowly or talking in the library.
UPDATE: September 9, 2011
- Legislative Hearings on August 23 in Sacramento were a great success!!
- Dozens of families and other supporters provided testimony and public comment on the horrendous conditions of the SHU.
- CDCR Undersecretary Scott Kernan promised changes that clearly fall short of the prisoners five demands
UPDATE: August 4, 2011
- Prepare for Legislative Hearings on August 23. Plan to come to Sacramento!
- The California Assembly's Public Safety Committee needs to hear from you! Now is your chance to participate in this struggle for human rights. Save the date, plan your carpool, rent a bus, do whatever you need to get to Sacramento on August 23. It's going to be HUGE!! We will also have a march and an opportunity for you to visit your legislator's office on that day. More details here.
UPDATE: July 27, 2011
- Prisoners at Pelican Bay in the Security Housing Units (SHU) reported that they had received watch caps (beannies) as promised from the CDCR as one of the three good faith steps to halt the hunger strike. The other two initial steps to be implemented immediately are the permission of all SHU prisoners to have wall calendars, and for prisoners to be allowed to resume taking correspondence courses in which the CDCR must provide the opportunity for someone to proctor their final exams. Note that the correspondence courses in question are only those that are paid for by the prisoners themselves.
UPDATE: July 21, 2011
- 6:30 pm local time: California Prison Focus confirmed that the hunger strike leaders at Pelican Bay entered into an agreement with CDCR officials today to end their hunger strike in exchange for a major policy review of SHU housing conditions, gang validation process, and debriefing process. CDCR also agreed to implement three additional changes immediately to all SHU prisoners as a show of good faith to consider seriously the prisoners' core demands. These are the permission to have wall calendars, to have watch caps "beannies", and to resume correspondence courses which require a proctored exam.
- The end of the strike is not the end of the struggle, according to the prisoners. We must now make sure that CDCR will follow through on their promises.
- CDCR issued a press release today stating that the hunger strike at Pelican Bay State Prison is over. Members of the Prisoner Hunger Strike Coalition and the Prisoners' mediation team are in the process of verfiying the truthfulness of these claims by obtaining direct confirmation from the prisoners themselves. The CDCR claims that the only items conceded to the prisoners were watch-caps in cold weather, the permission to have wall calendars, and the restoration of proctored exams for prisoner paid correspondence courses.
UPDATE: July 19, 2011
- The Federal Receiver's office issued a partial update on Monday, July 18, reporting on four prisons. Those numbers indicate that some prisoners are ending their hunger strike, and others are joining. According to their update, 168 prisoners joined the hunger strike on July 18 at the California Correctional Institute in Tehachapi, a SHU prison. The greatest weight loss reported was 29 pounds.
UPDATE: July 15, 2011
UPDATE: July 12, 2011
- CORCORAN: Prisoners from Corcoran State Prison SHU unit report that two prisoners were hospitalized after falling unconscious due to their hunger strike. Both were sent to the hospital on July 3. No further word on how they are doing.
- Corcoran prisoners also reported getting weighed for the first time on July 5. Average weight loss at that time was between 8 to 20 pounds.
UPDATE: July 11, 2011
- Friends and family members of hunger striking prisoners at Pelican Bay who met with them over the weekend confirmed that prisoners have lost signfiicant weight. One prisoner lost 17 pounds, another 19.
- Family members notes that hunger strikers are looking thin. Some have been taken to the clinic and tests show serious deterioation of their health.
- CRUELTY: CDCR has refused to negotiate even though prisoners have a mediation team representing them in place. How cruel is it to not even consider taking about demands while prisoners are dying?!
- Prisoners in Administrative Segregation at Pleasant Valley State Prison say they plan to start a hunger strike on July 24, according to the family member of a weekend visitor.
UPDATE: July 10, 2011
- Several reports confirm that some medications have been denied to prisoners at Pelican Bay State Prison.
- Prisoners in affected areas who are NOT on the hunger strike are boycotting canteen food so that prisoners on hunger strike are not accused of getting food from other prisoners.
- Hunger Strike started on July 1 at several institutions across the prison system in support of Pelican Bay SHU Hunger Strikers. Reports are that 6,600 prisoners refused trays on the first day.
- Thousands of prisoners across at least one third of California prisons continue strong in their indefinite hunger strike despite CDCR disinformation that strike is over or winding down.
What is this all about?
This strike is essentially about ending the torturous conditions of Security Housing Units (SHU), especially for prisoners who have no gang activity in the prison but are accused of gang "association" and being sent to locked down solitary confinement INDEFINITELY.
California is cutting $150 million to primary education, closing schools around the state in order to pay $140 million in overtime costs alone to guard thousands of prisoners with no violent write-ups or behavior while in prison in highest security conditions. CDCR even recently prohibited self-educaiton correspondence programs for prisoners that the prisoners pay for themselves.
Is there a better alternative? The Mississippi model is a start. They removed gang "associates" from SHU, saved millions of dollars and decreased violence system wide by moving gang associates out of the SHU. Ohio, too, has made huge reforms away from California's approachand has greatly reduced its SHU population.
The prisoners developed five core demands.
California Prison Focus supports the prisoners' reasonable and modest demands, and calls on Governor Jerry Brown and the CDCR to implement these changes.
Briefly, the five core demands of the prisoners are:
1. Eliminate group punishments. Instead, practice individual accountability. When an individual prisoner breaks a rule, the prison often punishes a whole group of prisoners of the same race. This policy has been applied to keep prisoners in the SHU indefinitely and to make conditions increasingly harsh.
2. Abolish the debriefing policy and modify active/inactive gang status criteria. Prisoners are accused of being active or inactive participants of prison gangs using false or highly dubious evidence, and are then sent to longterm isolation (SHU). They can escape these tortuous conditions only if they "debrief," that is, provide information on gang activity. Debriefing produces false information (wrongly landing other prisoners in SHU, in an endless cycle) and can endanger the lives of debriefing prisoners and their families.
3. Comply with the recommendations of the US Commission on Safety and Abuse in Prisons (2006) regarding an end to longterm solitary confinement. This bipartisan commission specifically recommended to "make segregation a last resort" and "end conditions of isolation." Yet as of May 18, 2011, California kept 3,259 prisoners in SHUs and hundreds more in Administrative Segregation waiting for a SHU cell to open up. Some prisoners have been kept in isolation for more than thirty years.
4. Provide adequate food. Prisoners report unsanitary conditions and small quantities of food that do not conform to prison regulations. There is no accountability or independent quality control of meals.
5. Expand and provide constructive programs and privileges for indefinite SHU inmates. The hunger strikers are pressing for opportunities “to engage in self-help treatment, education, religious and other productive activities..." Currently these opportunities are routinely denied, even if the prisoners want to pay for correspondence courses themselves. Examples of privileges the prisoners want are: one phone call per week, and permission to have sweatsuits and watch caps. (Often warm clothing is denied, though the cells and exercise cage can be bitterly cold.) All of the privileges mentioned in the demands are already allowed at other SuperMax prisons (in the federal prison system and other states).
|
