the Hunger Strikers in CA prisons need our help

[annm4peace]

Please share with others.. Gov Jerry Brown and DOJ Eric Holder need to see the whole world is watching.

RT to tell @JerryBrownGov to end prolonged solitary confinement in Calif. prisons, talk to hunger strikers

http://bit.ly/11Jvb6z


We are certain that we will prevail . . . the only questions being: How many will die starvation-related deaths before state officials sign the agreement? The world is watching!"

Those words are from prisoners in California's prison system, 12,000 of whom have chosen to stop eating. These prisoners are routinely abused for their alleged participation in racially divided and violent gangs. Yet they have organized across racial lines and across prisons to nonviolently demand basic human rights, rights that the Geneva Conventions require for prisoners of war, rights that treaties to which the United States is party require for all human beings.


The California prison system currently holds over 10,000 prisoners in solitary confinement units, isolated for at least twenty-two and a half hours a day in cramped, concrete, windowless cells. They are denied telephone calls, contact visits, any kind of constructive programs, adequate food and, often, medical care. Many have been in these conditions for years or decades. The results include profound psychological and physical suffering. The practice is widely considered torture.

Prisoners are demanding an end to group punishments, the provision of adequate and nutritious food, and the creation and expansion of constructive programs.

The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights says: "All persons deprived of their liberty shall be treated with humanity and with respect for the inherent dignity of the human person. . . . The penitentiary system shall comprise treatment of prisoners the essential aim of which shall be their reformation and social rehabilitation."

California's prison system is not meeting this requirement. California's prisoners have organized a nonviolent movement of resistance that should inspire those of us more fortunate. The least we can do is to add our voices.

Please forward this email far and wide.

-- The RootsAction.org team

P.S. RootsAction is an independent online force endorsed by Jim Hightower, Barbara Ehrenreich, Cornel West, Daniel Ellsberg, Glenn Greenwald, Naomi Klein, Bill Fletcher Jr., Laura Flanders, former U.S. Senator James Abourezk, Coleen Rowley, Frances Fox Piven, and many others.

Background:
Truthout: Pelican Bay Hunger Strikers
Prisoner Hunger Strike Solidarity

[annm4peace]

1. from fight back news

http://www.fightbacknews.org/2013/7/9/30000-california-prisoners-begin-hunger-strike-and-work-stoppage-against-solitary-confineme?utm_source=Fight Back! News Service&utm_campaign=6318be7b89-UA-743468-8&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_acdbc87f5c-6318be7b89-263618909


The prisoners say they will not eat and will also not work unless the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) agrees to negotiate honestly about their demands. Their five demands are:

-- End Group Punishment & Administrative Abuse
-- Abolish the Debriefing Policy, and Modify Active/Inactive Gang Status Criteria
-- Comply with the US Commission on Safety and Abuse in America’s Prisons 2006 Recommendations Regarding an End to Long-Term Solitary Confinement
-- Provide Adequate and Nutritious Food
-- Expand and Provide Constructive Programming and Privileges for Indefinite SHU Status Inmates.

California prisoners engaged in two three-week hunger strikes in 2011 based on the five demands. There were 12,000 prisoners in at least a third of California’s 33 prisons who participated in the 2011 hunger strikes. In the face of the protests, the authorities had agreed to make some changes, but two years later those changes haven’t been implemented and some conditions have worsened.

The prisoners’ action has its roots in the Pelican Bay Security Housing Unit (SHU) prison. The SHU is a supermax prison designed to isolate that prisoners who authorities feel they can’t control, including politically conscious prisoners. They are away from the general population in total isolation, in conditions widely acknowledged to be torture. Prisoners can get sent to the SHU indefinitely. Similar conditions exist in the Administrative Segregation units of California’s other prisons. The California prison system currently holds nearly 12,000 prisoners in solitary confinement units, with dozens having spent more than 20 years each in isolation.

Those 12,000 imprisoned people spend 23 of 24 hours living in a concrete cell smaller than a large bathroom. The cells have no windows, no access to fresh air or sunlight. People in solitary confinement exercise an hour a day in a cage the size of a dog run. They are not allowed to make any phone calls to their loved ones. They cannot touch family members, who often travel days for a 90 minute visit; their conversation and their mail is monitored by prison guards. They are not allowed to talk to other imprisoned people. They are denied all educational programs and their reading materials are censored. UN Special Rapporteur on Torture, Juan Mendez, stated that any time over 15 days in solitary confinement constitutes torture. Yet many people in California state prisons have been caged in solitary for 10 to 40 years.

The prisoners have called on people on the outside to support their struggle and amplify their voices. See a video about the hunger strike:

and follow the hunger strike solidarity website for developments: http://prisonerhungerstrikesolidarity.wordpress.com/

[Joe Shlabotnik]

2. kicking

for visibility.

[annm4peace]

3. thanks

It is sad how little attention it gets.

[DirkGently]

4. Long-term solitary IS torture.

Not a theory or an argument. People lose their minds. That's not supposed to be part of the sentence.

[Starry Messenger]

5. k&r

[limpyhobbler]

6. k&r we need some serious prison reform . nt

[HardTimes99]

7. K&R - nt

Last edited Mon Jul 15, 2013, 10:29 AM - Edit history (1)