An Open Letter to Jerry Brown: Stop the Torture of Solitary Confinement ( we can sign also)

[annm4peace]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/carole-travis/california-prison-hunger-strike_b_3670210.html


Monday, July 29, 2013. Today marks the first day of the 4th week of the California Prison Hunger Strike. On July 8 when the prisoners began their hunger strike to call attention to this torture, 30,000 inmates across California stopped eating. Saturday morning we learned that Billy Michael Sell housed in the Corcoran SHU (Solitary Housing Unit) died last Monday. Today over 600 men have only had water for 22 days. They protest their long-term torture. California is one of 19 states that use long term, often indefinite, solitary confinement and by far and away has the largest numbers of prisoners in solitary -- over 10,000.

Prisoners are not sentenced to solitary for their street crime. Prison officials assign them to this crushing isolation without due process, without review of the evidence against them, without legal representation or an impartial hearing. The deciding agency is made up of prison guards who have risen in the ranks through time. At Pelican Bay, California's super max, the men who decide the fate of the prisoners are white and have lived their lives in Crescent City with a population of around 9,000 people 15 miles south of the Oregon border. They believe they understand the culture of the prisoners, largely from major urban areas and communities of color because they have studied them in their cages for years.

As a result of the July 2011 hunger strike there has been an impartial review panel deciding if those in solitary belong there. The panel found 68% of the prisoners they reviewed should be immediately transferred out of solitary into the General Prison Population.

The August (2013) issue of Scientific American highlights the ineffectiveness of solitary confinement to reduce crime in prison. It does have the capacity to induce or exacerbate mental illness. The practice is deemed cruel, inhumane, and ineffective. As the editors point out, "new research suggests that solitary confinement creates more violence both inside and outside prison walls." (p.10). Mr. Juan Mendez, Special Rapporteur on torture defines 15 days in solitary confinement as torture.

We are compelled to write this Open Letter to Governor Brown to step in and stop the torture. We ask you to join us and sign our letter.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/carole-travis/california-prison-hunger-strike_b_3670210.html

many faith leaders, activists, celebrates have signed the letter and we can also

[think]

1. k&R

[annm4peace]

2. The Business of Mass Incarceration

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2013/07/29

The Business of Mass Incarceration
by Chris Hedges
Debbie Bourne, 45, was at her apartment in the Liberty Village housing projects in Plainfield, N.J., on the afternoon of April 30 when police banged on the door and pushed their way inside. The officers ordered her, her daughter, 14, and her son, 22, who suffers from autism, to sit down and not move and then began
(Photo: Derek Key/ Flickr)
ransacking the home. Bourne’s husband, from whom she was estranged and who was in the process of moving out, was the target of the police, who suspected him of dealing cocaine. As it turned out, the raid would cast a deep shadow over the lives of three innocents—Bourne and her children.

[LWolf]

3. I'd like to do a lot more than that,

but I can support the petition for the sake of the prisoners.

I have to say, though, that if I were incarcerated, solitary would not be "torture," but sanctuary.

[annm4peace]

4. Solitary

no human contact, no natural light, no natural air.
that doesn't sound good to me

[sabrina 1]

5. Thank you. It's oddly difficult to get attention for torture as a policy these days. I so respect

those who have never given up on this most reprehensible of crimes. I wish our leadership would address the issue every once in a while. The lack of public condemnation of torture by our elected officials speaks volumes about the state of our nation today.

Jerry Brown has been a huge disappointment on this issue in Ca, which have become infamous for their treatment of people in jail.

I thought a court had ruled that the CA Prison system had to improve the conditions in their jails as they were a 'violation of both national and international law.

Thanks for the OP, I cannot believe what has become of this country. No wonder we get slapped down every time we try to address human rights abuses in other countries. The typical response to our hypocritical declarations from the State Dept now is 'clean up your own act before criticize anyone else's'. See China's response to the State Dept's attack on China for human rights abuses.

The sad thing is we have lost the moral authority needed to address these issues and have effectively givin Human Rights abusers a free pass because of our own reprehensible record on the issue.

[annm4peace]

6. the faith leaders should be involved

I know some faith leaders are but it should be a bigger movement. It should be talked about to the congregations.

I'm not in CA anymore but was there when Gov Brown was Gov the 1st time.

He should be doing more than he is . Restore the humanity.