Comedy | July 20, 2011 | 6 comments

California Prison Hunger Strike: Some Inmates Show Early Signs Of Starvation Approaching Death

source: http://www.waneenterprises.com/news/732

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Inmates in a third of California's prisons are conducting a hunger strike in protest of solitary confinement policy. Recent reports show that many inmates, who are in their third week of the strike, have shown dramatic weight loss and are collapsing from starvation, reports the Los Angeles Times.

The protesting inmates, who are most active at Pelican Bay State Prison, Corcoran State Prison, and the California Correctional Institute at Tehachapi, have been refusing meals since July 1, according to KPCC radio. Many of the protesters are in solitary confinement, otherwise known as security housing units (SHU).

They have five core demands (via Prisons.org):

1. "Eliminate group punishments" and instead enforce individual accountability.

2. Abolish debriefing policies, which dictate that inmates in SHU can only be released into the regular prison population if they provide information on gang activity.

3. Make prisons comply with the recommendations of the US Commission on Safety and Abuse in Prisons (2006) to end longterm solitary confinement.

4. "Provide adequate food" and sanitary conditions in solitary confinement.

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5. Have the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation expand and provide education programs and other privileges for SHU inmates.

Estimates about the number of striking prisoners vary. The LA Times places the number of protesters at about 400, while the New York Times reports that about 2,000 California inmates are under medical watch. The Huffington Post reports that nearly 1,500 prisoners are involved. The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation told SolitaryWatch.com that at least 6,600 inmates have refused meals.

Full story HERE
http://www.waneenterprises.com/news/732
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6 comments // California Prison Hunger Strike: Some Inmates Show Early Signs Of Starvation Approaching Death

  • Incredulous
    • 0
      Incredulous  

    • they sound like reasonable demands to me...too bad our nation is ruled by a bunch of unreasonable, self-centered, inhumane, bigoted, assinine, despicable, callous, cruel, emotionless, ridiculous, elitist....whoa, I think I might be getting carried away....nahhhhhh.....jerks!

    • 8 months ago
  • bailey78
  • arbil333
    • +1
      arbil333  

    • Prisons are to house, not to help. The whole system needs to be revamped. No one desreves to be locked up alone in dirty conditions.if a inmate is starveing himself,death must be better then life. That says a lot.

    • 10 months ago
  • warman1138
    • +1
      warman1138  

    • Isolation is used as form of torture and more often than not will cause mental instability and insanity.Are we to punish or are we to reform? No two people,inmates,evil perps ect. are alike.

    • 10 months ago
  • Valence
    • 0
      Valence  

    • If your in the SHU you deserve to be there, its not like judges are handing out 23 hours of confinement and 1 hour of day light on a daily basis... still though if your being treated unfairly, i disagree with that, equality should always be provide even when you chose to throw away that right.

    • 10 months ago
  • hombre76
    • +1
      hombre76  

    • Billy Rose was a low rider, Billy Rose was a night fighter
      Billy Rose knew trouble like the sound of his own name
      Busted on a drunken charge driving someone else's car
      The local midnight sheriffs claim to fame

      In an Arizona jail there are some who tell the tale how
      Billy fought the sergeant for some milk that he demanded
      Knowing they'd remain the boss, knowing he would pay the cost
      They saw he was severely repremanded

      In the blackest cell on "A" Block
      He hanged himself at dawn
      With a note stuck to the bunk head
      Don't mess with me, just take me home

      Come lay, help us lay
      Young Billy down

      Luna was a Mexican the law called an alien
      For coming across the border with a baby and a wife
      Though the clothes upon his back were wet still he thought
      That he could get some money and things to start a life

      It hadn't been to very long when it seemed like everything went wrong
      They didn't even have the time to find themselves a home
      This foreigner, a brown-skin male thrown into a Texas jail
      It left the wife and baby quite alone

      He eased the pain inside him
      With a needle in his arm
      But the dope just crucified him
      He died to no one's great alarm

      Come lay, help us lay young Luna down
      Were gonna raze, raze the prisons to the ground

      Kilowatt was an aging con of 65 who stood a chance to stay alive
      And leave the joint and walk the streets again
      As the time he was to leave drew near he suffered all the joy and fear
      Of living 35 years in the pen

      And on the day of his release he was approached by the police
      Who took him to the warden walking slowly by his side
      The warden said "You won't remain here but it seems a state retainer
      claims another 10 years of your life"

      He stepped out in the Texas sunlight
      The cops all stood around
      Old Kilowatt ran 50 yards
      Then threw himself on the ground

      They may as well just laid the old man down
      And we're gonna raze, raze the prisons to the ground
      Help us raze the prisons to the ground

      Joan Baez - prison trilogy

    • 10 months ago
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