Day 37: California's Prison Hunger Strike: Where's the Truth?

[annm4peace]

Searching for the Truth About California's Prison Hunger Strike
With one prisoner dead and hundreds more continuing to strike, advocates and officials disagree about almost everything

Read more: http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/searching-for-the-truth-about-californias-prison-hunger-strike-20130813#ixzz2butmhpOd

By Ryan Devereaux
August 13, 2013 1:00 PM ET
Hundreds of hunger-striking inmates in California have now gone one month without food in a stated effort to end the state's controversial solitary confinement practices. Everyone agrees on that much. But prison advocates and state officials disagree about virtually everything else related to the strike – including who bears responsibility for the death of one incarcerated participant.

Billy Sell, 32, was found dead in his ultra-restrictive Security Housing Unit (SHU) cell at Corcoran State Prison on July 22nd. The California Department of Corrections & Rehabilitation (CDCR) initially denied his participation in the ongoing hunger strike, but later acknowledged that by July 11th Sell, who had reportedly been in solitary for five years, had missed the requisite nine meals needed to count as a hunger striker, and had only resumed eating a day before he died. Inmate advocates say Sell was heard screaming for medical attention in the days leading up to his death. Prison officials deny this claim.

"There is no evidence that his suicide, which was a tragic event, was related to the hunger strike," says Terry Thorton, CDCR's deputy press secretary. When CDCR first acknowledged Sell's death, she said that advocates for striking prisoners "are shamelessly exploiting a man's death to mislead the public about a hunger strike orchestrated by violent gang members."

Isaac Ontiveros, an activist with an inmate support network, counters that it is "insane" to divorce Sell's death from the conditions that led to the strike. "Here's this guy who's being tortured, he's in solitary, for years and years," says Ontiveros. "He's in solitary in a prison system that the U.S. Supreme Court has basically condemned for its terrible health conditions . . . I think however he died, it is clear that the prison system has responsibility for his death." In a statement issued after Sell's death, Amnesty International said, "This case underscores our concerns at treatment of and conditions for prisoners in CA SHUs, whether or not they are participating in the hunger strike."

The strike began on July 8th, when 30,000 prisoners in two-thirds of the California's lock-ups intentionally missed their ninth consecutive meal, marking the official beginning of the hunger strike. (CDCR policy does not recognize a hunger strike until this threshold is met.) A week into the demonstration, as many as 12,000 inmates were continuing to turn down food – more than twice the number who launched a similar hunger strike in 2011. As of early August, 364 prisoners in seven California prisons were continuing the strike, according to CDCR, with more than 200 refusing food since the beginning of the protest. Organized by a small group of inmates at Pelican Bay State Prison, the hunger strikers have listed five core demands, which include a call for "regular meaningful contact and freedom from extreme physical deprivations that are known to cause lasting harm," quality health care, nutritional food and the immediate release of all prisoners who have been indefinitely held in isolation for 10 to 40 years back into the general population.


8***********************************************
Call Governor Jerry Brown
Phone: [phone]
Fax: [phone]
Suggested script: I’m calling in support of the prisoners on hunger strike. The governor has the power to stop the torture of solitary confinement. I urge the governor to compel the CDCR to enter into negotiations to end the strike. RIGHT NOW is their chance to enter into clear, honest negotiations with the strikers to end the torture.

[annm4peace]

1. Juvenile Hall locks youth with disabilities in solitary confinement for up to 23 hours a day

http://www.contracostatimes.com/news/ci_23824485/lawsuit-contra-costa-juvenile-hall-locks-youth-disabilities

BERKELEY -- Contra Costa County Juvenile Hall locks youths with disabilities in solitary confinement for up to 23 hours a day -- in some cases for months -- and denies them schooling, advocacy groups claimed in a federal lawsuit filed Thursday.

The conditions, the groups say, are among the worst they've seen in the state.

In one example, according to the suit, a teenage girl diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and bipolar disorder spent about 100 days in isolation during one year at juvenile hall in Martinez.

"It's horrific what's happening to these kids," said Laura Faer, statewide education rights director for Public Counsel, one of the groups that sued. "These examples not only break my heart, but I think these children won't be fixed it's so bad."

[roody]

2. I will call tomorrow.

[sabrina 1]

3. This is like reading about Les Miserables. What has become of this country? Those running that

prison system are more criminal than those incarcerated.

Thank you for posting this, sad though it is, people need to know what kind of country we live in.