Federal judge grants request to force-feed California inmates on weeks-long hunger strike

[Eugene]

Source: Associated Press

By Associated Press, Updated: Monday, August 19, 7:14 PM

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — A federal judge approved a request from California and federal officials on Monday to force-feed inmates if necessary as a statewide prison hunger strike entered its seventh week.

Officials say they fear for the welfare of nearly 70 inmates who have refused all prison-issued meals since the strike began July 8 over the holding of gang leaders and other violent inmates in solitary confinement that can last for decades.

They are among nearly 130 inmates in six prisons who were refusing meals. When the strike began it included nearly 30,000 of the 133,000 inmates in California prisons.

Prison policy is to let inmates starve to death if they have signed legally binding do-not-resuscitate (DNR) requests. But state corrections officials and a federal receiver who controls inmate medical care received blanket authority from U.S. District Judge Thelton Henderson of San Francisco to feed inmates who may be in failing health. The order includes those who recently signed requests that they not be revived.

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Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/calif-seeks-federal-judges-permission-to-force-feed-inmates-participating-in-hunger-strike/2013/08/19/f4f58008-0917-11e3-89fe-abb4a5067014_story.html

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Original story...

Source: Reuters

California seeks to force feed hunger striking inmates

SACRAMENTO | Mon Aug 19, 2013 6:43pm EDT

(Reuters) - California authorities sought federal court permission to force feed some state prison inmates on Monday, six weeks into a hunger strike to protest the state's solitary confinement policies, court documents showed.

Some 136 California inmates are currently refusing food as part of a strike begun July 8 to demand an end to a policy of housing inmates believed to be associated with gangs in near-isolation for years. Some 69 of the striking inmates have refused food continuously since the strike began.

California policy currently prohibits force feeding of inmates on a hunger strike if they have signed medical orders refusing resuscitation in the event they lose consciousness or experience heart failure.

But officials went to court on Monday to ask for permission to ignore these "do-not-resuscitate" orders for inmates who signed them during the hunger strike or just prior to it, citing concerns that some inmates may have been coerced into participating in the strike.

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Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/08/19/us-usa-california-hungerstrike-idUSBRE97I0ZV20130819

[bemildred]

1. Can't have them die, then we won't get paid for them. nt

[blkmusclmachine]

16. +1. They're nothing more than dollar signs.

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

[hack89]

20. The state prison system budget is a fixed amount

it does not go up or down depending on the number of prisoners.

[bemildred]

22. But the compensation of private and out-of-state prisons does.

No prisoners, no tax money.

[bemildred]

23. I don't believe that is correct, either, now I think about it.

The case is fewer prisoners means less prison money, it may not be touchy on the edges, but you cut the population in half, you are going to wind up cutting the prison budget in half.

[cosmicone]

2. Give them some weed instead

The munchies will stop the hunger strike fast! Everyone would be happy and no violence.

[scooter rider]

3. UN calls force-feeding 'torture' amid Guantanamo hunger strike

Force-feeding is "torture" and breaks international law, the UN's human rights office said Wednesday, as 100 of the 166 detainees at Guantanamo Bay continue a months-long hunger strike. Twenty-one inmates are being force-fed through nasal tubes.
By News Wires (text)

Force-feeding hunger strikers is a breach of international law, the UN's human rights office said Wednesday, as US authorities tried to stem a protest by inmates at the controversial Guantanamo Bay jail.

"If it's perceived as torture or inhuman treatment -- and it's the case, it's painful -- then it is prohibited by international law," Rupert Coville, spokesman for the UN high commissioner for human rights, told AFP.

http://www.france24.com/en/20130501-force-feeding-torture-un-law-guantanamo-hunger-strike

[KamaAina]

4. Just like they do at Gitmo

[brett_jv]

5. Gotta love how AP downplays the justness of their cause by wording it like they do

I just love their spin:

"over the holding of gang leaders and other violent inmates in solitary confinement that can last for decades"

When their actual protest is:

"over the holding of inmates in solitary confinement that can last for decades"

There's no particular people that this hunger strike is for the benefit of, it's for the benefit of everyone in long-term solitary, because long-term solitary is friggin' torture. Not all such people are 'gang leaders', nor are all them even there for 'violence'.

Typical lamestream media BS spin from AP ... and Reuters is only marginally better ...

I support the strikers 100%. Solitary for >30 days at at time needs to END, like, yesterday. We need to figure out another way.

[roody]

7. So what if they were gang leaders.

It is still torture.

[brett_jv]

21. Also true, of course ...

Last edited Tue Aug 20, 2013, 07:49 PM - Edit history (3)

But many not as enlightened as us might read it like 'oh, so these strikers are gang members who've been told by their murderously violent leaders (who are stuck in solitary) to go on hunger strike to get them out' or some such.

But I think that angle is just bullcrap that prison officials are trying to sell. Maybe some gang leaders were involved in planning, but so what. They may well be the only ones with the power to do something like this, but the 'cause' is just, regardless of who's organizing it. Not everyone in solitary is a violent gang leader (and even if they were, it's still an F-D up system of torture that should be stopped), and the protest is not about any particular person(s) in solitary anyway.

These sorts of articles that not only fail to go into any detail about the cause, but actually appear to want to deliberately distort the public's impression OF the cause ... are very disheartening. Then again, I really don't expect different from AP. I've felt their organization is on the side of big corporate money and the status quo ever since I started paying attention to it in the early 2000's.

When ANYone is put in the type of solitary that happens in places like Pelican Bay for extended periods, it has the potential to cause serious and lasting psychologically damage. In fact it can and has literally driven people insane, and there's no way to know how long that process will take for any given person. Suicide and self-harm are extremely common in those places. 'Solitary' basically breaks people, and we have NO idea (nor inclination to figure out) how to fix them afterwards.

But perhaps the most important thing people need to realize about this whole 'system' is that JUDGES are often not the ones to decide to put people in solitary. This is something that Prison Wardens (even wardens of private, for-profit prisons) get to decide on a fcuking WHIM, for whatever reason they want.

Very often, it's actually the mentally ill that get shipped off to places like Pelican Bay, because they're too much 'trouble' (not to mention often needing more expert care and thus resulting in a lower profit margin for the 'private' prison) when mixed in with the general population ... with predictable results. Talk about a bad combination ... mental illness + the harshness and isolation of solitary = BAD THINGS HAPPENING.

On top of that, the only 'safeguard' is a pathetically unfair 'review' process, that's very difficult to even access. And there's no accountability for the decision or what damage it inflicts on the person.

So, these folks are protesting what amounts to a system of extra-judicial punishment (torture, according to many mental-health experts) that is arbitrarily enforced by people who should NOT have the authority to determine punishment ... that's virtually unreviewable ... wherein they have no recourse for the harm done to them ... I mean, this is a seriously f-ed up 'system'.

I'll say it again: I support these strikers 110%. It sucks that they have to go to these lengths though, putting their own lives on the line like this, but ... I guess that's the only way to get heard. I consider what they're doing to be an act of great courage & very much hope it friggin' amounts to something ... This whole system is an evil and disgraceful travesty of injustice and immorality, totally unsuitable for a civilized Nation.

Copy of a 2012 Rolling Stone article that is must-read on the subject ... didn't see the original on the Google but didn't look that hard.
http://betweenthebars.org/posts/10568/magazine-article-rolling-stone-slow-motion-torture

What's really amazing is to find out that the horrifying effects of Solitary on the minds of prisoners were already extensively documented by 1890 (after nearly 60 years of study). During the late 1800's, the practice became universally regarded as unacceptably inhumane by all of polite US society, including in written opinions of the US Supreme Court, and abandoned nearly entirely for 80 years after.

But ... we never learn, do we? Now, we get these a-hole prison officials telling interviewers:

"Oh, golly, there's just NO evidence that proves it HURTS anyone to lock 'em in Solitary, no, they're more 'resilient' than that! Oops, did I say Solitary? I meant 'Timeout!'. Solitary has a bad historical connotation (for some reason, I've no IDEA why?), so we just don't call it that. What I mean is, it's NOT Solitary. That's why we don't call it that ... WE like to call it 'Timeout!'

Of course, 'Timeout!' isn't TORTURE, on account of we don't MEAN to hurt them, you have to MEAN to hurt them for it to be torture! Look up the definition! And again we don't even know that it does, there's no evidence it hurts them ... I mean, if it were Solitary, I dunno maybe but it's not, it's 'Timeout!', so, it's also obviously Not-Torture, because we don't know of any 'Timeout!' studies and plus we don't MEAN to, so you know what ... it's fine, really!"

BS. I'm sorry, but most people nowadays are nowhere near as 'resilient' as people were in the 1800's, and even those folks went nuts from it. These officials know. That's why they DENY it's 'Solitary', because we've know for a FREAKING CENTURY that Solitary destroys people ... DERP.

Recent News on the Strike from RS ...
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/searching-for-the-truth-about-californias-prison-hunger-strike-20130813

[gopiscrap]

9. I fully agree

[Socal31]

11. Nice catch on the weasel wording.

Even in county jail (at least here in CA), you are basically forced to join a "car" (which means gang) based off of your race. In Orange County:

Peckerwood = White

South-siders = Stereotypical Mexican/Latin gang members

Blacks

Paisas = Darker skinned Mexican/Latins, including native Mexicans. Do not speak much English if at all.

Misc - Just like it sounds



Once you go State, it is even more imperative. So basically almost everyone in the system can be labeled a "gang member."

[JimDandy]

12. Thanks for calling them on their spin! n/t

[mike_c]

6. forced feeding is torture....

So, for that matter, is indefinite solitary confinement.

[branford]

13. If a prisoner dies of malnutrition while in government custody, what then would you say?

The government has a responsibility to meet the health and nutrition needs of those under its care, especially prisoners.

As a legal matter, hunger strikes and government responses are more complicated than most posters care to admit.

[mike_c]

18. I would say they were exercising their rights....

The government has a responsibility to offer care and protection to prisoners, but no obligation to force them to eat if they choose otherwise.

[Travis_0004]

26. Not the governments problem

They give them food every day, and provided its food they are not allergic to, and its meets their religious guidelines, then if the prisoners don't want to eat, them let them not eat.

[stuffmatters]

8. Forced Feeding Exposed by Fred Wiseman's TITTICUT FOLLIES

Was shown as so cruel and inhumane that it closed down Bridgewater State Hospital/Prison (for Criminally Insane.) That was nearly 50 years ago. WTF is going on in Ca, I mean really WTF ...this is unconscionable torture against people struggling just to
protest institutional cruelty.

Has this judge ever watched Titticut Follies, has Jerry Brown, has Holder?

Yeah, Every one of these prisoners is worth minimum $50,000/year to the prison if still breathing. Dead ...zero.

[gopiscrap]

10. Fucking asshole federal judges

all federal judges are arrogant ass wipes. That's partly because they are life time appointments but mainly because the power goes to their heads. The federal system is stacked against the common folk and most state systems aren't much better. Nothing will improve until folks rise up and make it so that is isn't "business as usual" as the bible says "afflict the comfortable and comfort the afflicted"

[Freddie Stubbs]

17. You should check out this judge's biography:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thelton_Henderson

[markpkessinger]

24. Would you say the same about Judge Schira Scheindlin . . .

. . . in the wake of her ruling severely constraining the NYPD's use of "stop-and-frisk?" I think you are painting with far too broad a brush.

[annm4peace]

14. Call the Gov's office and head of CA Democratic Party

http://prisonerhungerstrikesolidarity.wordpress.com/

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.


Maybe we should call the CA Democratic Party and ask why are the Democratic Leaders allowing the Hunger Strike to go on.

http://www.cadem.org/about/officers

JOHN BURTON
Chairman
Email: [e-mail]

[davidn3600]

25. Brown has been an incredible disappointment on the prison issues of California

Between the hunger strikes and overcrowding, this guy looks more like a right-winger.

[annm4peace]

15. everyone who is against the Forced feeding and the hunger strike

should kick this posting

[ConcernedCanuk]

19. Reminded of that pink stuff I used to put on my zits in the 60's.

.
.
.

Not dealing with the symptoms of the problem (sanitation/diet)

Just cover it up.

DEAL WITH THE ISSUES assholes -

these people did not stop eating because they do not like or need food!

they want their concerns heard.

Much better than bombing the shit out of a tiny country to make them do what you want.



If the shoe fits . . . .

CC