Ohio Prisoners Begin Hunger Strike After 17 Years in Solitary Confinement

[Joanne98]

On January 3, four prisoners who were sentenced to death after being wrongfully convicted of crimes following a 1993 prison uprising in Lucasville, Ohio, started a “rolling” hunger strike to protest the conditions of their confinement.

The prisoners, unlike the 125 death row inmates being housed at Ohio State Penitentiary, are kept in solitary confinement for 23 hours every day, completely isolated from contact with others and prevented from ordering necessary goods such as clothing to keep them warm in their cold cells. They are aslo denied medical treatment and access to computer databases necessary for preparing their appeals, and despite their ongoing cooperation with prison programs, they have been refused privileges typically granted to prisoners for good behavior.

This treatment has been ongoing for over 17 years.

If moved from solitary confinement to death row, the prisoners would be able to have semi-contact visits from their families and interact with other inmates. But they have been told that they will remain in isolation, locked behind a solid cell door, until they are put to death.

http://criminaljustice.change.org/blog/view/ohio_prisoners_begin_hunger_strike_after_17_years_in_solitary_confinement

Isn't there something in the Constitution about cruelty?

[T Wolf]

1. Ohio is a lot like the cesspools down south - both for its racism and general anti-people

teabagger policies. Away from the major cities (and Cleveland is really the only one), it is like the dead zone in PA between Philly and Pittsburgh - to be avoided at all costs.

Unfortunately, voters live in the sticks and pollute the political environment as much as the industries (that are still there) destroy the physical environment.

[Botany]

2. no pity from me

Lucasville Prison Riot


On April 11, 1993, Easter Sunday, approximately 450 prisoners in Cellblock L of the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility, in Lucasville, Ohio, rioted.
The Southern Ohio Correctional Facility is a maximum security prison. The riot apparently occurred for several reasons. Chief among these reasons
was a fear among Muslim inmates that correction officials would force the prisoners to have tuberculosis vaccinations. Taking these vaccinations
would have violated the prisoners' faith. It also appears that some inmates desired to settle old disputes with other prisoners.

The riot lasted ten days. On the first day, some rioters beat five other inmates to death and placed their bodies in the exercise yard. Over the next
several days, four other inmates died at the hands of the rioters. The rioters had also taken eight prison guards hostage. On April 15, the inmates
strangled guard Robert Vallandingham to death, hoping to convince state officials to take the prisoners' demands seriously. The inmates also caused
more than forty million dollars in damage to the prison. After officials agreed to review the prisoners' twenty-one demands, the rioters surrendered
on April 21, 1993.

[hlthe2b]

3. It says these prisoners were "wrongly convicted of crimes following"

the 1993 uprising. :shrug: I am confused.

[Botany]

4. Despite the slant of the article the men sentenced to death for the ...

killings during the Lucasville Prison riot were nasty violent men before the riot and I feel no pity
for them now. After killing a corrections officer the Department of Corrections are no doubt
treating those 5 very harshly and with overwhelming security.

http://www.enquirer.com/editions/2003/04/06/loc_Lucasvillewidow.html

[chowhound]

5. none here either. nt.