Prisoners in Pelican Bay SHU to Go on Indefinite Hunger Strike July 1st!

 

Prisoners in the Security Housing Unit (SHU) at Pelican Bay State Prison (California) are going on an indefinite hunger strike as of July 1, 2011 to protest the cruel, inhumane, and torturous conditions of their imprisonment.  The hunger strike has been organized by prisoners in an inspiring show of unity across racial and geographic lines upheld and exacerbated by prison officials.

The hunger strikers have developed these five core demands:

1. Individual Accountability — This is in response to PBSP’s application of “group punishment” as a means to address individual inmates’ rule violations.  This includes the administration’s abusive, pretextual use of “safety and concern” to justify what are unnecessary punitive acts.  This policy has been applied in the context of justifying indefinite SHU status and progressively restricting our programming and privileges.

2. Abolish the Debriefing Policy, and Modify Active/Inactive Gang Status Criteria — The debriefing policy is illegal and redundant, as pointed out in the Formal Complaint (IV-A, p. 7).  The Active/Inactive gang status criteria must be modified in order to comply with state law and applicable CDC are rule and regulations (eg, see Formal Complaint, p. 7, IV-B) as follows:

  • cease the use of innocuous association to deny inactive status;
  • cease the use of informant/debriefer allegations of illegal gang activity to deny inactive status, unless such allegations are also supported by factual corroborating evidence, in which case CDCR-PBSP staff shall and must follow the regulations by issuing a rule violation report and affording the inmate his due process required by law.

3. Comply with US Commission on Safety and Abuse in America’s Prisons 2006 Recommendations Regarding an End to Long-Term Solitary Confinement — CDCR shall implement the findings and recommendations of the US commission on safety and abuse in America’s prisons final 2006 report regarding CDCR SHU facilities as follows:

  • End Conditions of Isolation (p. 14).  Ensure that prisoners in SHU and Ad-Seg (Administrative Segregation) have regular meaningful contact and freedom from extreme physical deprivations that are known to cause lasting harm (pp. 52-57).
  • Make Segregation a Last Resort (p. 14).  Create a more productive form of confinement in the areas of allowing inmates in SHU and Ad-Seg (Administrative Segregation) the opportunity to engage in meaningful self-help treatment, work, education, religious, and other productive activities relating to having a sense of being a part of the community.
  • End Long-Term Solitary Confinement.  Release inmates to general prison population who have been warehoused indefinitely in SHU for the last 10 to 40 years (and counting).
  • Provide SHU Inmates Immediate Meaningful Access to: i) adequate natural sunlight ii) quality health care and treatment, including the mandate of transferring all PBSP-SHU inmates with chronic health care problems to the New Folsom Medical SHU facility.

4. Provide Adequate Food — Cease the practice of denying adequate food, and provide a wholesome nutritional meals including special diet meals, and allow inmates to purchase additional vitamin supplements.

  • PBSP staff must cease their use of food as a tool to punish SHU inmates.
  • Provide a sergeant/lieutenant to independently observe the serving of each meal, and ensure each tray has the complete issue of food on it.
  • Feed the inmates whose job it is to serve SHU meals with meals that are separate from the pans of food sent from kitchen for SHU meals.

5. Expand and Provide Constructive Programming and Privileges for Indefinite SHU Status Inmates — Examples include:

  • Expand visiting regarding amount of time and adding one day per week.
  • Allow one photo per year.
  • Allow a weekly phone call.
  • Allow two (2) annual packages per year.  A 30 lb. package based on “item” weight and not packaging and box weight.
  • Expand canteen and package items allowed.  Allow us to have the items in their original packaging (the cost for cosmetics, stationary, envelopes, should not count towards the max draw limit).
  • More TV channels.
  • Allow TV/Radio combinations, or TV and small battery operated radio.
  • Allow hobby craft items — art paper, colored pens, small pieces of colored pencils, watercolors, chalk, etc.
  • Allow sweat suits and watch caps.
  • Allow wall calendars.
  • Install pull-up/dip bars on SHU yards.
  • Allow correspondence courses that require proctored exams.

Note: The above examples of programs/privileges are all similar to what is allowed in other Supermax prisons (eg, Federal Florence, Colorado, and Ohio), which supports our position that CDCR-PBSP staff claims that such are a threat to safety and security are exaggerations.

Click here to find updates and more info on the upcoming action and look into different ways you can get involved and show your solidarity.

Click here to sign an online petition to support the hunger strike!


For more information, visit <prisonerhungerstrikesolidarity.wordpress.com>.  Read James Crowford and Mutop DuGuya (a/k/a Bow Low), “Why Prisoners Are Protesting.”


 

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