Support the Pelican Bay Hunger Strikers

Press Advisory
Support for Hunger Strike at Pelican Bay Prison

SPEAK OUT!

Tuesday, July 5, 2011

In an act of tremendous courage, prisoners in the Security Housing Unit [SHU] at Pelican Bay State Prison in California began an indefinite hunger strike on July 1, 2011. Their hunger strike demands an end to the horrendous and dehumanizing conditions imposed on prisoners at Pelican Bay. There are 5 core demands from the SHU prisoners (see below). The goals of the hunger strike constitute a bare minimum of concessions from a state and prison administration that has proved over and over again to be overtly brutal in its handling of the California's imprisoned population.

The prisoners who have called for this hunger strike have made clear that they are uniting across racial lines, an extremely important development, given racial divisions in prison, which are often fomented by prison officials. And they have called on prisoners throughout the California prison system, including prisoners who are “suffering injustices in general population, administrative segregation and solitary confinement,” to join them in the strike.

The prisoners are shining a spotlight on the horrific and unacceptable conditions existing inside the corridors of Pelican Bay State Prison; they must not be allowed to stand alone. People throughout the state of California and beyond must urgently come to their aid and support, standing firmly in support of the hunger strike and supporting the just demands of the prisoners.

We did just that: on July 5, 2011, at 4pm, at the Ronald Reagan State Building, a SPEAK OUT! voiced support for the prisoners and demanded the State of California and CDCR accede to the demands of the prisoners. We demanded there be no reprisals against the prisoners and present a vision of support that will shake society awake on this crucial issue, to include a range of actions from a statewide petition and educational initiatives to a solidarity rolling hunger strike/fast outside prison walls; from cultural and artistic interventions; to mass resistance in the streets.

Throughout society we show support for these basic demands from the SHU prisoners and expose and condemn indefinite and long term solitary confinement as torture; as cruel and unusual punishment (on May 23, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that prison conditions in California violate the Eighth Amendment’s ban on cruel and unusual punishment).

Pelican Bay State Prison is considered the “model” nationally for long-term segregation and isolation. Such long-term solitary confinement is now widespread throughout CA and U.S. No one is sentenced in court to serve their time in isolation (except in very rare cases) – such long-term isolation, which includes minimum human contact and maximum sensory deprivation, is decided by the prison authorities themselves. This brutality, aimed at breaking bones and spirit, is nothing less than crimes against humanity – and they are being carried out every single day at Pelican Bay State Prison. SPEAK OUT!

Speakers/Statements/Support includes Rev. Richard Meri Ka Ra Byrd (KRST Unity Center); Clyde Young (revolutionary communist and former prisoner); Fanya Baruti (All of Us or None – LA Chapter Organizer); Gloria Killian (Action Committee for Women in Prison); Paul Von Blum (professor of African American Studies, UCLA); Luis Garcia (Senate Select Committee on California Correctional Systems (SSCCS)); Dylan Rodriguez (Professor and Chair, Ethnic Studies, University of CA, Riverside); Rev. Dr. Lewis E. Logan (Ruach Christian Community Fellowship); Rev. Eugene Williams (Regional Council of Neighborhood Organizations); Nathanial Ali (National Assn. of Brothers and Sisters In and Out – NABSIO); Chimbuko Tembo (Co-Assistant Director, African American Cultural Center); Mary Sutton (Californians United for a Responsible Budget – CURB); Dolores Canales (Mother of John Martinez, Prisoner at Pelican Bay SHU), Anti Racist Action, LA ** (Organizations listed for ID purposes)

1. Eliminate group punishments. Instead, practice individual accountability. When an individual prisoner breaks a rule, the prison often punishes a whole group of prisoners of the same race. This policy has been applied to keep prisoners in the SHU indefinitely and to make conditions increasingly harsh.

2. Abolish the debriefing policy and modify active/inactive gang status criteria. Prisoners are accused of being active or inactive participants of prison gangs using false or highly dubious evidence, and are then sent to long-term isolation (SHU). They can escape these tortuous conditions only if they "debrief," that is, provide information on gang activity. Debriefing produces false information (wrongly landing other prisoners in SHU, in an endless cycle) and can endanger the lives of debriefing prisoners and their families.

3. Comply with the recommendations of the US Commission on Safety and Abuse in Prisons (2006) regarding an end to long-term solitary confinement. This bipartisan commission specifically recommended to "make segregation a last resort" and "end conditions of isolation." Yet as of May 18, 2011, California kept 3,259 prisoners in SHUs and hundreds more in Administrative Segregation waiting for a SHU cell to open up. Some prisoners have been kept in isolation for more than thirty years.

4. Provide adequate food. Prisoners report unsanitary conditions and small quantities of food that do not conform to prison regulations. There is no accountability or independent quality control of meals.

5. Expand and provide constructive programs and privileges for indefinite SHU inmates. The hunger strikers are pressing for opportunities “to engage in self-help treatment, education, religious and other productive activities..." Currently these opportunities are routinely denied, even if the prisoners want to pay for correspondence courses themselves. Examples of privileges the prisoners want are: one phone call per week, and permission to have sweatsuits and watch caps. (Often warm clothing is denied, though the cells and exercise cage can be bitterly cold.) All of the privileges mentioned in the demands are already allowed at other SuperMax prisons (in the federal prison system and other states).