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pelican bay hunger strike
The problem of long-term solitary confinement is far from fixed -- the cells that have been emptied as men are returned to general population have been filled by others newly transferred into the SHU. The prisoners need our support to finish the job.
I was deeply moved by your efforts to educate prisoners on their rights at the federal prison in North Carolina where you were held before being transferred to Montgomery, Ala. And I wasn't surprised to see those efforts it landed you in solitary confinement.
It took over 60 years for the Japanese Government to at last acknowledge their "inhuman treatment" and apologize. How many must die before we do the same?
Governor Jerry Brown's complete silence on prisoners' demands has caused serious debate and controversy as the globe turns to California to address cruel and unusual punishment and the security housing unit (SHU) in the industrial prison complex.
WHAT'S HAPPENING
WHAT'S HAPPENING
Today, we must poignantly modify Eugene Debs' refrain, "while there is a soul in prison who would sooner take his life than cave to the harrowing oppression of a predatory system, I am a participating in that system with my silence and with my next meal eaten as a free man."
Today marks the first day of the 4th week of the California Prison Hunger Strike. On July 8 when the prisoners began their hunger strike to call attention to this torture, 30,000 inmates across California stopped eating.
What the hunger strike highlights -- missed by most of the public -- is the deeply troubling nature of extreme isolation in U.S. penology.
30,000 California state prison inmates have refused meals in solidarity with inmates held indefinitely in isolation because of jail gang ties. The state hasn't officially consider it a hunger strike yet, but we'll discuss what's behind the protest.
