Hunger Strike At Pelican Bay Prison
July 3rd, 2011
Make no mistake these are prisoners of war. There has been an ongoing war against minorities and the poor that shifted from the southern states to the north in the 20th century and now is pervasive in the society of the USA and now is being seen even in so called liberal states of Europe. If you are not white, or live in a neighborhood known for being a residence of low income persons, look out, the prison industrial complex needs you. Through the war on drugs, the replacement for out and out racist legislation, a semi-militarized state has been created in the low income neighborhoods of most urban areas. This is being reinforced by the anti-terror legislation that has added Muslims and Arabic looking persons to their list of official prospects for the system.
In many states prisons and their employees have become one of the largest expenses in state budgets. In a time of massive deficits and interestingly lower crime rates, this industry is booming. Private prisons are rapidly replacing state run institutions as states look for ways to keep people in prison and lower costs and liabilities to their governments. This is not part of some great conspiracy, although I bet the prospectus of private prison companies might look as if they are trying to imprison every eligible poor person, and the occasional Bernie Madoff who steps too far over the line and falls from grace among the elite.
So there is a hunger strike at one of these institutions, Pelican Bay in California. I can only say, people get on the line or internet and tell the state politicians to meet their demands.
These are the equivalent of the hunger strikes of the Irish Freedom Fighters, or in South Africa under Apartheid or anywhere else where repressive governments are oppressing ethnic, racial or class groups.
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Press Advisory Support for Hunger Strike at Pelican Bay Prison SPEAK OUT!
Tuesday, July 5, 2011 @ 4:00 pm
Ronald Reagan State Building
300 South Spring Street
Los Angeles CA 90013 (3rd St. between Spring and Main)
Phone: For press interviews and for information about the event: Contact: Keith James @ 213-840-5348 (cell)
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.
For more info email to address below or the contact number above.
"Michael Novick"
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From SF Chronicle
Pelican Bay prison inmates go on hunger strike
Friday, July 1, 2011
(07-01) 10:36 PDT Crescent City, Calif. (AP) –
Inmates in an isolation unit at Pelican Bay State Prison are on a hunger strike to protest conditions that they describe as inhumane.
Advocates say several dozen inmates in the Security Housing Unit declined to eat their morning meal on Friday. The unit holds about a third of the 3,100 inmates at the Northern California prison.
State prison officials confirmed the strike.
The Security Housing Unit segregates prisoners from the general population who have been determined to be prison gang members or have committed a serious crime while in prison.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2011/07/01/state/n103611D63.D
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From San Francisco Bay View
Corcoran SHU prisoners join Pelican Bay hunger strike
June 30, 2011
from the NCTT Corcoran SHU
Prison guard George Sherman carries a rifle in the control room of the Pelican Bay SHU whenever a guard enters one of the groups of 10 cells. Corcoran SHU prisoners say the SHU there is designed the same way. – Photo and caption: John Burgess, Santa Rosa Press Democrat
Greetings to all who support freedom, justice and equality. We here of the NCTT SHU stand in solidarity with and in full support of the July 1 hunger strike and the five major action points and sub-points as laid out by the Pelican Bay Collective in the policy statements.
What many are unaware of is that Facility 4B here in Corcoran SHU is designated to house validated prisoners in indefinite SHU confinement and has an identical ultra-supermax isolation unit short corridor, modeled after Corridor D in Pelican Bay, complete with blacked out windows, a mirror tinted glass on the towers so no one but the gun tower can see into our cells and none of us can see out, flaps welded to the base of the doors and sandbags on the tiers to prevent "fishing," a means of passing notes etc. between cells using lengths of string, and IGI, Institutional Gang Investigators, to transport us all to medical appointments. Also, we have no contact with any prisoners or staff outside of this section here in 4B/1C C Section, the "short corridor" of the Corcoran SHU.
All of the deprivations, save access to sunlight, outlined in the five-point hunger strike statement are mirrored and in some instances intensified here in the Corcoran SHU 4B/1C C Section isolation gang unit. Medical care here, in a facility allegedly designed to house chronic care and prisoners with psychological problems, is so woefully inadequate that it borders on intentional disdain for the health of prisoners, especially where diabetics and cancer are an issue. Access to the law library is denied for the most mundane reasons or, most often, no reason at all. Yet these things and more are outlined in the Pelican Bay State Prison SHU's five core demands.
Corcoran State Prison
What is of note here and something that should concern all U.S. citizens, is the increasing use of behavioral control, i.e. torture units and human experimental techniques against prisoners, not only in California but across the nation. Indefinite confinement, sensory deprivation, withholding food, constant illumination and use of unsubstantiated lies from informants are the psychological billy clubs being used in these torture units. The purpose of this "treatment" is to stop prisoners from standing in opposition to inhumane prison conditions and prevent them from exercising their basic human rights.
Many lawsuits have been filed in opposition to these conditions, yet the courts have repeatedly re-interpreted and misinterpreted their own constitutional law to support the state's continued use of these torture units. When approved means of protest and redress of rights are proven meaningless and are fully exhausted, then the pursuit of those ends through other means is necessary.
It is important for all to know the Pelican Bay Collective is not alone in this struggle and the broader the participation and support for this hunger strike and other such efforts, the greater the potential that our sacrifice now will mean a more humane world for us in the future.
Indefinite confinement, sensory deprivation, withholding food, constant illumination and use of unsubstantiated lies from informants are the psychological billy clubs being used in these torture units.
A cell in a Security Housing Unit (SHU) – Photo: California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation
We urge all who read these words to support us in this effort with your participation. Please call your local news agencies, notify your friends on social networks, contact your legislators and tell your fellow faithful at church, mosque, temple or synagogue. Decades before Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo, Pelican Bay and Corcoran SHUs were described by Congressman Ralph Metcalfe as "the control unit treatment program [of which] long-term punishment [is] under the guise of what is, in fact, pseudo-scientific experimentation."
It is important for all to know the Pelican Bay Collective is not alone in this struggle and the broader the participation and support for this hunger strike and other such efforts, the greater the potential that our sacrifice now will mean a more humane world for us in the future.
Our indefinite isolation here is both inhumane and illegal and the proponents of the prison industrial complex are hoping that their campaign to dehumanize us has succeeded to the degree that you don't care and will allow the torture to continue in your name. It is our belief that they have woefully underestimated the decency, principles and humanity of the people. Join us in opposing this injustice without end. Thank you for your time and support.
Our indefinite isolation here is both inhumane and illegal and the proponents of the prison industrial complex are hoping that their campaign to dehumanize us has succeeded to the degree that you don't care and will allow the torture to continue in your name.
In Solidarity,
NCTT Corcoran SHU, 4B-1C – C Section, Super-Max Isolation Unit
This statement was submitted by Haribu L.M. Soriano-Mugabi, CSP Corcoran, P.O. Box 3481, Corcoran, CA 93212, who asks readers to distribute copies and submit it to more publications "so as to inform the general public of our fight to change the inhuman conditions we are subjected to for our political beliefs or because we were falsely identified as politically active in an organization." The statement first appeared on California Prison Watch
Reprinted in entirity as requested.
http://sfbayview.com/2011/corcoran-shu-prisoners-join-pelican-bay-hunger-strike/
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Link to Prison Activist Resource Center
http://www.prisonactivist.org/node/984
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From KPCC Web Site
Pelican Bay prisoners on hunger strike to protest conditions
July 1, 2011 | Julie Small | KPCC
Prisoners at Pelican Bay State Prison near the Oregon border launched a hunger strike Friday morning] to protest conditions there. Inmates at the maximum-security prison say they've been kept in solitary confinement for decades, deprived of adequate sunlight, food and medical care. They also say they're subject to prison policies that prevent them from returning to the general prison population.
For more of article see link below
http://www.scpr.org/news/2011/07/01/pelican-bay-prisoners-hunger-strike-protest-solita/
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