Cruel repression at Pelican Bay

DESPITE SEVERE retribution from prison officials, prisoners at Pelican Bay State Prison and other correctional facilities across the state of California have revived a hunger strike against inhumane conditions in the state's correctional system.

This second hunger strike began on September 26, led by prisoners at Pelican Bay. Within days, it grew to include inmates at Calipatria, Centinela, Corcoran, Ironwood, Kern Valley, North Kern and Salinas Valley State Prisons, as well as several other correctional facilities throughout the state.

The first strike began July 1, with some 400 prisoners in Pelican Bay's Security Housing Unit (SHU) putting their lives on the line to protest repressive conditions and the near-total isolation that many have had to endure for months--and in some cases, years--inside the SHU. The strike lasted more than 20 days and, at its high point, reportedly involved more than 6,000 prisoners up and down the state.

The prisoners' five main demands included--and still include--an end to group punishment; a halt to the "debriefing" policy, and modifying the prison's gang status criteria; better food; expanded programs and privileges for long-term SHU residents; and compliance by the prison with the 2006 recommendations of the U.S. Commission on Safety and Abuse in America's Prisons.

The debriefing policy and gang status criteria were cited as especially repressive. Prisoners and their families report that inmates can be "validated" as "gang threats" for little more than possessing left-wing books or newspapers.

The initial hunger strike was called off after prisoners reported that the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) had agreed to some limited reforms, including the opportunity for some educational programs, allowing SHU prisoners to have beanies and have wall calendars in their cells.

More substantially, the leaders of the hunger strike said that CDCR had agreed to look into changes to other policies, including the gang validation and debriefing processes.

WHEN THE promised reforms failed to materialize and hunger strikers were targeted with severe punishment--including denying visitation rights with family members and expelling attorneys representing them on the mediation team--Pelican Bay prisoners decided to revive the hunger strike.

In early October, prison officials claimed that some 4,000 prisoners had participated in it across the state, but later said that the number had declined to fewer than 800 as of October 7.

Prisoner families and advocates, however, claim that the number participating is much higher--with possibly as many as 12,000 prisoners refusing meals at some point. Thousands of prisoners in Arizona, Mississippi and Oklahoma have reportedly participated in solidarity with this second hunger strike, though numbers appear to have dropped in the face of retaliation on the part of prison officials. This second strike is also reportedly being organized as a rolling strike--to allow prisoners time to recover in between periods of participation.

Alarmingly, the crackdown on prisoners taking part in this strike appears to be much more severe than during the first strike, where media attention helped bolster support for the inmates. Prison officials are reportedly removing anyone considered a strike participant from the general prison population. Those who are deemed by prison officials as agitating in favor of the hunger strike--what corrections officials call "coercing" other inmates into participating--are being specially targeted and punished with solitary confinement and isolation, as well as other harsh measures.

According to the New York Times:

An internal memo from George J. Giurbino, director of the Division of Adult Institutions for the department, outlined new, more aggressive processes for dealing with mass hunger strikes.

The new protocols seek to isolate inmates participating in the strike from those in the general population and potentially subject them to disciplinary measures, while prisoners identified as strike leaders could potentially be denied contact with visitors and even lawyers.

In addition, two lawyers who had helped mediate talks were temporarily barred from state prisons last week because "their presence in the institution/facility presents a security threat."

Anne Weills, a lawyer who recently met with four Pelican Bay hunger strikers, told the Times that the men were complaining of brutal retribution by prison officials who perceived them as "ringleaders."

"We're freezing," Ronald Yandell, one of the strike leaders, reportedly told Weills. "The air-conditioner is blowing. It's like arctic air coming through, blowing at top speed. It's torture. They're trying to break us."

In a letter dated September 29, one anonymous hunger striker at Corcoran State Prison described the severity of the retaliation by prison officials:

Today, we were told that anyone who participates in the hunger strike will not be allowed to go outside to the yard cages. And we were not allowed outside...It was also ordered that our legal mail be opened "out of our presence." Both of these and other acts of retaliation were authorized by the facility captain, Captain Castro. These are two of many acts of retaliation that has occurred since the July hunger strike started. This (only) section has not been to the law library in over a month.

Several people in this section have ordered items (sweats, beanie caps, etc.) but no one in this section has received anything. We have been told that no one in this section will be issued anything while the hunger strike is taking place. Threats of canceling visits for this section have also occurred.

Sharon Dolovich, a professor of prison law at the University of California Los Angeles, told the Times, "Before, [prison officials] didn't want to seem inhumane, and now they're in damage control mode. They're demonstrating that they're willing to use the full scope of legal discretion to shut it down."

IN THE coming days, activist pressure will be key to protecting prisoners' health and rights and stopping the prisons from carrying out even more brutal repression (including the possible use of feeding tubes on hunger strikers--a practice often deemed to be torture by human rights groups). According to the Prisoner Hunger Strike Solidarity Website, the health of some strikers is rapidly deteriorating as it enters its third week:

"Men are collapsing in their cells because they haven't eaten in two weeks," says a family member of a striker at Calipatria state prison, "I have been told that guards refuse to respond when called. This is clearly a medical emergency."

In an effort to isolate prisoners perceived by the [CDCR] to be leaders, some prisoners at Pelican Bay have been removed from the [SHU] to Administrative Segregation (Ad-Seg). The Prisoner Hunger Strike Solidarity coalition has received reports that prison officials have been attempting to freeze out strikers held in the Ad-Seg Unit at Pelican Bay, using the air conditioning system in conjunction with cold weather conditions where the prison is located. Last week, a hunger striker in Pelican Bay was taken to a hospital in Oregon after he suffered a heart attack. Prisoners have also been denied medications, including prescriptions for high blood pressure.

The fact that the CDCR has refused to enter into negotiations with strikers this time has raised the level of seriousness of the strike. According to Prisoner Hunger Strike Solidarity:

"The prisoners are saying that they are willing to take this to death if necessary to win their demands," says Dorsey Nunn, executive director of Legal Services for Prisoners with Children and a member of the mediation team working on behalf of the prisoners.

"Any deaths that result from the men starving themselves will be on the hands of the CDCR. We are at a point were we are calling on the media to make inquiries on prison protocol if and when prisoners begin to die. If they want to avoid that kind of scenario, the CDCR can start negotiating."