Vol. 75/No. 29      August 8, 2011

The hunger strike began July 1 in a section of the Security Housing Units (SHU) at Pelican Bay State Prison. According to a call to support the “protest of the violation of our civil/human rights,” issued by hunger striker Mutope Duguma, prisoners took action because they were being punished for refusing to snitch on fellow inmates. SHUs are windowless, 8-by-10-foot cells where prisoners are held in solitary for at least 22 hours a day, sometimes for years or decades at a stretch.

Prison officials try to entice inmates to finger other prisoners, in exchange for release from SHU. This “debriefing”— along with prison-fostered racial and gang divisions, and coerced “therapy” programs—are used to degrade and divide workers behind bars.

“This protracted attack on SHU prisoners cuts across every aspect of the prison’s function: Food, mail, visiting, medical, yard, hot/cold temperatures, privileges (canteen, packages, property, etc.), isolation, cell searches, family/friends, and socio-culture, economic, and political deprivation,” Duguma wrote.

The protest quickly spread from 11 Pelican Bay inmates to more than 6,500 prisoners across the state, according to the northern California Times-Standard. The Prisoner Hunger Strike Solidarity website said demands included an end to group punishment, abolishing “debriefing,” ending long-term solitary confinement, adequate and nutritious food, and permission to have a wall calendar, a photo a year, and a weekly phone call.

“My brother lost 20 pounds during the strike,” said Maggie Ruan of Riverside, California, at today’s protest. Her 39-year-old brother has been at Pelican Bay for 21 years. He has spent 12 years in SHU because prison officials claim he had a “gang-related” address book.

“The prisoners suffered, but the strike was worth it,” Ruan said. “They crossed the race barrier. They divide and conquer and do the race game on us.”

Kendra Castañeda of Long Beach joined the protest because her husband is in solitary at Calipatria State Prison charged with gang affiliation. Officials ended her visits and calls, and she hasn’t spoken with him for six months. “I want to help give him and others strength and hope, and tell their story,” she said.

The day before, Castañeda and Ruan protested outside Calipatria, where they collected signatures from prison visitors supporting the hunger strikers’ demands.

Sophia García’s brother has been in SHU at Corcoran State Prison for six years. “Anthony wants everyone to know that what the prison system was doing was wrong,” she said. They were “validating” people as gang members by the “bulk.” “People make mistakes but don’t deserve to spend 23 hours a day in a cell,” she said.

In an July 21 statement, Matthew Cate, secretary of the state’s corrections department, sought to discredit the hunger strike as an “ineffective” ploy ordered by dangerous “gang leaders.”

The department was forced to negotiate with the Pelican Bay strikers and grant some concessions, including “cold-weather caps, wall calendars, and some educational opportunities for SHU inmates,” said Carol Strickman, lead attorney for the prisoners, at a July 22 press conference announcing the end of the hunger strike.

Strickman said the strike had exposed the correction department’s “torturous and barbaric practices, boosted the growing movement in support of the prisoners, and unified prisoners of different racial groups.”  
 
 
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