Vol. 75/No. 40      November 7, 2011

“We have to keep this struggle going,” Daletha Hayden, whose son was recently placed in solitary confinement in Tehachapi State Prison, told the Militant in a phone interview.

“They had to do the hunger strike,” said Patricia Aguilar, whose husband has been in solitary confinement at the Pelican Bay State Prison for 16 years. “They are dying a slow death every day being caged like animals in 8 by 10 foot cells, with no windows, for 23 hours a day.”

Thousands of prisoners in California joined in hunger strikes this year—a three-week action in July and another that began September 26. Their central demand was to end long-term solitary confinement in the notorious Security Housing Units (SHUs), where thousands are held with little human contact.

They also demanded an end to group punishment, improvements in medical care and food, as well as the right to have wall calendars, wear warm clothes and take correspondence courses.

Black, Latino and Caucasian prisoners prepared the strike, formulated demands, communicated with supporters outside prison walls and negotiated with prison authorities.

Prisoners ended the most recent hunger strike after the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation promised a review of the status of SHU prisoners sentenced to solitary as a result of being “validated” as belonging to a gang.

Prison authorities “validate” gang membership by using so-called evidence such as tattoos, possession of Aztec drawings, speaking to or exercising with a gang member or being fingered as a gang member by another prisoner.

To get out of the SHU, prisoners are required to “debrief,” that is to finger fellow inmates as gang members. Many refuse to give or make up information that will do harm to others.

The SHU status of prisoners is reviewed every six years. However, “an excuse is found to keep them in and they really only get out by naming someone else as an alleged gang member,” said Aguilar.

“There is no transparency. The guards do what they want with the prisoners,” said Meredith Drennan in a phone interview. His son participated in both hunger strikes.

During the strike leaders of the protest at Pelican Bay were moved from the SHU into segregated units where they faced worse conditions. One reported that he was moved with only a jumpsuit, thin mattress and thin blanket, with the air conditioner running full blast in 50 degree weather.

According to Kendra Castañeda, whose husband took part in both hunger strikes at Calipatria State Prison, authorities retaliated against the strikers by refusing them fluids and medical care. Prisoners at Calipatria, who are in units where they are denied radios and TVs, remained on strike a couple days longer than the other hunger strikers.

“It is a privilege, an honor to be part of the struggle, to be part of history for the betterment of all those inside these cement walls,” a prisoner at the Calipatria State Prison wrote to the Prisoner Hunger Strike Solidarity coalition in Oakland.

Wendy Lyons and Arlene Rubinstein of Los Angeles contributed to this article.  
 
 
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