Vol. 77/No. 32      September 9, 2013

An official with the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation’s media department said 80 prisoners are on strike, 45 of whom have not eaten in 45 days. Supporters of the strikers say the number is higher. The action began with some 30,000 inmates refusing meals.

“My understanding is that for standing up and fighting to better their situation hunger strikers like my son are getting more time in the SHU,” said Bertha Nava, “in some cases another 120 days.”

Prisoners in Pelican Bay’s SHUs initiated the first round of hunger strike protests two years ago. Protest organizers say they resumed the strike July 8 because prison officials had refused to carry out promises to meet prisoners’ demands — including abolition of a snitch system that puts inmates accused of gang affiliation in long-term isolation until they finger others, release of those in SHU isolation for more than 10 years and a weekly phone call.

“My brother Sitawa Nantambu Jamaa has spent 29 years in the SHU at Pelican Bay,” Marie Levin said in a phone interview from Oakland. “He’s past 43 days on the hunger strike. I don’t want my brother to go through that. But I stand with him because the hunger strike is educating thousands about inhuman treatment in U.S. prisons.”

Nantambu Jamaa, of the Pelican Bay-SHU Short Corridor Collective and a leader of the hunger strike, released a statement Aug. 14 referring to efforts by prisoners to overcome racial divisions fostered by prison authorities. “I would like to reiterate that the Agreement to End All Hostilities, issued Aug. 12, 2012, is significant for all prisoners because the CDCR has encouraged prisoners in their 33 prisons to not only engage in self-destructive behavior but has also helped heighten racial hostilities — the catalyst for internal warfare, racial warfare and gang warfare — all of which has been magnified inside the prison and throughout our communities,” he wrote. “We called for an end to hostilities to eliminate giving guards an excuse to kill prisoners.”

On Aug. 19, U.S. District Judge Thelton Henderson authorized California prison officials to force-feed inmates and to disregard “do not resuscitate” orders signed by hunger strikers.

“Victor has spent 23 years in the Special Housing Unit in Pelican Bay — half his life in a tomb,” Gracie Martinez, a childhood friend of one of the prisoners, said at an Aug. 13 protest here sponsored by California Families to Abolish Solitary Confinement. “How many more strikes will there be before Governor [Jerry] Brown responds?”
 
 
Related article:
Report exposes sterilization of women prisoners
 
 
 
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