Vol. 77/No. 44      December 9, 2013

Some 15 prisoners being held in solitary confinement at the Potosi Correctional Center in Mineral Point, Mo., began a hunger strike Oct. 13 to protest abusive conditions and to support prisoners “in California and across the nation held captive in these SHU units and Ad-Seg units” — referring to “Security Housing Units” and “Administrative Segregation.”

The strike began after guards harassed and beat Shyheim El-Mumin, the San Francisco Bay View reported Nov. 17, and then threw him naked into an air-conditioned cell for a week without mattress or blankets. The paper printed a petition signed by 35 inmates there supporting the strikers.

The hunger strikers ask that letters backing their struggle be sent to Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon and George Lumbardi, director of the Missouri Department of Corrections, P.O. Box 236, Jefferson City, MO 65102, and Warden Troy Steele, Potosi Correctional Center, 11593 State Hwy O, Mineral Point, MO 63660, with copies to the Missouri American Civil Liberties Union, 454 Whittier St., St. Louis, MO 63108.

— JOHN STUDER