[Ppnews] One Year After Historic Hunger Strike, Isolated California Prisoners Report Little Change

[Political Prisoner News]

  One Year After Historic Hunger Strike, Isolated California Prisoners
  Report Little Change

August 6, 2012
http://solitarywatch.com/2012/08/06/one-year-after-historic-hunger-strike-isolated-ca-inmates-report-little-change/ 
<http://solitarywatch.com/tag/solitary-confinement/>
by Sal Rodriguez <http://solitarywatch.com/author/sal2329/>

At this time one year ago, a three week hunger strike 
<http://solitarywatch.files.wordpress.com/2011/06/fact-sheet-hunger-strike-at-pelican-bay.pdf> 
across California prisons had been concluded, and the California 
Assembly had begun planning a hearing 
<http://solitarywatch.com/2011/08/24/historic-california-assembly-hearing-on-solitary-confinement/> 
on the use of solitary confinement in California's prisons. The 
conditions of the California Security Housing Units, where over 3,000 
inmates are held in isolation, many for decades, had come to the 
public's attention. In the time since August 2011, there would be 
another round of three week hunger strikes, a smaller series of hunger 
strikes 
<http://solitarywatch.com/2012/02/17/conflicting-reports-on-hunger-strike-at-californias-corcoran-state-prison/> 
at the Corcoran Administrative Segregation Unit, a new "Step Down 
Program" announced in California, a federal lawsuit 
<http://solitarywatch.com/2012/06/01/pelican-bay-prisoners-file-lawsuit-against-long-term-isolation/> 
filed by Pelican Bay SHU inmates, and a US Senate hearing 
<http://solitarywatch.com/2012/06/19/report-from-senate-hearing-on-solitary-confinement/> 
on solitary confinement.

Even so, the situation in the SHUs and ASUs remains much as it did one 
year ago. A few concessions by prison officials, such as issuing 
sweatpants and allowing family photos, did nothing to change the problem 
of long-term isolation and non-existent due process.

It should be reiterated that in California, the majority of SHU inmates 
are not necessarily there for conduct, but for gang membership.

In a letter to California activists, Pelican Bay hunger strike leader 
Alfred Sandoval reports feeling  like "just banging my head against the 
wall because nothing ever changes around here. Right now the Department 
of Corruption and the current administration have been attempting to 
pacify prisoners with items...ie. sweats, watch caps, and various food 
items from canteen--in hopes of distracting us ..."

He continues, "the sad fact is that some have been complacent and 
accepted the physical and psychological abuses as normal because it has 
been implemented in small increments over decades, year after year so it 
has become the norm."

Isolated inmates throughout California continue to report desolate 
conditions and more-of-the-same.

According to one inmate in the Corcoran State Prison SHU, "The reality 
is there is a significant number of us for whom death holds no real 
fear, in fact, in some ways---as an alternative to another few decades 
of this---it holds some appeal. If it becomes necessary to take up 
peaceful protest again---and it's unfortunately looking that way---you 
may be writing a lot more Christian Gomez articles...Most here only want 
to, after so very long, hold their children, kiss their wives, speak to 
their families, and have access to some meaningful program that will 
give them some hope of parole, higher education, and marketable job 
skills. But all of this is indicative of a sick society, of values and 
mores that have never been seriously and confronted and corrected in the 
history of U.S. social, political, and economic development."

Christian Gomez 
<http://solitarywatch.com/2012/02/23/family-of-california-prisoner-who-died-on-hunger-strike-speaks-out/> was 
an inmate in Corcoran State Prison's ASU who died while participating in 
a January-Feburary hunger strike protesting the conditions of the ASU.

One of the leaders of the Corcoran ASU strike, Juan Jaimes, was 
transfered during the strike to Kern Valley State Prison's ASU unit as a 
means of limiting the strike. Jaimes recently reported 
<http://sfbayview.com/2012/corcoran-hunger-strike-petitioner-denied-care-for-broken-back/> 
to the San Francisco Bay View that he has received poor medical care for 
a broken back.

Another Corcoran inmate who has been in the SHU for over 20 years also 
reports doubts about the Step Down Program, and thinks that there will 
be no changes. He also offers his opinion on the validity of the SHU in 
the first place, echoing the sentiments of many SHU inmates that any use 
of isolation should be based on conduct rather than gang affiliation.

"I don't think anyone should be housed in isolation for more than a few 
weeks, if at all, and without meaningful program. SHU should consist of 
a system that includes earning meaningful privileges, and a dignified 
manner in being released. The SHU should be used for exactly the purpose 
that it is supposed to be used for: to house those prisoners 
who conduct threatens the safety and security of the prison," he writes.

An inmate at North Kern State Prison's Administrative Segregation Unit 
reports that himself and several inmates have waited over a year to be 
transferred to one of the SHU's. "The waiting list can take up to three 
years, I've been here 15 months due to the overcrowding by the I.G.I. 
(Institutional Gang Investigators) validating everybody as prison gang 
members," he writes, "a lot of us New Afrikans, Latin Amerikans, poor 
whites and indigenous people have been labeled for reading our culture 
and history...I've witnessed men lose their minds behind these walls, 
cut their wrists to kill themselves in order to escape this mental 
torture, spread feces on themselves and the walls, yell out and scream, 
some are on psychotropic medication that causes them to turn into human 
zombies where they don't even know who they are anymore."

Solitary Watch will continue to report on the situation in California as 
information becomes available.

-- 
Freedom Archives 522 Valencia Street San Francisco, CA 94110 415 
863-9977 www.freedomarchives.org
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