[Ppnews] 51st Day Without Food, CDCR Continues to Crack Down on Prisoners’ Peaceful Protest, Forcibly Relocate Strikers, Stonewall Mediation Team

[Political Prisoner News]

*FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE--AUGUST 27, 2013*

*51st Day Without Food, CDCR Continues to Crack Down on Prisoners’ 
Peaceful Protest, Forcibly Relocate Strikers, Stonewall Mediation Team*

Prisoner Hunger Strike Solidarity Coalition

Oakland— As prisoners mark day 51 of their hunger strike, lawyers and 
advocates continue to express outrage at the California Department of 
Correction and Rehabilitation’s (CDCR) attacks on prisoners’ peaceful 
protest.  After being internationally lambasted in the media last week 
for threatening prisoners with force feeding as well as ignoring their 
medical wishes, the CDCR continued to punish strikers by moving as many 
as 50 prisoners from Pelican Bay to other prisons.  The CDCR issued a 
confusing press release on Monday evening, claiming it had met the 
demands of the strikers, while also maintaining it did not recognize the 
legitimacy of their protest, nor would it negotiate with them. Attempts 
by the strikers’ mediation team to keep open dialogue with the strikers 
and prison officials have been rebuffed by CDCR.

Lawyers and advocates have just learned that, in an attempt to break 
prisoners' hunger strike, prison officials abruptly awakened more than 
50 long-term Pelican Bay hunger strikers between 4:00 - 5:00 a.m. last 
Friday morning and moved them to various prisons around the state.

Anne Weills, attorney for the strikers responded to this news: “Just 
think of the state of these men, psychologically, physically and 
medically. The CDCR chose to arbitrarily move these men—many of whom may 
already be on the a verge of a cardiac arrest—making them get out of 
bed, chaining them up by the legs, waist and wrists, performing invasive 
cavity checks, making them march to a van, and then taking them 
wherever. And then isolating the four representatives who remain in the 
Stand Alone Administration Building at Pelican Bay.”

“These people are starving for a cause bigger than themselves. They have 
been very clear that they are fighting so that new prisoners, 
particularly younger men and women, do not have to suffer what they have 
had to suffer.”  Said Azadeh Zohrabi, spokesperson for the Prison Hunger 
Strike Solidarity Coalition. "Instead of going to meet with the 
prisoners at Pelican Bay, CDCR is governing by fiat--responding in a 
public statement to prisoners' demands rather than negotiating with them 
as human beings.  The public should be disturbed by this, to say the least.”

Late last week, as the CDCR was likely planning its early morning raid, 
strike mediators attempted to meet with both the Department and with 
strike representatives as a way of exploring options for resolving the 
crisis.  The CDCR refused both attempts.  “Regular dialogue was a common 
practice during the 2011 strike that led to some moderately constructive 
discussions between strikers and the CDCR,” said Marilyn McMahon, of the 
strike mediation team. “Why would the CDCR foreclose on these completely 
reasonable options?  They can either be open to change or continue to 
cause suffering.  They can’t do both.”

“Governor Brown and the CDCR are playing with peoples’ lives to make a 
point – that they are in control,” said Donna Willmott of the Prisoner 
Hunger Strike Solidarity Coalition. “They are using their emergency 
motion for force-feeding as justification to move against the strikers 
without restraint. Against all human decency, they have used every means 
at their disposal to destroy this peaceful protest: character 
assassination, coercion, isolation, and intimidation. And yet the 
strikers have not been broken.”

Despite CDCR's apparent attempts to close the issue with its muddled 
press release Monday, mediators and lawyers continue to try open 
negotiations between the Department and the prisoners.  Supporters 
continue to urgently request the California Legislature's Public Safety 
Committee to convene a special session.   Speaking to the strength and 
resolve of prisoners still on strike, family member and mediator Dolores 
Canales said yesterday, “I am filled with absolute awe at the strength 
and character of these individuals who have endured decades-long 
isolation. And I think it must be hope that fills them with such a 
determination… hope for long overdue change, hope within a system that 
has kept them in isolation for decades. And I think of great changes in 
history that only took place when people did not give up and when the 
awakening of a moral consciousness was stirred within the heart and soul 
of the public.”

-- 
Freedom Archives 522 Valencia Street San Francisco, CA 94110 415 
863.9977 www.freedomarchives.org
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