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latimes.com/news/local/la-me-0706-hunger-strike-20110706,0,3504424.story<br>
<br>
</font><h2><b>Inmate hunger strike expands to more California
prisons<br><br>
<br>
</b></h2><h3><b>Inmates in at least a third of California's prisons are
believed to be refusing meals in solidarity with maximum-security
prisoners at Pelican Bay.</b></h3><font size=3>By Sam Quinones, Los
Angeles Times<br><br>
July 6, 2011<br><br>
Inmates in at least 11 of California's 33 prisons are refusing meals in
solidarity with a hunger strike staged by prisoners in one of the
system's special maximum-security units, officials said Tuesday.<br><br>
The strike began Friday when inmates in the Security Housing Unit at
Pelican Bay State Prison stopped eating meals in protest of conditions
that they contend are cruel and inhumane.<br><br>
"There are inmates in at least a third of our prisons who are
refusing state-issued meals," said Terry Thornton, a spokeswoman for
the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.<br><br>
The number of declared strikers at Pelican Bay reported Saturday as
fewer than two dozen has grown but is changing daily, she said. The
same is true at other prisons.<br><br>
Some inmates are refusing all meals, while others are rejecting only
some, Thornton said. Some were eating in visitation rooms and refusing
state-issued meals in their cells, she said.<br><br>
Assessing the number of actual strikers "is very challenging,"
Thornton said.<br><br>
Prison medical staff are "making checks of every single inmate who
is refusing meals," she said.<br><br>
More than 400 prisoners at Pelican Bay are believed to be refusing meals,
including inmates on the prison's general-population yard, said Molly
Poizig, spokeswoman for the Bay Area-based group Prisoner Hunger Strike
Solidarity.<br><br>
The group had received reports on the strike from lawyers and family
members visiting inmates over the weekend, she said.<br><br>
The group's website claims that prison officials attempted to head off
the strike by promoting a Fourth of July menu that included strawberry
shortcake and ice cream. According to the website, the wife of a Security
Housing Unit inmate said her husband had never had ice cream there and
"has never seen a strawberry."<br><br>
Inmates at Calipatria State Prison with more than a thousand prisoners
were among those reported to be refusing meals, Poizig said. Prison
officials could not be reached for comment.<br><br>
But Thornton acknowledged that inmates at the prison were refusing to eat
state-issued meals.<br><br>
The strike was organized by Security Housing Unit inmates at Pelican Bay
protesting the maximum-security unit's extreme isolation. The inmates are
also asking for better food, warmer clothing and to be allowed one phone
call a month.<br><br>
The Security Housing Unit compound, which currently houses 1,100 inmates,
is designed to isolate prison-gang members or those who've committed
crimes while in prison.<br><br>
The cells have no windows and are soundproofed to inhibit communication
among inmates. The inmates spend 22 1/2 hours a day in their cells, being
released only an hour a day to walk around a small area with high
concrete walls.<br><br>
Prisoner advocates have long complained that Security Housing Unit
incarceration amounts to torture, often leading to mental illness,
because many inmates spend years in the lockup.<br><br>
Gang investigators believe the special unit reduces the ability of the
most predatory inmates, particularly prison-gang leaders, to control
those in other prisons as well as gang members on the street.<br><br>
Prison administrators are meeting with inmate advisory councils to
discuss the inmates' complaints, Thornton said.<br><br>
But "I have not heard there's been any decision" to modify
policies governing the Security Housing Unit, she said. "A lot of
those policies have been refined through litigation."<br><br>
<i><a href="mailto:sam.quinones@latimes.com">sam.quinones@latimes.com</a>
</i> <br><br>
Copyright © 2011, <a href="http://www.latimes.com/">Los Angeles
Times</a><br><br>
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