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<font size="4"><b>Solitary Confinement Bill Passes Public Safety
Committee,
Could Mark End of Torturous Practice</b></font><br>
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<p class="MsoNormal">Prisoner Hunger Strike Solidarity Coalition<br>
4/9/2014<br>
</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">Oakland—A bill
designed to
bring about reforms to the California’s internationally condemned use
of
indefinite solitary confinement, passed its first hurdle yesterday by a
4 to 2
vote (with one abstention) in the State Assembly’s Public Safety
Committee.
Assembly Member Tom Ammiano authored AB 1652 in response to the
historic hunger
strike last summer that included the participation of 30,000 prisoners
in the
majority of the California’s sprawling prison system.<span style=""> </span><span
style=""> </span>Some
of the strikers refused food for 60 days. <span
style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">The
prisoners agreed to end their hunger strike on September 5, 2013, with
the
promise of legislative hearings on the use and conditions of solitary
confinement in California’s prisons.<span style=""> </span></span><span
style="font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif";"></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">The bill could
bring very
significant changes to California’s use of solitary confinement.<span
style=""> </span>AB1652 would prohibit the use of solitary
except for 14 very serious offenses, and would set a cap on the
solitary term
to 5 years. <span style=""> </span>AB 1652 would effectively
end the bitterly contested practice of “gang validation” that has led
to
thousands of prisoners serving indefinite sentences in solitary based
merely on
association with other prisoners. <span style=""> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span
style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">According
to the bill’s author, <i style="">“The United States
is an outlier in the world on the use of incarceration and solitary
confinement, and California is an outlier in the United States and is
the only
state to use solitary confinement for indefinite terms where SHU
[Security Housing Unit] terms are
assigned for administrative reasons such as being in possession of
artwork or
books…</i></span><i style=""><span
style="font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif";"></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><i style=""><span
style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">California’s SHUs
do not meet international human rights standards regarding the
treatment of
incarcerated people. The conditions amounted to torture, and groups are
challenging the constitutionality of the SHU. This bill is intended to
limit
the use of solitary confinement to people who have committed serious
rule
violations, and restore time credits for inmates currently serving time
in the
SHU on a non-rule violation assignment." </span></i><i style=""><span
style="font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif";"></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span
style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">“This
bill responds to some of the core demands of the hunger strikers,
namely that
indefinite SHU status should be abolished,” said Donna Willmott, who
worked on
behalf of the Prisoner Hunger Strike Solidarity Coalition's legislative
working group to help California
decision-makers take action on solitary confinement.<span style=""> </span>“It
is really important to recognize that the
human rights struggle being waged by prisoners and their supporters are
having
an impact.<span style=""> </span>Given the horrendous violence
of solitary confinement, we are eager to work with decision-makers to
use this
bill to get as many people out of solitary as we can, including making
good-time credits retroactive for those who have suffered solitary
based solely
on accusation of gang membership and association.”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span
style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">“Some
of our loved ones have suffered in these inhumane conditions for 20 or
30 years
or more,”<span style=""> </span>said Marie Levin, an activists
with the Prisoner Hunger Strike Solidarity Coalition whose brother
Sitawa Jamaa
was one of the lead representatives of the prisoner hunger strikers.
“We will
continue our fight to make sure AB 1652 can provide some relief to our
families,
and we will continue to fight until the torture of solitary confinement
is a
thing of the past.”</span><span
style="font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif";"></span></p>
<br>
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<div class="moz-signature">-- <br>
Freedom Archives
522 Valencia Street
San Francisco, CA 94110
415 863.9977
<a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="http://www.freedomarchives.org">www.freedomarchives.org</a>
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