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<div style="display: block;" id="reader-header" class="header"> <b><small><small><small><a
href="http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/State-court-rules-prisoners-can-t-be-punished-7305577.php"
id="reader-domain" class="domain"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/State-court-rules-prisoners-can-t-be-punished-7305577.php">http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/State-court-rules-prisoners-can-t-be-punished-7305577.php</a></a></small></small></small></b>
<h1 id="reader-title">State court rules prisoners can’t be
punished for hunger strike</h1>
<div id="reader-credits" class="credits">By Bob Egelko</div>
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<h5 title="2016-04-23T13:53:28Z" class="timestamp">April
23, 2016 </h5>
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<p>A state appeals court says a California prisoner who
took part in a mass hunger strike protesting long-term
solitary confinement should not have been punished for
disorderly behavior because he did not disrupt prison
operations or endanger anyone.</p>
<p>Although the 2013 hunger strike, which involved as many
as 30,000 inmates across the state, may have affected
the workload of prison staff members, there was no
evidence of “a breakdown of order” or any threat of
violence, the First District Court of Appeal in San
Francisco said in the case of a former inmate at <a
href="http://www.sfgate.com/search/?action=search&channel=news&inlineLink=1&searchindex=gsa&query=%22Pelican+Bay+State+Prison%22">Pelican
Bay State Prison</a>.</p>
<p>The ruling, issued last month, was published Friday as
a precedent for future cases. In addition to overturning
a 90-day sentencing increase for the inmate, the
decision could help numerous hunger strikers whose
prison conduct is scrutinized by parole boards, said an
attorney in the case, Carol Strickman of <a
href="http://www.sfgate.com/search/?action=search&channel=news&inlineLink=1&searchindex=gsa&query=%22Legal+Services+for+Prisoners%22">Legal
Services for Prisoners</a> with Children.</p>
<p>For inmates serving life sentences with the possibility
of parole, “the parole board is citing the hunger strike
as a reason to keep them in prison, because of their
ongoing criminal mentality,” Strickman said.</p>
<p>“We hope to use this opinion to try to educate the
parole board,” she added. “You might say it makes you
more suitable (for release), engaging in nonviolent
protest. People could see it as good citizenship.”</p>
<p>The inmate, <a
href="http://www.sfgate.com/search/?action=search&channel=news&inlineLink=1&searchindex=gsa&query=%22Jorge+Gomez%22">Jorge
Gomez</a>, was sent to Pelican Bay, in Del Norte
County, in 2000 and was transferred three years later to
the prison’s Security Housing Unit, where he was kept in
solitary confinement for more than a decade. In July
2013, he refused to eat for four days and, after the
third day, was cited for a “serious” violation of prison
rules for taking part in a hunger strike.</p>
<p>Other inmates continued the hunger strike for as long
as two months. Prison officials attributed the protest
to gangs looking to expand their influence, but
supporters of the inmates said the action helped to
pressure the state into a legal settlement last August
that put new limits on the use of solitary confinement
and has already returned nearly 1,000 inmates to the
general prison population.</p>
<p>In Gomez’s case, a prison hearing officer found that he
had willfully disrupted prison operations by requiring
officers to delay performing their normal duties and
penalized him by taking away 90 days of good-conduct
credits, effectively lengthening his sentence.
Transferred later to another prison, he appealed
unsuccessfully in the prison system and filed a lawsuit
in 2014 that a judge summarily dismissed.</p>
<p>But the appeals court said prison officials failed to
show that Gomez had engaged in disorderly or disruptive
conduct, the regulation he was punished for violating.
The court said it could clear him without having to
decide whether inmates have a constitutional right,
under freedom of speech, to engage in hunger strikes.</p>
<p>Gomez did not act violently or threaten violence, and
none of the effects reported by prison officials —
delays in some operations and services and reassignment
of guards to monitor the hunger strikers — “suggests
prison operations were thrown into disorder,” <a
href="http://www.sfgate.com/search/?action=search&channel=news&inlineLink=1&searchindex=gsa&query=%22Justice+Therese+Stewart%22">Justice
Therese Stewart</a> wrote in the 3-0 decision.</p>
<p>There was no immediate comment from prison officials,
who could appeal the ruling to the state <a
href="http://www.sfgate.com/search/?action=search&channel=news&inlineLink=1&searchindex=gsa&query=%22Supreme+Court%22">Supreme
Court</a>.</p>
<p><a
href="http://www.sfgate.com/search/?action=search&channel=news&inlineLink=1&searchindex=gsa&query=%22L.+Richard+Braucher%22">L.
Richard Braucher</a>, a lawyer for Gomez, described
the inmate’s conduct as “heroic.”</p>
<p>“These inmates were protesting their own mistreatment,
peacefully, and then they were punished for it
unlawfully,” Braucher said.</p>
<em>
<p>Bob Egelko is a <a
href="http://www.sfgate.com/search/?action=search&channel=news&inlineLink=1&searchindex=gsa&query=%22San+Francisco+Chronicle%22">San
Francisco Chronicle</a> staff writer. Email: <a
title="begelko@sfchronicle.com"
href="mailto:begelko@sfchronicle.com"><a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:begelko@sfchronicle.com">begelko@sfchronicle.com</a></a>
Twitter: @egelko</p>
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