Thousands of California Inmates Resume Hunger Strike & Attorneys are Under Investigation
In a pretty well-coordinated and large-scale human rights movement, thousands of inmates are continuing a hunger strike in an effort to bring about policy changes in the California prisons.
The strikers are accusing officials of not following through on earlier promises to overhaul policies governing the Security Housing Units, where some prisoners, including several strike leaders, have spent decades locked in windowless cells.
Corrections officials say prisoners housed in the units are dangerous gang leaders who need to be segregated from the general prison population for security reasons. Officials also say they are moving forward with significant policy changes that were discussed with Pelican Bay inmates during the last hunger strike, which ended July 20.
A separate department memo also distributed to inmates today outlined the new policies being developed by senior corrections staff, including “increased privileges based upon disciplinary free behavior, a step down process for SHU (Security Housing Unit) inmates, and a system that better defines and weighs necessary points in the (gang) validation process.” The memo warned that work on the new policies “may be delayed by large-scale inmate disturbances or other emergency circumstances.”
Prisoners’ rights advocates, Marilyn McMahon, executive director of California Prison Focus, and Carol Strickman of Legal Services for Prisoners With Children are under investigation by the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation for allegations of misconduct and unspecified security threats.
[They] have been banned from state institutions until the investigation is resolved, according to temporary exclusion orders signed by Corrections Undersecretary Scott Kernan on Sept. 29.
The investigation will determine whether the attorneys “violated the laws and policies governing the safe operations of institutions within the CDCR,” the order states.
There is concern among prisoners’ rights advocates that the hunger strike will cost the inmates their lives or serious injuries because neither side seems open to compromising.
Read the whole story and updates at California Watch or HuffPost.
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