Budget Cuts and the Pelican Bay Hunger Strike

[Keith Millea]

Apparently,there is one death being reported by inmates so far.Also,there are reports of inmates that are in dire shape.This could/will get ugly,no doubt..........

Urgent state-sponsored prison torture protests uniting inmates, churches, towns


Deborah Dupre

, Human Rights Examiner
July 15, 2011

Rights defenders, peace workers from all creeds and religions rally in defense of state-sponosered torture victims in American prisons

As some 6000 participating inmates in thirteen California state prisons ended a second week of their historic hunger strike protesting what some human rights defenders identify as torture, this largest coordinated protest by state inmates is uniting over 300 religious groups and communities from California communities to Harlem to stand in solidarity with abused inmates and against US state-sponsored torture, while more inmates are dying from hunger and California state government officials conduct a disinformation campaign according to rights advocates.

California's Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's state government is continuing its "disinformation campaign" about the hunger strike, declaring it was "probably synchronized … through organized criminal networks" reported SFGate of the San Francisco Chronicle Thursday.

Terry Thornton, a California's state Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) spokesperson said, "This goes to show the power, influence and reach of prison gangs. Some people are doing it because they want to do it, and some are being ordered to do it."

Human rights defenders supporting the strikers dismissed the gang ties, and told the Chronicle that prison inmates across the California rallied to support the 150 prisoners who started the hunger protest inside Pelican Bay Prison's Secured Housing Unit.

Oakland attorney, Carol Strickland who is working with the hunger strikers, stated, "I don't think this is something that represents gang control. This was an unusual example of unity among groups within the CDCR, and that's knocked them back in a way.

"Here, the CDCR has managed to unite the groups inmates are seeing their enemy is not the brown person across the way."
Strickland and other rights defenders are proving to be correct now that others across the nation are standing in solidarity with the Pelican Bay prisoners, just as inmates have done.

Over 300 religious groups have called on the California government to respond to the inmates striking and solidarity fasts and other actions are surfacing across the US to end torture and cruel and unusual punishment in California prisons.

The group that in May 2011, submitted a formal complaint to the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture, requesting his office to "investigate the widespread use of long-term isolation for prisoners in the United States in what are known as supermax prisons," the National Religious Campaign Against Torture issued a statement on Friday advising that California state government must respond to the hunger strikers.

The ongoing hunger strike by California inmates has strengthened unity and is increasing membership in a consortium of national denominations and faith groups, regional organizations and local congregations according to Executive Director of the National Religious Campaign Against Torture Rev. Richard Kilmer in a statement released on Friday to the Examiner. Rev. Kilmer explained that hunger strikes are the last resort a person takes when tortured.

"Hunger strikes are the last resort of prisoners protesting inhumane confinement conditions," Rev. Kilmer said.

"We have seen prisoners protest their treatment in this manner at Guantanamo Bay, and now inmates at Pelican Bay State Prison in northern California among various other prisons in California are taking similar drastic measures."

At Pelican Bay Prison, hundreds of prisoners are held in prolonged solitary confinement, a practice that qualifies as torture due to its destructive physical and psychological effects on human beings according to Rev. Kilmer.

"Conditions are so bad in California, these inmates prefer to starve themselves possibly to death rather than live another week in prolonged solitary confinement," Rev. Kilmer stated on Friday.

"The National Religious Campaign Against Torture (NRCAT) vehemently believes that even those convicted of crimes are human beings with inherent dignity and worth, and they deserve humane treatment."

NRCAT, headed by Rev. Kilmer, is a coalition of religious organizations committed to ending torture sponsored by or enabled by federal or state government in the United States.

"Our members' moral convictions and our commitments to international and constitutional protections against cruel and inhumane treatment require that we call on the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation to respond to the prisoners' reasonable demands, put an end to its egregious use of prolonged solitary confinement, and take immediate steps to improve the conditions in California's prisons."

NRCAT works to end what it states is U.S.-sponsored torture, and cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment in American prisons. Since January 2006 when NRCAT formed, over 300 religious organizations have joined it, including Catholics, evangelical Christians, mainline Protestants, Unitarian Universalists, Quakers, Orthodox Christians, Jewish, Muslims, Hindus, Baha'is, Buddhists, and Sikhs.

Type of inmate inspiration that led the historic prisoner hunger strike

In an update about the hunger strike in its first days, the following was written by an inmate at California's Corcoran Prison about a fellow inmate, 57-year old Haribu Mugabi Soriono, an imprisoned human rights worker. (See: //prisonerhungerstrikesolidarity.wordpress.com/voices-from-inside/a-brief-update-from-the-front-lines-of-the-struggle-at-corcoran/)

"There has been an unfortunate development here, and though we knew the probability of this occurring was high, we didn't know it would come this sudden. At approximately 1845 hrs. (6:45 pm) for picking up trash and trays from our white and northern Mexican brothers, one of the CEOs here began to call our staunch a beloved brother Haribu Mugabi Soriono's name repeatedly. He did not respond. She notified the tower 'Soriono's unresponsive, called EMT and notify the watch commander.'

"Then the alarm was triggered. Multiple custody and medical staff responded, but because Haribu was unconscious he could not comply with their directions to come to the door and cuff-up. A tactile team was assembled and they entered his cell. As they were putting him in mechanical restraints he regained consciousness briefly, and quickly lost it again. EMTs arrived, he was secured to the gurney and rushed by ambulance to A.C.H. (Hosptial) where he remains.

"Comrade Haribu is a 57-year-old veteran prisoner and human rights activist who just waged and won a protracted battle with cancer (Leukemia) and suffers from multiple chronic medical conditions, yet he started fasting two days before the hunger strike started, in solidarity with our Afrikan brothers and sisters in the Horn of Afrika suffering famine and death with no food or water because of a 2-year drought.

"A beloved brother went five days without eating, knowing his body was already severely damaged to uphold our collective pursuit of basic human rights and dignity. This brother brave death to free us all from torture without end, and to make you all aware that it's being carried out right here in the borders of your nation; not halfway around the world in Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, or some CIA blacksite No Right Here in Pelican Bay, Corcoran, and Tehachapi SHUs; human experimentation torture units are being ran and expanded. Haribu is an inspiration to us all, a hero of the people, and his undaunted fighting spirit abides with us all.

"Pray for our beloved brother and comrade pray for us all."

San Francisco to Harlem, rights defenders standing in solidarity with inmates ask other human rights and peace groups to do same

Isolation used as punishment in prisons across the country confines prisoners alone in a cell, 23 hours a day, for weeks, months, and even years, a condition that would result in charges against people if they did the same to pets. Some inmates are released from these conditions directly to their families when they complete their prison sentence. NRCAT works to enable people of all faiths to advocate for legislation that would limit or end the use of isolation.

As for some of the now dying California inmates, a prison spokesperson told San Francisco Chronicle that the prison staff will not force-feed inmates, but will allow them to die. Some are already in renal failure.

World Can't Wait activists in San Francisco have joined daily protests all week and encourage citizens across the nation to find a way to "speak out and protest, whether in the streets, or via letters to the editor, calls to radio shows, or to CA prison officials."

An "Emergency Demonstration & Speak Out" will be held Saturday, July 16 at noon in Harlem in solidarity with Prisoners on Hunger Strike at Pelican Bay State Prison's Security Housing Unit (SHU). The demonstration will be at the State Office Building, Harlem, 125th St. & Adam Clayton Powell Blvd.

Travis Morales, of Revolution Books stated Friday, "Some of the prisoners are close to death. All people and voices of conscience need to step forward urgently! This is the most significant resistance by prisoners in the U.S. to torture and inhumane and barbaric conditions since Attica, 40 years ago.

"By standing up and resisting, these prisoners are asserting their own humanity, and by doing so, challenging others to reclaim their humanity by standing with the prisoners. Everyone should ask themselves what it says about the conditions that prisoners face that they are willing to starve to death rather than live another day with torture and barbaric treatment. People everywhere need to know about these prisoners, why they are on a hunger strike, and on that basis support them."

Morales highlights that conditions in the Pelican Prison Security Housing Unit are similar what tens of thousands of prisoners across the U.S. share in "supermax" prison facilities, including in New York.

"Prison authorities use sensory deprivation and solitary confinement with no human contact that have been documented to lead to mental illness and is deemed as torture under international law, brutality, lack of medical care, inadequate food, denial of legal due process, and more."

http://www.examiner.com/human-rights-in-...ches-towns