Budget Cuts and the Pelican Bay Hunger Strike

[Keith Millea]

PELICAN BAY HUNGER STRIKE ENDS ON DAY 21

• Prisoner Hunger Strike Solidarity blog
  

The hunger strike succeeded in:


* putting the prisoners' demands on the CDCR and political agendas

* bringing the issue of torturous SHUs (supermax/control units) to public attention and to mainstream media
* mobilizing support throughout California, nationally, and internationally for their reasonable demands

Make your voices heard in the months to come.

-- Keep the pressure on until the 5 core demands are fully met!
-- Public awareness is all that protects the hunger strikers from retaliation.

UPDATE: July 21, 2011

• 6:30 pm local time: California Prison Focus confirmed that the hunger strike leaders at Pelican Bay entered into an agreement with CDCR officials today to end their hunger strike in exchange for a major policy review of SHU housing conditions, gang validation process, and debriefing process.
  
• The end of the strike is not the end of the struggle, according to the prisoners. We must now make sure that CDCR will follow through on their promises.
  
• CDCR issued a press release today stating that the hunger strike at Pelican Bay State Prison is over. Members of the Prisoner Hunger Strike Coalition and the Prisoners' mediation team are in the process of verfiying the truthfulness of these claims by obtaining direct confirmation from the prisoners themselves. The CDCR claims that the only items conceded to the prisoners were watch-caps in cold weather, the permission to have wall calendars, and the restoration of proctored exams for prisoner paid correspondence courses.
  

http://www.prisons.org/hungerstrike.htm