California prisoners’ latest hunger strike was cut short after authorities created new criteria to determine gang affiliation and programming opportunities were expanded for administratively isolated prisoners, authorities reported..
The hunger strike originally started in July and peaked to 6,600 prisoners in at least 13 facilities, lasting three-weeks, according to the state Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.
CDCR Secretary Matthew Cate said that he did not understand why the strike was restarted, asserting that the department was working to meet the demands of the prisoners.
According to the group, 513 of the 1,111 prisoners imprisoned at Pelican Bay have been in solitary confinement for 10 or more years, and 78 have been confined for more than 20 years without access to light or open space for prolonged periods. “Just imagine being locked in a bathroom for 24 hours, seven days a week, year after year after year for no legitimate reason,” one prisoner said.
Prison officials say that those prisoners aren’t technically in solitary confinement; they have access to the yard 10 hours a week and are allowed to watch television and converse with other prisoners. “That’s not solitary confinement,” CDCR spokesperson Terry Thornton said.
A Sept. 22 letter from state Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento, to Inspector General Robert Barton requested a review of the corrections department’s “response to the issues raised by the inmate hunger strike that ended in July of this year.” The letter was issued by the Senate Rules Committee. It asked that the review be completed within 30 days.
Gov. Jerry Brown said the state is trying to deal effectively with prison gangs. “Don’t be fooled by people complaining that they need to get back in the main population if these are the very same people that are calling for people to be knifed and killed and for retaliation to take place in the streets,” Brown said.
At its peak, the hunger strike including prisoners incarcerated at Calipatria, Centinela, Corcoran, California Substance Abuse Treatment Facility in Corcoran, Ironwood, Pelican Bay, San Quentin, and Salinas Valley state prisons. There were also reports of hunger strikers in San Bernardino County Jail.
A memo was made available to all prisoners, warning that partaking in the hunger strike would subject participants to disciplinary action. The memo asserts prisoners “identified as leading the disturbance will be subject to removal from general population and placed in an Administrative Segregation Unit.” The department also considered removing canteen items from participants’ cells, including food.
Medical staff monitored the prisoners’ health condition during the hunger strike.