SECOND DAY OF CA PRISONER HUNGER STRIKE
Tuesday was the second day of the prisoner hunger strike to protest the conditions of isolation of California prisoners held in Secure Housing Units (SHUs)—4,500 inmates in Pelican Bay, alone—and the criteria used in deciding who gets put there.
AP has the update. Here’s a clip:
Inmates refused breakfast and lunch at two-thirds of the state’s 33 prisons and at all four private prisons that hold California inmates in other states, said Terry Thornton, a spokeswoman for the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.
She did not know how many inmates skipped dinners.
About 2,000 inmates statewide refused to go to their jobs or classes Tuesday, down slightly from the 2,300 who refused to participate on Monday. The number of inmates refusing meals also dropped slightly, from more than 30,000 on Monday to about 29,000 on Tuesday.
The number of participating inmates eclipsed two hunger strikes two years ago. Nearly 12,000 inmates missed at least some meals in October 2011, and nearly 7,000 declined meals in July 2011, though officials said most began eating again after several days.
AND WHILE WE’RE ON THE TOPIC OF ISOLATION…
KQED’s Michael Krasny held a forum Tuesday morning to discuss solitary confinement and the prisoner hunger strike. Guests include Terry Thornton, CDCR deputy press secretary, Rachel Meeropol, a member of the group of lawyers bringing the lawsuit against the state on behalf of the Pelican Bay prisoners in SHUs, Michael Montgomery, reporter for KQED News and The Center for Investigative Reporting, a former San Quentin warden, and a former Pelican Bay inmate held in isolation for almost ten years.
It’s definitely worth taking a listen.
Here’s a quote from what Rachel Meeropol had to say about the CDCR pilot program that was put into effect after last year’s prisoner hunger strike and subsequent negotiations:
“Certainly we welcome any program that’s going to lead to a review of who is in the SHUs, and whether they need to be there or not. Each person who is released from one of these units into the general population—I think that’s a victory we should celebrate, but the pilot program is not doing enough. It’s not getting at the heart of the issue here, and that’s that people are being sent into these extremely harsh punitive Secure Housing Units for decades, not because of major prison rule violations, but, rather, because of association with gangs—because of gang affiliation.
So, while CDCR may say that it’s moving to a behavior-based system, my understanding of the new program is that it is still going to be the case, that individuals can end up in the SHU for an indeterminate sentence—for years and years and years—based on something like having gang-related art in their cells, or having their name appear on a list in another prisoner’s cell as an alleged gang member. Now, whether you call that behavior or you call it association, I don’t think it’s what people in the general public would understand to be a proper or proportional basis for sending someone for decades into isolation—into a place where they are denied any normal face-to-face human contact.”
CA DEVELOMENTAL CENTER PATIENTS PUT AT RISK, AUDIT SAYS
Patients in California Developmental Centers (board-and-care facilities for the developmentally disabled) are put at unnecessary risk by things like poor quality investigations made by Office of Protective Services (OPS) officers, outdated policies, and understaffing, according to a report released today by the CA State Auditor.
The Center for Investigative Reporting’s Ryan Gabrielson has the story. Here are some clips:
In a 76-page report, the California State Auditor detailed numerous shortcomings in how the force, called the Office of Protective Services, protects roughly 1,500 patients with cerebral palsy and other intellectual disabilities at five board-and-care institutions in Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, Sonoma and Tulare counties.
“Investigative deficiencies, such as those we observed, may allow for continued abuse at the developmental centers,” the report stated. Auditors said they reviewed 48 investigations by the department and found 54 deficiencies in its police methods.
State lawmakers ordered the audit last year in response to stories by CIR detailing how the force routinely failed to do basic police work when patients were abused, including suspicious death and sexual assault cases. The Office of Protective Services was set up specifically to protect the developmentally disabled living in the state’s remaining board-and-care centers, but few violent crime cases at the institutions have resulted in criminal charges.
CIR, through its California Watch project, detailed that dozens of women were sexually assaulted inside state centers, but police investigators didn’t order “rape kits” to collect evidence, a standard law enforcement tool. Police waited so long to investigate one sexual assault that the staff janitor accused of rape fled the country. The police force’s inaction also allowed abusive caregivers to continue molesting patients – even after the department had evidence that could have stopped future assaults.
[SNIP]“Despite a recommendation made more than 10 years ago by law enforcement consultants, the department has not created measurable short- and long-term goals for OPS,” the report concluded.
It’s well known that much of California’s street level gang violence is on the orders of prison shot callers. As is much of this hunger striking. Why on earth we would make their stays more pleasant and facilitate greater communication and socialization is beyond me. As is their argument that they are entitled to their “liberties”. They’re not. They’re in jail. That’s the point.
Yeah, does anyone really give a shit if every inmate in prison dies of hunger???
So once again lets worry about low life criminals. What about the victims of their crimes, the lives lost, grieving families. Oh that’s right nobody cares about them. Freaking criminals have more rights than law abiding citizens. If your family member is locked up in this situation, they deserve what they get since we can’t put them to death like they were sentenced. Wake Up people.