Day 39: CA Prison Hunger Strike Negotiate, Gov. Brown! How many more prisoners must die?

[annm4peace]

http://sfbayview.com/2013/negotiate-gov-brown-how-many-more-prisoners-must-die/

Advocates call for investigation of Corcoran prison death; medical professionals, religious leaders and prisoners’ families demand governor negotiate with hunger strikers

by Isaac Ontiveros, Prisoner Hunger Strike Solidarity Coalition

Mediators working on behalf of California prisoners on hunger strike are calling for an independent investigation into the July 22 death of Billy “Guero” Sell, a prisoner held in solitary confinement at Corcoran State Prison and a participant in the three-week-long hunger strike that has shaken the California prison system. Sell’s death is being ruled a suicide by the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR). Prison officials met with mediators last Tuesday but failed to disclose the fact that a hunger strike participant had died the previous day.

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Billy Sell lost his life but left some beautiful artwork behind for all who care to remember him by. This is his depiction of the cramped, stark cell in the Corcoran SHU where he was forced to live alone. – Courtesy Prisoner Express, www.prisonerexpress.org, Gary Fine, assistant director, Durland Alternatives Library, Cornell University

“We urge CDCR to ensure that no prisoner on hunger strike be disciplined or threatened with the denial of medical care, that prisoners not be denied liquids, vitamins or any other form of sustenance they are willing to take, and that they receive appropriate medical care. We demand all medical professionals uphold their code of ethics and maintain the highest standards of care for all their patients – be they incarcerated or not.”

Ahnen reiterated the demands coming from many community members across the state: “The time has come for Gov. Brown to end this strike now by ordering negotiations between prisoners and CDCR officials to begin immediately. There is only one question I have for Gov. Brown: How many more prisoners will you allow to die before you begin negotiations?”

As the 2013 hunger strikers begin their fourth week without food, their supporters and families worry that more deaths may be imminent. Four prisoners involved in the 2011 hunger strikes lost their lives:

Johnny Vick, 30, died in his cell at Pelican Bay State Prison on Sept. 16, 2011, between the first and second phases of the 2011 hunger strike. It was reported that proper procedures were not followed.
Alex Machado died in his cell at Pelican Bay State Prison on Oct. 24, 2011. Neighboring prisoners reported that he was screaming for help before going silent.
Hozel Blanchard, 41, died in his cell in Calipatria State Prison on Nov. 8 or 9, 2011. In his last weeks, he wrote to his family and to the courts about guard harassment and he sought an emergency transfer out of that prison. He also wrote that he had been on hunger strike and had been hospitalized for it.
Christian Gomez, 27, died in his cell on Feb. 2, 2012, while on hunger strike at Corcoran State Prison. Corcoran prisoners had issued a set of demands to the warden in December 2011 and resumed a hunger strike in late January. Mr. Gomez had been on hunger strike for only a few days. His death may be attributable to an underlying medical condition possibly aggravated by a lack of treatment by the prison’s health care department.

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Corcoran Prison, located in California’s Central Valley, gets so hot in the summer that one prisoner said he felt as if he was cooking. Perhaps Billy Sell chose to draw this arctic scene to get his mind off the heat. – Courtesy Prisoner Express, www.prisonerexpress.org, Gary Fine, assistant director, Durland Alternatives Library, Cornell University


“California prisoners are engaged in a hunger strike, not because they want to commit suicide, but because they have no other way to protest the egregious conditions of prolonged solitary confinement,” said Rev. Richard Killmer, executive director of the National Religious Campaign Against Torture. “The experience of indefinite solitary confinement is so harmful that in California, thousands of prisoners continue to risk their lives to call us to attention.

“This is a matter of faith because God has endowed human beings with dignity and worth, which are violated by the experience of isolation. Consequently, more than 1,000 clergy and other religious leaders in California and across the country have come together in signing a letter to Gov. Jerry Brown asking him to honor the reasonable core demands of California prisoners in Security Housing Units – some of whom have now faced decades in indefinite solitary confinement.”

“Finally, we call upon Gov. Jerry Brown and CDCR Secretary Jeffrey Beard to enter into good faith negotiations with the prisoner representatives, and to respond to their demands, in order to end this crisis before more lives are lost.”

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Self-portrait by Billy Sell – Courtesy Prisoner Express, www.prisonerexpress.org, Gary Fine, assistant director, Durland Alternatives Library, Cornell University.jpg

Healthcare Providers and Professionals Denounce Medical Neglect in the Current California Prisoner Hunger Strike

Statement endorsed by over 100 (listed below) as of July 27, 2013

For the third time in three years, thousands of prisoners in California are currently on hunger strike, protesting the widespread use of punitive long-term solitary confinement in the Security Housing Units (SHUs), in some cases for over 30 years continuously.


As healthcare providers, we are issuing this statement to register our concern with reports that appropriate medical care is being denied the hunger striking prisoners. While there has been a concerted attempt by the authorities to censor the strikers to keep the strike out of the news, dozens of letters from affected strikers at a number of prisons have gotten out to supporters repeating similar details of medical neglect and abuse:

Medications are being withheld in an attempt to coerce prisoners into abandoning their protest. According to attorney Marilyn McMahon, pain relief medication in particular is being withheld, “even if it’s medicine that should not be cut abruptly, but instead tapered off.” In one case a patient with heart failure has had his medications discontinued on the dubious assertion that he doesn’t need them because he’s on a hunger strike.

Prison medical staff are required to monitor the health of prisoners on hunger strike, yet we hear that some institutions are violating this protocol, including not weighing the hunger strikers as required. There are also reports that nurses who are required to conduct daily checks are simply advising the prisoners to drink a lot of water. In other cases physicians have been dismissive of patient complaints, prisoners in need are being refused care and ignored, and in some cases even mocked by the very healthcare practitioners they are supposed to be able to depend upon for care.

Some prisoners have told the prison authorities that they are refusing solid foods only, but CDCR refuses to provide them with liquid sustenance other than water, and guards have even confiscated any such liquids that they had in their cells.
Many prisoners have indicated that they are not being provided with medical release form 7385, which they need to send to their loved ones, family members or to outside supporters so that these people on the outside can access their medical records.
Several prisoners have been reclassified as “not on hunger strike” because they have been accused of having food in their cells. This means that they “have to start over” and go nine consecutive meals before being considered on hunger strike again, regardless of whether or not they have in fact broken their strike. Determining who is on hunger strike in such an arbitrary manner means that prisoners who may not have eaten for weeks will be dropped off the list for medical oversight.

Hundreds turned out in the 103-degree heat to rally outside Corcoran Prison on July 13, including Yolanda Santoya of L.A.’s La Cuauhtemoc dancers. Several prisoners reported that they could hear or see the protesters. Nevertheless, Billy Sell died – needlessly – because Gov. Jerry Brown could have prevented and now could end the hunger strike by meeting the prisoners’ five core demands. – Photo: Gary Kazanjian, EPA

[limpyhobbler]

1. bump. k&r

[backscatter712]

2. America's prisons are medieval torture dungeons, and they are the seeds of future death camps.

There's no need for FEMA conspiracy theories when here in America, today, are the facilities that are holding 2.5 million prisoners. And in those facilities, maltreatment is routine. We've got supermaxing and other forms of isolation torture, we've got beatings, there's "diesel therapy", we've got deliberate placement of prisoners with violent inmates, expecting them to be raped and otherwise assaulted. We've got the death penalty. We've got incredibly long and draconian sentences - people getting decades-long sentences for getting caught with weed. We've got withholding of medication, medical malfeasance from prison doctors and medical staff, we've got prisoners subjected to excessive heat or cold in their cells. And the prison system's disproportionately targeted on minorities, the poor, the undesirables. The rich and powerful escape justice altogether.

Do you really think it would take much to turn Corcoran into the next Auschwitz? Or to turn ADX Florence into the next Dachau? I think we're already 90% there. How long until the next Abu Ghraib happens right here in the U.S.?

Flame away if you're going to complain about me going Godwin. The analogy fits. And it'll fit even more closely if we don't find a way to get America's prison madness under control.

[MFM008]

3. Its in the details...

ok, first of all when do murders and rapists and such dictate any terms to anyone?
Most of us try really hard in general to stay out of prison. Regular and nutritious food yes.
But read some of the other points in their five demands, even I have some issues with.
Thats probably why the California officials wont meet with them.

[Egnever]

4. Agreed

More tv channels? Seriously?

[Sotf]

5. The five demands...

1. End Group Punishment & Administrative Abuse – This is in response to PBSP’s application of “group punishment” as a means to address individual inmates rule violations. This includes the administration’s abusive, pretextual use of “safety and concern” to justify what are unnecessary punitive acts. This policy has been applied in the context of justifying indefinite SHU status, and progressively restricting our programming and privileges.

2. Abolish the Debriefing Policy, and Modify Active/Inactive Gang Status Criteria -

•Perceived gang membership is one of the leading reasons for placement in solitary confinement.
•The practice of “debriefing,” or offering up information about fellow prisoners particularly regarding gang status, is often demanded in return for better food or release from the SHU. Debriefing puts the safety of prisoners and their families at risk, because they are then viewed as “snitches.”
•The validation procedure used by the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) employs such criteria as tattoos, readings materials, and associations with other prisoners (which can amount to as little as greeting) to identify gang members.
•Many prisoners report that they are validated as gang members with evidence that is clearly false or using procedures that do not follow the Castillo v. Alameida settlement which restricted the use of photographs to prove association.

3. Comply with the US Commission on Safety and Abuse in America’s Prisons 2006 Recommendations Regarding an End to Long-Term Solitary Confinement – CDCR shall implement the findings and recommendations of the US commission on safety and abuse in America’s prisons final 2006 report regarding CDCR SHU facilities as follows:

•End Conditions of Isolation (p. 14) Ensure that prisoners in SHU and Ad-Seg (Administrative Segregation) have regular meaningful contact and freedom from extreme physical deprivations that are known to cause lasting harm. (pp. 52-57)
•Make Segregation a Last Resort (p. 14). Create a more productive form of confinement in the areas of allowing inmates in SHU and Ad-Seg [Administrative Segregation] the opportunity to engage in meaningful self-help treatment, work, education, religious, and other productive activities relating to having a sense of being a part of the community.
•End Long-Term Solitary Confinement. Release inmates to general prison population who have been warehoused indefinitely in SHU for the last 10 to 40 years (and counting).
•Provide SHU Inmates Immediate Meaningful Access to: i) adequate natural sunlight ii) quality health care and treatment, including the mandate of transferring all PBSP- SHU inmates with chronic health care problems to the New Folsom Medical SHU facility.

4. Provide Adequate and Nutritious Food – cease the practice of denying adequate food, and provide a wholesome nutritional meals including special diet meals, and allow inmates to purchase additional vitamin supplements.

•PBSP staff must cease their use of food as a tool to punish SHU inmates.
•Provide a sergeant/lieutenant to independently observe the serving of each meal, and ensure each tray has the complete issue of food on it.
•Feed the inmates whose job it is to serve SHU meals with meals that are separate from the pans of food sent from kitchen for SHU meals.
5. Expand and Provide Constructive Programming and Privileges for Indefinite SHU Status Inmates.

Examples include:

•Expand visiting regarding amount of time and adding one day per week.
•Allow one photo per year.
•Allow a weekly phone call.
•Allow Two (2) annual packages per year. A 30 lb. package based on “item” weight and not packaging and box weight.
•Expand canteen and package items allowed. Allow us to have the items in their original packaging [the cost for cosmetics, stationary, envelopes, should not count towards the max draw limit]
•More TV channels.
•Allow TV/Radio combinations, or TV and small battery operated radio
•Allow Hobby Craft Items – art paper, colored pens, small pieces of colored pencils, watercolors, chalk, etc.
•Allow sweat suits and watch caps.
•Allow wall calendars.
•Install pull-up/dip bars on SHU yards.
•Allow correspondence courses that require proctored exams.

[duhneece]

6. These demands are only for humane treatment

Now that we know for sure that solitary confinement IS torture, that human beings are social critters and go mad being left in solitary unless they are very, very strong.
God bless the strikers, Goddess bless their supporters.
Please write to the governor!

[Sotf]

7. The human right to more TV channels...

Murderers and rapists will have to more than skip some meals to get sympathy from me.

And as to the request that administrators stop inquiring about gang affiliation...?! That's just ridiculous.

[duhneece]

8. I've written, sent stamps and phoned

And I will continue. I don't see these demands as extravagent. It's not about them or what horrible things they have done; it's about who we are, as a people. No one deserves to be tortured.

The Pelican Bay Five Core Demands:
1. Eliminate group punishments and administrative abuse.
2. Abolish the debriefing policy and modify active/inactive gang status criteria.
3. Comply with the recommendations of the US Commission on Safety and Abuse in America's Prisons recommendations and end long-term solitary confinement.
4. Provide adequate and nutritious food.
5. Create and expand constructive programming.

[annm4peace]

9. you are awesome

every voice counts.

I wish Johnny Cash was still alive and could give his support also

[duhneece]

10. Funny you mention Johnny C

Our post office has his 'stamps' and I intend to send a book of them with my next letter, knowing they'll be a hit!

Not so awesome. I figure these men could be my son.