Day 46: CA Democrat Politicians don't care of Human Rights or use of Torture

[annm4peace]

I've been following the CA Prisoners Hunger Strike. Today is day 46. One hunger striker has already died, many are in the hospital. Yesterday the prisoner supporters website had a list of the Public Safety Committee for Senators and Assembly members.
Tomorrow I'm calling the CA Assembly members

http://prisonerhungerstrikesolidarity.wordpress.com/2013/08/22/action-alert-we-need-a-emergency-hearing-to-address-the-hunger-strike/

Today I called the CA State Senators on the "Senate Public Safety Committee" 5 are Democrats and 2 are Republicans. Chair Sen. Hancock staff person said they have talked to both sides. The rest of the Senator's staff person either had no comment or no position. I asked even after 45 days you have no comment on force feeding or hunger strike.. nada. I live in MN but from CA. Sad that these Democrats aren't sticking up for humane and human rights. All seemed to want to just leave it up to the CDCR and just believe the CDCR. and one staff even said they are all gang members. Why vote Democrat if they can't stand up for Human rights?
I got the list from the link far below. Here are some of the responses from the staff.

Senate Public Safety Committee

Senator Loni Hancock
[phone]
* Democrat, Past Mayor of Berkley 1986-94, her staff said she had no comment at this time but has met with both CDRC and some advocates of the Hunger Strikers. Didn't have plan for emergency Safety Hearing.

Senator Darrell Steinberg
[phone]
* Democrat (strong advocate for Mental Health) no Comment. Was starting to discuss with other Senators of the Hungerstrike

Senator Joel Anderson
[phone]
* Republican and member of ALEC. Staff heard of the Strike on the news but nothing from the Senator

Senator Marty Block
[phone]
* Democrat. Staff was not sure if the Senator knew of the Hunger Strikers, didn't know view of Senator Block

Senator Kevin DeLeon
[phone]
* Democrat, Senator for Los Angeles, her staff was knowledgeable but said there is two sides of the story. Wasn't sure that gangs weren't pressuring the prisoners into the hunger strike. ( I found her comments disturbing and sad)

Senator Steve Knight
[phone]
* Republican, staff was rude, and obnoxious.. gave right wing talking points. "They aren't being force feed are they?" "Which would you rather have, them dying or being force feed".

Senator Carol Liu
[phone]
* Democrat, her staff said she didn't know what the Senator had to say, but didn't like it when I said "so no opinion".. staff said no, the Senator just hasn't shared it with the staff.

**** if this represents the Democratic Party then I think CA should vote Green or other party cause the are supporting torture and abuse of human rights by being silent and not speaking out. ***


If you want to make calls please click on link below, and do it today. If you can, post what the staff tells you.
I said some things on the script and some of my own questions and let them know I was calling from Minneapolis MN and belonged to social justice organizations that included many churches.

if you click on the link below you can see the list but also if you live in CA you can put your zip code in the box and get the contact for your Senator and Assembly member.
http://salsa3.salsalabs.com/o/51040/p/dia/action3/common/public/?action_KEY=11853


Join us today to demand that the California Public Safety Committees convene an emergency session to address the crisis caused by CDCR!

Call and Email Public Safety Representatives every day until they agree to rein in CDCR’s unconscionable violence.
Sample Script: We are calling you with great urgency to ask you to convene an emergency hearing of the Public Safety Committee to address the critical situation facing prisoners who are in their seventh week of hunger strike. As you know, Governor Brown and Secretary Beard, rather than entering into good-faith discussions with the prisoners to resolve this strike, have obtained a court order to permit force-feeding them against their will. Such actions are generating a true human rights crisis in our prisons, and we are asking you as elected officials with the responsibility of prison oversight to act swiftly. The hunger strikers are risking their health and possibly their lives to bring an end to unbearable conditions of confinement. One prisoner who was on strike has died already; your immediate intervention can prevent the further loss of life.

[annm4peace]

1. List of Assembly members of CA

I'll have an update of their responses tomorrow.


Assembly Public Safety Committee
Assemblymember Tom Ammiano
[phone]
Assemblymember Melissa A. Melendez
[phone]
Assemblymember Reginald B. Jones-Sawyer, Sr.
[phone]
Assemblymember Holly J. Mitchell
[phone]
Assemblymember Bill Quirk
[phone]
Assemblymember Nancy Skinner
[phone]
Assemblymember Marie Waldron
[phone]

[NYC_SKP]

2. Recommended. (nt)

[annm4peace]

3. Some short talking points you can use when calling the Senators and Assembly members

SUPPORT THE CALIFORNIA PRISONERS HUNGER STRIKE AGAINST TORTURE

Whereas, on July 8, 2013, 30,000 prisoners throughout the state of California began a hunger strike to protest long term and indefinite solitary confinement, and

Whereas, over 10,000 adult prisoners are currently being held in solitary confinement in California, and at Pelican Bay, 500 prisoners have been held in solitary confinement for more than 10 years, 80 for more than 20 years and two for over 40 years, and

Whereas, prisoners at Pelican Bay “supermax” prison are locked in 11”7′ x 7”7′ windowless concrete cells, or Security Housing Units (SHUs), for more than 22 hours a day, with no human contact, fresh air or sunlight with one hour in similar conditions for “recreation” while being shackled and cannot even receive a phone call unless a family member dies, and

Whereas, the United Nations has determined that solitary confinement for more than 15 days constitutes torture and called for its ban, and

Whereas, in 2006 a federal commission recommended that SHUs in California be shut down, and

Whereas, California Governor Jerry Brown and the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) have consistently refused to obey federal court’s orders to release 10,000 prisoners due to unconstitutional conditions caused by overcrowding, and

Whereas, Governor Brown and the CDCR instead of closing Pleasant Valley and Avenal state prisons due to an outbreak of valley fever which killed 36 prisoners, transferred out 2,600 at risk prisoners to other prisons but are transferring in Asian prisoners who are deemed to be statistically “low risk” and

Whereas, instead of negotiating with the hunger strikers, the CDCR has barred prisoner attorneys from visiting their clients, moved strike leaders to even harsher cells , destroyed prisoner leader legal documents and have blasted air conditioning on thinly clothed strikers causing illness and freezing, and

Whereas, against all odds, several hundred prisoners are still on the hunger strike, a non-violent, peaceful protest, be it here highly

Resolved, that the Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance, send a letter to Governor Jerry Brown and the CDCR to negotiate with the hunger strikers and end long term indefinite solitary confinement and be it further

Resolved that APALA California chapters support the hunger strikers through demonstrations and other actions called by the prisoners and their representatives.

Submitted by: Alex Hing, Unite Here, New York

http://prisonerhungerstrikesolidarity.wordpress.com/2013/08/22/asian-pacific-american-labor-alliance-resolution-supports-strike/

[branford]

4. Are you really surprised that elected representatives do not support prisoners?

It doesn't matter if the representative is a D or R, with very few exceptions, it is an electoral liability to support felons.

Almost all improvements to prisoner conditions in recent decades have been achieved through court action. If the California or federal courts do not assist the hunger strikers, their situation will inevitably get worse.

I commend your enthusiasm, but be prepared for disappointment.

[annm4peace]

5. If not prisoners at least support basic Human Rights and be against Torture

It does surprise me. I didn't expect to get not one Democrat State Senator to be against the "force feeding" or to be against the abuse of Solitary Confinement. I grew up in the Central Valley and worked with people who worked at the prisons. I knew 20 years ago there was abuse. I thought everyone new. I know these Senators know there is abuse.. yet they turn away from it and are silent.

Just like there are Democrats who supported the Iraq and Afghanistan Invasions and Occupations, and support Guantanamo.

but I didn't expect to get some silence. The Prison Industrial Complex and Prison Guard Unions must be giving a lot to these Democrats campaigns. It is the only thing i can think of that keeps these Democrats silent.

I will be looking up campaign contributions next.

We need to pressure Democrats to wake up. We need to remind them that people won't be voting for them if they can't even speak out for human rights.

[branford]

6. I think the issue is less complicated.

Minorities often have to fight for rights that are only achieved by way of the courts. Prisoners are undoubtedly one of the most despised minority groups in our society. They have committed acts so heinous that they have been deprived of some of their most basic liberties. Elected representatives, even most D's, do not want to be seen as supportive of this group. It has been Politics 101 for as long as I can remember.

The issue is also one of economics. Funds are very scarce, and advocacy in support of prisoners gives the impression to the electorate that the representative believes government money should be diverted from more "noble" purposes.

Your motives and goals are admirable, but I still believe any demonstrable relief will only be found in the courts.

[sabrina 1]

11. They are cowards, all of them. And the truth is this is an opportunity for one of them to

be hero. They are so afraid of losing their jobs but I believe that the people would respect a call for human rights. Americans do not like to be viewed as human rights violators.

[annm4peace]

7. Jerry Brown Considers Prison Alliance Between Private Company, Union

so now i know why Democrat Gov Jerry Brown has been silent on the Prisoners Hunger strike

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/22/jerry-brown-prisons-private_n_3799519.html

California Gov. Jerry Brown (D) has no intention of releasing state prisoners convicted of nonviolent drug offenses, despite a federal court order requiring the state to reduce its prison population by the end of the year, sources told HuffPost.

Instead, Brown and legislative leaders are discussing a proposal to create an unconventional partnership between the state's powerful prison guard union and the nation's largest private prison corporation -- an alliance that may permanently expand California's prison system while curbing nascent efforts to reduce the state's mass incarceration of nonviolent offenders.

Under the plan, one of several the governor has proposed in conversations with legislative leaders in recent weeks, the for-profit prison giant Corrections Corporation of America would lease one or more of its prisons to the state, which would in turn use California prison guards and other public employees to staff the company’s facilities.

[sabrina 1]

12. Shame on him. n/t

[DevonRex]

8. Use the word properly. Democratic politicians. Democratic governor.

And edit out where you said the whole fucking state of CA should vote Green or other third party instead of for Democrats. That's not being "ambiguous about voting for Democrats" which you're allowed to be. You flat out told an entire state not to vote for anyone in the Democratic Party.

[limpyhobbler]

9. K/R.

Thank you for doing this.

[davidn3600]

10. Democrats are the same as right-wingers when it comes to prison issues

If federal judges are so intent on forcing California to reduce its prison population, then California should saddle the federal government with as many convicts as possible.

That’s the gist of a new resolution by state Sen. Cathleen Galgiani, D-Stockton, that underscores some state lawmakers’ increasing frustration with the prison system’s federal overlords.

Galgiani’s resolution calls on county sheriffs and other law enforcement officials to look for opportunities to shift offenders to federal jurisdiction if they have violated federal firearms laws or other laws dealing with robbery and racketeering.

The resolution urges Attorney General Kamala Harris to “seek the reduction of the state’s prison population by at least 20,000 inmates by shifting these present and future offenders into the federal prison system, thus giving the state sufficient time to address the order of the federal district court and to ‘right size’ and reform the state’s prison system.”

http://blog.pe.com/2013/08/22/prisons-new-resolution-aims-to-stick-it-to-the-feds/

So in other words, they want to send violent convicts to the federal system in order to keep non-violent drug offenders locked up in the state.

Nobody in California wants to fix the problem. And you have to wonder why? Is it the unions? Is it the private prison industry? Probably both. There is a very, VERY powerful lobby against anything that could reduce the prison population. There are people who are making money off the prison industrial complex. This has become a profitable industry now.