Day 59: After Meeting with Fellow Prisoners, Pelican Bay Hunger Strikers to Make Announcement Thurs.

[annm4peace]

( it should NOT have taken 60 days to get action from CA Democrat leaders)

Supporters and advocates of hunger striking prisoners will gather at 10:00 a.m. at the California State building in downtown Oakland on Thursday at 10:00 a.m. to deliver an important message from prisoners at Pelican Bay State Prison to the public. Thursday will mark the 60th day they have gone without food in protest of the torturous conditions of solitary confinement.

Their statement comes amid growing international condemnation of California’s practice of solitary confinement, as well as the commitment of California Senate and Assembly Chairs of Public Safety Loni Hancock and Tom Ammiano to convene a series of hearings in response to the strikers’ demands that would “address the issues that have been raised to a point where they can no longer be ignored.” Legal representatives have just reported that this morning strikers were able to have an unprecedented meeting with fellow prisoners at Pelican Bay where they reached consensus on moving forward in their struggle to end torture in California prisons, and toward reducing violence among prisoners. Their advocates are encouraging communication between strikers at Pelican Bay and their fellow prisoners who were forcibly removed to New Folsom in the past weeks.

Members of the strikers’ legal, media, mediation teams, along with members of their family and activist support networks will also make statements at tomorrow’s rally.

[annm4peace]

1. Hunger strike in 8th week: Don’t let them die

Last edited Thu Sep 5, 2013, 09:08 AM - Edit history (1)

http://sfbayview.com/2013/hunger-strike-in-8th-week-dont-let-them-die/


The men and women participating in this hunger strike, risking death, are in the last years of continued torture. Some are in prison because they fought on the front lines for you – your freedom, your right to vote, your civil rights and equality – now labeled criminals, written out of history, locked in a dungeon for decades. They sacrificed for you.

Without their contributions, there would be no Black president, Black billionaires or any of these so-called symbols of progress. And there are thousands of others – like myself – rescued from our designed ignorance through the teachings and love of these brilliant men and women, all of us suffering the same tortures. Not because we were gangsters or thugs. Our punishment is for picking up the torch, so those who make it out can join you, shoulder to shoulder in the struggle.

The state relies on its prisons to shut us up, keep the poor politically inept, breed racial hatred and dismay, keep the middle class in check and fund this fundamentally flawed and increasingly militarized system of corruption, where not only their killer cops can murder us with impunity. Now it seems so can any so-called law-abiding middle class citizen with a gun.

Saturate those government leaders with letters and emails demanding an immediate end to the political crucifixion and torture, the indefinite isolation, denial of meaningful programs and the criminalization of our own efforts to educate and organize ourselves on a positive path inside the prisons.

The state will not “give” us anything. It’s important people understand prisons are the ultimate symbol of oppression. The state tries to discredit the organizers of this hunger strike with all manner of lies and defamatory comments.

But the very fact these men and women refuse to surrender their beliefs or to inform on their friends is a direct contradiction of the state’s mischaracterizations. These are men and women of principle who have given everything to the struggle.

True, some of us are reformed gangsters, thugs etc., but whatever the state says, we are all human beings and without your full support these men WILL die because these pork chop state officials will not make any meaningful changes until several of the men and women starve to death – or until YOU make such a showing that it can’t be ignored.

We all know someone affected by this corrupt judicial prison system. Support hunger strikers. DON’T LET THEM DIE.

So get on your computers, saturate those government leaders with letters and emails demanding an immediate end to the political crucifixion and torture, the indefinite isolation, denial of meaningful programs and the criminalization of our own efforts to educate and organize ourselves on a positive path inside the prisons.

Demand an end to the legalized slavery of prisoners. How slavery, in any shape or form, can still be on the books in America, I don’t know. But there it is, in the 13th Amendment. The concessions of Abraham Lincoln to the Confederate slave masters, allowing them to keep a workforce of slaves – free labor through incarceration – is still being enforced until this day and taking good jobs away from you.

Pull out your picket signs and bullhorns, protest in front of the TV stations, government offices, city jails and county lock-ups. Keep it in the new and on the minds of the people every day.

Prisons do not stop crime. An equal distribution of wealth, resources, education, housing and medical care, solving the real social ills of a profit-driven society – that is what stops crime.

***************************************************
forgot to add this: if you make the call, please post the staff persons response if you can

Call Governor Jerry Brown
Phone: [phone]
Fax: [phone]
Suggested script: I’m calling in support of the prisoners on hunger strike. The governor has the power to stop the torture of solitary confinement. I urge the governor to compel the CDCR to enter into negotiations to end the strike. RIGHT NOW is their chance to enter into clear, honest negotiations with the strikers to end the torture.

[annm4peace]

2. Legislative Leaders Hold Hearings on Prison Hunger Strike

http://postnewsgroup.com/blog/2013/09/03/legislative-leaders-hold-hearings-prison-hunger-strike/

By postnewsgroup
Posted September 3, 2013 2:00 pm
Senator Loni Hancock (D-Berkeley) and Assemblymember Tom Ammiano (D-San Francisco) have announced they will hold public hearings on the conditions in California prisons that have led to the inmate hunger strike, now in its second month.



They anticipate that hearings may begin as early as this fall and continue into next year.

“The issues raised by the hunger strike are real – concerns about the use and conditions of solitary confinement in California’s prisons – are real and can no longer be ignored,” Senator Hancock and Assemblymember Ammiano said in a joint statement.

The hearings will focus on key issues raised by the hunger strike, including conditions of confinement in California’s maximum security prisons.

On April 9, 2013, a U. S. District Judge ruled in a class action law suit that inmates being held in solitary confinement, sometimes for decades, had adequately demonstrated that the State of California may be denying them protection from cruel and unusual punishment and granted the plaintiffs the right to a trial.

Assemblymember Ammiano stated, “The Courts have made clear that the hunger strikers have legitimate issues of policy and practice that must be reviewed. The Legislature has a critical role in considering and acting on their concerns. We cannot sit by and watch our state pour money into a system that the US. Supreme Court has declared does not provide constitutionally acceptable conditions of confinement and that statistics show has failed to increase public safety.

The hearings will also look into the effect of long-term solitary confinement as a prison management strategy and a human rights issue.

Senator Hancock stated, “California continues to be an outlier in its use of solitary confinement, which has been recognized internationally and by other states to be an extreme form of punishment that leads to mental illness if used for prolonged periods of time. Since many of these inmates will eventually have served their sentences and will be released, it is in all our best interest to offer hope of rehabilitation while they are incarcerated – not further deterioration.”

The legislators cited a report by Juan E. Méndez, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on torture, “Even if solitary confinement is applied for short periods of time, it often causes mental and physical suffering or humiliation, amounting to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, and if the resulting pain or sufferings are severe, solitary confinement even amounts to torture.”

The legislators noted that, “The concerns have been heard by the courts and will also be heard by the State Legislature. We take our responsibility as policy-makers for the State of California very seriously and intend to address the issues that have been raised to a point where they can no longer be ignored.”

The two legislators, Chairs of the Senate and Assembly Committees on Public Safety, urged an immediate end to the hunger strike so that energy and attention can be focused on the issues that have been raised.

“The inmates participating in the hunger strike have succeeded in bringing these issues to the center of public discussion and debate,” they said. “Legislators recognize the core concerns raised by the inmates and their supporters, and need no further sacrifice or risk of human life.”

[Joe Shlabotnik]

3. Thanks for posting,

and keeping us informed.

[annm4peace]

4. thanks I'll try

It is amazing how there is lack of coverage of it in National News