Stand Up for the Courageous California Prisoner Hunger Strikers!

The Crimes Against Women at Tutwiler Prison

In May 2012, Equal Justice Initiative filed a complaint with the U.S. Justice Department, calling for a quick and thorough federal investigation into widespread sexual abuse of women prisoners by male guards at Tutwiler Prison for Women in Wetumpka, Alabama.
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Interview with Attorney Charlotte Morrison

Rampant Sexual Abuse of Women at Tutwiler Prison for Women in Alabama

Revolution speaks with Charlotte Morrison, senior attorney with the Equal Justice Initiative, about the widespread abuse of women prisoners by guards at Tutwiler prison in Alabama.

The Horror of Jailing of Mentally Ill People Under Capitalism—And How Things Could Be Radically Different

A reader contrasts how in the U.S., the only way for many mentally ill people to get medical treatment in jail, with the radically different way mental illness and other health problems were dealt with in revolutionary socialist China.

The Heart in Orange Is the New Black

On the best-selling book and critically acclaimed Netflix series.
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Ask a Communist:
There Are 2.4 Million People in Prison in the U.S.—Why? What Do We DO About It? And How Does the Notion of a "Prison-Industrial Complex" Get This Wrong?
... This "prison-industrial complex" paradigm as a whole is badly misleading. It does not portray the problem correctly and because of that it blunts ...Read More

Observations of a teacher on the school to prison pipeline.
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Lawyer: Immigrant hunger strikers threatened with force-feeding

As strike enters sixth day, Washington state detainees report increased retalition
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Operation Streamline: Massive and Unjust Criminalization of
Immigrants
The mass criminalization of immigrants is a key component in the immigration policy of a criminal system. Read More

Correspondence:

Some Thoughts on the Immigration Question: Big Contradictions and Potential for Major Upheaval
A discussion of what's up with the immigration issue—sparked by the rancorous debate within the ruling class over "immigration reform" as well as a certain upsurge in struggle against anti-immigrant repression.Read more

Immigrant detainees on hunger strike in Washington state

"Emergency Call! Join Us In Stopping Torture in U.S. Prisons" was printed Friday, February 14, 2014 in San Jose Mercury News

From "What Is Actually Revealed in the California Prisoners Hunger Strike? Responding to Jeffrey Beard's Los Angeles Times Op-ed,"
Revolution, August 7, 2013:

There are three major things revealed in this hunger strike:

First, it reveals the complete bankruptcy of a system that has no future for generations of Black and Latino youth except confining them into inner cities without hope of employment, flooding these neighborhoods with drugs, setting people against each other, pumping out a culture and morality whose sole purpose is to hammer home the need to “get rich or die trying” in a capitalist system where that can only be done at the expense of others just like you.

About
the Strike
Prisoners Call
Hunger Strike
Letters from
Prisoners
Solitary Confinement:
Interviews
Support for the
Prisoners'
Hunger Strike

About the Strike

Updated August 30, 2013
Head

Help Publish "Emergency Call ~ Stop Torture in U.S. Prisons!" ASAP

As we write, prison authorities are targeting - through the use of Rules Violation Reports - prisoners who participated in the California prisoner hunger strike to stop torture, thereby extending SHU terms and prison time for tens of thousands of people. Authorities have even singled out for disciplinary charges those who authored the Agreement to End Hostilities, retaliating against those prisoners who have made a call for peace among the different racial groups inside (and outside) California's prisons and jails. Read More http://www.stopmassincarceration.net/.

Authorities Set to Torture Striking Prisoners: Judge Allows Force-Feeding

August 26, 2013

On August 19, U.S. District Judge Thelton Henderson issued a court order approving the force-feeding of California prisoners who have been on a hunger strike to stop the torturous conditions of solitary confinement in the prisons' Security Housing Units (SHUs).

What Is Actually Revealed in the California Prisoners Hunger Strike?

Responding to Jeffrey Beard's Los Angeles Times Op-ed

August 7, 2013

In the Los Angeles Times for Tuesday, August 6, 2013, Jeffrey Beard, head of the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR), argued that this hunger strike is not about protesting living conditions that constitute torture, but is instead prison gangs attempting to “restore their ability to terrorize fellow prisoners, prison staff and communities throughout California.” ... His Op-ed is as vicious as it is deceitful ....

California Prisoners' Hunger Strike:
The Humanity of the Prisoners vs. the Inhumanity of the System

August 19, 2013

Right now, the lives of hundreds of hunger striking prisoners are on the line due to the vicious response of prison authorities to this struggle—refusing to grant the prisoners' just demands and instead retaliating against them. Prisoner supporters say this is a "very dangerous phase of their protest" and "their health could be permanently damaged by their refusal to eat solid foods; they could even die."

Los Angeles Press Conference Challenges California Prison Head's Disinformation and Lies Targeting the Prisoners' Hunger Strike
August 11, 2013

U.S. Mass Incarceration Levels Decline Toward World Average... In a Hundred Years
August 11, 2013

Week Four:

Prison Officials Refuse to End Torture—Hunger Strikers Fight On
August 3, 2013

Prisoner Hunger Strike Enters Fourth Week
This System of Torture Killed Billy "Guero" Sell
by Larry Everest

HUNGER STRIKE DAY 16: CDCR Refuses to Negotiate, Strikers Issue New Statement
July 25, 2013

California Prison Authorities Attack Hunger Strikers: Broad Support for Heroic Prisoners Urgently Called For!

30,000 California Prisoners Join Hunger Strike

Fourth Day of Hunger Strike
Support the Courageous Prisoners' Struggle Against Isolation and Torture
by Larry Everest

"They are courageous men to do what they got to do."

Cook County Jail Retaliates Against Gregory Koger, Revolutionary Hunger Striker

Download poster:

Poster PDF | JPG

DID YOU KNOW:

... in California, nearly 4,000 prisoners are confined in SHUs

... over 6,000 are in Administrative Segregation, another form of solitary confinement

... another 70,000 prisoners are in solitary confinement in prisons across the U.S.

... they are locked in tiny, windowless cells for 22-24 hours every day

... they are denied human contact and violently taken from their cells for petty violations

... they are put in solitary arbitrarily, often because of baseless accusations of being a gang member.

... many are forced to endure these conditions of torture for decades.

End the Censorship of Revolution Newspaper at California's Pelican Bay State Prison (PBSP)

In May, 2013, Prisoners Revolutionary Literature Fund (PRLF.org) learned from several prisoners in Pelican Bay State Prison's Security Housing Unit (SHU, or solitary confinement) in California that Revolution newspaper, issue #302 (May 1st, 2013) was declared to be "contraband" by prison authorities and withheld from prisoners. While the prison officials were not more specific as to what they were referencing, articles on the three pages cited do have in common news coverage of the courageous and inspiring stand prisoners in solitary confinement in California have taken in calling for a peaceful hunger strike starting July 8, 2013, to end the inhumane conditions they face.

California Prison Authorities Issue Bogus Justification for Censorship of Revolution Newspaper

August 11, 2013

From the Hellholes of
Incarceration to a Future
of Emancipation

PRISONERS' FIVE CORE DEMANDS:

▶ eliminate group punishments;

▶ abolish the debriefing policy and modify active/inactive gang status criteria;

▶ comply with the recommendation of the U.S. Commission on Safety and Abuse in Prisons (2006) regarding an end to long-term solitary confinement;

▶ provide adequate and nutritious food; and

▶ expand and provide constructive programs and privileges for indefinite SHU inmates.

Prisoners Call for Hunger Strike

Updated August 3, 2013

Statement from Pelican Bay Prisoners:

"We have to put our lives on the line to force CDCR to do what's right"

The following statement was issued on June 20 by prisoners being held in isolation at Security Housing Unit (SHU) at the Pelican Bay State Prison (PBSP) in California. CDCR is the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. For background, see "Emergency Call! Join Us in Stopping Torture in U.S. Prisons!" at revcom.us.

The principal prisoner representatives from the PBSP SHU Short Corridor Collective Human Rights Movement does hereby present public notice that our nonviolent peaceful protest of our subjection to decades of indefinite state-sanctioned torture, via long term solitary confinement will resume on July 8, 2013, consisting of a hunger strike/work stoppage of indefinite duration until CDCR signs a legally binding agreement meeting our demands, the heart of which mandates an end to long-term solitary confinement (as well as additional major reforms). Our decision does not come lightly. For the past (2) years we've patiently kept an open dialogue with state officials, attempting to hold them to their promise to implement meaningful reforms, responsive to our demands. For the past seven months we have repeatedly pointed out CDCR's failure to honor their word—and we have explained in detail the ways in which they've acted in bad faith and what they need to do to avoid the resumption of our protest action.

On June 19, 2013, we participated in a mediation session ordered by the Judge in our class action lawsuit, which unfortunately did not result in CDCR officials agreeing to settle the case on acceptable terms. While the mediation process will likely continue, it is clear to us that we must be prepared to renew our political non-violent protest on July 8 to stop torture in the SHUs and Ad-Segs [Administrative Segregation ] of CDCR.

Thus we are presently out of alternative options for achieving the long overdue reform to this system and, specifically, an end to state-sanctioned torture, and now we have to put our lives on the line via indefinite hunger strike to force CDCR to do what's right.

We are certain that we will prevail.... the only questions being: How many will die starvation-related deaths before state officials sign the agreement?

The world is watching!

Onward in Struggle and Solidarity.

Todd Ashker
Arturo Castellanos
Ronald Dewberry, aka Sitawa
Antonio Guillen

California Prisoners Call for Peace Between
Different Nationalities in Prisons and Jails

Agreement to End Hostilities

August 12, 2012

To whom it may concern and all California Prisoners:

Greetings from the entire PBSP-SHU Short Corridor Hunger Strike Representatives. We are hereby presenting this mutual agreement on behalf of all racial groups here in the PBSP-SHU Corridor. Wherein, we have arrived at a mutual agreement concerning the following points:

1. If we really want to bring about substantive meaningful changes to the CDCR system in a manner beneficial to all solid individuals, who have never been broken by CDCR’s torture tactics intended to coerce one to become a state informant via debriefing, that now is the time to for us to collectively seize this moment in time, and put an end to more than 20-30 years of hostilities between our racial groups.

2. Therefore, beginning on October 10, 2012, all hostilities between our racial groups… in SHU, Ad-Seg, General Population, and County Jails, will officially cease. This means that from this date on, all racial group hostilities need to be at an end… and if personal issues arise between individuals, people need to do all they can to exhaust all diplomatic means to settle such disputes; do not allow personal, individual issues to escalate into racial group issues!!