Tag: Calipatria State Prison

Hundreds of men at Calipatria State Prison in the Administrative Segregation Unit (ASU) participated last year in the Pelican Bay State Prison hunger strike that spread statewide in July and again in September. They starved themselves in unity with the five core demands, but the men at Calipatria added their own demand, which was to have a TV or radio.

Imagine you were framed again by prison gang officers using a tattoo you got as a child and a symbol in a birthday card to “validate” you as a “prison gang associate” and label you “worst of the worst” and placed in segregation in a Security Housing Unit, or SHU, for years on end. That is what happened to my childhood best friend and husband, Robbie Riva.

Calipatria State Prison Institutional Gang Investigator (IGI) E. Duarte is currently under investigation by the United States District Court due to a complaint of excessive force on an inmate and complaints of falsifying legal documentation and planting evidence on inmates.

Hozel Blanchard is the father of a prisoner in Calipatria State Prison who recently expired after the historic California prison hunger strike under mysterious circumstances. Why would a prisoner who helped lead two hunger strikes and was looking forward to an imminent parole date kill himself?

At Calipatria State Prison near the Mexican border in the Mojave Desert, the ASU (Administrative Segregation Unit) is so isolated the prison authorities can do anything they want to the ASU inmates without anyone knowing. The men are forced to wear nothing but boxers, and some do not get blankets in their freezing cold cells.

Evidence indicates Hozel Blanchard's death wasn’t a suicide. J. Turner, Hozel's brother, saw this article and reports that services will be held Tuesday, Nov. 22, 11 a.m., at the Miraculous Word Christian Center, 2723 San Pablo Ave., Oakland. The family seeks “any information or advice you can provide for us to get justice for my brother. We also have an email set up solely for this purpose: hozelblanchard@gmail.com. Any information would be greatly appreciated ... to get to the bottom of this tragedy.”

With the second phase of a massive California prisoner hunger strike in its third week, prisoners have begun to report grave medical issues. Prisoners at Corcoran have stated, “Due to what they have done here to us, some men have stopped drinking water completely, so we may well be close to death in a few days.”

Legal representatives visited Pelican Bay SHU hunger strikers Tuesday. Each prisoner explained how medical conditions of hundreds of hunger strikers in the SHU are worsening. The only way to prevent people from dying right now is for the CDCR to negotiate with the prisoners' outside mediation team.

Medical staff at Pelican Bay State Prison say that the health of at least 200 hunger strikers in the SHU is rapidly worsening. A few have tried to sip water but are so sick that they are vomiting it back up. Some are in renal failure and have been unable to make urine for three days. Some are having measured blood sugars in the 30 range, which can be fatal if not treated. Families witnessed their loved ones faint or go into diabetic shock in visiting rooms over the weekend.