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Sacramento hearing exposes CDCR’s hidden agenda
March 5, 2013
Beginning with a rally held on the capitol steps, it was an emotional day for many, especially for family members of those suffering in the SHUs and prison survivors. The voices of those in the SHU were powerfully present, both in stories told by family members as well as statements they had sent for the occasion. The hearing provided an opportunity for legislators to hear representatives of CDCR present their new policies and weigh the truth of their claims. At the end there was a scant 20 minutes for public input.
California Assembly reviews solitary confinement policies as prisoners threaten new hunger strike
February 27, 2013
On Monday, Feb. 25, the California Assembly’s Public Safety Committee, chaired by Assembly Member Tom Ammiano, held a hearing on the state’s Security Housing Units (SHUs). The hearing comes 18 months after the committee held a similar hearing prompted by a three-week long hunger strike in June 2011 that involved thousands of California prisoners across the state. Monday’s hearing focused on the implementation of new CDCR policies and considerations of their appropriateness.
CDCR’s new gang policy is as truthful as a used car salesman
August 1, 2012
SHU prisoners have been subjected to years of prolonged segregation. CDCR’s method of releasing gang segregation prisoners back to the general population via the new Security Threat Group policy is going to replace the six-year inactive policy, but in name only.
Our New Afrikan origins
July 30, 2012
Unlike any other ethnic group in the U.S., we have been named various ethnic classifications over the past 363 years of our New Afrikan existence. We New Afrikans must now put to rest this miseducation of our ethnic classifications. We are a New Afrikan Nation (NAN) within the borders of the United States.
Reassessing the use of solitary confinement in America’s prisons
June 17, 2012
In testimony submitted to the first-ever congressional hearing on solitary confinement June 19, Dolores Canales wrote: “I am a mother of a Pelican Bay SHU prisoner, and since the hunger strike it has been my goal and passion to bring an end to such inhumane and torturous conditions going on right here in America – land of the free and home of the brave! When Americans are held in solitary confinement in other countries, it is considered barbaric and a form of torture, Sen. John McCain himself being one of those Americans.”
Prisoners in solitary confinement petition United Nations: ‘CDCR destroys our minds, souls and spirits’
March 21, 2012
Comparing their conditions to a “living coffin,” 400 California prisoners held in long-term or indefinite solitary confinement petitioned the United Nations Tuesday to intervene on behalf of all of the more than 4,000 prisoners similarly situated. California holds more prisoners in solitary confinement than any other state in the United States or any other nation on earth. Conditions inside California’s SHUs and ASUs were at the center of two massive waves of hunger strikes last year that saw the participation of thousands of prisoners in at least a third of California’s 33 prisons.
12,000 California prisoners on hunger strike
October 4, 2011
As the renewed prisoner hunger strike enters its second week, the federal receiver’s office reports that at least 12,000 prisoners were participating during the first week. Family members of striking SHU prisoners reported that their visits this weekend were denied by the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, which is threatening participants with disciplinary action and banning two lawyers who represent the strikers. “Historically, prison officials have used extreme measures, including physical violence to break strikes,” says Dorsey Nunn, a member of the mediation team working on behalf of the strikers.
Hearing on Solitary Confinement: seeking compassion in the capitol
September 1, 2011
Denise, Marilyn, Anna and I, with Harriett at the wheel, left West Oakland BART in the second carpool wave for Sacramento Tuesday, Aug. 23, at 9:30 a.m. to attend a pre-rally for the historic California Assembly Hearing on Solitary Confinement.
Hunger strike updates: Legislative hearing on Pelican Bay SHU tomorrow in Sacramento
August 22, 2011
The Prisoner Hunger Strike Solidarity coalition will hold a press conference Tuesday, Aug. 23, 11:00 a.m. at the California Capitol Building in Sacramento where families of prisoners, community members and activists from around California will converge to rally and participate …