Tag: Skeleton Bay

When I received the sad and shocking news about our loss of Brother Hugo Pinell, aka Yogi Bear and Dahariki, I must say it felt like a big blow to my gut. In losing our Brother Hugo Pinell, I lost not only a brother, but a comrade, hero, motivator and educator. This bold and principled revolutionary will be sorely missed. However, Brother Yogi would want for us to push ahead in the struggle. That way we’ll be paying our beautiful brother a great honor.

I’m still decompressing from being warehoused inside that pathological incubator, Skeleton Bay, for over 25 years while slowly making adjustments to this new environment. My journey out of Pelican Bay caused relief on one hand and on the other hand a profound sense of emptiness in leaving behind relationships born out of shared respect, fortitude, self-respect and strength in surviving the crippling effects of prolonged isolation and sensory deprivation.

Paul Sangu Jones, who wrote this letter received today, has been locked in solitary confinement for 20 years and has lost over 25 pounds in this second round of the hunger strike. As many as 12,000 California prisoners have participated, along with prisoners around the world. Although some prisoners have suspended their strike pending new promises by CDCR, we need to flood Gov. Jerry Brown with 160,000 calls by Wednesday. Paul writes, "The SHU causes physical and psychological trauma whose end result is a hammer blow to the mind and to the body." Hold Gov. Brown accountable.