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Corcoran SHU staff told to ignore legal mandate to protect lives of hunger strikers
April 22, 2013
In preparation for the July 8 peaceful protest action (hunger strike, work stoppage etc.), Corcoran SHU administrators are directing staff to dispense with California law and state procedures and policy regarding mass hunger strikes and instead institute a policy designed to raise the potential for maximum casualties (deaths) amongst prisoner participants.
Strategies CDCR may use in response to our peaceful protest
April 9, 2013
I’d like to share a few words with fellow prisoners about possible strategies being considered by CDCR to respond to peaceful protests such as a hunger strike or work stoppage (HS/WS) in July 2013. Prisoners should expect CDCR officials to employ tactics such as possibly cutting power to televisions to prevent us from watching news, stopping and delaying mail delivery and sudden transfers.
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.
Prisoners’ families and advocates to speak out at legislative hearing Feb. 25 on solitary confinement and plan to renew hunger strike
February 22, 2013
Family members, advocates, lawyers, activists and others from across California will travel to Sacramento on Monday to speak out against the state prison system’s continued use of solitary confinement. Hundreds are expected to gather for a rally outside the Capitol Building and will then attend a California State Assembly Public Safety Committee oversight hearing, convened to review the CDCR’s “revised regulations” of its notorious SHUs. Rally starts 11:30 Capitol West Side.
Prisoners’ peaceful protest to resume July 8 if demands are not met
February 17, 2013
In response to CDCR’s failure to meet our 2011 Five Core Demands, the PBSP-SHU Short Corridor Representatives respectfully present this notice of, and basis for, our individualized, collectively agreed upon decision to resume our nonviolent peaceful protest action on July 8, 2013. The upcoming peaceful protest will be a combined hunger strike-work stoppage action. Once initiated, this protest will continue indefinitely – until all Five Core Demands are fully met.
Creating broken men?
December 4, 2012
Many discussions are taking place on the nature of the indefinite solitary confinement program in the U.S. prisons and whether or not it constitutes torture. The debate on what to do about the program itself is being held at every level of social organization, from the U.S. Senate to the United Nations, from the California Legislature to the short corridors of Pelican Bay and Corcoran SHUs.
‘Settle your quarrels’: Update on End to Hostilities, prisoners’ demands, hunger strike
November 18, 2012
It’s vital that the End to Hostilities holds for all races and groups. We call on prisoners nationwide to draft up their own demands, tailored to their own individual institutional needs, to be served on CDCR and their prison wardens – I would get started on them now. We are giving CDCR a deadline to meet all of the demands, or else we are going to resume our peaceful hunger strike and work stoppage starting on July 8, 2013. All U.S. prisoners are asked to pick up the flag of solidarity and join us.
Call for Prisoner Day of Solidarity Sept. 9
August 17, 2012
We are calling on all potential allies for a planned Day of Solidarity action for prisoners across the country. This is timed to coincide with the anniversary of the Attica uprising and is intended to draw attention to our devolving treatment and escalating abuse of prisoners by the state.
The economics of a work stoppage
March 25, 2012
In that same spirit of stubborn resistance that the Occupy Movement is showing, we here in Pelican Bay State Prison who initiated a hunger strike were protesting the torturous and inhumane conditions of these isolation units in U.S. prisons. I want to stress that our struggle is not over – not by a long shot.
Call for a statewide prison work strike to support the hunger strike
July 16, 2011
For the Pelican Bay Hunger Strike to be successful, every available resource must be brought into play. Starting IMMEDIATELY, prisoners can start the process of improving their conditions of existence by implementing a peaceful work strike in every prison in the state.
Georgia prison system retaliates against prisoners involved in historic protest
January 10, 2011
On or about Dec. 16, Terrance Bryant Dean was severely beaten by guards at Macon State Prison. The Concerned Coalition to Respect Prisoners’ Rights asserts this brutal beating was in retaliation against the multiracial group of prisoners who staged a peaceful protest demanding their human rights.