Tag: Pelican Bay State Prison Security Housing Unit (PBSP-SHU)

Survival in the midst of historical and current long-term determined torture by prison guards against prisoners under the California Department of Corrections and rehabilitation is testament to the human spirit, and glaring evidence of our social decline as human beings to allow the existence of such atrocities.

Two letters follow: The first, by Mutope Duguma, describes the current Pelican Bay State Prison Short Corridor situation. The second, by Pelican Bay inmate and hunger strike leader George Franco, is reposted here and now so readers can compare prison officials’ promises with the situation described by Mutope Duguma a year later.

Gustavo Chavez expresses a few ideas of his own that will have a devastating impact on the prison economy.

Just when it seems like things can’t get any worse, a new California Prison system practice comes to our attention that is shocking and humiliating. It's a practice called “contraband watch,” or “potty watch” by people inside, in which a prisoner’s excrement is examined for items perceived to be “contraband.”

Top CDCR administrators admitted several times during our negotiations that the five core demands made by 12,000 hunger striking prisoners were reasonable and would all be addressed via meaningful, substantive changes. Our rejection of CDCR's March 1 proposal is based upon its failure to act in good faith. CDCR is asking lawmakers and taxpayers to allow it to continue to violate thousands of prisoners’ human rights, torturing us with impunity. Our counter-proposal will bring this illegal torture to an end.

The Pelican Bay State Prison Security Housing Unit Short Corridor representatives have read and carefully considered and hereby reject CDCR’s gang management proposal of March 2012. Prisoners designated Security Threat Group Members – including the majority of us – will not receive any meaningful change.

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.

This is a call for all prisoners in security housing units, administrative segregation, and general populations, as well as the free oppressed and non-oppressed people, to support the indefinite July 1 peaceful hunger strike in protest of the violation of our civil and human rights here at Pelican Bay State Prison Security Housing Unit.