[blind-democracy] Calif. protesters demand end to torturous prison practices

  • From: "Roger Loran Bailey" <dmarc-noreply@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> (Redacted sender "rogerbailey81" for DMARC)
  • To: blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
  • Date: Mon, 15 Feb 2016 21:22:24 -0500

http://themilitant.com/2016/8007/800753.html
The Militant (logo)

Vol. 80/No. 7      February 22, 2016


Calif. protesters demand end to torturous prison practices


BY BETSEY STONE
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Under a big banner saying, “Sleep Deprivation is Torture — Stop Now,” 70 people gathered outside the headquarters of the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation here Feb. 1, calling for an end to so-called safety checks at the Pelican Bay State Prison, where guards wake up prisoners throughout the night.
Prison authorities claim the checks are required under a 1995 court order to guard against suicide. But the prisoners say that the banging of metal doors, stomping and shining flashlights into prisoners’ eyes is undermining their physical and mental health.

“This has been going on for 181 days. It’s got to stop!” said Marie Levin, a leader of the Prisoner Hunger Strike Solidarity Coalition, which organized the protest.

Under the pressure of protests and legal action, prison officials have reduced the nightly checks from every half hour to every hour, Carol Strickman, one of the prisoners’ lawyers, told the rally. “We won a little, but not enough.”

The noisy checks began six months ago, just before prisoners in the Pelican Bay Security Housing Units won a victory in their lawsuit against the widespread use of long-term solitary confinement in California prisons. The settlement ordered an end to officials throwing prisoners into solitary for indefinite periods by labeling them “gang affiliated.” As a result, hundreds of prisoners have been transferred out of solitary, including Levin’s brother, Sitawa Nantambu Jamaa.

“This is the first time I’ve hugged my brother in over 31 years,” Levin said, instead of having to speak through a glass partition by telephone.

The suit was brought by prisoners who led three hunger strikes, the largest in 2013 involving more than 30,000 prisoners across the state.

During the hunger strikes “prisoners were able to organize across racial lines, gang lines and religious lines,” said Jerry Elster, a coordinator with the American Friends Service Committee who spent 26 years behind bars. “What they did makes me proud.”

Luis “Bato” Talamantez, a leader of the Prisoner Hunger Strike Solidarity Coalition and co-founder of California Prison Focus, pointed to the freeing of the Cuban Five, Cuban revolutionaries who were framed up and held in U.S. prisons for up to 16 years, as an important victory. “Now the Five are touring the world, getting out the truth about the conditions in U.S. prisons,” he said.

Cynthia Fuentes, whose brother participated in the hunger strikes, described the effort to get him decent medical care when he was diagnosed with cancer. “I believe medical maltreatment killed my brother,” she said.

“What’s incredible is what I’m hearing about what the prisoners’ did inside,” said Elyse Highstreet, a student at the University of California at Santa Cruz. “It shows their humanity.”


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