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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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