PELICAN BAY HUNGER STRIKE
Pelican Bay Prisoners' recent hunger strike protested their arbitrary, oppressive confine-ment in the Security Housing Unit (SHU) and the adverse impact that the long-term SHU confinement has on their physical and mental wellbeing, program chances for parole and successful reintegration back into society or general prison population, and the public's safety. For over 15 years, the California Department of Corrections (CDC)has placed prisoners in the SHU under the guise of prison gang affiliates, a threat to the safety of others, or institutional security. Many prisoners have been there for 5, 10, 15 years or more.
The SHU is based on a sensory deprivation model that CDC knew would have significant psychological consequences on prisoners. They receive all their meals in their cells, are not allowed training or educational activities, are not allowed contact visits or phone access, spend 22 hours a day in a windowless, 8-square foot cell , and are shackled and strip-searched every time they leave their cell. The exercise "yard" (another concrete cell, only larger) has no exercise equipment and no view of the outside world. A Federal Judge summed it up best: "The overall effect of the SHU is one of stark sterility and unremitting monotony. Inmates can spend years without seeing any aspect of the outside world .... inmates spend the times simply pacing around the edges of the pen; the image is hauntingly similar to that of caged felines pacing in a zoo." (Madrid v. Gomez, 889 F. Supp 1146, 1229 (N.D. Cal. 1995)).
Prisoners are seeking procedural protections to provide adequate notice of what conduct is prohibited; fair and clear uniform standards to guide prison staff whether a prisoner is truly a gang affiliate or a threat to the safety of persons and institutional security.
Many prisoners are confined to the SHU for speech and/or conduct that has absolutely nothing to do with gang activity, misconduct, or unlawful acts. Prisoners also seek alternative incentive programs that would allow them to demonstrate their suitability for SHU release and placement in the General Prison population.
Please lend your support by writing to Acting Director Steve Cambra, California Department of Corrections, P.O. Box 942883, Sacramento, CA 94283; to Gov. Gray Davis, State Capitol Building, Sacramento, CA 95814 ; and to Sen. Richard Polanco, 300 S.Spring St. #8710, Los Angeles, CA 90013-0077, urging them to address the current segregation policy/practice and the unacceptable SHU conditions at Pelican Bay and Corcoran State Prison, and to conduct a Legislative Public Informational Hearing on the issues.