Hunger strike

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February 15, 2012 | 1:22 PM | By

Hunger-striking inmate dies in California

Rina Palta

Hunger strikers have been protesting conditions in the state's Security Housing Units, like this one at Pelican Bay State Prison.

By Nicole Jones

A spokesperson with California’s Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation has confirmed that an inmate on a hunger strike at Corcoran State Prison died on Feb. 2 after refusing food for four days.

Gomez began fasting to protest conditions in the Administration Segregation Unit at Corcoran. Over thirty inmates housed in the isolation unit at Corcoran had also been refusing food since January for the same reason. On Feb. 13, all inmates resumed eating, according to CDCR’s spokesperson Terry Thornton.

Correctional Healthcare Service spokeswoman Nancy Kincaid said nothing in the preliminary autopsy suggests starvation was the cause of death. Gomez was under medical care prior to hunger strike, suggesting he may have been in poor health which was further complicated by fasting.

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FILED UNDER: Corrections, California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, Corcoran State Prison, Hunger strike
October 26, 2011 | 8:45 AM | By

Exit interview: Prison official talks death penalty, hunger strike, more

Undersecretary Scott Kernan retired Friday

The past 13 months have been difficult for California’s Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.

Last year, a new lethal injection facility was built in San Quentin. The state spent just over $800,000 building it in response to the allegation that it’s method of lethal injection was cruel and unusual punishment.

Fast-forward to May of 2011: The U.S. Supreme Court ruling to decrease the prison population led to the creation of a coordinated shift of prisoners to county jails, a plan called realignment, which just recently kicked into gear. The plan, in essence, is the largest prison overhaul in the department’s history.

In July and October of this year, the CDCR faced another crisis. Prisoners staged hunger strikes at Pelican Bay State Prison that spread to 13 facilities and involved over 6,000 inmates. All were protesting harsh prison conditions in the state’s highly restrictive security housing units.

In the middle of all these unfolding events was the man who oversees operations for the CDCR. Or he did, that is, until retiring just last week. Former CDCR Undersecretary Scott Kernan’s last day was this past Friday. He was second in command at the department, overseeing all of the facilities and institutions including 33 adult prisons in the state.

In full disclosure, Scott Kernan happens to be related to KALW’s News Director, Holly Kernan. The former undersecretary left his post after almost 30 years working in California corrections. A few days before he retired, reporter Nancy Mullane sat down with Kernan to discuss how he got interested in working with prisons.

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FILED UNDER: Corrections, California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, Capital Punishment, Hunger strike, Pelican Bay State Prison, San Quentin State Prison, Scott Kernan
October 20, 2011 | 11:04 AM | By

Inspector General evaluates hunger strike response

Rina Palta

The inside of a typical cell in the Security Housing Unit at Pelican Bay State Prison.

The Office of the Inspector General released an assessment this week of the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation’s handling of the hunger strike that rippled through California’s prison system in July and then again this month. Mainly, the OIG wanted to determine why, after CDCR officials met with and negotiated an end to the July strike, inmates resumed refusing meals in October–and whether, as alleged, inmates who participated in the first strike faced retaliation.

Overall, the OIG concludes that CDCR officials and officers in the Security Housing Unit at Pelican Bay–where the hunger strike’s leaders are housed–did nothing out-of-policy. The OIG did notice an uptick in officers issuing rules violations against SHU inmates for gang-related activity, but determined the violations were justified. The OIG went on to recommend that the department continue to work towards addressing the meat of the inmates’ complaints–mainly the process that places and keeps inmates in the restrictive SHU’s. Full report below.

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FILED UNDER: Corrections, California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, Hunger strike, Pelican Bay State Prison, Security Housing Unit
July 27, 2011 | 10:44 AM | By

Prison Dispatch: Critical Resistance and the hunger strike

In a letter dated July 20, California inmate Richard Gilliam shares his thoughts on the state prison hunger strike, which began July 1 at Pelican Bay State Prison near Crescent City, Calif.

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I’ve always known that for political resistance by prisoners to occur systemwide there would have to exist a centralized organization or entity acting as an information clearinghouse and support system. It seems this is now the case.

Exercise yard at Pelican Bay

Laura Sullivan, NPR

The exercise yard at Pelican Bay's Secure Housing Unit.

I first learned of the impending [hunger] strike in an article in “The Abolitionist,” put out by Critical Resistance, an organization dedicated to the destruction of the Prison Industrial Complex.

Critical Resistance reported that during the Fourth of July weekend the action reached 6,600 prisoners across at least 13 prisons, including Pelican Bay, Folsom, Corcoran, and San Quentin. They report that medical staff have been ordered to work overtime to follow and treat strikers and that some strikers are “in renal failure.”

The prisoners at Pelican Bay began the strike in opposition to conditions they describe as “inhumane and degrading,” and issued a statement with five core demands that would have to be met before the strike would be called off.

One of the things that, until now, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation did very well was isolate prisoners housed at different institutions to prevent them communicating. Until recently, prisoners at one institution had little opportunity to learn of current events at another.

The advent of cell phones and organizations, such as Critical Resistance, has changed that. Now prisoners have the ability to plan and execute sit-downs, hunger strikes, and work stoppages in response to abusive treatment, poor medical care, bad working conditions, and lack of services. Whether they will take advantage of this opportunity and what response it will provoke from those who feel their authority is being undermined remains to be seen.

The appearance of Critical Resistance and other groups as prisoner advocates has been a long time in coming. We must hope they engender positive change for prisoners as well as for society as a whole. As with the dawning of every new era, this one is bright with promise but also ripe for corruption. As of this writing the hunger strike at Pelican Bay State Prison continues.

Richard Gilliam is a writer currently serving time in a California prison.

FILED UNDER: Corrections, CDCR, Hunger strike, Pelican Bay State Prison, Prison Dispatch