Tell the California Department of Corrections to Meet the Demands of Prisoners

After 18 months of strategizing, inmates at Pelican Bay State Prison in Northern California launched a headline-grabbing hunger strike on July 1 that put the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation under intense media scrutiny. Not only did California papers such as the San Francisco Chronicle and the Los Angeles Times weigh in on the strike, the New York Times and the Guardian of London featured opinion pieces in support of the strikers. To boot, prisoners at 13 other California prisons joined the strike as well, and a Change.org petition urging CDCR to meet the prisoners’ demands has netted more than 9,500 signatures.

A major reason the strikers have garnered so much support is because their demands are far from exorbitant. The prisoners demanded an end to long-term solitary confinement, group punishments by race and too small portions of food, to name a few. According to Marilyn McMahon, the California Prison Focus attorney who started the Change.org petition:

“California keeps prisoners basically in solitary confinement for decades, more than 20 years, and I believe that’s torture under international law…The demands they (the strikers) put forward were really modest and so reasonable, most people could look at them and sign (the petition) to say yes.”

As the strike pressed on, the CDCR agreed to meet a few of the strikers’ minor demands, such as providing prisoners with wool caps to help them keep warm at night, allowing them to hang wall calendars in their cells so they know what day it is, and agreeing to provide prisoners who take correspondence courses with proctors for exams. Because of these concessions and the CDCR’s assurances that they would consider addressing the strikers’ more substantial demands, the prisoners suspended the strike on July 21.

Just because the strike has been halted for the time being doesn’t mean that activism around the issue is no longer needed. In fact, California Prison Focus is urging supporters of the strikers to “show up in droves” for an Aug. 23 public hearing at the state capitol in Sacramento about prison conditions. The organization also encourages the public to continue signing the petition it launched on Change.org to let California Gov. Jerry Brown and CDCR Secretary Matthew Cate know that the intolerable circumstances California prisoners endure on a daily basis must come to an end.

While the CDCR has said that it will seriously consider changing prison policies to meet the strikers’ additional demands, the department has yet to state this in writing, according to California Prison Focus President Ron Ahnen. Don't let the CDCR off the hook. Hold the agency accountable.

Photo Credit: James Cridland