URGENT! Distribute Far and Wide SUPPORT THE PELICAN BAY HUNGGER STRIKERS!
PRESS CONFERENCE/SPEAK OUT! Tomorrow WEDNESDAY July 13 @ 2PM Ronald Reagan State Building (Governor's LA Offices) 300 South Spring Street Los AngelesCA 90013 (On Spring Street between 3rd & 4th Streets, building extends to Main) ENCAMPMENT in SOLIDARITY WITH PELICAN BAY PRISONERS HUNGER STRIKE! BEGINS WEDNESDAY AT 5PM KRST Unity Center of Afrakan Spiritual Science 7825. S. Western Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90047-2728 (Western at 78th Pl.) For info: 213-840-5348 (California Prisoners Hunger Strike Action Network) On Wednesday, DAY 13 of the Pelican Bay prisoner hunger strike, a Press Conference in front of the State Building in LA at 2pm and an Encampment at KRST Unity Center in South Central LA will occur. Reports from inside Pelican Bay indicate that as many as 50 of the strikers are in extremely weakened physical condition, with possible renal failure, high blood sugar readings and other potentially fatal conditions. Solidarity is urgent! Wednesday, July 13, marks the 13th day of the hunger strike at Pelican Bay State Prison Security Housing Unit (SHU) and other CA prisons. The Press Conference will draw the attention of the public, at a key moment, to the prisoners on this hunger strike and their just demands. The Encampment will be a center for all those who support the just demands of the hunger striking prisoners; a space where people will participate in a solidarity hunger strike / fast, in unity with the prisoners and opposed to the torture going on in the Pelican Bay SHU and other CA prisons. This situation is urgent in the extreme; we recently read this report: "According to a SHU nurse, things are bad at Pelican Bay. The prisoners have not been drinking water and there have been rapid and severe consequences. Nurses are crying. All of the medical staff has been ordered to work overtime to follow and treat the hunger strikers there were about 50 on C-SHU and 150 on D-SHU. Thhey are not drinking water and have de-compensated rapidly. Some are in renal failure and have been unable to make urine for 3 days. Some are having measured blood sugars in the 30 range, which be fatal if not treated ." All people and voices of conscience need to step forward urgently! Be at the Press Conference/Speak Out! at the State Building on Wednesday at 2pm. Take part in this solidarity hunger strike / fast (for 24 hours). Add your name publicly to the call for this solidarity hunger strike / fast. Write a statement in support. Protests, demonstrations, urgent outreach, media work, and a solidarity hunger strike / fast "on the outside" are some key ways, not the only ways, that actors, academics, artists, lawyers, faith based people, youth and students, workers, families of the incarcerated and everyone can show their support right now; a way to coalesce, unite and collectively make impact to demand the prisoners' demands are met. 5 core demands of the prisoners are listed below. Your voice and support is needed, now. Please get back to us by email or phone ASAP. Thanks. California Prison Hunger Strike Action Network Call 213-840-5348 Basic Core Demands From Pelican Bay Prisoners (Security Housing Unit) 1. Eliminate group punishments. Instead, practice individual accountability. When an individual prisoner breaks a rule, the prison often punishes a whole group of prisoners of the same race. This policy has been applied to keep prisoners in the SHU indefinitely and to make conditions increasingly harsh. 2. Abolish the debriefing policy and modify active/inactive gang status criteria. Prisoners are accused of being active or inactive participants of prison gangs using false or highly dubious evidence, and are then sent to long-term isolation (SHU). They can escape these tortuous conditions only if they "debrief," that is, provide information on gang activity. Debriefing produces false information (wrongly landing other prisoners in SHU, in an endless cycle) and can endanger the lives of debriefing prisoners and their families. 3. Comply with the recommendations of the US Commission on Safety and Abuse in Prisons (2006) regarding an end to long-term solitary confinement. This bipartisan commission specifically recommended to "make segregation a last resort" and "end conditions of isolation." Yet as of May 18, 2011, California kept 3,259 prisoners in SHUs and hundreds more in Administrative Segregation waiting for a SHU cell to open up. Some prisoners have been kept in isolation for more than thirty years. 4. Provide adequate food. Prisoners report unsanitary conditions and small quantities of food that do not conform to prison regulations. There is no accountability or independent quality control of meals. 5. Expand and provide constructive programs and privileges for indefinite SHU inmates. The hunger strikers are pressing for opportunities "to engage in self-help treatment, education, religious and other productive activities..." Currently these opportunities are routinely denied, even if the prisoners want to pay for correspondence courses themselves. Examples of privileges the prisoners want are: one phone call per week, and permission to have sweatsuits and watch caps. (Often warm clothing is denied, though the cells and exercise cage can be bitterly cold.) All of the privileges mentioned in the demands are already allowed at other SuperMax prisons (in the federal prison system and other states). Extensive background information is at: http://prisonerhungerstrikesolidarity.wordpress.com/ The prisoners' call and demands can also be found in the current issue of "Turning the Tide: Journal of Anti-Racist Action, Research & Education" http://www.antiracist.org/TTT/TTT-v24-n3-Jul-Sept-2011.pdf (p. 6). 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