{"id":54058,"date":"2013-07-29T15:34:12","date_gmt":"2013-07-29T14:34:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/breaking-news\/first-reported-death-in-calif-prisoner-hunger-strike\/54058\/"},"modified":"2013-07-29T15:34:12","modified_gmt":"2013-07-29T14:34:12","slug":"first-reported-death-in-calif-prisoner-hunger-strike","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/breaking-news\/first-reported-death-in-calif-prisoner-hunger-strike\/","title":{"rendered":"First Reported Death in Calif. Prisoner Hunger Strike"},"content":{"rendered":"

A California prisoner in solitary confinement\u2013who supporters say was participating in a state-wide prisoner hunger strike\u2013passed away last Monday.\"\"(Photo: Reuters)<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The tragic death\u2013revealed publicly <\/a>by the Prisoner Hunger Strike Solidarity coalition Sunday\u2013is the first widely reported since the strike began July 8 as prisoners continue their hunger strike for an end to solitary confinement and other forms of abuse and torture.<\/p>\n

Billy Sell, known to his friends as “Guero,” had been participating in the hunger strike, according to his fellow prisoners<\/a>, and had requested medical attention in the days prior to his death.<\/p>\n

Yet, prison officials are denying that Sell’s death is related to the strike, publicly alleging<\/a> it was a suicide.<\/p>\n

Sell’s friends and supporters are outraged at this claim, saying suicide was “completely out of character for him.”<\/p>\n

\u201cThis story is deeply troubling and contradicts the assurances that the hunger-striking prisoners are receiving appropriate medical care,\u201d says Ron Ahnen, of California Prison Focus and the mediation team representing striking prisoners.<\/p>\n

Mediators are making an official inquiry into the cause of Sell’s death to the federal body that oversees California prisons.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, prisoners face retaliation<\/a> for participating in the hunger strikes, including undergoing further isolation, having their cells filled<\/a> with freezing air, and facing destructive cell searches and denial of media and communications access.<\/p>\n

California Governor Jerry Brown has remained completely silent<\/a> as the hunger strikes have swept California prisons.<\/p>\n

Launched July 8 in Pelican Bay State Prison, this is the third major prisoner hunger strike in the state since 2011. In addition to demanding an end to solitary confinement, prisoners are calling for a halt to collective punishments, harsh crackdowns under the auspices of ‘stopping gang activities,’ and access to education, healthcare, and healthy food.<\/p>\n

While CDCR consistently under-counts<\/a> the number of strikers, supporters say prisoners across California continue to put their bodies on the line to transform their inhumane conditions.<\/p>\n

Sell’s friends, who describe him as “strong, a good person,” say his death could have been prevented if the California Department of Corrections had been willing to negotiate with the prisoners.<\/p>\n

_____________________<\/p>\n

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 License<\/p>\n

Republished from: Common Dreams<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A California prisoner in solitary confinement\u2013who supporters say was participating in a state-wide prisoner hunger strike\u2013passed away last Monday.(Photo: Reuters) The tragic death\u2013revealed publicly by the Prisoner Hunger Strike Solidarity coalition Sunday\u2013is the first widely reported since the strike began July 8 as prisoners continue their hunger strike for an end to solitary confinement and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[487],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-54058","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-breaking-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54058","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=54058"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54058\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54058"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=54058"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=54058"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}