Amnesty International has called on the US to end “punishing” California prison hunger strikers who are protesting unregulated solitary confinement policies. Hundreds of inmates continue their action for a third week.
“Prisoners seeking an end to inhumane conditions should not be
subjected to punitive measures for exercising their right to
engage in peaceful protest,” Amnesty International’s USA
researcher Angela Wright said. “Prolonged isolation under
conditions which can only be described as cruel and inhumane
treatment is prohibited under international law.”
The protests began on July 8 and are now into their third week,
with more than 1,000 inmates across California remaining on
hunger strike. Initially some 30,000 prisoners
in over 24 prisons joined the action.
On July 11, the California Department of Corrections and
Rehabilitation (CDCR) vowed to implement disciplinary
action against the hunger strikers by for example pro-longing
their time in the Security Housing Units (SHU).
Since then key leaders of the strike had been facing
“increased isolation, where they face harsher conditions and
increased restrictions on communication with their lawyers”,
AI reported on Monday.
Others claimed that prison authorities “blasted cold air into
their cells, as well as confiscated fluids, hygiene products and
legal materials” in the Pelican Bay Security Housing Units.
The inmates are protesting the state’s policy of long-term
solitary confinement in SHU that isolates detainees who have been
determined to be involved with internal gangs. Those prisoners
are locked up in small, solitary cells until they volunteer to
detail gang activity to investigators. No rule exists limiting
how long those inmates can be held in isolation, and some have
lived like that for years, even decades.
The human rights organization reports of at least 500 prisoners
who have spent more than a decade in solitary confinement “in
conditions of environmental and social deprivation which flout
international standards for humane treatment.”
The Department of Corrections tried to introduce reforms on how
inmates are assigned to the units, and how they can get out of
them, but human rights activists say that the reforms do not go
far enough.
The inmates want the state to adopt a maximum isolation term of
five years, as well as provide education and rehabilitation
programs and the right to make monthly phone calls.
Amnesty International argues that according to studies, “harsh
environmental conditions are detrimental to a prisoners’
psychological and physical health”. And inmates held under
such conditions have a harder time reintegrating into society
upon their release because of the long-lasting effects of “little
or no social contact” during their solitary confinement.
“It is unsurprising that prisoners in the Security Housing
Unit are protesting the conditions of their detention,” said
Wright, adding that AI calls upon the Department of Corrections
to introduce significant reforms to the SHU system so it does not
violate international human rights law.
“Rather than punishing prisoners further with the threat of
disciplinary action the Department of Corrections should commit
to meaningful reforms that will address the inhumanity of the
state’s prison system.”
Republished with permission from: RT