Don't forget the California Prison Hunger Strikers

by Richard Mellor
Afscme Local 444, retired

The US prison system is well known for is harsh conditions and brutality.  Here in the US, minors and mentally impaired people are executed and/or incarcerated often spending years in solitary confinement. What solitary confinement is in actuality is a sentence the results of which is insanity; Dead Man Walking if you like.  The incarceration of workers and the poor and the racist justice system is well known. Prisoners in the US lose many rights all human beings should have, basically the right to be human.

Back in July, 30,000 prisoners went on hunger strike in California. We have commented on this strike more than once on this blog.  You can read the prisoners list of demands here.  The strike has now been on for 57 days.  Many of the prisoners have been relocated and are under threat of being force fed like the inmates at Guantanamo. The authorities refuse to deal with the issues they are raising.

A major issue is solitary confinement which is used as a form of punishment in California’s SHU’s or Security Housing Units. An inmate has only to be declared a gang member in order to be confined to solitary.  California has almost 12,000 people in extreme isolation which costs over $60 million per year. As prison rights advocates point out, “The cells have no windows, and no access to fresh air or sunlight.” This is torture, there’s no way around it. The UN declares solitary confinement for more than 15 days as torture but in US prisons an inmate can spend form 10 to 40 years alone.  I would ask any reader of this with an ounce of humanity in them; what would that do to you? Solitary confinement drives people mad.

On the issue of gangs, members of the most ruthless and powerful gang of all, the US capitalist class manages to avoid jail time no matter what they do. They can make conscious decisions that lead to massive environmental pollution and death (BP spill). They cause millions of people to be homeless or deny millions more health care in the interests of personal gain. They lie to us about events abroad seeking our support and money in the slaughter of those who resist their predatory invasions, yet are lauded as fine upstanding citizens.  This gang has many affiliates and sub-branches like the US Chamber of Commerce, The National Association of Manufacturers and the Business Round Table.  They meet in secret in places like Jackson Hole Wyoming, The Bohemian Grove here in California and other fine resorts.

In the streets and urban centers of the US sometimes belonging to a gang can mean security or for other young people a way to riches and recognition.  And if you find yourself in the US Gulag, the inmates there, having no right to a union which is something that must be demanded for prisoners, might seek safety in one of the ethnic gangs that exists. The prisons are generally segregated and racism is used by authorities much like it is in the workplace and society as a whole as a divide and rule tactic.

A guaranteed job and a minimum of $15 or $20 an hour for society in general as well as for inmates re-entering society, is what would change this situation. Recognizing that the public needs to be protected from some people, prisons should cease being mere centers for the warehousing of human beings to genuine correctional centers that would help people and help them re-enter society.  Prison employees should be trained in all the fields that deal with mental health and human behavior in order to actually help people.   The prison industrial complex as it is, is a massive industry with very lucrative profits to be made.  It is not human friendly.  In California this industry has grown massively. Prisons are constructed in rural depressed communities and are often the only job around. They are also constructed hundreds of miles from urban centers where the families of inmates live. The authorities consider this a plus, something that again isolates the inmate from whatever family structure they may have. When I was visiting an LA gang member in prison it was assumed I was a lesser person by the guards as well.  The families of inmates are not respected.

I commented on the decision to allow authorities to force feed prisoners and to ignore prisoners "do not not resuscitate requests" in an earlier commentary. The state is concerned about their safety apparently but we know it is about denying the individual some form of control over their lives and existence. The object of prison life is to take every aspect of human dignity away form the inmate.

The other issue to point out is the so-called free press. It takes a tremendous amount of courage to protest as a prison inmate, the consequences are severe.  The fat that so many initiated this strikes tells us something but the media in the main ignores it, or as is the case with workers on strike, demonizes the participants and gives their cause no credibility. The mass media in the US is the most unfree and censored of all the advanced capitalist economies. It is mind numbing demoralizing rubbish in the main.

Don’t forget the prison hunger striker. If you can get your union or organization to send letter to the governor and demand he intervene and repsond to the prisoners genuine concerns.  Readers can call California governor, Jerry Brown at: Phone: (916) 445-2841, (510) 289-0336, (510) 628-0202 fax 916-558-3160  and urge him to respond to the prisoners valid complaints.

There are still 70 prisoners refusing food after 57 days.  For more up to date information go to the Prisoner Hunger Strike Solidarity webpage

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Prisoner hunger strikers to be force fed

by Richard Mellor
Afscme Local 444, retired

There is nothing the ruling classes fear more than those who actively resist oppression, who take part and lead the struggle for freedom and human dignity.  Those who make the most sacrifice, many of them playing leading roles, are feared most of all, and especially in death.  The dead are the memory of the living, a reminder of the struggle against the oppressor.

The bones of the Irish revolutionaries that died at the hands of British occupation are scattered throughout the country in unmarked graves.  The British occupation made sure of that. They did the same in Kenya after they murdered or executed after show trials, the leaders of the Mao Mao that fought against British colonial rule.

The US ruling class is force feeding hunger strikers imprisoned in the concentration camp at Guantanamo Cuba.  Most of the people still there have never been convicted of anything and many of them have been scheduled for release but are are still incarcerated after 11 years.  Death by self imposed starvation is not something the US ruling class wants.

In California we also have a prisoner hunger strike that is in its 44th day with 70 participating.  Inmates want more humane treatment and an end to indeterminate solitary confinement that dehumanizes people and drives some insane. Some people have been confined to solitary confinement for as long as 30 years.

Inmates can sign legally binding "do not resuscitate requests" and it has been the policy of authorities in these situations to allow people to starve themselves to death.   But it seems the state can prevent us from dying now.  A San Francisco judge has given prison officials authority to force feed an inmate who may be in "failing health" even if they signed requests not to be revived.

If you aren't eating for 44 days, it seems that failing health is the required result but the all powerful and caring state will put you through the torture of force feeding caring as it does for the sanctity of human life.  If you can't afford medical care, housing, or food, the chances are you can die that way as the state recognizes that we are individuals and here in the USA individual rights trump all others.  If you choose not to work (unemployment) if you choose to sleep beneath underpasses, if you choose not to eat proper food and if you choose not to pay for medical coverage to a middle man in the form of an insurance company you can die.

Isn't freedom swell!

If you are in a union you should get letters of support sent to the governor on the hunger striker's behalf. Here is the latest update on the prison hunger strike form Prisoner Hunger Strike Solidarity.  You will find contact info there.

Day 44 – Statement from Mediation Team

Posted on August 20, 2013 by prisonerhungerstrikesolidarity

Hunger Strikers, Gavin Newsom’s Citizenville and the Frontline
Years ago a defense attorney, who was contemplating acceptance of her first death row client, talked to me about how hard it would be to keep this person from ending up in San Quentin’s Death Chamber. But she was anxious to take on the task. I asked her why? She simply and eloquently explained that in every society there must be people who are willing to stand in the way of those who abuse the power they have over individuals under their control. If there is no one there to point out that abuse, to push back against those powerful forces, the abuse will spread and deepen and will become unstoppable.

On Day 44 of the prisoner hunger strike, we are watching a real-life display of that lawyer’s philosophy—prisoners are starving themselves to disrupt the abuse of power displayed by the CDCR’s inhumane policies and practices involving indeterminate solitary confinement. They have put themselves on the frontline of protest to demand to be treated like human beings.
Meanwhile, not long ago some of the family members of the hunger strikers attempted to meet with Lieutenant Governor Gavin Newsom about these important matters. At the time, Newsom was temporarily serving as Acting Governor while Jerry Brown was traveling out of the country. The meeting never happened: Acting Governor Newsom said he would not have any more to say about the prisoner hunger strike than the Governor had to say about it, which, thus far, has been nothing helpful.  Well, pretty much nothing at all.

Ironically, the Lieutenant Governor recently released a book he authored called Citizenville. His promotional email states that “Citizenville shows how we can make government as useful and engaging as your iPhone.” He adds: “I talked to technology pioneers, entrepreneurs, and social media stars for Citizenville to come up with clear steps we can take to reshape our government and engage ordinary citizens.”

Perhaps the “usefulness” of government as depicted in Newsom’s marketing material for his book would be better measured by him and Governor Brown agreeing to talk to the hunger-striking prisoners themselves. The two elected officials could learn of some meaningful fixes to CDCR policies and practices that would do more than merely “engage ordinary citizens,” such talks could actually save lives—those of the protestors as well as those prisoners who are being made morose or insane or both by indeterminate solitary confinement for decades.

On behalf of the Mediation Team,
Barbara Becnel 510-325-6336 

Hunger Strike Mediation Team
Dr. Ronald Ahnen, California Prison Focus and St. Mary’s College of California
Barbara Becnel, Occupy4Prisoners.org
Dolores Canales, California Families to Abolish Solitary Confinement
Irene Huerta, California Families to Abolish Solitary Confinement
Laura Magnani, American Friends Service Committee
Marilyn McMahon, California Prison Focus
Carol Strickman, Legal Services for Prisoners With Children
Azadeh Zohrabi, Legal Services for Prisoners With Children

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California prisons hunger strike day 17

For our readers interest.

HUNGER STRIKE DAY 17: CDCR Refuses to Negotiate, Strikers Issue New Statement

Posted on July 23, 2013 by prisonerhungerstrikesolidarity

Prisoner Hunger Strike Solidarity
Oakland, July 23, 2013 — With the California prisoner hunger strike in its 3^rd week, California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) and medical receiver officials agreed to meet with a mediation team working on behalf of the hunger strikers.  While the mediators were hopeful that the CDCR would discuss negotiations around the strikers' demands, they were quickly disappointed and dismayed by the CDCR’s conduct.

“The CDCR refused to let family members of strikers who are part of our team join in the discussions, they refused to negotiate or even address the strikers’ five demands, and they failed in any way to appreciate the urgency of this situation,” said mediator Ron Ahnen.  The mediation team’s meeting with the federal health receiver’s office overseeing the California prison system left some assurances that the strikers would receive due medical care and left open prospects for future communication and discussions.

“This is a matter of life and death for both the strikers and their families,” said mediator Barbara Becnel.  “We object in the strongest possible terms to the complacency of the CDCR.”  Mediators have urged CDCR Secretary Beard to meet with them as soon as possible.  His office has yet to respond.

Meanwhile strikers being held in Administrative Segregation at Pelican Bay Prison are reported to be feeling strong and in high spirits.  They issued a statement today, which reads:

Greetings of solidarity and respect to all of our supporters, all people of conscience around the world, and all similarly situated prisoners.  You should know that once again our peaceful protest is making history, bringing international attention to our collective efforts to bring an end, once and for all, to the inhumane conditions and torture of indefinite solitary confinement.

We are being tortured each day by state officials (Governor Brown, his appointee CDCR Secretary Beard, and all his underlings). Increased retaliation has been perpetuated upon defenseless and starving prisoners who only seek what any human being strives for—humane treatment, dignity, equality, and justice for our families, loved ones, and ourselves.  These are the fundamental rights of all people, including those incarcerated by the state.  We are doing all we can, together with our outside supporters, to bring about a positive changes.  Gov. Brown is not above the will of the people of California, and if he refuses to recognize the legitimacy of our human and civil rights struggle against the practices of this prison system, then it is the responsibility of the federal government and President Obama to use their powers to stop the harm being done to thousands of prisoners being held in solitary confinement. 

CDCR officials are attempting to undermine the voluntary actions of prisoners who truly want better treatment and living conditions by wrongfully accusing us of forcing tens-of-thousands of prisoners across California, along with our supporters in the free world, to participate in our protest.  Prisoners across the state are participating because of the inhumane conditions they are being subjected to.  As HUMAN BEINGS prisoners are collectively resisting such treatment, and they are doing so peacefully.  The attempted repression of our protest has not broken our spirits.  In fact it has only helped to strengthen each of us—individually and collectively. Despite CDCR’s retaliations and propaganda, we remain steadfast in our commitment.  We will see our peaceful hunger strike through to victory, even if this requires us to endure the torture of force-feeding. We believe at this point in our struggle we are prepared to do what is necessary in order for Gov. Brown and the CDCR to realize how serious we are, and how far and long we are willing to go to have our reasonable demands implemented. 

We are hopeful that all those brave men and women across the state who are participating in this strike—all who are able health-wise—will be encouraged to issue public statements of their own, via media outlets across the country, letting the world know why they have taken part in this historic, collective struggle. 

In closing, we want to inform the world that this hunger strike is far from over.  We are in it for the long haul.  Thus, we strongly urge Gov. Brown to return from his “get-away” vacation overseas and deal urgently with this crisis before more prisoners suffer serious health damage or death.  If any deaths do occur, the responsibility for them will fall squarely on Brown and the CDCR in their callousness and inaction. 

We believe that we will prevail.

In Solidarity,
PBSP-SHU Short Corridor Representatives
- Todd Ashker, C-58191, PBSP-SHU, D4-121
- Arturo Castellanos, C-17275, PBSP-SHU, D1-121
- Sitawa Nantambu Jamaa (Dewberry), C-35671, PBSP-SHU,D1-117
- Antonio Guillen, P-81948, PBSP-SHU, D2-106

1) DAY 17: Call Governor Jerry Brown
Phone: (916) 445-2841
(510) 289-0336
(510) 628-0202
Fax: (916) 558-3160

Suggested script: I’m calling in support of the prisoners on hunger strike. The governor has the power to stop the torture of solitary confinement. I urge the governor to compel the CDCR to enter into negotiations to end the strike. RIGHT NOW is their chance to enter into clear, honest negotiations with the strikers to end the torture.

2) Make sure you send this email to your friends, families, and networks. Ask them to stand in solidarity with us - sign the petition today and help us reach 30,000 calls

3) We encourage you to plan a gathering in your neighborhood to make calls and organize other solidarity actions. You can also come support actions this week

- Sunday, July 28 at 10am (Norwalk City Hall, 12700 Norwalk Blvd. Norwalk, CA 90650)
- Tuesday, July 30th at 10am (State Capitol, 1315 10th St  Sacramento, CA 95814)  
Thank you for your commitment. Ya Basta!

El 08 de julio 2013 presos en Pelican Bay y otras prisiones reanudaron su huelga de hambre y comenzaron paros. Se han comprometido a continuar la huelga hasta que el gobernador de California Jerry Brown y el Departamento de Correcciones de California toman medidas decisivas para satisfacer sus demandas.
Hoy es el día 17 de la huelga de hambre, y el CDCR sigue tomando represalias contra los presos que participaron en esta protesta pacífica mientras niegan a negociar. Es importante que sigamos para mostrar nuestro apoyo y mantener la presión sobre el gobernador Brown y el CDCR!

Tenemos más de 5,000 personas que han firmado la petición al gobernador Brown. Ahora necesitamos 30,000 llamadas para los 30,000 huelguistas!
¡únase con nosotrxs y usen su poder político!
1) Día 17: Llamen al gobernador jerry brown
teléfono: (916) 445-2841
(510) 289-0336
(510) 628-0202
FAX: (916) 558-3160

Guión Sugerido: Estoy llamando porque apoyo a los presos que participan en la huelga de hambre. El gobernador tiene todo el poder para eliminar la tortura de aislamiento en solitario. Yo insto al gobernador a que exija al CDCR entrar en negociaciones claras y honestas con los huelguistas para poner así fin a la huelga. AHORITA MISMO es su oportunidad de negociar y terminar con la tortura injustificada.
2) Asegúrese de enviar este correo electrónico a sus amigos, familias y redes. Pídales que ser solidarios con nosotros - firmar la petición hoy y ayúdenos a alcanzar 30,000 llamadas

3) Recomendamos que hagan llamadas y organizen eventos de concientización sobre condiciones inhumanas en las prisiones para despertar y unir la comunidad. También puedes venir a los acciones de apoyo esta semana.

- Domingo, 28 de julio a las 10am (Norwalk City Hall, 12700 Norwalk Blvd. Norwalk, CA 90650.)

- Martes, 30 de julio a las 10am (State Capitol, 1315 10th St Sacramento, CA 95814)
Gracias por tu compromiso. Ya Basta

In solidarity/En solidaridad,

Annie Banks

CURB Intern

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John Grishom: "Gitmo, a sad perversion of American Justice"

US justice: Making friends around the world

by Richard Mellor

Afscme Local 444, retired

The only way one can avoid being sickened and disgusted by the existence of the Guantanamo concentration camp in US occupied Cuba is if one ignores it; and that’s what the vast majority of Americans do.  For many years growing up in Britain I paid little attention to the terrorism of the British state in Northern Ireland as well. I couldn’t avoid the news completely so the hunger strikers, the B Specials, the sectarian killings the treatment of Catholics and what it meant, all came to me through the “official”state media.  With some help, I eventually broke out of my isolation and came to understand the history behind the occupation of Ireland’s six northern counties and the troubles and violence that was still occurring there.

After spending billions of dollars of US taxpayer money arming al Qaeda and the Islamic movement in Afghanistan, the employer/employee relationship between the Pentagon and the Taliban, the backward reactionary feudal warlords, was eventually severed by 1999. (Up until 1999 every Taliban official was on the payroll of the US government, treatment of women be damned.) *  After 911, the US offered its new allies, the ruthless Northern Alliance, bounties if they captured and handed over terrorists which they did with gusto.  People were then jailed, tortured, killed and eventually drugged, hooded and flown to the concentration camp at Guantanamo. As we shared with our readers recently, many Taliban that surrendered with the promise of amnesty were brutally murdered under the guidance of US military personnel.  The fate of three British tourists, rounded up by US allies is well documented in the movie Road to Guantanamo. For the US public, burdened with the most censored media and highly efficient state surveillance and propaganda machine, we have no clue who the people in Guantanamo really are.

The hunger strike at Guantanamo is continuing and some prisoners are considering the only path open to them, plead guilty to war crimes in the hope of getting some sort of trial.  That’s what 11-year resident, Sufiyan Barhoumi would like to do the Wall Street Journal reports this week.  The problem is that the Pentagon won’t charge him with anything.  One of the reasons is the legal wrangling that is going on around these detainees.  The main war US capitalism is engaged in is the “War on terror”, and “terror” not being a nation or having an army or state as it is actually a tactic, tends to complicate things.

The human beings in Guantanamo are not in America, I don’t mean physically, because Guantanamo is in occupied Cuba, but legally and other ways.  In the US under most circumstances, the justice system releases you if you are not charged with a crime after a certain time.  But not so in Guantanamo as the WSJ explains:

“Elsewhere in the American justice system, suspects go free unless prosecutors file charges. In Guantanamo, the opposite is true: Detainees who aren't charged and are presumed innocent under the Military Commissions Act of specific war crimes nevertheless face indefinite detention because the Pentagon has classified them as enemy combatants.”

“Enemy combatants” is a handy term and doesn’t fall from the sky by chance.  Language is important it seems. Being “enemy combatants” or, as we are finding out a “terrorist” strips you of rights society offers to the population as a whole or rights that soldiers have when nations enter conflict.  British colonialism refused to give the collective term “rebellion” to those who fought its occupation and theft of their land as this would give them legitimacy.  The Mau Mau were terrorists not freedom fighters, the same with Irish resistance to 500 years of British occupation. The difference is significant as convicting a Guantanamo inmate of war crimes means the thugs at the Pentagon must prove it to a military commission beyond a reasonable doubt.  But with enemy combatants, all that has to be shown is that a “preponderance of evidence”  or with as the WSJ explains “a 51% certainty”  the accused “belonged to a force associated with the Taliban or Al Qaeda”.  As I point out above you’d have to arrest the entire US Congress for that but the statute of limitation has expired on that one conveniently. What al Qaeda is if it is anything at all is a mystery as any resistance to US imperialism’s adventures are “alleged militants” “alleged insurgents” “terrorists”etc.  Friends of the Pentagon are always “rebels”.

So the methods and practices in Guantanamo are not new.  Domestically, they are used in US prisons daily.  For example, Guantanamo authorities are suggesting that they will file charges so concentration camp occupants can offer some sort of legal response and a chance of leaving the place if they testify against each other. In the present hunger strikes in California prisons this is one of the demands, stop forcing inmates to snitch on each other.  While it has been proven that not very useful information comes from torture as people will say anything to put an end to it, getting prisoners to turn anyone in for anything in order to improve their own conditions serves the authorities well, it divides the population, increases internecine gang and racial warfare and strengthens the forces of the state. This is why the struggle for prisoner’s rights must include the right to have independent unions that can represent their interests. In the case of the above mentioned Mr. Barhoumi, they want him to testify against a fellow inmate considered more important,

Being more important than Barhoumi this man was not sent straight to Guantanamo but first to a CIA torture center in Afghanistan where he was waterboarded 83 times according to the WSJ. As with inmates in the US gulag, the human character is very strong as is the hatred of organized state forces and people don’t give up others easily. It’s not a question of taking sides here but even those we oppose have to be respected at times for their principled commitment to what they believe rightly or wrongly is a just cause.  Mr. Barhoumi is “willing to work with this system and plead guilty because it’s his only alternative to indefinite detention” Capt. Justin Swick, his defense attorney tells the WSJ, but he refuses to win his freedom or possibility of it by testifying against others which is the US government’s condition to set the process in motion, “He won’t help convict someone else in a system he believes is illegitimate” says Swick.

There are some decent people in this world. Swick points out that Guantanamo authorities refused to allow John Grisham novels in to the camp as they’re “problematic”.  I’ve never read a Grisham novel so I’m not really sure what horrific dangers one could produce for US authorities or how they threaten the American way of life. But I am tempted to read Mr Grishom whose response to Guantanamo authorities concern about safety and inmate care was, “In response to all their humaneness is to ask where waterboarding fits in.” adding that “Gitmo is a sad perversion of American justice.”

Apparently, the thugs that run the place have backed off on the Grishom novels for MR. Bargoumi, perhaps as a response to the massive hunger strike that is occurring there.  Barhoumi is pleased but will wait till he’s off hunger strike before he reads them. 

The  US state apparatus combines coercion, manipulation, incarceration and the most brutal violence in its war on the workers and middle class. Guantanamo is nothing new, not the exception when it comes to the treatment of the incarcerated.Along with this, racism, sexism and blaming immigrants and foreigners for their crisis, are all tactics aimed at weakening the unity of the working class. People have an understanding that to confront this war machine is serious business and a daunting task; the lack of mass protests at the war being waged against workers in the US is not simply due to apathy. Although we have seen some resistance over the past period and tremendous support for the Occupy Movement as well as lots of isolated individual struggles around the environment,  racism, police brutality, housing etc. , I think there is still a strong feeling among the majority of the population that there’s not much we can do, so there’s a sort of numbing to it all and a “get on with my life”attitude hoping the tide will turn.  But more and more Americans are drawing the conclusion that the tide will not turn so this mood can rapidly change as US history shows and an overconfident US capitalist class can and will make some serious miscalculations that will hasten this process.

*See Michel Chossudovsky: War and Globalization 

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Sterilization: coercion is not consent!

Cynthia Chandler is the co-founder of Justice Now.  She gives FFWP permission to publish her comments on why sterilization coercion is not consent!  She asks our readers to sign on to the petition to stand up to forced sterilization.  We also published a previous blog about forced sterilization in India, offering women I Phones in exchange for sterilization.  This also is not free choice, it's coercion, it's more, it's violence against women.
                      ***************

 

by Cynthia Chandler

 My response to prison officials who say women in prison signed release forms before being sterilized: Of course. That is the whole point. In a coercive environment, people in power can make people who are dominated do or say anything, including signing a release form authorizing sterilization.

Think about it. Arrest a woman when she is pregnant. Cage her in a jail designed to be so unpleasant that it induces plea bargains quickly. Feed her nothing but a couple of bologna sandwiches daily. Shackle her with her hands behind her back in a paddy-wagon, where she can do nothing to protect her belly as she is jostled about, and then take her to court to face the humiliation and life destruction that is criminal prosecution.

Send her to prison where she will be stripped and body cavity searched, her changing breasts and belly exposed, inspected, and patted down publicly, daily, repeatedly. Give her very limited food, the quality of which is so poor, people try to not eat it anyway. Subject her to daily taunts of bitch, nigger, whore by guards. Subject her to doctors with a demonstrated lack of attention and skill that results in documented abnormally high levels of miscarriage and still birth. Some doctors will refuse to even touch her.

Have her stand in the hot central valley sun in 100+ degree heat for hours to try to get prenatal vitamins. Add continued taunts reminding her that she is an unfit mother--that she deserves to, and will, have her baby taken from her at birth. She will sleep on a thin egg crate mattress over a concrete slab--back pain, sciatica, irrelevant.

Have her be alone without family, birth attendant, anyone to give her basic information about how and why her body is changing, what it means, how to cope with birth. There is no birth plan. There is no information about what a birth plan is. Know that there is a high likelihood that she has survived child sexual abuse and violence and that having her body taken hold by her baby inside her, no matter how much she loves her child, likely triggers fear over loss of control and post traumatic stress disorder. Good luck getting prompt medical attention if she should start bleeding or get an infection. And if she should refuse even one suggestion made by an inattentive physician, she will know that getting attention later will be even less likely.

Those same doctors will be reminding her of how irresponsible she was to get pregnant, how she will be doing the right thing to agree to be sterilized, that to do so is to be a good mother/Californian/person. When she goes into labor, in a crowded cell designed for 4 people and now housing 8, she will have to try to keep quiet so as to not increase tension among everyone else caged in the cell. When she is near birth, and only then, will she be put into a cage, within a van, like a dog, and brought to a hospital by the same pool of guards who refer to her and women in prison generally with racist, sexist slurs. Until recently, she would have been shackled, too, unable to use her hands to keep pressure off her vagina or to find any comfort during contractions, or generally, to keep from falling in any direction. Her world may very well be a sea of pain, fear, and shame. She will arrive at her final destination--a rural hospital with less than 100 beds and a distressing reputation for poor care.

The whole prison has been renovated, except the wing for prisoners that remains as it has for over 20 years. The medical staff refer to it colloquially as the dungeon. She will know no one. And she will know that when her baby comes, her baby will be taken away, most likely forever. And then a doctor, with his own agenda of saving the state money and possibly ridding the world of people like her, says he can help her. He can make sure she never has to experience any of this pain ever again. It's a simple procedure. Just sign this form. This pain will be in the past and you can go on with your life. And a correctional officer looks on. And again, until recently, she would be shackled to a gurney. And she signs.

By 1970, even without the added pain of daily life in prison, over one-third of all Puerto Rican women of child bearing age were coerced during the pain of labor into "consenting" to sterilization during labor and delivery through government-led eugenic programs. Californian doctors similarly coerced tens of thousands of Latinas to "agree" to be sterilized during labor and delivery in Los Angeles in the same period. Early civil rights activists understood how these sterilization programs were racist, sexist and wholly coercive--the consent the government was so proud of obtaining, was not consent--it was the product of intimidation, fear and coercion. And that is why there are now federal safeguards radically limiting when and how free-world people can consent to sterilization surrounding pregnancy. And why there is a total prohibition on any sterilizations for the purpose of birth control on people in prison--because it was understood that any attempt at obtaining consent in that kind of coercive environment is unreliable at best.

So of course California coerced women into signing consent forms before committing the crime of sterilizing them. Congratulations. Shows what bullies they are. They know how to intimidate women well.

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California prisoners hunger strike, condemns solitary confinement

30,000 California prisoners started a hunger strike yesterday to protest the inhumane conditions and in particular years in solitary confinement. As the video from Al Jazeera above states, a hunger strike isn’t recognized as such until participants refuse 9 meals. We have blogged about the situation in Guantanamo where hunger strikers are being force fed, a cruel and painful procedure. Prisoners from Pelican Bay's SHU released a statement describing their actions and intentions:

“The principal prisoner representatives from the PBSP SHU Short Corridor Collective Human Rights Movement do hereby present public notice that our nonviolent peaceful protest of our subjection to decades of indefinite state-sanctioned torture, via long term solitary confinement will resume today, consisting of a hunger strike/work stoppage of indefinite duration until [the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation] signs a legally binding agreement meeting our demands, the heart of which mandates an end to long-term solitary confinement (as well as additional major reforms).”

What is Solitary Confinement? (from Prisoner Hunger Strike Solidarity)

"In California, nearly 12,000 imprisoned people spend 23 of 24 hours living in a concrete cell smaller than a large bathroom. The cells have no windows, no access to fresh air or sunlight. People in solitary confinement exercise an hour a day in a cage the size of a dog run. They are not allowed to make any phone calls to their loved ones. They cannot touch family members who often travel days for a 90 minute visit; their conversation and their mail is monitored by prison guards. They are not allowed to talk to other imprisoned people. They are denied all educational programs, and their reading materials are censored. UN Special Rapporteur on Torture, Juan Mendez, stated that any time over 15 days in solitary confinement constitutes torture. Yet many people in California state prisons have been encaged in solitary for 10 to 40 years!"

The US with 2 million incarcerated has the largest prison population in the world. It is big business and a very lucrative one. These are the workers and the poor that capitalism abandons, a huge proportion of them people of color. The prison industrial complex is simply the warehousing of human beings, keeping them out of sight and out of mind. Prisoner’s rights are extremely limited. The return rate is considerable as the system makes no real effort to help prisoners return to society. A guaranteed job and a $20 an hour minimum wage would do a lot to halt not only crime but the return rate for prisoners.

Having to fend for themselves in a society that has very limited social services of any kind they often return to the milieu that they feel can provide some sense of security and belonging. Incarceration in the US is also a way of disenfranchising people politically. The racist and brutal US prison system perpetuates violence. Sexual abuse of both women and men is rampant. It is truly the American Gulag. You can sign a petition supporting the hunger strikers at the Prisoner Solidarity website.

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Guantanamo Hunger Strikers Being Force Fed

You think this might generate hatred for the US?

Unbeknownst to most Americans many inmates in the concentration camp at Guantanamo Bay Cuba are on hunger strike and have been since early February.  The list is growing and 11 of the 31 are being force fed.

From RT
“As you know half of the men at Guantanamo have been cleared for release, yet they are still there, locked up, stuck in this limbo, desperate. And I was going to ask, when they will let these men go and whether this would make any difference if somebody died in this ongoing hunger strike… I never got the chance to ask that question,” Chichakyan said.

Gayane Chichakayan is an RT reporter who tried to ask Obama's Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel a question about the situation in the camp at a news briefing yesterday but he refused to recognize her and never mentioned the conditions there.

When the issue of Nazi Germany and the camps comes up, we often hear people ask, "How could that have happened? Why did people let it happen?" Well we're letting Guantanamo happen.  The average American has no idea who they have there and what for.  The same average American who doesn't trust their government or any of the people in Congress.  It's known that the US government asked its former allies, the feudal warlords in Afghanistan's Northern Alliance to go round up some terrorists for $100 a head and they did just that. Watch The Road to Guantanamo to get some idea of how successful this was.

What difference is this to Stalin's camps

But then we have two million of our own citizens in prison here, many of them have been in solitary confinement for years, many are victims of rape and sexual abuse and there is no significant force speaking out against this US Gulag either.

For an answer to why the growth of anti US terrorist groups we don't have to look any further than
US foreign policy.  Here's a link to the RT story and news video on this:
http://rt.com/news/gitmo-hunger-strike-pentagon-034/

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US prisons: Torture chambers

There is no way this is not inhumane. Firstly, the US has more people in prison than any other country. More than half of these are people of color. They call the US prison industrial complex a correctional facility, it is not. It is simply the warehousing of human beings. There is no doubt that there are some people that need to be removed from society. Some may be able to return, some not. Either way, these are human beings and what purpose does it serve to deny a person a view of the stars or the moon. There is no attempt to help people.

To lock a person in solitary confinement for 15, 20, 30 years for 22 hours a day is criminal. Watch this man walk around a concrete block. The vast majority of people in prisons would not be there were society to offer more of a future. So many that get out end up coming back. Without a guaranteed job at a $15 an hour minimum at least and a means of helping them integrate back in to society, a whole network of support, they will find the milieu that they can exist in and eventually return. The justice system is racist, and the prisons are full of working class people that capitalism and the market casts aside. We have written somewhat about this system but there is ample information out there about places like Pelican Bay. They talk of Guantanamo, but all US high security prisons are torture chambers. The US prison system is a product of savagery. How come Wolfowitz, Bush, Rumsfeld and Cheney aren't in it? The bankers aren't in it either. This short clip disgusts me. Individually it is hard to do anything and that can make one feel so powerless and as I watched this guy I wanted to do something to help. I'm not saying he is a Saint and he admits to that, but human beings can change, and the prison and justice system does nothing but incarcerate. It's rotten to the core.

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