As of Thursday afternoon, 12,421 California inmates across 28 facilities were on hunger strike, having missed 9 consecutive meals to protest solitary confinement. Ironically, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) announced that strikers will face consequences, with one likely punishment being solitary confinement.
The CDCR statement read "Inmates identified as leading and perpetuating the disturbance…may be removed from the general population and be placed in an Administrative Segregation Unit,” according to ABC News. The department claims that a “new comprehensive strategy supports CDCR’s goals of reducing long-term SHU confinement for offenders who do not engage in gang behavior,” and that the strike ringleaders are gang members angered by this policy.
But according to Thenjiwe McHarris, a campaigner with Amnesty International, “rather than improving, conditions have actually deteriorated” with the new policy, which still allows inmates to be held in solitary confinement indefinitely. In solitary, prisoners may go 22-24 hours in small, windowless cells, essentially without human contact.
Because protests are illegal in the prison system, the LA Times writes that prisoners will likely face other penalties for participation in the strike, including denial of visits, seizure of food in cells, and citations that can affect parole options.
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