2013-07-28 California prisoners' hunger strike - previous articles
Strike supported by California bishops
Katie
Rose Quandt We
Are One Body Catholics against
use of solitary confinement:
Prisoners in solitary confinement spend 22 to 24 hours a day in an 8-foot by
10-foot cell in conditions of extreme isolation and sensory deprivation. Some
languish in these tomb-like cells for years or even decades. And in the US, the
practice is far from rare. Although solitary confinement is often thought of as
a last resort for the most dangerous criminals, in fact 80,000 prisoners are
held in isolation in state and federal prisons across the country on any given
day
Revolutionary
Mercy How Gospel forgiveness challenges our
social order:
Many Americans who most fervently identify as Christians and promote
Christian values in society are also among the most ardent “law and order”
advocates, extremely tough on crime and opposed to any emphasis on
rehabilitation. Perhaps at some level, we all intuit an unsettling truth:
Radical forgiveness, as articulated and practiced by Jesus, might in fact be
deeply threatening to the social order.
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Force-feeding prisoners in California and Guantánamo solves nothing (Guardian)
Punishment
and Poverty
- private prison companies lobby for stricter
laws...to get more "clients"
- a judge was sentenced to 28 years in prison for taking a $1
million bribe from the builder of a private prison, and then sentencing
juveniles appearing before his court to prison time, filling his
benefactors’ coffers as he lined his pockets
After Guantánamo, Another Injustice (NY Times) Shame USA! Shame Obama!
US might slash prison terms (Guardian) (and see comment from "John Hu")
California Correctional Crisis As an attorney and academic, I have conducted over 60 interviews with people sequestered in SHUs, and have witnessed the physical and psychological effects of isolation
Update by The
Guardian: 'Each
minute has been torturous'
(check the terrible ..."let 'em rot" comments)
(Huff Post): California Prisoners Starve Themselves to Show Us the Emaciation of Our National Character
Hunger
Strikes Are Ravaging Californian Prisons
(a powerful article ...please
read...then pray)
July
31, 2013: Student
abandoned in US prison cell gets $4.1m payout (Guardian)
Daniel
Chong faced no charges but was forgotten
and endured four days
locked up in a windowless
isolation cell without food or water
Video
– July 17 Panel Discussion
Panel members include two former prisoners who spent time in solitary
confinement cells (which have been condemned by the UN as torture chambers)
The
plight of California's prisons
Since 2006, 62 prisoners behind bars in California have died from "valley
fever" which undoubtedly is related to overcrowding and other unhealthy
conditions. And 80% of those contracting the illness have been African-American
Letter from doctor who worked in Pelican Bay Prison - torture described medically
Solitary Confinement (Website)
Strong support letter from Germany - time of crisis, Governor Brown on holidays
My article in HK Ming Pao newspaper
Counting
prison blessings in Missouri in light of California hunger strike (NCR)
- see comment by Carrie Sides: These men and women
are put in these windowless concrete cells with 24/7 illumination, with NO human
contact
Solitary confinement should be banned in most cases, UN expert says
Segregation, isolation, separation, cellular, lockdown, Supermax, the hole,
Secure Housing Unit… whatever the name, solitary confinement should be banned
by States as a punishment or extortion technique
Governor Jerry Brown - Australian readers will immediately think "Tony Abbot"!
Compelling video report on hunger strike, with background re hunger strikes, and much info re current hunger strike at Pelican Bay Prison in California (where prisoners have been in solitary confinement for up to 28 years!) + info re law suit to put an end to solitary confinement
Jerry Brown’s George Wallace Moment on Prisons (with comment from jw)
The Prison Industry in the United States: Big Business or a New Form of Slavery?
Torture: The Use of Solitary Confinement in U.S. Prisons
California
prison hunger strike is call for justice
(really excellent article from The Guardian)
Finding
Beauty and Grace in Prisons
Prisons are not normally associated with beauty or grace, but prison chaplain,
Good Samaritan Sister Mary O’Shannassy, says she often experiences both those
things in the people with whom she ministers – the same people that society
shuns and would sooner forget. “It’s very much the God in them meeting the
God in me,” Mary says.
Powerful video about solitary confinement
California prisoners launch biggest hunger strike in state's history (see comment by "JohnHu" ...and notice the ghastly tone of most comments..."let 'em rot")
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Comments welcome here