Rally in Support of the Hunger Strike and Just Demands of Prisoners at Pelican Bay State Prison
Tuesday, July 12, 2011 -- 10:30 am,
On the steps of the Cook County Courthouse
(26th & California)

In an act of tremendous courage, prisoners in the Security Housing Unit (SHU) at Pelican Bay State Prison in California are beginning an indefinite hunger strike on July 1, 2011. This hunger strike is demanding an end to the horrendous and dehumanizing conditions imposed on prisoners at Pelican Bay. People everywhere must come to their aid and support their demands.

Pelican Bay State Prison (PBSP) is a super-maximum security prison located in an isolated part of northern California, twenty miles from the Oregon border. There are more than 3,000 prisoners confined at this prison. More than a thousand prisoners are locked down in the SHU at Pelican Bay, where they are subjected to isolation, maximum sensory deprivation, and brutality.

These conditions are horrific, dehumanizing and in violation of international law. This is official state-sanctioned torture, carried out in state and federal prisons across the nation. In fact, tens of thousands of prisoners are confined to isolation units throughout the country.]

The following core demands are being circulated in a "final notice from prisoners on D-Corridor" at Pelican Bay:

1) End "group punishment" where an individual prisoner breaks a rule and prison officials punish a whole group of prisoners of the same race.

2) Abolish "debriefing" and modify active/inactive gang status criteria. False and/or highly questionable "evidence" is used to accuse prisoners of being active/inactive members of prison gangs who are then sent to the SHU where they are subjected to long-term isolation and torturous conditions. One of the only ways these prisoners can get out the SHU is if they "debrief"...that is, give prison officials information on gang activity.

3) Comply with recommendations from a 2006 U.S. commission to "make segregation a last resort" and "end conditions of isolation."
4) Provide Adequate Food. Prisoners report unsanitary conditions and small quantities of food. They want adequate food, wholesome nutritional meals including special diet meals and an end to the use of food as a way to punish prisoners in the SHU.

5) Expand and provide constructive programs and privileges for indefinite SHU inmates...including the opportunity to "engage in self-help treatment, education, religious and other productive activities..." which are routinely denied. Demands include one phone call per week, more visiting time, permission to have wall calendars, sweat suits and watch caps (warm clothing is often denied even though cells and the exercise cage can be bitterly cold.

The prisoners who have called for this strike have made clear that they are uniting across racial lines, an extremely important development, given racial divisions in prison, which are often fomented by prison officials. And they have called on prisoners throughout the California prison system, including prisoners who are "suffering injustices in general population, administrative segregation and solitary confinement," to join them in the strike.

The prisoners are shining a spotlight on the horrific and unacceptable conditions existing inside the corridors of Pelican Bay State Prison; they must not be allowed to stand alone. People throughout the state of California and beyond must urgently come to their aid and support, standing firmly in support of the hunger strike and supporting the just demands of the prisoners.

Resources on the Pelican Bay Prison Hunger Strike: prisonerhungerstrikesolidarity.wordpress.com/

News from Pelican Bay Hunger Strike and Protests:
Revcom.us

Speakers/Endorsers list in formation includes:
Duffie Clark, Illinois Institute for Community Law
Mark Clemmons, Administrator with the Campaign to End the Death Penalty
Englewood Political Task Force
Fred Hampton, Jr.; Chairman of the Prisoners of Conscience Committee
Omega; C Number Prisoners Campaign
Dwight Taylor, Citizens Against Violence in Gary
Voice Of The Ex-offender (V.O.T.E.)