www.sfbayview.com/112002/braveresistance112002.shtml
PLEASE TAKE SOME TIME TO JOIN "FAMILIES AGAINST MANDATORY MINIMUMS" ------------
Brave resistance at Pelican Bay SHU Prison hunger strike
against Supermax torture
(Revolutionary Worker) – On Oct. 19, over 90
prisoners locked away in solitary confinement in
the Pelican Bay Security Housing Unit (SHU) began
a hunger strike. The prisoners demanded an end to
the so-called gang-based “validation,” used to
subject people to torture and isolation in California’s
four SHUs. The prisoners demanded opportunities
for education and contact with other human
beings. At press time, supporters of the prisoners say that after almost four weeks the
strike has been suspended. The 11 remaining prisoners who were refusing food had
lost up to 30 pounds.
In June 2001, 1,000 prisoners at Pelican Bay and some of the three other SHU prisons in
California went on a hunger strike for two weeks. That hunger strike was ended when
authorities promised a re-evaluation of all cases of “gang validation.” This latest hunger
strike was in response to official delays in carrying out this promise.
Pelican Bay State Prison was opened in December 1989. Three square miles were
clear-cut from dense forests on a beautiful section of the coast at the northern tip of
California. Inside the perimeter of the prison, all signs of the surrounding environment
have been obliterated - there is not a bug, not a blade of grass.
In the Security Housing Units at Pelican Bay, Corcoran, Tehachapi and Chowchilla, a
regime of scientific torture has been created. Over 1,000 prisoners are held in
bathroom-size steel boxes, 8 feet by 10 feet. There are no bars or windows. Prisoners
are not allowed educational materials or contact with other prisoners. California Prison
Focus, a community-based organization working with and for prisoners in the SHUs,
notes, “The prisoners are denied human needs such as adequate contact with loved
ones, a decent private space to live in, some say about their privileges and deprivations,
some productive outlet and a chance to learn and grow.”
Prisoners are kept isolated in these boxes 22 1/2 hours a day. “Exercise” consists of
being in a larger box, with no exercise equipment and no sight or sound from the
surrounding environment. Prisoners see friends and family members through thick walls
of glass. The only time they touch another human being is when they are handcuffed by
a guard.
“The CDC (California Department of Corrections) knew when they developed the SHU
that it would push people past the breaking point,” Makini Iyapo told the RW. Makini’s
husband, Leonard Alexander, now known as Yafeu Iyapo-I, has been in the Pelican Bay
SHU since it opened in 1989 and has continued to resist. “There are people who had
psychological trouble before they went there. Sometimes they wheel them out of there in
straightjackets. Imagine being in with guys who are banging their heads and screaming.
It’s mental torture.”
A psychiatrist working with California Prison Focus who toured the SHUs and other
“supermaximum” units reported observing many individuals suffering from the most
severe psychoses he had seen in his 30-year career.
In 2000, conditions in “supermaximum” prisons in the U.S., including the SHUs, were
condemned by the United Nations Committee on Torture. The SHU at the Valley State
Prison for Women at Chowchilla, Calif., has been the subject of international protest by
Amnesty International and has been criticized by the United Nations Rapporteur on
Violence Against Women. A U.S. federal judge found in a 1995 lawsuit that “many, if not
most, inmates in the SHU experience some degree of psychological trauma in reaction to
their extreme social isolation and the severely restricted environmental stimulation in the
SHU.”
“The SHUs are used,” as Charles Carbone, a lawyer with California Prison Focus told
the RW, “to capture those people who are able to gain any political visibility, political
notoriety, or those people that are able to mobilize and radicalize other prisoners. Those
individuals are a threat to the department.” Once in the SHU, “they’re essentially cut off
from the rest of the world and other prisoners.”
Some prominent political prisoners are at Pelican Bay, including Ruchell Magee, arrested
after the Marin courthouse shootout that involved Jonathan Jackson, brother of George
Jackson, and Hugo Pinell, another associate of George Jackson and one of the San
Quentin 6. Steve Castillo, who participated in the most recent hunger strike, was sent to
Pelican Bay for being a jailhouse lawyer.
The California Department of Corrections says the purpose of the SHUs is to control
prison gangs. So they have created a sham system of gang “validation” to try to justify
not only locking people away in the SHUs, but as a pretext for the existence of these
torture chambers in the first place.
A validation is not based on anything a prisoner may have done against prison rules, but
on “association” with a “gang member,” or someone suspected of being a gang member.
“You can do something as simple as talking to an alleged gang member in the law library
about the ordinary incidents of prison life,” Charles Carbone pointed out, “nothing to do
with gang activity whatsoever. You can talk about the weather. That association alone
is enough to use as a source document (for a validation).”
Such source documents include things like signing a get well card or having someone’s
name in your address book. People are labeled as gang members for having Aztec
drawings and pictures, or materials in Nahuatl, Celtic, Gaelic or Swahili.
“It’s not the purpose and content of the communication,” Carbone added, “it’s the mere
communication. If they want a completely confidential gang validation, which they do on
a regular basis, they can do that. You’re sitting in solitary confinement for 10 years, and
you tell your captors, `Why am I here?’ and they say, `We can’t tell you that.’”
Activists and family members point out that there are gang members in every prison
population, and there are people in the SHUs who were never even accused of
gang-related activity. “It’s the most arbitrary and capricious system you’ve ever heard
of,” said Carbone.
Once in the SHU, prisoners are told they have only three ways out: snitch, die or get
paroled. They also say that you can leave the SHU if you are free from gang
associations for six years. But this condition is nearly impossible to fulfill. The official
pressure to snitch results in desperate prisoners simply making up things about others in
the SHU, leading to others being “revalidated.”
The SHU is meant to create a climate of hopelessness, an atmosphere meant to break
people down and crush their will to resist.
The authorities “are bewildered by the fact that these guys have been able to stay as
strong as they have,” Makini Iyapo told the RW. “They’re fighting for their own sanity.
They’re depressed, restless. The fact that they get up every day and get dressed - and
they have a regimen that they do - I think it’s amazing.”
She talked about how the prisoners stay strong by helping each other. “Each pod has
eight cells. I call it their community. Any time they go to the canteen or they get their
annual package (a package from outside that Pelican Bay prisoners are allowed to
receive once a year), it’s always divided into eight. Regardless if it’s for my husband or
the Hispanic prisoner downstairs, they divide everything. If somebody’s out of
something, if you don’t have any money on your books, they’ll order something for you. I
send writing supplies once a month to 17 guys. If somebody’s worried about their
mother, my husband will ask me, `Will you call this person?’”...... more on link
PLEASE TAKE SOME TIME TO JOIN "FAMILIES AGAINST MANDATORY MINIMUMS" ------------
Brave resistance at Pelican Bay SHU Prison hunger strike
against Supermax torture
(Revolutionary Worker) – On Oct. 19, over 90
prisoners locked away in solitary confinement in
the Pelican Bay Security Housing Unit (SHU) began
a hunger strike. The prisoners demanded an end to
the so-called gang-based “validation,” used to
subject people to torture and isolation in California’s
four SHUs. The prisoners demanded opportunities
for education and contact with other human
beings. At press time, supporters of the prisoners say that after almost four weeks the
strike has been suspended. The 11 remaining prisoners who were refusing food had
lost up to 30 pounds.
In June 2001, 1,000 prisoners at Pelican Bay and some of the three other SHU prisons in
California went on a hunger strike for two weeks. That hunger strike was ended when
authorities promised a re-evaluation of all cases of “gang validation.” This latest hunger
strike was in response to official delays in carrying out this promise.
Pelican Bay State Prison was opened in December 1989. Three square miles were
clear-cut from dense forests on a beautiful section of the coast at the northern tip of
California. Inside the perimeter of the prison, all signs of the surrounding environment
have been obliterated - there is not a bug, not a blade of grass.
In the Security Housing Units at Pelican Bay, Corcoran, Tehachapi and Chowchilla, a
regime of scientific torture has been created. Over 1,000 prisoners are held in
bathroom-size steel boxes, 8 feet by 10 feet. There are no bars or windows. Prisoners
are not allowed educational materials or contact with other prisoners. California Prison
Focus, a community-based organization working with and for prisoners in the SHUs,
notes, “The prisoners are denied human needs such as adequate contact with loved
ones, a decent private space to live in, some say about their privileges and deprivations,
some productive outlet and a chance to learn and grow.”
Prisoners are kept isolated in these boxes 22 1/2 hours a day. “Exercise” consists of
being in a larger box, with no exercise equipment and no sight or sound from the
surrounding environment. Prisoners see friends and family members through thick walls
of glass. The only time they touch another human being is when they are handcuffed by
a guard.
“The CDC (California Department of Corrections) knew when they developed the SHU
that it would push people past the breaking point,” Makini Iyapo told the RW. Makini’s
husband, Leonard Alexander, now known as Yafeu Iyapo-I, has been in the Pelican Bay
SHU since it opened in 1989 and has continued to resist. “There are people who had
psychological trouble before they went there. Sometimes they wheel them out of there in
straightjackets. Imagine being in with guys who are banging their heads and screaming.
It’s mental torture.”
A psychiatrist working with California Prison Focus who toured the SHUs and other
“supermaximum” units reported observing many individuals suffering from the most
severe psychoses he had seen in his 30-year career.
In 2000, conditions in “supermaximum” prisons in the U.S., including the SHUs, were
condemned by the United Nations Committee on Torture. The SHU at the Valley State
Prison for Women at Chowchilla, Calif., has been the subject of international protest by
Amnesty International and has been criticized by the United Nations Rapporteur on
Violence Against Women. A U.S. federal judge found in a 1995 lawsuit that “many, if not
most, inmates in the SHU experience some degree of psychological trauma in reaction to
their extreme social isolation and the severely restricted environmental stimulation in the
SHU.”
“The SHUs are used,” as Charles Carbone, a lawyer with California Prison Focus told
the RW, “to capture those people who are able to gain any political visibility, political
notoriety, or those people that are able to mobilize and radicalize other prisoners. Those
individuals are a threat to the department.” Once in the SHU, “they’re essentially cut off
from the rest of the world and other prisoners.”
Some prominent political prisoners are at Pelican Bay, including Ruchell Magee, arrested
after the Marin courthouse shootout that involved Jonathan Jackson, brother of George
Jackson, and Hugo Pinell, another associate of George Jackson and one of the San
Quentin 6. Steve Castillo, who participated in the most recent hunger strike, was sent to
Pelican Bay for being a jailhouse lawyer.
The California Department of Corrections says the purpose of the SHUs is to control
prison gangs. So they have created a sham system of gang “validation” to try to justify
not only locking people away in the SHUs, but as a pretext for the existence of these
torture chambers in the first place.
A validation is not based on anything a prisoner may have done against prison rules, but
on “association” with a “gang member,” or someone suspected of being a gang member.
“You can do something as simple as talking to an alleged gang member in the law library
about the ordinary incidents of prison life,” Charles Carbone pointed out, “nothing to do
with gang activity whatsoever. You can talk about the weather. That association alone
is enough to use as a source document (for a validation).”
Such source documents include things like signing a get well card or having someone’s
name in your address book. People are labeled as gang members for having Aztec
drawings and pictures, or materials in Nahuatl, Celtic, Gaelic or Swahili.
“It’s not the purpose and content of the communication,” Carbone added, “it’s the mere
communication. If they want a completely confidential gang validation, which they do on
a regular basis, they can do that. You’re sitting in solitary confinement for 10 years, and
you tell your captors, `Why am I here?’ and they say, `We can’t tell you that.’”
Activists and family members point out that there are gang members in every prison
population, and there are people in the SHUs who were never even accused of
gang-related activity. “It’s the most arbitrary and capricious system you’ve ever heard
of,” said Carbone.
Once in the SHU, prisoners are told they have only three ways out: snitch, die or get
paroled. They also say that you can leave the SHU if you are free from gang
associations for six years. But this condition is nearly impossible to fulfill. The official
pressure to snitch results in desperate prisoners simply making up things about others in
the SHU, leading to others being “revalidated.”
The SHU is meant to create a climate of hopelessness, an atmosphere meant to break
people down and crush their will to resist.
The authorities “are bewildered by the fact that these guys have been able to stay as
strong as they have,” Makini Iyapo told the RW. “They’re fighting for their own sanity.
They’re depressed, restless. The fact that they get up every day and get dressed - and
they have a regimen that they do - I think it’s amazing.”
She talked about how the prisoners stay strong by helping each other. “Each pod has
eight cells. I call it their community. Any time they go to the canteen or they get their
annual package (a package from outside that Pelican Bay prisoners are allowed to
receive once a year), it’s always divided into eight. Regardless if it’s for my husband or
the Hispanic prisoner downstairs, they divide everything. If somebody’s out of
something, if you don’t have any money on your books, they’ll order something for you. I
send writing supplies once a month to 17 guys. If somebody’s worried about their
mother, my husband will ask me, `Will you call this person?’”...... more on link