Pelican Bay Prison Hunger Strike Shines Light on True Character of US Prison System
\nBy: Kevin Gosztola Monday July 11, 2011 12:42 pm \t<\/p>\n
Harold Koh, legal advisor to the US State Department, went before the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in November of last year and declared that the US is very proud of its human rights record. He responded to recommendations the UNHRC made in its universal periodic review of the United States\u2019 respect for human rights. Koh said in the section addressing recommendations on criminal justice, \u201cThe U.S. criminal justice system rests on the protection of individual human rights and basic principles of due process and fair and equal treatment.\u201d Prisoners striking at the Pelican Bay supermax prison in California are demonstrating to Americans and the world the scale of fraudulence behind the above statement.<\/p>\n
On July 1, 2011, Pelican Bay prisoners began an indefinite hunger strike to protest the conditions in the prison. Across prison-manufactured racial and geographical lines, prisoners came together behind five core demands to force the prison officials to end the use of \u201cgroup punishment\u201d; abolish a \u201cdebriefing policy and the current criteria for determining who is and who isn\u2019t a gang member; comply with the US Commission 2006 Recommendation Regarding an End to Long-Term Solitary Confinement and end conditions of isolation, make segregation a last resort, end long-term solitary confinement and grant access to adequate healthcare and sunlight; provide adequate food and stop using it as a tool to punish inmates; and expand constructive programming and privileges for indefinite SHU inmates.<\/p>\n
SHU stands for \u201cSecurity Housing Unit.\u201d In some prisons, the SHU is called \u201cthe hole.\u201d The SHU is a \u201cprison-within-a-prison.\u201d Solitary Watch explains the SHU became more widely used after two guards were killed in the Marion, Illinois, federal prison in 1983. That led to the Marion Lockdown with prisoners being \u201cconfined to their cells without yard time, work or any kind of rehabilitative programming.\u201d …more<\/a><\/p>\n