Day 38 of the California Prisoners Hunger Strike: Life – Sized SHU Cell Installed on State Capitol Steps – 100 people rally to protest Prison Torture and Support Prisoners 5 Demands
On Wednesday, August 14, an extraordinarily urgent press conference, SHU replica installation and protest was held on the steps of the State Capitol in Sacramento, California, to expose the lies of the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) and the silence of Governor Jerry Brown, and to demand that the authorities meet the prisoners' 5 demands – including an end to the torture of indefinite, long-term solitary confinement.
The protest, initiated by the Stop Mass Incarceration Network (SMIN) and State Assemblymember Tom Ammiano, and joined by California Families to Abolish Solitary Confinement (CFASC), and the National Religious Campaign Against Torture (NRCAT) drew some 100 people, including dozens of family members of people in solitary, prison rights activists, revolutionaries, and other concerned people. At least 25 people traveled hundreds of miles from as far south as San Diego to attend.
At dawn activists from Stop Mass Incarceration assembled a solitary SHU cell replica on the cement plaza at the South Steps of the California State Capitol in Sacramento. The glowing white domed Capitol with the small wooden model SHU cell set up outside resembled a plantation mansion and a slave shack.
All day legislators and their aides hurried by, some averting their eyes and muttering inaudibly, with a few stopping and peeking into the interior. A mariachi group stopped to talk with activists and family members, tourists wandered in, leaning close to read the statements of the strike reps, or to study the art of Bill Michael Sell, the prisoner who died during the hunger strike. Throughout the day several hundred people stopped to look, read prisoners’ statement or study the pictures of prison cells.
At the press conference hosted by SMIN, Tom Ammiano, CFASC and NRCAT, and MC’ed by Dolores Canales of CFASC and D’Andre Teeter of SMIN, between 80-100 people listened to speakers condemning long term solitary confinement and asking that the demands of the prisoners be met.
Media presence included the LA Times, KQED, Associated Press, the Sacramento Bee, Revolution newspaper, Capitol Public Radio and others.
Assemblymember Tom Ammiano opened the press conference stating, “When you get a letter that says to incarcerate someone in solitary confinement for longer than a very short period is torture, you know the whole world is watching….There has been some very bad press on this—demonizing us for being activists for human rights for prisoners. We know that there are some people who have committed some very egregious crimes but that’s not the issue… looking at everyone as if they are a gang member and isolating them. We don’t support that. We want appropriate steps to be taken.”
Keith James of the Stop Mass Incarceration Network then spoke movingly about the intolerability of tens of thousands of people being tortured in U.S. and CA prisons right now, and challenged CDCR Chief Jeffrey Beard's disinformation and lies characterzing the hunger strike of 30,000 CA prisoners as being "a gang power play", including by emphasizing the historic import of the prisoners' Agreement to End Hostilities between the racial groups in Cailfornia prisons and jails. James exposed the serious retaliation targeting the hunger strikers, the death of Corcoran SHU prisoner Billy Sell on July 22 during the hunger strike, and how urgent it is a massive societal wide struggle be further built up, quickly, to support the hunger strikers and compel the State of California to meet the prisoners just demands.
Pastor Theon Johnson, III from Glide Memorial Church cited A Religious Call for a Just and Humane End to the Hunger Strike in California Prisons signed by over 1000 clergy and religious leaders, “The religious community in California and across the country continues to stand with the hunger strikers...those who are demanding that dignity and justice be theirs....That individuals incarcerated would be willing to die to call attention to the atrocities, the torture that is being committed, of solitary confinement is a wake-up call for all of us.” “Shame on our state, shame on our nation for affirming torture...we are standing up along side of those who are the crucified people of history...today is the day, my brothers and sisters when we do the work of bringing this inhumanity to an end.” He announced that the SHU model would be set up outside of Glide Memorial this Sunday to bear witness to the call for an end to solitary.
Alan Jones from the United Methodist Church in Sacramento said, “all human life is sacred, and ALL means ALL...My faith and my essential humanity require me to demand of my governor and Dr. Jeffrey Beard to honor the five key demands of the hunger strikers."
Larry Everest spoke, calling the hunger strike an act of enormous courage and self-sacrifice, “It is criminal for a system to confine people to solitary for decades and then claim that it isn't solitary because they have television, or because a guard walks by twice a day and shoves food through a slot. This is the logic of a torturer and a criminal and illegitimate system.” He also stressed that the prisoners’ actions and words during the hunger strike show their tremendous potential to be a powerful force for emancipation. Everest said that a real revolution, based on the work of Bob Avakian, was needed to end these crimes, and invited all present to check out and get into this work at the Revolution Books.
Marie Levin, sister of Ronnie Dewberry (Sitawa Jamaa), a prisoner in the Pelican Bay SHU & one of the four main Short Corridor Representatives of the hunger strike said, “Where's justice? Where really is justice in America?” She pointed out that prisoners who go into prison in their twenties change and transform, and that the prisoners had gone 38 days without food to press for change. “I invite every legislator in this building to walk inside the SHU. Sit down for a minute!”
Steven Czifra, who had spent a total of eight years in solitary confinement including 5 years in Pelican Bay SHU spoke: “When I lived in C 105 in the Pelican Bay SHU they told me there's only 3 ways out: parole, snitch or die.' I don't want to say that all of these guys (prison guards) are animals, or all of these guys are pigs, but almost all of these guys are animals or pigs.” Czifra contrasted this with the humanity of the prisoners in the SHU and said, “If the people, here, us, if we don't do something Jeffrey Beard will kill every person in the SHU – and then he will restock it...."
Laura Magnani, of American Friends Service Committee noted that there had been previous activism for prisoner rights for quite some time but that the hunger strikes, beginning in 2011 put the struggle on a new level, "nothing really started happening until the prisoners took this incredibly courageous action. It's the prisoners, their organizing, their analysis, their courage and their commitment that has now spawned a national movement, and really an international movement...."
Dr. Ron Ahnen, Professor of Politics, St Mary's College, President of California Prison Focus, and a member of the Mediation Team said he had done research and concluded that the prisoner hunger strike is the biggest strike in history. He spoke about the “behaviors” that the CDCR is now using as criteria for validation. “These are some of the “criminal” gang behaviors that will put you in the SHU for at least 4 year: Artwork. Photographs. Exercising in a group. Wearing certain kinds of jewelry or clothing. Gestures. Handshakes. Slogans. Those are the kinds of things that they can put people in solitary confinement for!” He dismissed the accusations by Beard that the hunger strike was a “gang power ploy” and said, pointing at the model SHU ,“this is a peaceful, non-violent, demonstration where people are sitting in cells like this and refusing to eat. That's not a power ploy.” He said the office of Inspector General has opened an official inquiry into the death of hunger striker Billy Sell, who was in Corcoran SHU. “I'm convinced no matter how Billy Sell died, if the hunger strike had not happened, and the conditions of SHU had not happened, that Bill Sell would be with us today. And somebody at CDCR has to take responsibility for those conditions and take responsibility for that young man's life.” Ahnen said that Jeffrey Beard was “playing with people's lives. We have had over 150 emergency triage visits during this hunger strike. People are at the edge of their lives.”
Dolores Canales of CFASC who's son is in the Pelican Bay SHU, thanked SMIN for pulling together the mock SHU installation, and spoke of the demonization of the people through labeling them “gang affiliates.” She said, “As soon as they use the word “gang” in a court of law they have a conviction. It doesn't matter if they are guilty or innocent.". Speaking of Todd Ashker, one of the reps of the hunger strike she said, “The media is portraying him as a gang leader. A murderer.” Said said that when Todd went to prison “he entered as a 20 year old drug addict serving a six year prison sentence. In prison he then became convicted of murder. In prison he then became an alleged gang member. If he became these things while in prison, what does that say about our system? What does that say about California Department of Corrections? What are they creating? What are they doing to our loved ones? Who are THEY turning them into?”
Messages of support were also read and received from Dr. Carl Hart, Dr. Gabor Mate; Dr. Marc Sapir; Hilary Donnell and the Herman's House Team; Senator Leland Yee; Stephen Rohde and Rev. George F. Regas of Interfaith Communities United for Justice and peace; Jack Gerson; Prisoners Revolutionary Literature Fund Executive Director Mike Holman; attorney Steven Rood; Kiily Nyasha, former Black Panther and radio journalist; Christina Garcia-Aguilera, sister of a Pelican Bay SHU hunger striker and Karen King Modjeski who's husband has been in the SHU for 10 years.
After the press conference, D'Andre of Stop Mass Incarceration noted that Governor Brown had been invited to come visit and defend the SHU but had not appeared. About 50 people went inside the Capitol to Brown's office to demand that he meet with representatives of the hunger strikers and to end torture in California. Two members of the mediation team – Ron Ahnen and Irene Huerta -- were let in to the Governor's office to speak with an aide who told them essentially nothing would be done. Then the group went to the office of Lieutenant Governor Newsom where families were turned away, and then to Senator Loni Hancock's office where 25-30 people sat down with an aide and laid out demands for an emergency public hearing to expose the crimes of the CDCR to the public and to end the hunger strike. They emphasized the need for action, NOW – that this is an emergency situation; that something must be done before any more prisoners die or harm their health. One of the mediation team will be calling both Hancock and Newsom’s office today for their response to these basic and just demands.
Photographs courtesy Stop Mass Incarceration and Revolution newspaper.
