Posted on 07/29/2013 11:15:39 PM PDT by KingofZion
Gloria Steinem, Jesse Jackson, Bonnie Raitt and Jay Leno have joined prison hunger strikers in calling for an end to California's use of solitary confinement to control prison gang violence.
The civil rights crusaders, singer and late-night comedian are among those who signed a letter sent Monday to Gov. Jerry Brown. The letter calls isolation units "extensions of the same inhumanity practiced at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay."
The letter to Brown, to be followed by a demonstration Tuesday at the Capitol, was arranged by the National Religion Campaign Against Torture and local supporters of the prison protesters.
The organization, based in Washington, is pushing to close solitary confinement units at prisons in 13 states, viewing such isolation as torture, said Executive Director Rev. Richard Killmer.
Brown's spokesman referred a request for comment to the corrections department.
Isolation units "serve a vital role in state prisons, keeping staff and other inmates safe from the same violent gangs leading the hunger strike and terrorizing communities across California," corrections spokeswoman Deborah Hoffman said.
Other notables who signed the letter to Brown include political critic Noam Chomsky, Buddhist scholar Robert Thurman and actor Peter Coyote. *** On Monday, prison officials said 385 inmates have refused meals continuously since July 8, with 176 more now on shorter protests.
Prison medical staff reported that six inmates have required treatment since Saturday, including three who were sent to outside hospitals for care and returned the next day to cells.
More than 50 prisoners have received care since July 18, when the first protest-related medical issues arose, according to representatives of the court-appointed overseer of prison healthcare in California.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
Let ‘em starve to death, because NONE will follow through.
yay... let’em die. They won’t of course. They probably won’t even miss a meal. Tag Team Hunger Strike.
Gang violence has become a civil right??
Hooray for hunger strikes! Now starve and die you stupid libs.
Right.
Precisely.
I wouldn’t even offer food, till they BEGGED!
The African-American community complain about violence, crime, drugs, unemployment, poverty, lack of businesses.....
There is a very easy solution.
STOP VOTING DEMOCRAT!!!
I would volunteer to drag these libtards into the cell with known rapists so they would get AIDS.
I’d let you!
LOL.
Considering California’s deficit crisis inmate hunger strikes should be mandatory.
I thought Leno had a bit more common sense. Maybe his wife put him up to it.
And what is THEIR solution to prison gang violence?
Actually contrary to most here I have issues with extended no human contact segregation
It seems cruel and unusual to me
There are folks in federal prison that have that imposed for over a decade
That is a long time to be in your own head
And no....not all have killed someone
Celebrities? Its just those who need/want more attention. Who really cares if they starve themselves to death, certainly not me.
Perhaps, to make their “starvation” idea more realistic, they should be in prison with the rest of the starvers. Ought to be real fun to watch..........
How about renewing the death sentence then.
Cooler!
We’re supposed to be better than that.
Don’t isolate them so long. Instead, after intentionally starving them a few days there, put these same ones all together, and return them to half their food rations. They’ll be too hungry and weak to fight and will soften until the are ready to behave and return to their specific populations. Make it a disciplinary move that encourages differently.
Instead of human isolation, isolate their muscles from energy.
Make leno stay in a cell with kwame for a night... he will get his mind right.
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