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    The Lookout

    Thousands of Calif. inmates refuse food in protest

    Republican state lawmakers tour Folsom prison in 2007 (AP/Brian Baer)A group of inmates in a high-security California prison have started a hunger strike to protest their near-solitary confinement. Since the protest began on July 1, it has spread to thousands of inmates throughout the state prison system.

    At its peak, 6,600 prisoners in 11 prisons were refusing food, but officials told the New York Times that number was down to 1,700 yesterday.

    A handful of inmates who live in Pelican Bay State Prison's windowless, sound-proof 6-foot-by-10-foot isolation cells say they are ready to remain on the hunger strike until they die, or until officials at the facility agree to their demands. Gang members in the prison are often placed in the isolation wing so they can't influence the rest of the inmate population. Once they're sequestered in the high-security cells, the gang members are asked to turn over information on other gang members, in a procedure called "debriefing." The prisoners say they want debriefing to end, and they also want an end to long-term solitary confinement.

    "They think the debrief process is illegal--that we pressure them to get out of gangs--but I'd say we encourage them to do so," state prisons spokeswoman Terry Thornton told The San Francisco Chronicle. "Being in a gang is not good for them, and it's not good for the public safety, either."

    The Supreme Court ruled in May that California's prisons are so overcrowded that they violate inmates' constitutional protections against cruel and unusual punishment. Inadequate medical care produced "needless suffering and death," the justices said. The court ordered the system to shed one-fourth of its prisoner population over the next two years.

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    4,515 comments

    • Little Foot  •  10 mths ago
      These men are still human beings. I am shocked at the things that I am reading. There's not a person alive who has not made a mistake. Human beings are still entitled to certain rights. This country really has went down the tubes.....what a pity.
      • ellebycul 10 mths ago
        i agree but we arent starving them, they are starving themselves, their choice
      • A Yahoo! User 10 mths ago
        Where ever did you get that idea? Check your english,Professor. Your name should be little poot.
      • Life is Beautiful 10 mths ago
        Yeah! And it's mainly because of backwards thinking like yours! Wrong it right, Right is wrong...now that's a pity!
    • michael g  •  10 mths ago
      most of the gang members are forced to participate in this stirke or face the punishment from their idiot leaders. they don't even know why they're on it. and most of them are eating while on this strike too. just a bunch of #$%$!! weak minded punks that don't deserve the time of day!!! why don't we let their victims have a voice in this crap?
    • Hope and Change Lies here  •  10 mths ago
      Your know what's a good source of protein for these animals - they can always start swallowing!!!
      • Patrick 10 mths ago
        What you have just said makes you sound like less than an animal.I hope Christ saves you .
    • A Yahoo! User  •  10 mths ago
      the apes don't tell the zookeeper how to run the zoo.
      • Patrick 10 mths ago
        You are an A xxxx.
    • *****  •  10 mths ago
      can we feed them to each other?
    • Joe r  •  10 mths ago
      let em all starve !! I bet most of them are illegal !!
    • *****  •  10 mths ago
      i dare you morons to stop for a month.
      • telitso 10 mths ago
        I dare them to stop for a year!
    • ChristineB  •  10 mths ago
      My son is in the US navy who is on a Super Aircraft Carrier. He takes picture of the food that they serve him. They work 12 to 16 hours a day and is only allowed 3 chicken wings. Breakfast he was only allowed 1 piece of french toast. With over 5,000 sailors on the ship the lines are extremely long, my son sometimes only gets 15-20 minutes to eat so often only has time for a peanut butter jelly sandwich. Often they run out of jelly. Then they ran out of bread and gave them hamburger buns that were moldy. I have NO pitty for our prisoners. On the ship when someone goes to the brig "jail", the punishment is 3 days with bread and water. hmmmm
      • Jack 10 mths ago
        They eat good on a ship...don't let your son fool'ya....
    • Biff Johnson  •  10 mths ago
      Great news! Hopefully, this things will spread across the country. Sadly, some liberal will step in and call Ruth Chris Steak House and have them cater some food to the inmates, and send the bill to the tax payers
    • Army  •  10 mths ago
      The bush/republican supreme court ruled that California is violating these prisoners rights. So, you know it has to be bad. But, all the neo-Nazi, goose-stepping, brown-shirted, Aryan Nations, "timothy mcveigh" Republican/Teabaggers on this board want Nazi Concentration Camps for a remedy.
    • J  •  10 mths ago
      Im sorry but i disagree!!! These prisoners are people regardless of what they have done, a lot of you would be in prison there to in their same situation had you been caught for something you've done, you all were just blessed not to get caught. What ever happen to Forgiving one another? Amazes me how soon people forget when they have made mistakes in the past. Remember what JESUS saids, "Judge not, and ye shall not be judged: condemn not, and ye shall not be condemned: forgive, and ye shall be forgiven." Enough Said!
    • Robert  •  10 mths ago
      Good, Then the cost of feeding them should drop dramaticaly...
    • ChrisM  •  10 mths ago
      If it is so bad then quit Stealing, Killing, Robbing, and think about our troops who dont get to have four walls around them or get to eat or sleep for days on end do your time and shut the F*&^ up
    • Esther  •  10 mths ago
      I myself am thrilled to have some taxpayer dollars saved. I am so tired of hearing about all the benefits received by prisoners. I do not have medical or dental, they do. I go without food when I don't have money for it, they don't. I am a law abiding citizen, they are not. Cry me a river guys...save the state some more money.
    • breadguy  •  10 mths ago
      This is like the illegals protesting in New York as they want their rights. How many people do you see jumping over the wall to get into Russia, China, North Korea. They get a bullet behind the head, PROBLEM SOLVED
    • Jane W  •  10 mths ago
      I love it when a problem takes care of itself!
    • Paul  •  10 mths ago
      I'm very liberal, but here's something me and my conservative friends agree on- let them starve! Prison is not supposed to be Club Med! We agree prisoners should be treated with a certain minimum level of decency (even though they aren't usually decent people), but they are treated better than our seniors in Nursing Homes. That's just wrong. If they starve they starve. One less criminal to deal with.
    • wrenv  •  10 mths ago
      Gee- This is great news- Darwin prevails again. As soon as these fools starve themselves to death, thats one less meal this taxpayer has to provide for them, and one less thug ever to be back on the street.
    • wapples  •  10 mths ago
      Here's a thought QUIT COMMITING CRIMES!!! "they are ready to remain on the hunger strike until they die, or until officials at the facility agree to their demands." Great, we won't have to keep paying for their worthless existence.
    • Jeff  •  10 mths ago
      Sounds like the state of California is finally saving some money... good news.
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