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| State denies inmates are in bad shape |
| By triplicate.com - Anthony Skeens, The Triplicate |
| Published: 07/15/2011 |
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A state prison medical official on Wednesday disputed claims from advocacy groups about health issues arising from the inmate hunger strike at Pelican Bay State Prison and other facilities. The groups are claiming that some fasting inmates at Pelican Bay are suffering from renal failure and dangerously low blood sugar, and are unable to retain water. “We have none of the issues that are being alleged,” said Nancy Kincaid, spokesperson for the California Prison Health Care Services. The claims have been corroborated by lawyers who have visited inmates, said Isaac Ontiveros, communications director for the prisoner advocacy group Critical Resistance. “The most dire medical news we’re getting is from Pelican Bay from the core strike leaders,” said Ontiveros. “Medical conditions for at least 200 prisoners are getting worse and worse.” Prisons that have fasting inmates have had their medical staff increased; nurses are making rounds three to four times a day, and when inmates are refusing medical treatment they are being visually checked from outside the cells, Kincaid said. No inmates have been taken to a hospital for treatment because of fasting, but one inmate was taken to a prison clinic to be rehydrated, she said. As of Wednesday, there were 170 inmates fasting in Pelican Bay — all of whom are serving time in the Security Housing Unit—and a total of 670 in five prisons across the state, said Terry Thornton, California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation spokeswoman. Some of those inmates have refused state-issued food while still eating from their canteen stock. The number of inmates who have been on a pure hunger strike since its onset is still being compiled, Kincaid said. The overall numbers have dropped the past three days. Monday there were 1,450 inmates refusing food in seven prisons, Thornton said. A majority of prisoners involved in the hunger strike that are not housed at Pelican Bay are in other SHU units, she said. Pelican Bay, Corcoran and California Correctional Institution in Tehachapi are the three prisons in California with SHU units. Tehachapi had the most inmates participating in the hunger strike Wednesday, with 369, Kincaid said. The hunger strike began July 1 as a protest against solitary confinement conditions. “There have been no incidents of violence,” said Thornton. Inmates are demanding better food, elimination of group punishment, an end to long-term solitary confinement and an expansion of programs and privileges for inmates who are in the SHU indefinitely. They are also demanding a change in the “debriefing process” to get out of the SHU. The inmates are being unfairly labeled as prison gang members and are being forced to admit gang involvement — their own and that of other inmates — in order to get out of the SHU, Ontiveros said. “The prison administration is fear-mongering around gang membership in order to fill the SHUs and break up solidarity among prisoners,” said Ontiveros. Pelican Bay’s inmate grievances have spread throughout the prison system on the coattails of prison gang networks that influence inmates in other prisons, Thornton said. Most inmates in the SHU serving indefinite periods of time are prison gang members, Thornton said. The inmates are placed in the SHU to remove their criminal influence on other inmates, Thornton said. Inmates are not immediately placed in the SHU when they arrive at Pelican Bay. The SHU is in a sense a prison within a prison and there are two ways to be placed there: be a confirmed prison gang member or associate, or commit serious crimes while in the prison, Thornton said. While prison gang members are in the SHU indefinitely, inmates who commit crimes serve set terms. Read More. |
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