An official says two people were killed during a massive jailbreak by nearly 970 prisoners in southeastern Congo.

Dikanga Kazadi, the information minister of Katanga province, says eight armed men attacked the prison guards in Lubumbashi on Wednesday, allowing the prisoners to flee. He says police have recaptured 152 of the 967 escaped prisoners. He says the armed men were trying to free a militant who was condemned to death.

Mr. Kazadi said that the two dead included a police officer and a young man who was visiting his detained brother.

There have been no executions in Congo since President Joseph Kabila came to power in 2001.

And though he has been one of the pre-eminent small-c conservative thinkers in Canada, Black is no friend to the Stephen Harper government right now.

His jailbird’s-eye view was more than a rude awakening. It was fodder for his memoirs and now, before he goes back to jail next week, for a tirade against the Harper government’s law-and-order agenda.

Black — who returns to prison Tuesday for another eight months after exhausting his appeals — has launched yet another broadside against the government’s tougher sentencing bills, prison expansion plans, and prisoner control programs in a series of interviews promoting his book, including a CBC interview.

The Conservatives regularly dismiss their critics as “special interests” — ivory tower academics or “soft-on-crime” wimps.

Now they are determined to ignore one of their own.

“Our office has no comment,” a spokesman for Public Safety Minister Vic Toews wrote in an emailed response to the Star.

Brian Lee Crowley, of the Macdonald-Laurier Institute, a small-c conservative think tank, said Black is unlikely to sway the debate in Canada “partly because the fact of the matter is that he’s in kind of a conflict of interest in talking about how people are treated in the prison system because he’s now in it.”

Crowley said he agrees “several” of Black’s criticisms of the American system are “correct.” Individual states embarked on costly prison construction projects, and punitive “three-strikes-you’re out” laws increased prison populations, with people who are “a pretty marginal danger to society.”

But Crowley added Black is not correct to suggest Canada is going down that path. Rather, he argued, Canada is embarking on reforms to deal with the small number of repeat offenders who commit the largest number of crimes in Canada.

“To the extent that he’s saying to Canada ‘don’t make those mistakes,’ I think his observations are perfectly in order.”

But Crowley suggested Black, who believes he got a “raw deal” from the American justice system, is “allowing his feelings about the American system to influence his view about Canada, not looking at what’s happening in Canada on its merits.”

To Black, Canada is about to model the U.S. prison system — which he describes as an inhumane and unjust factory farm that dehumanizes inmates, breeds an underclass that can never reintegrate and will exact a long-term toll on society.

It wasn’t the close confinement (no worse than boarding school), the strip searches (“tedious”) or the public address system that blared all day long (“extremely irritating acoustically”) that appalled him.

Rather, Black says the penal system isolates and punishes for life “a very large number of people who have been for the most part socioeconomically comparatively disadvantaged.”

Black said prisoners, packed like sardines and ignored by all except “corrupt” prison guards, are “bound to be relatively despised and underutilized by society.”

More important than how such treatment “festers in their minds” is how “great a social damage a country does or society does to itself by pursuing that kind of penal and justice system,” he said.

He cites the “utter failure and hypocrisy of the U.S. war on drugs,” saying he now views as “nonsense” the “more extreme and demagogic versions of the law-and-order lobby wherever it appears including unfortunately in Canada.”

Black says he is in “violent disagreement” with the Conservatives’ “so-called roadmap” — a blueprint document that sets out the Harper government’s corrections policy.

He told The Globe and Mail the Harper government approach is “sadistic and malicious.” He told the CBC it is “barbarous.”

“Not only is it emphasizing severity on sentences, not only squandering money for prisons that don’t need to built on this basis of build-and-they-will-come, not only is it going to end up housing an inordinate number of native people who should be treated altogether differently, but these programs that are foreseen to reduce the effort made to help people to overcome their problems and therefore become more likely candidates for successful reintegration into society, and even more appalling to me, these plans to crack down on contact between prisoners and their visitors is just a terrible and barbarous thing.”

Black said weekly prison visits by his wife Barbara Amiel and others sustained him. Post-visit inmate strip searches were conducted under the excuse of checking for smuggling “but smuggling into prisons is conducted entirely by corrupt guards.”

“That families will not be even able to shake hands let alone embrace their relatives and will be separated by glass and speak through speakers, is simply barbarous and a giant step backwards and it is being undertaken for precisely the wrong reasons,” Black said.

CBC News

June 17, 2011

After more than 20 years of the war on drugs, more than a dozen U.S. states are reducing penalties for many drug offences – at the same time Canada starts stiffening them.

After more than 20 years of the war on drugs, more than a dozen U.S. states are reducing penalties for many drug offences.

The move away from mandatory minimum sentences without any chance of parole comes as states struggle to cover the costs of overcrowded prisons in the midst of tough economic times.

Republicans and Democrats alike have also recognized weaknesses in their tough-on-crime, one-size-fits-all sentences.

That’s different from Canada, where the Conservative government has started toughening sentencing and imposing mandatory minimums for a number of crimes.

Lt. Richard Santangelo, who joined the Belmont, Mass., police force at the age of 18, says he’s noticed a changing environment when it comes to the war on drugs.

“Most police officers are fairly conservative and we want to see people go away for a lot of time but we’re also realists,” Santangelo said.

The reality is Massachusetts’ prisons are at 140 per cent capacity. It costs the state roughly $50,000 a year for each of its 11,000 inmates. That’s why Santangelo says he’s reluctantly open to sentencing reforms.

“The prisons are so overcrowded right now, most of them, if we can free up a little space for the more hardcore drug offences, it might be what we have to do.”

Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick has introduced a bill that would eliminate mandatory minimum sentences for non-violent drug offences and shrink drug-free school zones from 300 metres to 30. People caught dealing drugs in that radius would face an automatic two years in jail.

In Belmont, Santangelo says a lot of people get caught up in that net.

“Unfortunately, if you look at the design of the town and the number of schools out there, it’s such a small town with such a large number of schools, a lot of the town is a drug-free school zone.”

Will Brownsberger, the Democrat representative for Belmont and a former state assistant attorney general, has published research about drug-free school zones.

“The idea of a school zone is a place that should be especially safe,” he said. “But if you define very broad school zones, then basically any place that anybody might deal drugs is a school zone with the result that they don’t have any incentive to stay away from schools.”

Brownsberger’s research shows no difference in the density of drug deals near schools or farther away. He says school zones just create mandatory minimums that basically apply to most territory in most cities.

Minimums scrapped

In nearby Rhode Island, the state recently scrapped all mandatory minimums for drug offences.

Mark Mauer, executive director of a Washington, D.C., think-tank called the Sentencing Project, says it’s happening across the United States, from North Dakota to South Carolina.

“Governors need to balance their budgets, and if you want to do that in the short-term you can’t possibly do that without looking at the cost of incarceration,” he said.

The Massachusetts governor’s proposals aren’t popular with Tim Cruz, the district attorney for Plymouth County.

“I believe, living and working in a community that I currently am in right now, I believe first and foremost that drug-dealing is a violent activity,” he said.

Cruz, who describes himself as the state’s most conservative DA, says he’s proud of how tough Massachusetts is on drug dealers. Someone caught selling more than 200 grams of cocaine faces a 15-year mandatory minimum.

“If an individual sells drugs, whether it be Class B, which is cocaine or crack, and they sell above a certain weight, over 200 [grams], is a 15-year minimum here in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. If you do that within 1,000 feet of the real property of a school then you’re also looking at another two years on top of that for a 17-year mandatory minimum sentence in jail,” he said.

Cruz says uniformity in sentences is important.

“If you think to where we were in Massachusetts 15 years back … you could be arrested in Plymouth County and get one sentence, and if you were in Essex County you may be getting another sentence because you’re going before a different judge.”

Sentences not just

Republican State Representative Dan Winslow says that during his eight years as a circuit judge in Massachusetts lower trial court he was compelled to impose several mandatory minimums over the years. And it didn’t always feel right, he says.

“I think I’m the first judge ever to serve in the state legislature so I bring with me the experience of seeing these laws in effect.”

Winslow recalls one case in particular where he had to sentence a man with no record – one who was headed to college on a full hockey scholarship – to prison for two years and a day.

“It didn’t feel very good. It didn’t feel just. I do think that when you do the crime you have to have some consequences but I also think that the consequence should be tailored.”

Where Cruz argues mandatory minimums result in consistent treatment, Winslow says all it does is shift the sentencing decision from the judge to the prosecutor.

“The issue is whether minimum mandatories as a concept works for non-violent offenders,” he said. “You know we’ve had the benefit now of seeing the war on drugs. Can we really say we’re winning it?

“Should you treat somebody who has never ever been in trouble with the law and has clearly made a mistake, screwed up, so to speak, the same way you would somebody who has a long record of drug abuse or violence? I don’t think so.”

That question will be debated further next month, when the proposed legislation heads to committee hearings at the state house.

The number of federal inmates forced to share a cell has risen recently to 13 per cent of inmates from 10.7 per cent noted in a department report just last year, according to Corrections Canada, and could rise as high as 30 per cent before new planned facilities are available.

“We’ve already seen the number of violent incidents inside correctional centres begin to escalate,” said Howard Sapers, Canada’s correctional investigator, in an interview with CBC News.

“We don’t know to what extent these security incidents and violent incidents are directly related to double-bunking, but we do suspect that there is a correlation between the extent to which our correctional centres are crowded and the number of these incidents that we’re seeing.”

Sapers, whose office acts as an ombudsman for federal inmates, was so concerned about double-bunking that he flagged it in his recent annual report [http://www.oci-bec.gc.ca/rpt/annrpt/annrpt20092010-eng.aspx].

Eric Gottardi, a Vancouver-based criminal lawyer and a member of the Canadian Bar Association’s criminal justice section, is also concerned about double-bunking, saying it can lead to the “Americanization” of Canada’s prison system.

“One of my concerns is that we’ll slowly march towards the type of crisis that we see in California and other states with these huge mega-prisons,” he said. “And they become giant powder kegs where relationships deteriorate to the point where you have to keep them locked up 23 hours a day because to do otherwise would be to throw a match onto a carton of gasoline.”

The union that represents guards has concerns for its members’ safety.

“Double-bunking is one of the most dangerous things for correctional officers,” said Lyle Stewart of the Union of Canadian Correctional Officers. “It raises the tensions in institutions where the tension levels are already very high. There’s no question that it increases inmate-on-inmate violence, but it also increases the risk when correctional officers open the cell door. Often times that’s when an inmate will choose to attack an officer, but now you’ve got two inmates in there. “

Despite these concerns, the Correctional Services of Canada will rely on the practice even more to deal with the over-crowding caused by the country’s tougher crime laws, especially the so-called Truth in Sentencing Act. According to an internal document entitled “Infrastructure Renewal: Frequently Asked Questions,” the correctional service is “conducting on-site investigations to determine the requirements for double-bunking and other short-term measures.”

Correctional Services spokesperson Lori Pothier stresses the short-term nature of the initiatives to deal with the influx of inmates.

“In the medium term we are constructing additional living units at institutions across the country. That’s going to give us 2,700 more bed spaces. Until those are built, we’re going to rely more on double-bunking.”

Inmate compatibility considered

Pothier said the correctional service has relied on doubling up inmates in one cell for many years.

Although the ideal is one inmate per cell, institutions have the flexibility to put two inmates in one cell when the situation warrants, as long as officials conduct a proper risk assessment to take into account factors such as the compatibility of the inmates.

Sapers has concerns about these assessments, pointing out that many are done poorly.

“These are not detailed and long reviews. In some cases, they’re cursory reviews. But even at that, we’re seeing that they’re not being done at all, or they’re being done so superficially that they might as well not be done.”

Medical Conditions Reach Crisis in Pelican Bay Hunger Strike
Advocates Demand Access to Strike Leaders, Negotiations

What: Press Conference
When: Wednesday, July 13—11:00am
Where: San Francisco, California State Building, at Van Ness Ave. and McAllister Street

Oakland—According to advocates working on behalf of prisoners on hunger strike at Pelican Bay State Prison’s Security Housing Unit (SHU), medical conditions for many strikers have deteriorated to critical levels, with fears some prisoners could start to die if immediate action isn’t taken. Prisoners at Pelican Bay have been on hunger strike for nearly two weeks and have been joined by thousands of other prisoners throughout California’s vast prison system. Some of their main demands revolve around health conditions in Pelican Bay’s Security Housing Unit, while the entire California prison system is under federal receivership due to grave health conditions throughout its facilities.

A source with access to the medical condition of the hunger strikers, who asked to remain anonymous, told lawyers with the Prisoner Hunger Strike Solidarity coalition that health of the prisoners on hunger strike is quickly and severely deteriorating, saying, “All of the medical staff has been ordered to work overtime to follow and treat the hunger strikers. Some [strikers] are in renal failure and have been unable to make urine for three days. Some are having measured blood sugars in the 30 range, which can be fatal if not treated. The staff has taken them to the [prison hospital] and given them intravenous glucose when allowed by the prisoners. A few have tried to sip water but are so sick that they are vomiting it back up.”

Prisoners participating in the strike in other prisons in California have also reported that medications, including those for high blood pressure and other serious conditions, are being withheld from prisoners on strike. Some prisoners have participated for limited periods of time or have joined other prisoners in “rolling” strikes, due to their already poor medical conditions.

“This situation is grave and urgent,” says Carol Strickman, staff attorney for Legal Services for Prisoners with Children and a legal representative of the Prisoner Hunger Strike Solidarity coalition. “We are fighting to prevent a lot of deaths at Pelican Bay. The CDCR [California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation] needs to negotiate with these prisoners, and honor the request of the strike leaders to have access to outside mediators to ensure that any negotiations are in good faith.”

The Prisoner Hunger Strike Solidarity coalition is urging journalists to do further investigation into the health conditions at Pelican Bay, while also pushing state politicians to visit the prison itself. The coalition is also encouraging members of the public to pressure Gov. Brown and the CDCR to negotiate with the prisoners. Taeva Shefler of the Prison Activist Resource Center, another member of the solidarity coalition says, “The question for the CDCR is: will they continue to jeopardize prisoners’ health and safety rather than sit at the same table and talk?”

Hunger strike supporters will hold an emergency press conference Wednesday at 11:00 am outside the State Building in San Francisco. Supporters, including family members of those held at Pelican Bay, will also continue to hold rallies and other events in the coming weeks.

For information on upcoming events, visit www.prisonerhungerstikesolidarity.wordpress.com

*****

Revolution Books/Libros Revolución in Los Angeles received the following e-mail:

URGENT! – Distribute Far and Wide
SUPPORT THE PELICAN BAY HUNGER STRIKERS!
PRESS CONFERENCE/SPEAK OUT!
WEDNESDAY @ 2 PM Ronald Reagan State Building
300 South Spring Street, L.A., CA 90013
(3rd St. between Spring and Main)
ENCAMPMENT SOLIDARITY WITH PELICAN BAY PRISONERS HUNGER STRIKE!
BEGINS WEDNESDAY AT 5 PM
KRST Unity Center of Afrikan Spiritual Science
7825. S. Western Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90047-2728
For info: 213-840-5348 (California Prisoners Hunger Strike Action Network)

On Wednesday, DAY 13 of the Pelican Bay prisoner hunger strike, a Press Conference will be held in front of the State Building in L.A. at 2 pm and an Encampment at KRST Unity Center in South Central LA will occur. Wednesday, July 13, marks the 13th day of the hunger strike at Pelican Bay State Prison Security Housing Unit (SHU) and other CA prisons. This is a serious situation.

The Press Conference will draw the attention of the public, at a key moment, to the prisoners on this hunger strike and their just demands. The Encampment will be a center for all those who support the just demands of the hunger striking prisoners; a space where people will participate in a solidarity hunger strike / fast, in unity with the prisoners and opposed to the torture going on in the Pelican Bay SHU and other California prisons.

This situation is urgent in the extreme; we recently read this report: “According to a SHU nurse, things are bad at Pelican Bay. The prisoners have not been drinking water and there have been rapid and severe consequences. Nurses are crying. All of the medical staff has been ordered to work overtime to follow and treat the hunger strikers…there were about 50 on C-SHU and 150 on D-SHU. They are not drinking water and have de-compensated rapidly. Some are in renal failure and have been unable to make urine for 3 days. Some are having measured blood sugars in the 30 range, which can be fatal if not treated….” All people and voices of conscience need to step forward urgently! Be at the Press Conference/Speak Out! at the State Building on Wednesday at 2pm. Take part in this solidarity hunger strike / fast (for 24 hours).

Add your name publicly to the call for this solidarity hunger strike / fast. Write a statement in support. Protests, demonstrations, urgent outreach, media work, and a solidarity hunger strike / fast “on the outside” are key ways, not the only ways, but certainly key ways actors, academics, artists, lawyers, faith-based people, youth and students, families of the incarcerated and everyone can show their support right now; a way to coalesce, unite and collectively make impact to demand the prisoners demands are met.

OVERVIEW

Scapegoats are useful political fodder. Former Conservative premier Mike Harris won power by successfully scapegoating the poor. Tim Hudak, the current Ontario Tory leader, hopes to replicate that success by campaigning against prisoners.

How else to explain Hudak’s call for what in effect would be provincial chain gangs?

Let’s be clear. The idea of forcing every provincial inmate to clean up highways or scrub down graffiti is potentially a political winner.

Most people have little sympathy for convicted criminals. In hard times, those who work for a living doubly resent anyone who doesn’t or can’t do the same.

That’s why Harris’s attack on welfare recipients was so successful. He picked his fight with the poor during one of the worst economic slumps since the 1930s.

Hudak, in his announcement Thursday, pressed all the usual buttons. He scoffed at those apocryphal prisoners who spend their time in jail watching high-definition television and learning “Zen yoga.” He said anyone in prison should have to work “just like every hard-working family out there.”

But he was also disturbingly vague. Would prisoners picking up garbage along the roadside be shackled? He wasn’t sure. Would young offenders be included? He promised to get back to reporters on that. How would his scheme affect the jobs of workers who are now paid to clean up litter from highways? He didn’t have an answer.

Certainly, chain gangs have made a comeback in the United States. This notoriously brutal form of punishment (by some estimates 45 per cent of chain-gang prisoners perished under the regime) was popular during the 1930s before falling out of favour.

In the 1990s, however, as the American middle class found its earnings under attack and began looking for someone to blame, states such as Alabama reinstituted chain gangs.

Like the medieval practice of putting prisoners in the stocks, chain gangs allow wrongdoers to be publicly humiliated — which appeals.

One showboating Arizona sheriff boasts that he has an all-female chain gang.

But are chain gangs a practical way to deal with prisoners? Do they combat crime? Are they a cost-efficient way to clean up highways?

Even Alberta says no. That province considered mandatory work gangs in the 1990s but rejected the idea.

The key reason is security. Some prisoners in provincial institutions are dangerous. Do Torontonians exiting the subway at Yonge and Bloor really want to squeeze past convicted thugs scrubbing graffiti from the sidewalks?

The security issue, incidentally, is why mandatory work crews are sure to become chain gangs. Shackling dangerous convicts is the safest way to handle them outside prison walls.

It is also why Alberta keeps serious offenders firmly inside. That province does allow prisoners to volunteer for jobs like cleaning highways. But only minimum security prisoners are eligible. All, according to an Alberta government spokesman, are people convicted of minor offences required to serve their sentences on weekends. None is shackled.

To be fair to Hudak, the principle behind his scheme is sound. People who break the law should, if possible, perform some form of social restitution. That’s why Ontario judges already sentence some criminals to perform community service. That’s why Ontario inmates still manufacture licence plates (albeit safely inside prison walls).

But the Conservative leader’s proposal for mandatory chain gangs is silly. While it may appeal to the dark side of our populist instincts, it promises to create more problems than it solves.

Mandatory Zen yoga classes might be a better bet. Done properly, Zen at least encourages restraint.

In 2010, the Correctional Service of Canada (CSC) released a national study indicating the HIV and Hepatitis C prevalence in federal prisons was, respectively, 4.6 percent and 31 percent.  These figures are approximately 15 times and 39 times greater than in the Canadian adult population as a whole — a public health crisis that is structurally created and perpetuated.

Despite their illegality, the penalties for their use and the significant resources CSC spend to control their availability, non-prescribed drugs do get into prisons and people use them. Because there are few sterile needles in prison and people are punished for drug use, many people resort to using homemade injection equipment as well as re-using and sharing injecting materials in prison. Injection equipment, including needles, syringes and cookers, may circulate among large numbers of prisoners who inject drugs – increasing everyone’s risk of HIV and Hepatitis C infection because of the presence of blood in injection equipment after use.

Prison-based needle and syringe programs (PNSPs) provide sterile needles and injection equipment to prisoners who inject drugs, whether in a one-for-one exchange of a used needle for a sterile needle or in a less restrictive manner. As of 2011, PNSPs have been introduced in over 60 prisons of varying sizes and security levels in Switzerland, Germany, Spain, Moldova, Kyrgyzstan, Belarus, Armenia, Luxembourg, Romania, and Iran. In every case, PNSPs have been a response to evidence of the risk of HIV and hepatitis C transmission within prisons through the sharing of needles to inject drugs. While these PNSPs have been implemented in diverse environments and under differing circumstances, the results of the programmes have been remarkably consistent.

Studies have shown that PNSPs:

1. 1. reduce the use of non-sterile injecting equipment and of resulting blood-borne infections;
2. 2. do not lead to increased drug use or injecting;
3. 3. reduce drug overdoses;
4. 4. lead to a decrease in abscesses and other injection-related infections;
5. 5. facilitate referral of users to drug addiction treatment programmes;
6. 6. have not resulted in needles or syringes being used as weapons against other prisoners or staff;
7. 7. have been effective in a wide range of institutions; and
8. 8. have effectively employed different methods of needle distribution, such as peer distribution by prisoners, hand-to-hand distribution by prison health-care staff or outside agencies, and automatic dispensing machines.

In spite of this evidence, and the support of organisations such as the Canadian Medical Association, no Canadian jurisdiction has established a PNSP. People who inject drugs in the community have access to sterile needles through publicly funded needle and syringe programs.  There is no reason why you should be denied the tools to protect your health too.  Whether or not you inject drugs, accessible PNSPs would improve both public health and your health.

We are interested in hearing from you about these issues, including any thoughts and information about the impact for prisoners of not having access to needle and syringe programs.  To learn more about the public health and legal arguments for PNSPs and/or to share your experience about the issue, contact Seth Clarke at PASAN (toll free: 1-866-224-9978) or Sandra Chu at the Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network at 416 595 1666 ext. 232.

Medical Conditions Reach Crisis in Pelican Bay Hunger Strike
Advocates Demand Access to Strike Leaders, Negotiations

What: Press Conference
When: Wednesday, July 13—11:00am
Where: San Francisco, California State Building, at Van Ness Ave. and McAllister Street

Oakland—According to advocates working on behalf of prisoners on hunger strike at Pelican Bay State Prison’s Security Housing Unit (SHU), medical conditions for many strikers have deteriorated to critical levels, with fears some prisoners could start to die if immediate action isn’t taken. Prisoners at Pelican Bay have been on hunger strike for nearly two weeks and have been joined by thousands of other prisoners throughout California’s vast prison system. Some of their main demands revolve around health conditions in Pelican Bay’s Security Housing Unit, while the entire California prison system is under federal receivership due to grave health conditions throughout its facilities.

A source with access to the medical condition of the hunger strikers, who asked to remain anonymous, told lawyers with the Prisoner Hunger Strike Solidarity coalition that health of the prisoners on hunger strike is quickly and severely deteriorating, saying, “All of the medical staff has been ordered to work overtime to follow and treat the hunger strikers. Some [strikers] are in renal failure and have been unable to make urine for three days. Some are having measured blood sugars in the 30 range, which can be fatal if not treated. The staff has taken them to the [prison hospital] and given them intravenous glucose when allowed by the prisoners. A few have tried to sip water but are so sick that they are vomiting it back up.”

Prisoners participating in the strike in other prisons in California have also reported that medications, including those for high blood pressure and other serious conditions, are being withheld from prisoners on strike. Some prisoners have participated for limited periods of time or have joined other prisoners in “rolling” strikes, due to their already poor medical conditions.

“This situation is grave and urgent,” says Carol Strickman, staff attorney for Legal Services for Prisoners with Children and a legal representative of the Prisoner Hunger Strike Solidarity coalition. “We are fighting to prevent a lot of deaths at Pelican Bay. The CDCR [California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation] needs to negotiate with these prisoners, and honor the request of the strike leaders to have access to outside mediators to ensure that any negotiations are in good faith.”

The Prisoner Hunger Strike Solidarity coalition is urging journalists to do further investigation into the health conditions at Pelican Bay, while also pushing state politicians to visit the prison itself. The coalition is also encouraging members of the public to pressure Gov. Brown and the CDCR to negotiate with the prisoners. Taeva Shefler of the Prison Activist Resource Center, another member of the solidarity coalition says, “The question for the CDCR is: will they continue to jeopardize prisoners’ health and safety rather than sit at the same table and talk?”

Hunger strike supporters will hold an emergency press conference Wednesday at 11:00 am outside the State Building in San Francisco. Supporters, including family members of those held at Pelican Bay, will also continue to hold rallies and other events in the coming weeks.

For information on upcoming events, visit www.prisonerhungerstikesolidarity.wordpress.com

*****

Revolution Books/Libros Revolución in Los Angeles received the following e-mail:

URGENT! – Distribute Far and Wide
SUPPORT THE PELICAN BAY HUNGER STRIKERS!
PRESS CONFERENCE/SPEAK OUT!
WEDNESDAY @ 2 PM Ronald Reagan State Building
300 South Spring Street, L.A., CA 90013
(3rd St. between Spring and Main)
ENCAMPMENT SOLIDARITY WITH PELICAN BAY PRISONERS HUNGER STRIKE!
BEGINS WEDNESDAY AT 5 PM
KRST Unity Center of Afrikan Spiritual Science
7825. S. Western Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90047-2728
For info: 213-840-5348 (California Prisoners Hunger Strike Action Network)

On Wednesday, DAY 13 of the Pelican Bay prisoner hunger strike, a Press Conference will be held in front of the State Building in L.A. at 2 pm and an Encampment at KRST Unity Center in South Central LA will occur. Wednesday, July 13, marks the 13th day of the hunger strike at Pelican Bay State Prison Security Housing Unit (SHU) and other CA prisons. This is a serious situation.

The Press Conference will draw the attention of the public, at a key moment, to the prisoners on this hunger strike and their just demands. The Encampment will be a center for all those who support the just demands of the hunger striking prisoners; a space where people will participate in a solidarity hunger strike / fast, in unity with the prisoners and opposed to the torture going on in the Pelican Bay SHU and other California prisons.

This situation is urgent in the extreme; we recently read this report: “According to a SHU nurse, things are bad at Pelican Bay. The prisoners have not been drinking water and there have been rapid and severe consequences. Nurses are crying. All of the medical staff has been ordered to work overtime to follow and treat the hunger strikers…there were about 50 on C-SHU and 150 on D-SHU. They are not drinking water and have de-compensated rapidly. Some are in renal failure and have been unable to make urine for 3 days. Some are having measured blood sugars in the 30 range, which can be fatal if not treated….” All people and voices of conscience need to step forward urgently! Be at the Press Conference/Speak Out! at the State Building on Wednesday at 2pm. Take part in this solidarity hunger strike / fast (for 24 hours).

Add your name publicly to the call for this solidarity hunger strike / fast. Write a statement in support. Protests, demonstrations, urgent outreach, media work, and a solidarity hunger strike / fast “on the outside” are key ways, not the only ways, but certainly key ways actors, academics, artists, lawyers, faith-based people, youth and students, families of the incarcerated and everyone can show their support right now; a way to coalesce, unite and collectively make impact to demand the prisoners demands are met.

OVERVIEW