California Prisoner Hunger Strike

Similar to Guantanamo Bays hunger strike, California prisoners are also fighting to create better conditions for themselves.  In a country that holds itself above the majority of the world, you would think that we would have humane conditions to house our immense prison population in.  However instead we've gotten to a  point where medieval dungeons would be a welcome improvement over how most American prisoners are treated.  RT reports:

Amnesty International has called on the US to end “punishing” California prison hunger strikers who are protesting unregulated solitary confinement policies. Hundreds of inmates continue their action for a third week.

“Prisoners seeking an end to inhumane conditions should not be subjected to punitive measures for exercising their right to engage in peaceful protest,” Amnesty International’s USA researcher Angela Wright said. “Prolonged isolation under conditions which can only be described as cruel and inhumane treatment is prohibited under international law.”

The protests began on July 8 and are now into their third week, with more than 1,000 inmates across California remaining on hunger strike. Initially some 30,000 prisoners in over 24 prisons joined the action.

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Since then key leaders of the strike had been facing “increased isolation, where they face harsher conditions and increased restrictions on communication with their lawyers”, AI reported on Monday.

Others claimed that prison authorities “blasted cold air into their cells, as well as confiscated fluids, hygiene products and legal materials” in the Pelican Bay Security Housing Units.

The inmates are protesting the state’s policy of long-term solitary confinement in SHU that isolates detainees who have been determined to be involved with internal gangs. Those prisoners are locked up in small, solitary cells until they volunteer to detail gang activity to investigators. No rule exists limiting how long those inmates can be held in isolation, and some have lived like that for years, even decades.

... Justice System my ass.  America has a long term torture system.