By Melanie Mason
July 30, 2013, 1:41 p.m.
SACRAMENTO — Supporters of California prison inmates on a weeks-long
mass hunger
strike convened on the Capitol Tuesday morning to urge Gov. Jerry
Brown to take a more active role in resolving the protest.
Around 50 people gathered on the Capitol's south lawn to show
support for the inmates on strike and call for changes to policies
regarding solitary confinement. Three organizers then delivered
petitions with more than 70,000 signatures to the governor's office.
Dolores Canales, co-founder of the California Families to Abolish
Solitary Confinement, broke into tears after presenting the signatures
to a member of the governor's staff.
"These prisoners are so committed to the cause that they would put
their own bodies through such suffering and be now on the 23rd day of
the hunger strike. It's because the message is of suffering. The
message is of torment," said Canales, whose son John Martinez has been
incarcerated at the Pelican Bay Security Housing Unit (SHU) for 18
years.
Ronald Ahnen, president of the inmates' rights group California
Prison Focus, said the duration of the strike has entered "dangerous
territory."
"I have grave concern about the health of the hunger strikers,"
Ahnen said. "It's time for the governor to step in and put an end to
this hunger strike by starting to negotiate with the prisoners."
The demonstrators later marched to the state corrections department
headquarters, just under a mile away.
The strike began July 8, as inmates objected to conditions in
isolation units and prison gang policies. The corrections department
said that as of Monday afternoon, 561 inmates in nine state prisons
were considered to be on strike, meaning they have missed nine or more
consecutive meals.
At its peak, more than 12,000 inmates were participating in the
hunger strike. 385 prisoners have been on strike continuously since it
began.
Amber Bernal, 32, said she drove up from San Diego to protest in
solidarity with her brother. Ruben Bernal, 37 is an inmate at Pelican
Bay SHU, the
same isolation unit that houses the organizers of the strike.
Bernal said she and other family members of inmates involved in the
strike have become a tight-knit group in their advocacy for their loved
ones.
"It's not about the crimes they've done. They're paying the price
for their crime already," she said. "We just ask they be treated like
human beings. No matter how you slice and dice it, solitary confinement
is torture."
Deborah Hoffman, a spokeswoman for the corrections department, said
the agency "has taken thoughtful steps over the past two years to
improve Security Housing Units because these 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."
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