April 25 RALLY! Support Detainees on DAY 12 of Hunger Strike in Riverside County, CA

The Hunger Strike going on right now at The Robert Presley Detention Center has now surpassed a week without  jail administration addressing the demands and legitimate core issues of the Hunger Strikers.  Instead, administration is responding by limiting or removing the Hunger Strikers’ commissary/canteen options, access to the phone, and visitation hours. These forms of retaliation are intimidation tactics. It is now more important than ever for us to voice our support for the hunger strike. Our rally will start in front of the jail at 1:00 PM, 4000 Orange St, Riverside, CA 92501. If you are unable to come in person visit https://prisonerhungerstrikesolidarity.wordpress.com/ for more ways to show your support.

RIVERSIDE COUNTY JAIL HUNGER STRIKE
 SOLIDARITY RALLY,  TUESDAY 4/25

1 PM @ ROBERT PRESLEY DETENTION CENTER, DOWNTOWN RIVERSIDE

TUESDAY WILL BE THE 12TH DAY OF THE ROBERT PRESLEY JAIL DETAINEES’ HUNGER STRIKE

THE SHERIFF AND THE BOARD OF SUPERVISORS HAVE BEEN UNRECEPTIVE, AND HAVE RETALIATED BY TAKING AWAY PHONES, VISITS, RECREATION AND COMMISSARY, AND HAVE RESORTED TO USING DISCIPLINARY WRITE-UPS

NOW IS THE TIME TO PUT PRESSURE ON THE COUNTY TO DEMAND CHANGE AND SUPPORT THOSE INSIDE

HELP THE DETAINEES END THEIR HUNGER STRIKE BY ENDING UNJUST AND UNFAIR POLICIES

FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT: RIVERSIDEALLOFUSORNONE@GMAIL.COM

OR VISIT: www.prisonerhungerstrikesolidarity.wordpress.com

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Hunger Strike in Riverside County Jail Needs Your Support
Read post, make calls and share flier

To Read Statement and Demands, see Hunger Strike in Riverside County Jails begins April 13. 2017: Download pdf  or Read post

RALLY To Support Detainees on Hunger Strike in Riverside County, CA

THURSDAY APRIL 13, First Day of Hunger Strike!

HUNGER STRIKE RALLY 9:00am
PRESS CONFERENCE 10:00am

Robert Presley Detention Center
4000 Orange Street Riverside, CA 92501

For more information contact: riversideallofusornone@gmail.com

Please contact the Sheriff’s Department in support of the Hunger Strikers and their Demands :

Riverside County Sheriff:
(951) 955-2400 PRESS OPTION 4

Robert Presley Jail:
951. 955.4500 press 1 then 8

To Read Statement and Demands, see Hunger Strike in Riverside County Jails begins April 13. 2017: https://prisonerhungerstrikesolidarity.wordpress.com/2017/03/28/hunger-strike-in-riverside-county-jails-begins-april-13-2017/

Hunger Strike in Riverside County Jails begins April 13, 2017

Announcement from prisoners in Robert Presley Detention Center (Jail) Administrative Segregation (Solitary Confinement)  Download pdf here

The following is in regards to a peaceful protest in the form of an organized hunger strike in the Riverside County Jails.  Said hunger strike will begin at breakfast April 13, 2017 and end at breakfast May 1, 2017 a total of 17 days.

First off, allow us to stress the fact that by no means is this to be considered an attempt to promote or benefit any form of gang, nor is this to be considered gang activity. This is a peaceful request/call for action to all, regardless of race, creed, and classification. This pertains to all prisoners held in Riverside County Jails. We all serve to benefit from any success that may transpire as a result of our collective efforts.

With this in mind we are now reaching out to all like-minded prisoners who are willing and interested in banding together in a united stance of solidarity in order to bring about meaningful forms of change. We respectfully ask anybody that is not taking part in the strike to respect our efforts and show other forms of support by not accepting extra county food. We all have a stake and common interest. In preparation we encourage you to inform and involve your friends and family, have them show their support by calling the jail during our hunger strike to voice their concerns, ask that they get our message out to social media and traditional media and by reaching out to prisoners support organizations to help further push and inspire our efforts.

It is truly in our best interest to see this through. If you are unable to hold out for the entire 17 days that’s ok, just do your best. But in order for your sacrifice and supportive efforts to be acknowledged as a hunger strike you must refuse 9 straight meals over a course of 3 days so we ask that, at the very minimum, you hold out for at least 4 full days.

Familiarize yourself with the compiled list of demands and core issues. That way if you are asked why you are not eating, you will be able to explain that a hunger strike is a peaceful protest and the reasoning behind it. The administration cannot call off our hunger strike or punish us for our protest so don’t allow them to use intimidation and harassment tactics to discourage or mislead. Remember, we are doing the right thing. With that said please get the word out.

Respectfully with strength and solidarity,
Riverside County prisoners

–Number to reach Riverside County Sheriff:
(951) 955-2400 PRESS OPTION 4

–Number for Robert Presley Jail:
951. 955.4500 press 1 then 8

–For more information about the hunger strike:
Nancy at 951.456.1431

–Email for Prisoner Hunger Strike Solidarity Coalition (PHSS):
prisonerhungerstrikesolidarity@gmail.com
Phone number for PHSS: 510.426.5322

–Updates on the hunger strike will be available on instagram:
#Riverside County Prisoners

Our specific goals/purposes are reflected in the following list of demands/core issues.

1. End: Frivolous and irrelevant policies.

    Solution:
A. Cease and desist enforcing frivolous policies limiting phone access due to state change.
B. Issue and or display random dayroom list in ad-seg.
C. Increase ad-seg dayroom time to one hour.
D. Remove no-see tint from cell windows.

2. End: Placement in solitary confinement when there exists no serious rule violations to merit such placement.
a. Prohibit the use of long-term/indefinite solitary confinement.
b. Prohibit the use of solitary confinement based solely on gang allegations, affiliation, validation, etc.

    Solution:
A. Determine classification of housing based on individual behavior.
B. Allow a genuine opportunity to be down classed and integrated to general population through a modified group and dayroom program.
C. Jail officials read Ashker v Gov of California Settlement Terms.

3. End: Denial of adequate clothing to inmates.

    Solution:
A. Establish policy that promotes proper hygiene.
B. Provide two sets of all clothes.

4. End: Jail profiteering and exploitation of prisoners and our families through commissary and trust accounts.

    Solution:
A. Waive the fee associated with putting money on a prisoner’s account.
B. Set commissary prices equal to or cheaper than those set in CDCR e.g. 97 cents for a top ramen soup is outrageous.

5. Provide opportunities for religious services, self help, and educational programs.

IN ADDITION TO THE ABOVE DEMANDS

1. End: Housing mental health prisoners with regular prisoners.

2. Establish accountability for each grievance to catalog the concern.

PRISONERS UNITED of Silicon Valley Thank Each Other & Supporters for a Largely Successful Hunger Strike Against Solitary Confinement

Read full article in SF Bay View (includes video from a TV interview with hunger striker inside the jail)

January 25, 2017

by Mary Ratcliff

In late September, prisoners in the Santa Clara County jails who are part of what they then called the Prisoners’ Human Rights Movement sent a letter to Sheriff Laurie Smith with a list of demands and a notice that in October the inmates would initiate a hunger strike to continue their “peaceful protest to end this torturous practice of solitary confinement and inhumane treatment until there is tangible and meaningful change for all prisoners – most whom are un-convicted pretrial detainees,” they stated.

In prisons and jails, prisoners classed in general population are the freest, allowed to exercise on the yard together, as these men are at the Santa Clara County Jail. Solitary confinement is the least free classification and has been identified as torture by the United Nations. The issue was central to this hunger strike. “They isolate me by removing any form of social oxygen,” one prisoner told San Jose Inside. “I come out by myself, I do not interact with nobody else, no card playing, no nothing. When we go out in the yard, we come out one person at a time. We’re in our cells by ourselves. But they’re saying this isn’t solitary.” – Photo: Robert Galbraith, Reuters

The letter begins by recalling the Ashker settlement, the 2015 resolution of a lawsuit against solitary confinement in the state prison system that was initially filed by prisoners and fueled by a series of hunger strikes, the largest in history. Though it didn’t end solitary confinement, it severely limited it and released thousands of prisoners who had suffered the torture of solitary confinement for a decade or more into the relative freedom of general population.

Building on that precedent, the Santa Clara prisoners write: “Currently there are over a hundred prisoners held in solitary confinement throughout Santa Clara County jails.” Then they list their core demands:

• End meaningless classification review and the biased appeal process;
• End placement in solitary confinement when there exists no serious rule violation to merit such placement;
• End the policy and practice of denying prisoners sufficient clothing;
• End jail profiteering and exploitation of prisoners and their families through contract bidding of commissary vendors based on kickbacks and political incentives for campaign contributions;
• End recidivism and misappropriation of prisoners’ welfare funds.

In calling the strike, which was inspired by the nationwide prison strikes that began Sept 9, 2016, they wrote to their comrades: “Said hunger strike will begin at 12 midnight on Oct. 17, 2016, and will go on for two weeks, or 14 days. It will end on Oct. 30, 2016, at 12 midnight. This strike is not mandatory, but instead it is highly encouraged to all who are concerned, willing and able.

“We especially reach out to those who are healthy and influential. We lean upon you and ask that you utilize your influence to help further push and inspire this movement through your words and actions by leading through example.

“For those who might not be able to hold up for the full 14 days, it’s OK; just do your best. But this county does not acknowledge a hunger strike until you refuse nine straight meals through the course of three days, so we ask that at a minimum you hold out for four days so that your sacrifice and efforts are acknowledged.”

Santa Clara County Main Jail is the main lockup in Silicon Valley, which is booming economically. So why would a large jail be needed where jobs are plentiful? Silicon Valley is notoriously reluctant to hire people of color regardless of their skills, so, as in nearly all the rest of the country, the wealth gap between rich and poor is huge.

Three hundred prisoners, including many held in solitary confinement, joined the strike. And after only four days, jail officials held a meeting with about a hundred prisoners that resulted in suspension of the strike, which continues.

Three hundred prisoners, including many held in solitary confinement, joined the strike.

“In an unusual turn,” the San Jose Mercury News reported, “the Deputy Sheriffs’ Association, the union for the rank-and-file enforcement officers of the Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Office, publicly sided with the inmates and released a statement lambasting Sheriff Laurie Smith for not being responsive enough to the protest of conditions ranging from how solitary confinement is doled out to inadequate clothing.”

Now, under their new name, Prisoners United of Silicon Valley, the strikers have issued their own newsletter and topped it with this statement:

PRISONERS UNITED OF SILICON VALLEY Newsletter #1

Link to full newsletter: http://tinyurl.com/gwhq2hp

PRISONERS
UNITED
OF SILICON VALLEY

▼

December 22, 2016 – Newsletter 1

– LETTER OF APPRECIATION –

Greetings and solidarity to each other and all who participated in our initial Hunger Strike to end the arbitrary use of solitary confinement and inhumane treatment in Santa Clara County Jails.

Before we set off into the body of this letter we would like to extend our respect and appreciation to all who participated and sacrificed to provoke change. Although we came from diverse backgrounds be it race, religion, color or creed we set out differences aside, inter-locked arms forming a formidable force through civil disobedience in solidarity.

Allow the sacrifices each participant has made be inspiration to others to join in our struggle, allow our peaceful protest to demonstrate the power of unity and the positive changes that can be effected when we view each other not as classification of inmates defined by the color of clothing issued to prisoners by administration but instead as human beings who share the same oppressive conditions.

For decades prisoners have been slammed down in solitary confinement, locked away from education and rehabilitation programs or barred from participating in fellowship of their faith due to administration beliefs … Meanwhile our families are being exploited with practices that amount to price gouging through exorbitant commissary and phone rates. While they survive in a region with rising rent cost plagued by a homeless epidemic in city with ordinances that throws people in jail for having no place to live… Let’s be thankful we have religious leaders and community organizations like De-Bug who rally behind us to champion our cause and see us different, who are the difference, who see us as human beings, who are not persuaded by those in positions of authority whom define us by our allegations and classification rhetoric to pump fear in the heart of the public in their effort to kill our support base when they are preoccupied beating us to death like Michael Tyree … In the spirit of thankfulness perhaps one might consider reaching out to their family and friends letting them know they are appreciated; we appreciate you and yours for your support so Thank You!

Before we bring this letter of appreciation to a close we would like to abreast the prisoner population that our hunger strike has not ended, it has been momentarily suspended. We gave administration (30) days to bring about tangible changes for the benefit of all prisoners. We will continue our efforts until all of our core demands have been met. We will not be duped by the superficial such as movie night and a snack, we must persist as a collective that stands firm on principle. We must not be deluded by a carrot on a stick offered to us by an oppressed system that is fueled by greed and political ambitions.

To prevail in our struggle for prisoners human rights we respectfully ask the prisoner population to exercise diplomacy for it is not in our own interest to engage in combat with one another when we are fighting together to improve our conditions of confinement. We ask those of you who sway influence in our housing unit to work with each other to resolve conflict peacefully by promoting prisoner solidarity. Let’s try not to provide ammunition to the administration that allows them to justify the reasoning for the use of solitary confinement. Our goal is to promote our cause by unifying like-minded people to support our next planned Hunger strike.

In closing, we thank you for your time.

Truly,

PRISONERS UNITED OF SILICON VALLEY

 

Newsletter #1 contents:
Letter Of Appreciation
Official Updates
Recommended Reading
We Are the 13th Amendment! by Jose Valle
Recommended Resources
Write to De-Bug San Jose
Prisoners United of Silicon Valley
Notes
Questionnaire

Download, Read, or Print entire newsletter:
https://prisonerhungerstrikesolidarity.files.wordpress.com/2017/01/prisoners-united-1.pdf

Santa Clara Co. Jail Hunger Strikers Released from Solitary! Hunger Strike Suspended Pending Sheriff’s Fulfillment of Demands

HUNGER STRIKE SUSPENDED.

Hunger Strikers have been released from solitary with handshakes and hugs. In 90 days, Strikers will be able to downclass in to general population. Additional clothing has been ordered. The sheriff’s department has agreed to subsidize lowering Commissary prices through the Welfare Fund. The Hunger Strike will continue its suspension until lasting changes are met.

The community can still put pressure in the form of a petition to insure lasting change in classification, administration, and Gang Intel both in policy and practice.

Be a part of the process to have lasting change!

Share & Sign the Petition: https://www.change.org/p/support-the-santa-clara-county-jail-hunger-strikers

#debugsanjose #protectyourpeople #hungryforchange

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