On July 27, 2010 a mass hunger strike took place at California State
Prison - Los Angeles County (CSP-LAC) in which close to, if not well
over 1000 prisoners participated. This mass hunger strike was
successfully organized directly under the noses of pigs and their
collaborators. The purpose of this strike was to protest and call
attention to another of the California Department of Corrections &
Rehabilitation’s (CDCR) oppressive and unconstitutionally sponsored
pilot-programs in which prisoners are being forced to endure an average
of 23 hours a day, seven days a week, confined in closed quarters.(1)
Whispers and murmurs were heard and acknowledged within certain circles
concerning the impending hunger strike the week before-hand, however
nothing was certain, or set in stone with regard to the actual date and
time of the scheduled event outside of the strike organizers. Willing
participants were advised not to exit their cells for either breakfast
or dinner services during the period of no less than 24 hours in advance
of the strike. This tactic of putting people up on game solely on a
need-to-know basis was done specifically with the purpose of minimizing
leaks and to prevent information from reaching prison administrators’
ears. The strike was originally intended to last for a minimum of 72
hours. This was because it takes a minimum of 72 hours before CDCR
officials in Sacramento must be notified by prison officials of the
ongoing hunger strike. Only then are prison doctors required by Title 15
regulations to begin the tedious and time consuming work of weighing
strike participants and giving medical exams.
Building 3 on facility C was the first housing unit to initiate the
protest as they are the first building to walk to chow. Other buildings
were instructed to immediately follow suit whether they then walked to
chow or got cell-fed. The quiet was eerie as well as defiantly deafening
as cell after cell refused to step out for feeding. Only then did it
become immediately apparent to the pigs that something was up. The yard
was immediately put on lockdown as pigs scrambled to find out exactly
what was happening. All so-called MAC reps(2) were ordered to report to
the facility program office in order to speak to the Sergeant,
Lieutenant and Captain.
Conditions Leading to Strike
As I stated during the beginning of this article, this hunger strike was
the result of C-facilities’ administrators, the prison warden, and quite
possibly Sacramento officials’ direct refusal to allot prisoners here
the required minimum of hours per Title 15 regulations of physical
exercise outside of our cells. The California Code of Regulations
explicitly states that inmates who are to be considered security threats
to their institution are to be allotted no less than one hour a day,
five days a week (Monday thru Friday) of physical exercise outside of
their cells. This info can be found in CDCR Title 15, 3322, Length of
Confinement (a), 3331 conditions of detention (h) avid 3343 Conditions
of Segregated Housing (h). The above mentioned regulations are
designated for prisoners being forced to participate in said programs.
However, C-facility prisoners at CSP-LAC are not considered safety and
security threats, but instead are designated general population per the
Title 15. Therefore the question to be begged here is, why are general
population prisoners being subjected to such long and concurrent periods
of time inside of our cells without meaningful physical exercise?
General population prisoners must be given a minimum of ten hours of
P.E. outside of our cells Mon - Fri according to old Title 15
regulations, however the CDCR has conveniently wiped this regulation
from the Title 15 in order to get away with violating constitutionally
upheld decisions.
This is a question which has continually been asked at this gulag since
this yard officially opened back in September of 2009. Pigs and
officials alike have stated that the yard program will improve once the
yard officially opens, or that they’re currently “working on it”.
However, the real reason that there is no yard here is quite simply that
they just don’t want to run it. Period.
Back in January 25, 2009, then-Captain Fortson released an ill-devised
memo in an attempt to quell the prison masses’ demands for yard. In this
memo Fortson stated that “no more than 100 IM’s on each side (as per
safety ratio) and that all buildings will have yard 2x per week.”
First of all, there is no way in hell that they can adequately provide
physical exercise for all 1000+ prisoners when the yard is kept to a
maximum capacity of 100 prisoners at a time, or 200 prisoners even, as
of late. Also, with all the bullshit that goes on around here as well as
the purposely delayed and cancellations of program, it is simply
impossible for prisoners to receive anywhere near the ten hour minimum
or five hour minimum for that matter of required physical exercise
outside of our cells. This isn’t rocket science people, and it isn’t
incompetence either. It is an arbitrary application of the safety &
security doctrine. Why? Because in his ill-devised memo which will come
back to bite CSP-LAC officials in the ass, the good Captain does not
elaborate on this “safety ratio.” And why does he not? Because there is
no safety ratio, only a failed attempt to dupe the prisoners into buying
the illegitimacy of their own oppression.
Finally, prisoners here got tired of patiently waiting to be given the
right to exit their cells for meaningful physical exercise, so we
decided to do something about it.
How it Went Down
Now, according to the so-called MAC reps who met with the facility heads
immediately following the hunger strike, the administration stated that
we’d certainly “gotten their attention.” They were then given the
captain’s “word” that he would look into the issues and that things
would change. However, if the MAC reps wanted the honor of an audience
with the warden then they’d have to instruct all prisoners participating
in the strike to give up the struggle. This was complete and total
bullshit as it was obvious to anyone with half a brain that the pigs
only wanted us to break it down and stop striking. This point was made
very clear by a tiny minority within the organizers and insiders. They
advised the MAC reps not to break it down, but instead to go around and
tell everybody to keep striking. Unfortunately, perhaps out of real
stupidity or just plain cowardice, the Executive Body MAC reps
capitulated and went around telling people to end the hunger strike
after a measly six and a half hours. Any continued act of resistance to
the administration in the form of the hunger strike, or any other means
by isolated individuals would’ve been futile as the vast majority of the
population had already ceased. The damage was done.
Among the organizers and insiders there was a small minority who were
against this mass action at this time, not only because they didn’t
believe that the objective conditions were entirely conducive for such
measures as today’s prisoner is programed to be docile and take a lot of
crap, but also because they foresaw precisely the type of capitulation
that ended up taking place. Furthermore, this small minority gathered
that if indeed some organizers were hell-bent on kicking off this hunger
strike then they might as well go one step further and instead call for
a mass sit down and follow it with a hunger strike, as this would cause
more havoc and confusion to the pigs, plus, they’d have to immediately
justify their secondary response to Sacramento, as opposed to the 72
hour hunger strike requirement. It is the small minority’s belief that
this would have been the correct approach. Unfortunately, the majority
of the organizers won out with their idea. Disappointed but still
determined to at the very least help organize the strike, solely for
solidarity purposes, the small minority encouraged others to join in. Of
course there is much more to this story, but due to security purposes it
will remain confidential.
In the end as a result of the strike we are now on lockdown. Also, the
Executive Body MAC reps were almost all sent to the hole for suspicion
of being the organizers and leaders of the strike. This is of course
ridiculous as we all know that MAC really stands for
Man-Against-Convict. And so now we await to see what happens in light of
these events. Will the administration keep their word? Highly unlikely.
While the Executive Body rots in the hole, the real leadership is still
on the loose in the population, like fish blending into the sea. Prison
administrators are confused if they believe they can organize and keep
us in check in a top down structure with their MAC reps. Instead we
organize from the bottom up, from the masses to the masses.
If nothing else readers of this article should take away one thing,
there are no rights, only power struggles.
Notes:
(1) The one hour per day outside the cell is typically
spent as follows: 15-20 minutes allotted to and from the dining hall for
AM feeding, 15-20 minutes to and from the dining hall for PM feeding
with the occasional five or ten minute delay, alarms, etc. In fact, when
not on lockdown or “modified program” we in the general population
receive an average of 2-3 hours of meaningful P.E. with recreational and
exercise equipment, once a week.
(2)MAC Rep stands for “Mens Advisory
Council.” These MAC reps are voted into their positions by the
population and are expected to voice prisoners concerns to
administration. However, their real purpose as far as the administration
is concerned is to keep the population under firm control and
subservient.
This
Report is an analysis of the censorship experienced by MIM(Prisons) from
July 2009 through June 2010. In January 2008, MIM(Prisons) released our
first 