Nearly 30,000 prisoners in California prisons have gone on hunger strike to protest the use of psychological torture through solitary confinement. Now, the prison authorities have added physical torture to the psychological torture.

Pelican Bay Prison – California’s own Guantanamo Bay

From Pelican Bay

They stopped my [medicine] that I take for my heart condition… The stoppage of my medications is life-threatening and Dr. Sayre is well aware of his actions.

Reportedly, medical staff at San Quentin were weighing people, making a joke out of the situation, and making bets on how long people would last.

HUNGER STRIKERS AT PELICAN BAY ARE BEING FROZEN

The prisoners who have been moved to Ad-Seg, as well as prisoners still in SHU, reported yesterday that it is “freezing cold” in their cells. The prison is pumping in cold air and keeping doors to the outside open. People who are fasting are already cold. SHU prisoners have very thin clothes and thin blankets. [You may recall that their incidental demands back in 2011 were for ‘watch caps’ and for the right to purchase thermal underwear, because of how cold their concrete cells are.] Extreme temperatures are a torture method.

from Corcoran Prison:

One doctor said “Unless you’re dying or seriously bleeding, we can’t do anything for you. Sacramento has ordered us to only provide the most minute of medical care.”

Hunger striker with chronic back pain has taken pain reliever since 2010. Medical staff stopped it abruptly. He writes that this particular medicine “is not supposed to just be stopped. You are supposed to be tapered off. I have been going through lots of pain, sweats, I can’t sleep, etc.”
When he asked for his medication, the doctor just laughed at him.

You can write to prisoners, letting them know your support:

To write folks locked in Pelican Bay:

Name and number for prisoner
Pelican Bay State Prison
P.O. Box 7500
Crescent City, CA 95532

To write folks locked in Corcoran:

Name and number for prisoner
Corcoran State Prison
P.O. Box 3481 cell location
Corcoran, CA 93212

cell location for the 7 men listed here: 4A-3R

Michael R. Dorrough #D83611

Heshima Denham #J38283

Raul ‘Mando’ Cuen #J07549

Richard Hurtado #V64077

Arturo Estrada #V26050

Francisco McGann #P21818

Micah Holland #K42141

Here is a link to write to California Governor Gerry Brown, telling him to stop the torture in California prisons.

Here is a link to a web site with more information on the situation of the hunger strikers.