Reportback on Pelican Bay Prisoner Hunger Strike

Please join us for a very important discussion on how prison activists can support Pelican Bay SHU inmates in their struggles against the inhumane conditions of confinement and racist gang validation policies. Speakers for our Dec. 1st discussion include: Charles Carbone - lawyer for Steve Castillo, a Pelican Bay inmate who who has been leading the hungers strikes for the last two years. Steve Fama - Saff attorney for the Prison Law Office, Steve handled the Madrid vs. Gomez case, a class action lawsuit on behalf of Pelican Bay SHU inmates. This is a potluck, so please bring food and drink if you can! Hope to see you there! As of November 4, close to 100 prisoners at Pelican Bay were entering the third week of a hunger strike to protest CDC's racist gang validation policies. Under current policies prisoners who are determined to be members or associates of a gang can get sent to a security housing unit (SHU) with indeterminate sentences. In the SHU prisoners are subected to maximum deprivation and minimumprivileges. They spend 23 hours a day on lock down in 8 x 10 foot cells. They are released for daily exercise and showers three times a week. The only way out of the SHU is through parole or informing on fellow prisoners. The SHU is a tool of repression and is often used as punishment for prisoners organizing on the inside and the racist gang validation policy works to divide prisoners along racial lines.