Struggle against solitary confinement and a new humanism

Four years ago Pelican Bay Security Housing Unit (PB SHU) prisoners staged their first hunger strike, awakening a nationwide movement in and outside prisons against the pervasive use of long term solitary confinement. Today there are many challenges to what is internationally recognized as state sanctioned torture: from ongoing negotiations with the original PB strike representatives, to legal challenges including a law suit Ashker v. Brown, to swing-vote Supreme Court justice Anthony Kennedy inviting a challenge to the way solitary confinement is used as an unconstitutional form of "cruel and unusual punishment." The prisoners' movement has continued on the ground, even as guards are staging their own actions to punish the prisoners and make the PB SHU more unbearable. Come hear prison rights activist, Urszula Wislanka, on her recent visit to the PB SHU and to Folsom where prisoners have their own story on the guard staged murder of Hugo Pinell.