Today (9/28/11) lawyers & mediators of Prisoner Hunger Strike Solidarity’s mediation team confirm that at least 6,000 prisoners throughout CA are resuming the hunger strike that originally began in July. The CDCR refuses to release where prisoners are striking exactly, and how many prisoners are striking at each prison.

We know that hundreds of prisoners in the General Population at Calipatria are joining the hunger strike for one week in solidarity with 200 hunger strikers in Calipatria’s two Administrative Segregation Units (Ad-Seg & ASU), bringing Calipatria’s numbers up to 500-1,000 hunger strikers.

Family members have also reported prisoners are striking at CCI Tehachapi’s Security Housing Unit (SHU), demanding that the five core demands written by hunger strikers at Pelican Bay be implemented for all SHU-status prisoners in CA. Prisoners at Centinela have also joined the hunger strike again in solidarity with SHU-status prisoners across the state.

Prisoners at West Valley Detention Center are refusing state-issued food in solidarity with SHU-Status hunger strikers across the state as well. (West Valley prides itself as being one of the largest county jails in CA. The majority of people locked up at West Valley are pre-trial prisoners.)

From Security Housing Units to County Jails, conditions of imprisonment in California are horrendous, ridden with medical neglect & overcrowding as condemned by the US Supreme Court in the May ruling that found the CDCR to be in violation of the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition cruel and unusual punishment. The expansion of the strike demonstrates that CDCR’s atrocious practices and brutal conditions are in fact a system-wide issue and endemic of the CDCR.

Support the prisoners in winning their demands! Call Governor Jerry Brown & urge him to make the CDCR comply with the prisoners demands!