13-08-02 California prisoners' hunger strike and solitary confinement

Note: This writer spent only 4 hours in a solitary confinement in Los Angeles Twin Tower jail, chained to the floor, barefoot in a freezing concrete cell with no window at all, after he refused to sign off his watch, stolen by the wardens.  jz
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  CIVIL LIBERTIES  

New America Media / By Michael Cabral

 34 COMMENTS

I Spent Years in Solitary Without a Window, Listening to Grown Men Scream and Cry

Why the hunger strike going on across California's prisons matters.

July 31, 2013  |  

Michael Cabral has served ten years on a 15-Life sentence for murder, beginning when he was still a juvenile. His first two and a half years were spent in the Pelican Bay SHU. He spent time in Salinas Valley State Prison in Soledad, and is currently at Corcoran State Prison. His writing has appeared often in  The Beat Within, NAM's weekly publication of writing and art by juvenile detainees, and NAM has published previous commentaries from him.

How can I make anyone understand what it's like to cling desperately to the hope of someday being heard because that's the only hope left? That's one reason why the hunger strike going on across California's prisons matters. It might just keep that hope alive for prisoners locked down in Pelican Bay State Prison's Security Housing and Administrative Segregation Units (known as the SHU).

READ MORE:

http://www.alternet.org/civil-liberties/i-spent-years-solitary-without-window-listening-grown-men-scream-and-cry?akid=10749.1117888.0v_7zm&rd=1&src=newsletter876742&t=15