Pelican Bay’s SHU prison cells are cement with no windows, with
a small holes in the door for a window to see in the hallway. Prisoners in
Pelican Bay’s SHU know all too well the words solitary confinement. With being locked down for 22 and ½ hours and
let out for an hour and a half to just walk around the cement recreation area “yard”
is ridiculous. Prisoners are not allowed to have balls, weights, basically
anything to occupy their time. Most spend their “yard” time doing pushups or
walking the area. The most contact that an inmate has is a “pinky shake”, no
outside visits, no phone calls, no life, just time to think. To make matters
worse inmate only gets food twice a day. I understand that these are the worse
of the worse criminals, or gang members, but do we lose the humane values
because of this? Most prisoners here stay here for 6-20+ years. Conditions like
this will make people crazy in just a mere 2 days. "A place like this is
designed to drive you crazy," "It's not just designed to isolate you
from the general population. It's designed to break you. It sucks. It's hard.
It's made me different. It's made me spiteful."- Jim
Breaking them is exactly what is has done. With over a hundred
in the mental ward of the SHU, there’s a wait list that’s double the times to
get in there. You have grown men spread feces over them, the walls, throwing
urine at guards, going completely insane. Is this the punishment we were
looking for? It has been proven time and time again that most people in prison
have some type of mental disability; do you think it’s ok to push them over the
edge? The state of California should be appalled at the behavior they have
conducted to “gain control over prison gangs.” Granted officials made excuses as to how you
cannot be sentenced to this just, but merely, sent here after bad behavior in
the general population, but does bad behavior in jail give them the right to
strip them of their humane rights? These men do not even get to see the light
of day. The only window is on the “yard”, but on a gloomy or dark night, they
can’t even see that. How do you think you would act if you couldn’t see the
light of day, the moon, or the stars?
Because of the behavior of the guards, officials, and wardens at
Pelican Bay, the prisoners there and throughout California took a food strike.
They demanded that there be better conditions in SHU here is the list of
demands they have established: 1) Eliminate group punishments; 2) Abolish
the debriefing policy and modify active/inactive gang status criteria; 3) Comply
with the recommendations of the US Commission on Safety and Abuse in Prisons
(2006) regarding an end to long term solitary confinement; 4) Provide
adequate and nutritious food; 5) Expand and provide constructive
programs and privileges for indefinite SHU inmates. There is also
a petition that went out on change.org, to help bring awareness to the issue.
11.6 thousand people signed it. I guess this proved to the state of California,
although people want criminals off the street, they do not feel they should
have their basic rights taken from them. What it says to me is, the prisoners
know they did wrong to get there, but they want RESPECT while their there
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