California Should Close Pelican Bay

[SoDesuKa]

You hardly expect moral leadership to come from convicts, but the hunger strikers at California's notorious Pelican Bay State Prison are doing just that. They are demanding that their basic humanity be recognized, and they are refusing food until the prison authorities negotiate in good faith with them.

Human rights issues have been pushed aside over the past two decades, and it's easy to despise convicted felons. But the prison authorities have crossed way over the line into sadism in the way they treat inmates at Pelican Bay. Prisoners can be locked up in the punishment unit of the prison on the whim of a guard and kept there indefinitely. The guards decide what constitutes copping an attitude, including a refusal to rat out your friends.

It really does take a lot to motivate people to go on hunger strike, especially people like prisoners, who we are told have problems with impulse control and certainly possess nothing resembling altruism. But the hunger strike at Pelican Bay is now in its 19th day.



This prison should be closed.

[NV Whino]

1. Oh, I know!

Let's send all the prisoners to New York.

(Note: there are other solutions rather than closing down a prison. Like bringing in new management.)