Georgia prisoners continue hunger strike

The hunger strike of nine Georgia prisoners which began on June 11th has now entered its 43rd day. The hunger strikers are demanding “decent food, medical care, educational opportunities, humane visiting policies, transparency in proceedings against inmates and wages for work.”1 Additionally, prisoners throughout North Carolina have begun a similar hunger strike with similar demands. These hunger strikes are a continuation of the resistance that began last July at the Pelican Bay State Prison in northern California. Three dozen prisoners began a strike at Pelican Bay last year over the:

widespread use of solitary confinement in California…approximately three thousand inmates are held in one of California’s three Security Housing Units, where inmates determined to be gang members are sentenced to indefinite terms in solitary confinement.2

Over 6,000 prisoners from across California soon joined the Pelican Bay hunger strikers, demanding an end to the practice of solitary confinement, access to decent food and medical care, as well as more education opportunities for inmates. The hunger strike lasted three weeks before it was called off. However, since then a wave of hunger strikes at prisons across the country have taken place with inmates demanding basic human rights. For their courage, inmates who choose to participate in the hunger strikes often face intense harassment from prison authorities, sometimes in the form of savage assaults.

Please call or write to the following government officials to bring attention to the prisoners’ demands.

Brian Owens, Commissioner, GA Department of Corrections, ask for his administrative assistant Peggy Chapman 478-992-5258

Warden, GA Diagnostic & Classification Prison, Butts County GA 770-504-2000

Georgia governor Nathan Deal 404-656-1776
In North Carolina

Robert C. Lewis, Director of Prisons
phone: 919.838.4000
fax: 919.733.8272

Central Prison Warden Ken Lassiter
phone: 919.733.0800
fax: 919.715.2645

Bertie CI Warden Renoice Stancil
Phone: 252-794-8600
Fax: 252-794-4608

Scotland CI Warden Sorrell Saunders
Phone: (910) 844-3078
Fax: (910) 844-3786

• 1"Hunger Strikes Reportedly Continue in Multiple Georgia Prisons, Prisoners Await A Movement Outside Prison Walls | Black Agenda Report." Black Agenda Report Web. 23 July 2012. .
• 2"One Year Anniversary of Pelican Bay Hunger Strike Against Solitary Confinement.” Solitary Watch. Web. 23 July 2012. .