Editors Note: - it is actually much further on in the herstoric hunger strike as of press time but it took us several days to receive this letter from our reporter locked up behind the plantation at Pelican Bay
Today is the 37th day of the prison hunger/work strike and still many continue to go without food, not just in Pelican Bay SHU, but throughout California prisons. There has been one strike related death in Corcoran SHU, where on July 22nd a prisoner named Billy Sell lost his life while struggling for Human Rights. The prison immediately attempted to cover up this death by calling it a "suicide". We prisoners do not believe the states' vile propaganda, especially when it pertains to peoples struggles. We know that they always call strike related deaths "suicides" but WE DON'T BELIEVE IT!! During the 2011 Hunger Strikes CDCR covered up four strike related deaths by calling them "suicides", it's not SUICIDE IT'S TORTURE!!
As of today Sacramento and Governor Brown in particular refuse to negotiate with our mediation team and meet our 5 core demands and for this many more may succumb to more deaths, and many more will have health problems the rest of their lives because of having to go without food for so long. What kind of a country allows it's prisoners to starve to death? What kind of a system tortures people just because they're poor?
We continue to face retaliation, we have received write-ups and two months added to our time for our participation in the peaceful protest, for refusing torture we get 60 more days added to be tortured- What kind of sick people run such a system??
La Lucha Continua!!