Corcoran, CA: Report on Hunger Strike at California Substance Abuse and Treatment Facility

Report from Oakland Abolition and Solidarity about ongoing hunger strike in Corcoran, CA.

June 15th marked the 20th day of a hunger strike at the California Substance Abuse and Treatment Facility in Corcoran, CA.

Medical staff at the facility have been grossly negligent of the lone striker. They failed to record the hunger strike or provide a physical for several days. When they weighed him in they failed to remove his chains and shackles. The strike began with 30-40 people most of whom gave up quickly in the face of intimidation and threat. Remember the 224 people who were killed by CDCr so far during this pandemic.

Here are the words of the remaining striker, Sherman Bell:

The hunger protest is over the years long abuses of power by the criminal clique of CDCR officials at SATF and beyond. More than 200 prisoners lost their lives to COVID and nearly 50, 000 prisoners contracted the virus because of the criminal negligence of CDCR officials and not one CDCR official has been arrested, prosecuted, tried, and convicted for those homicides. If this were the only maltreatment and criminality that I am protesting it would be worthy of the small sacrifice I am making. It’s not. The protest is also about the fact that our families, friends, and advocates have not been permitted to physically visit us under the pretext of protecting us from COVID infection while allowing staff to come and go without proper screening and not adhering to quarantining protocols earlier. The protest is also about the fact that, again under the pretext of protecting us from COVID infection, CDCR officials refuse to allow us to participate in religious gatherings while requiring that we work together in the Prison Industry Authority (PIA) food prep factory here at SATF and the Central Kitchen. The protest is also about the unsafe working conditions that prisoners have years been subjected to in the SATF PIA and Central Kitchen. The unsanitary conditions in SATF PIA and the Central Kitchen. The protest is also about the pervasive falsification of official records by CDCR officials upon and down the chain of command for the purpose of concealing their decades long and continued abuses of prisoners and mismanagement of California’s prisons.

The protest is about the systematic theft and destruction of prisoners personal property. The protest is about the fact that there is a grievance process for prisoners it is just that: it is form without substance. There are many other things that the protest is about, but in sum, it is about official transparency, accountability, and basic human dignity.

(Sherman Bell, E89260) account at JPay.com or indirectly at [email protected].

photo: engin akyurt via Unsplash