[Pnews] Solitary Confinement Bill Passes Public Safety Committee, Could Mark End of Torturous Practice

[Prisoner News]

*Solitary Confinement Bill Passes Public Safety Committee, Could Mark 
End of Torturous Practice*

Prisoner Hunger Strike Solidarity Coalition
4/9/2014

Oakland---A bill designed to bring about reforms to the California's 
internationally condemned use of indefinite solitary confinement, passed 
its first hurdle yesterday by a 4 to 2 vote (with one abstention) in the 
State Assembly's Public Safety Committee. Assembly Member Tom Ammiano 
authored AB 1652 in response to the historic hunger strike last summer 
that included the participation of 30,000 prisoners in the majority of 
the California's sprawling prison system. Some of the strikers refused 
food for 60 days. The prisoners agreed to end their hunger strike on 
September 5, 2013, with the promise of legislative hearings on the use 
and conditions of solitary confinement in California's prisons.

The bill could bring very significant changes to California's use of 
solitary confinement. AB1652 would prohibit the use of solitary except 
for 14 very serious offenses, and would set a cap on the solitary term 
to 5 years. AB 1652 would effectively end the bitterly contested 
practice of "gang validation" that has led to thousands of prisoners 
serving indefinite sentences in solitary based merely on association 
with other prisoners.

According to the bill's author, /"The United States is an outlier in the 
world on the use of incarceration and solitary confinement, and 
California is an outlier in the United States and is the only state to 
use solitary confinement for indefinite terms where SHU [Security 
Housing Unit] terms are assigned for administrative reasons such as 
being in possession of artwork or books...///

/California's SHUs do not meet international human rights standards 
regarding the treatment of incarcerated people. The conditions amounted 
to torture, and groups are challenging the constitutionality of the SHU. 
This bill is intended to limit the use of solitary confinement to people 
who have committed serious rule violations, and restore time credits for 
inmates currently serving time in the SHU on a non-rule violation 
assignment." ///

"This bill responds to some of the core demands of the hunger strikers, 
namely that indefinite SHU status should be abolished," said Donna 
Willmott, who worked on behalf of the Prisoner Hunger Strike Solidarity 
Coalition's legislative working group to help California decision-makers 
take action on  solitary confinement. "It is really important to 
recognize that the human rights struggle being waged by prisoners and 
their supporters are having an impact. Given the horrendous violence of 
solitary confinement, we are eager to work with decision-makers to use 
this bill to get as many people out of solitary as we can, including 
making good-time credits retroactive for those who have suffered 
solitary based solely on accusation of gang membership and association."

"Some of our loved ones have suffered in these inhumane conditions for 
20 or 30 years or more," said Marie Levin, an activists with the 
Prisoner Hunger Strike Solidarity Coalition whose brother Sitawa Jamaa 
was one of the lead representatives of the prisoner hunger strikers. "We 
will continue our fight to make sure AB 1652 can provide some relief to 
our families, and we will continue to fight until the torture of 
solitary confinement is a thing of the past."


-- 
Freedom Archives 522 Valencia Street San Francisco, CA 94110 415 
863.9977 www.freedomarchives.org
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