California inmates end hunger strike

SACRAMENTO, Calif. – California inmates on Thursday ended a 60-day hunger strike after lawmakers said they would review solitary confinement policies that kept dozens of gang leaders and members locked up for more than a decade in tiny, individual cells with little chance of returning to the general population.

A lawyer representing strike leaders at Pelican Bay Prison said they met in the law library Wednesday with other prisoners and voted to end the protest several days after two Democratic lawmakers promised to hold hearings on their complaints.

“They finally felt like somebody was listening to them,” lawyer Anne Weills said. “They felt like somebody had their back.”

Three of the four strike leaders have been kept in isolation for more than 20 years and the fourth for more than a decade. All four are serving life sentences for murder, have committed a string of assaults while incarcerated, and lead rival prison gangs, officials have said.

The meeting at the prison near the Oregon border came two days after high-ranking prison officials renewed contact with participating prisoners in a 90-minute conference call after steadfastly refusing to negotiate for weeks, Weills said.

More than 30,000 inmates throughout the state prison system had refused meals when the strike began in early July over the isolation units and the indeterminate time periods that some inmates can serve in the harsh conditions.

By this week, the number had dwindled to 100, including 40 who had been on strike continuously since July 8.

It did not appear that any striking inmates suffered serious health problems such as kidney or eye damage that can result from starvation, said Joyce Hayhoe, a spokeswoman for the federal court-appointed official who oversees prison medical care.

The focus now will be on easing inmates back to solid food, she said.

A federal judge had given authorities permission to force-feed inmates if necessary to save their lives, but officials did not have to resort to that measure. Even hard-core strikers had been accepting vitamins and electrolyte drinks during their fast.

Assemblyman Tom Ammiano, D-San Francisco, and state Sen. Loni Hancock, D-Berkeley, announced on Aug. 30 that they would schedule joint public hearings exploring the prisoners’ complaints about the so-called security housing units.