Monday, June 4, 2012

Long Term Solitary Confinement Goes to Court in California

Think this couldn't happen in Canada?  Think it hasn't already?  Prison officials find all kinds of excuses for circumventing rights protections currently in place for people inside.  With the direction we are going it shouldn't take long at all for this kind of torture to be widespread in Canada's pens too!

 Update about 'Support Pelican Bay SHU Prisoners' Five Core Demands (hunger strike)' on Change.org

CLASS ACTION LAWSUIT FILED AGAINST CALIFORNIA'S PROLONGED SOLITARY CONFINEMENT
Yesterday, a group of civil rights, human rights, and prisoner advocacy organizations filed a class action lawsuit on behalf of Pelican Bay prisoners who have spent between 10 and 28 years in solitary confinement.
The legal action is part of a larger movement to end inhumane conditions in California's Security Housing Units (SHU), a movement sparked and dramatized by a 2011 hunger strike by thousands of SHU prisoners, including several of the ten named plaintiffs.
The federal lawsuit alleges that prolonged solitary confinement violates the Eighth Amendment's prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment, and that the absence of meaningful review for SHU placement violates the prisoners’ right to due process.
The class action suit was jointly filed by California Prison Focus, the Center for Constitutional Rights, Legal Services for Prisoners with Children, The Law Office of Charles Carbone, and Siegel & Yee.

for more info:
http://ccrjustice.org/search/node/pelican+bay+shu

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