California Prison Isolation Cell in front of Glide Church Tomorrow

SAN FRANCISCO - Aug. 17, 2013 - PRLog -- Despite claims of being the home of freedom and democracy, America has been exposed as a state that enforces and condones torture: from Guantanamo to the California Prisons. California prisoners are on a hunger strike to end this torture and on Sunday, people of conscience from Glide Memorial Church will host a SHU - isolation unit cell installation bolt by Stop Mass Incarceration Network to bring the stark and intolerable reality of solitary confinement to thousands. 

Stop Mass Incarceration says: "The Situation is URGENT! Sunday will mark 42 days the courageous Hunger Strikers have gone without food. They are in a life and death struggle.  One hunger striker, Billy ‘Guero’ Sell, has already died. Many more are on the edge.  People! We need to stand NOW with the prisoner hunger strikers in their struggle for their 5 demands and to be treated as HUMAN BEINGS!" 

Pastor Theon Johnson, III from Glide says “The religious community in California and across the country continues to stand with the hunger strikers…those who are demanding that dignity and justice be theirs….That individuals incarcerated would be willing to die to call attention to the atrocities, the torture that is being committed, of solitary confinement is a wake-up call for all of us.” “Shame on our state, shame on our nation for affirming torture…we are standing up along side of those who are the crucified people of history…today is the day, my brothers and sisters when we do the work of bringing this inhumanity to an end.”

SMIN has already installed this cell at Union Square, Justin Herman Plaza and just this past Wednesday at the steps of the State Capitol in Sacramento. The tiny black box, a replica of what 4000 men, and women, are currently locked in, imparts a tactile and visceral understanding of the reality of solitary confinement that these prisoners have endured for years and decades, and why this is cruel and unusual punishment deemed torture by the UN and human rights groups.  The installation includes images of SHU cells and prisoners and moving testimony from prisoners and others.  This installation will stand as a refutation of the California Department of Corrections & Rehabilitation Claims (Los Angeles Times, Aug 6) that the notorious SHU “is not 'solitary confinement.'” http://www.revcom.us/a/312/what-is-actually-revealed-in-the-california-prisoner-hunger-strike-en.html

Who:  Stop Mass Incarceration Network, and the Social Justice and Racial Justice committees of Glide Memorial Church

What: Walk Through display of Prison Isolation Unit -- model of California Prison's SHU cell

Where: Glide Church, corner of Ellis and Taylor in San Francisco

When: Sunday, August 18, 2013 from 11 am to 4 pm

Press contacts: D'Andre Teeter 510-926-5207, Reiko Redmonde 510-384-1816

On July 8, 2013, 30,000 California prisoners began a hunger strike to end the torture of solitary confinement and for their basic rights and humanity. Their central demand is "comply with the recommendation of the U.S. Commission on Safety and Abuse in Prisons (2006) regarding an end to long-term solitary confinement.” On Sunday, the day of this installation, prisoners will have gone 42 days without food, with many more supporting in other ways.  Millions throughout society support the prisoners, including prominent voices such as Jay Leno, Danny Glover, Cornel West, Noam Chomsky, and Gloria Steinem.  On July 22, 2013, Amnesty International called California Prisons and the CDCR's response to the hunger strike an "affront to human rights."

Yet Governor Jerry Brown remains silent. The California Dept. of Corrections refuses to meet the prisoners' just, reasonable, and basic demands, and has instead retaliated against and vilified the hunger strikers.

Press contacts: D'Andre Teeter 510-926-5207, Reiko Redmonde 510-384-1816