Standing with the Pelican Bay Hunger Strikers

Over 6000 prisoners in the Secure Housing Unit at Pelican Bay Prison are striking to protest inhumane living conditions, as described in this article:

http://colorlines.com/archives/2011/07/thousands_of_ca_inmates_show_solidarity_with_hunger_strike.html

Here are some troubling statistics:

-The prison population has grown 400% over the past twenty years. (Critical Resistance)

-Between 1990 and 2006, prisoners in California grew by 73% (PPIC)

-People of color comprise 69% of the prison population (Critical Resistance)

-In June 2009, the number of new inmates in Indian country was 11, 357--nearly 5 times the national average. (BJS)

Keep updated on the ongoing Pelican Bay hunger strikes here at this blog.

Other resources...

Local Organizations:

All of Us Or None

Critical Resistance

California Coalition for Women Prisoners

Further Reading :

The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration In the Age of Colorblindness

Michelle Alexander

Prison/Culture: An Illustrated Introduction

Mark Dean Johnson

Critical Resistance to the Prison-Industrial Complex: A Special Issue of the Journal Social Justice

Primetime Prisons on U.S. T.V: Representation of Incarceration

Bill Yousman

(Available now at the ROMC Library)

Golden Gulag: Prisons, Surplus, Crisis and Opposition in Globalizing California

Ruth Wilson Gilmore

Are Prisons Obsolete?

Angela Y. Davis

Assata: An Autobiography

Assata Shakur

(These books not yet available at the ROMC)