When California prison inmates went on a hunger strike in July, prison officials negotiated with them, ultimately reaching an agreement to bring the strike to an end after three weeks. The New York Times reports that since inmates resumed the strike last week in protest against conditions of prolonged isolation, the corrections department has cracked down.
The state is trying to isolate strike leaders, some of whom no longer trust the department and are hoping to push Gov. Jerry Brown to institute reforms. “I'm ready to take this all the way,” J. Angel Martinez, one of the strike leaders at Pelican Bay State Prison, said in a message conveyed through a lawyer. “We are sick and tired of living like this and willing to die if that's what it takes.”