CELEBRITIES PROTEST SOLITARY CONFINEMENT OF PRISON INMATES

Claiming that isolation is torture, they demand an end to solitary confinement of inmates belonging to violent prison gangs

Gloria Steinem, Jesse Jackson, Bonnie Raitt, Jay Leno and his wife Mavis, political critic Noam Chomsky, Angela Davis, scholar Robert Thurman and actor Peter Coyote are notables who have sent a letter to Gov. Jerry Brown demanding an end to solitary confinement.

These do-gooders have never walked in the shoes of correctional officers that have to deal daily with scores of unruly, rebellious and violent prison inmates. As a fan of Jay Leno, my advice is for Jay to stick to his expertise as a late-night TV show host and to keep his prominent nose out of matters about which he knows little if anything about.

I see where Angela Davis is one of the participants demanding an end to solitary confinement. This is the same Angela Davis who was the former leader of the Communist Party USA and a groupie of the original Black Panther Party. In 1970 Davis purchased and supplied the guns that were used by two black convicts in in a Marin County, California courtroom to escape with hostages, including the judge, the prosecutor and three women jurors. A subsequent shootout with police resulted in the deaths of the judge, the prosecutor, one of the jurors, the two convicts and a black high school student who delivered the guns to the courtroom.

I suggest that we invite the likes of Jesse Jackson, Angela Davis and the Lenos to work as correctional officers for at least one year. I doubt they would last more than a couple of weeks and I believe the experience would cause them to change their do-gooder tune. Oh shit, did I include Angela Davis? She's much more suited as a prison inmate than a correctional officer!

HOLLYWOOD STARS, CIVIL RIGHTS ICONS PROTEST SOLITARY CONFINEMENT
By Paige St. John

Los Angeles Times
July 30, 2013

SACRAMENTO -- Gloria Steinem, Jesse Jackson, Bonnie Raitt and Jay Leno have all joined prison hunger strikers in calling for an end to California's use of solitary confinement to control prison gang violence.

The civil rights crusaders, rock singer and late-night comedian are among those signing two letters addressed to Gov. Jerry Brown. The letters call Security Housing Units "extensions of the same inhumanity practiced at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay."

The letters to Brown, to be delivered during Tuesday's demonstration at the Capitol, were pulled together by the National Religion Campaign Against Torture and local supporters of the California prison protesters.

The Washington-based organization is involved in a push to close down solitary confinement units at prisons in 13 states on the premise that such isolation is torture, said its executive director, the Rev. Richard Killmer.

"There is that in the human body that needs companionship," said Killmer, a Presbyterian minister.

Other notables signing the letter to Brown include political critic Noam Chomsky, activist Angela Davis, Columbia Buddhist scholar Robert Thurman and actor/activist Peter Coyote.

Some of the signers have been inside California prisons. Raitt performed once at San Quentin and her interactions with the warden and inmates there "made a profound impact on her," said spokeswoman Annie Heller-Gutwillig.

Others said they learned of the issue more recently through activists. "I was appalled at this unlimited, indiscriminate use [of isolation] by prison administrators, so I rallied my network," said UCLA psychiatry professor Susan Smalley. Those contacts included her friend, Mavis Leno, the feminist wife of Jay Leno.

Supporters began to gather those signatures more than a month before the hunger strike itself.

Prison officials Monday said 385 inmates have been on hunger strike continuously since July 8, with several hundred more inmates on shorter protests.

Prison medical staff reported six inmates required treatment since Saturday, including three who were sent to outside hospitals for care and returned the next day to their cells.

Inmate advocacy groups called for an investigation into the death a week earlier of a protester at the state prison in Corcoran.

Corrections officials said that inmate, Billy Sell, had already resumed eating when he apparently killed himself in his cell.

King County Chief Deputy Coroner Tom Edmonds said Monday he had ruled Sell's death a suicide by strangulation, but was awaiting toxicology results before issuing a coroner's report.