More than 12,400 inmates in California have been on a hunger strike since Monday, calling for improved prison conditions and an end to solitary confinement. This is one of the largest strikes in the state’s history and, so far, the Corrections Department has said they have no plans to force-feed the inmates.
The hunger strike has drawn attention to the issue of force-feeding in U.S. prisons. While there is no national data available, a number of cases have been documented in recent years, with courts typically ruling that prisons can force-feed an inmate without their consent if it is needed to maintain the safety and security of the prison.
One such case is Connecticut inmate William Coleman, who has been force-fed since 2008 after the Connecticut Supreme Court sided with prison officials who said his strike could threaten the prison’s security and lead to copycat strikes. Similarly, in May of this year, the New York Court of Appeals ruled that the prison could restrain and feed Leroy Dorsey with nasogastric tubes, despite his refusal.
As lawmakers call for an end to the force-feeding of Guantanamo detainees, the California strike serves as a reminder that inmates on U.S. soil can ultimately be subjected to the same treatment.
Bioethicist Dr. Jacob Appel has expressed his opposition to the practice of force-feeding prisoners on hunger strike, saying that court rulings have led to more prisons turning to this measure in response. “It’s a little bit of bad press if you force-feed inmates,” he said. “It’s a lot of bad press if you have a lot of protesting inmates and one of them dies.”
California is one of only three states whose courts have ruled against force-feeding. In 1993, the state Supreme Court declared that a paralyzed inmate had the right to decline life-sustaining treatment, even if it would cause or hasten death. However, the judges noted that prisons could use force-feeding if a hunger strike was a threat to the order of the prison and the safety of other inmates.
California prison policy states that inmates can refuse medical treatment as long as they are conscious and able to do so. Prisoners can also sign statements that say they cannot be administered treatment, regardless of their condition. “Force-feeding inmates is not part of our medical protocol,” said Joyce Hayhoe, Director of Legislation for the California Correctional Health Care Services.
In 2011, the former head of California prisons suggested that the prohibitions against force-feeding could be overruled with a court’s approval. To do so, the Corrections Department would have to prove that force-feeding was in the state’s interest to maintain a safe prison environment for other inmates. However, the department never sought court permission, instead agreeing to meet with inmates and review the state’s solitary confinement policy. The two strikes in 2011 ended after three weeks.
The prison system revised its solitary confinement policies in March, though inmates now striking say the changes do nothing to limit the length of solitary confinement sentences, which can continue indefinitely. Inmates are also calling for an end to “group punishment,” such as race-based lockdowns that restrict an entire race of inmates for one prisoner’s violation. The California Corrections Department is facing federal lawsuits over both practices.
Organizers of the strike have said that the Corrections Department has no intention of implementing the substantive policy changes that were agreed to fifteen or sixteen months ago. The hunger strikers at Pelican Bay prison have released a list of five demands, which inmates in other prisons have expanded.
Corrections officials have warned that inmates will face consequences for participating in the strike, ranging from being denied family visits to being put in solitary confinement. “It is against state law to participate in disturbances such as mass hunger strikes,” said corrections spokesperson Jeffrey Callison. “Eventually participants will be issued rule violation reports.”
Family members of inmates, such as Dolores Canales, are worried prison officials may be less willing to work with inmates this time around. Canales has lead efforts to organize other family members in support of the strike. Isaac Ontiveros, a spokesperson with the Prisoner Hunger Strike Solidarity Network, hopes the size of the strike will push corrections officials to consider inmates’ demands, and make it harder to crack down on the protest. He believes that force-feeding does not need to come to that, and that prison officials “can end this very, very simply.”
