Families of hunger striking prisoners in California join protests
- 11 years ago
It's hard to tell in the candlelight.
But the backdrop of this vigil is a prison in Norwalk, California.
That's where inmates, among many dozens in prisons across the state, are on a nearly two-month-long hunger strike to protest their solitary confinement.
Now, their families are speaking up.
(SOUNDBITE) (English) DOLORES CANALES, MOTHER OF A HUNGER STRIKING PRISONER JOHN MARTINEZ, SAYING:
"Right now, under federal government law, research chimpanzees are protected from being held in solitary confinement because they're defined as social beings, and it's detrimental to their mental and physical health. So how much more of a social being is my son, or is my friend's husband, or is somebody else's son? I mean, a human being is the most social being that there is."
The inmates want prisons to stop housing them in near-isolation for years on end, simply because they're associated with gangs.
(SOUNDBITE) (English) LYDIA CARBAJAL, MOTHER OF HUNGER S
But the backdrop of this vigil is a prison in Norwalk, California.
That's where inmates, among many dozens in prisons across the state, are on a nearly two-month-long hunger strike to protest their solitary confinement.
Now, their families are speaking up.
(SOUNDBITE) (English) DOLORES CANALES, MOTHER OF A HUNGER STRIKING PRISONER JOHN MARTINEZ, SAYING:
"Right now, under federal government law, research chimpanzees are protected from being held in solitary confinement because they're defined as social beings, and it's detrimental to their mental and physical health. So how much more of a social being is my son, or is my friend's husband, or is somebody else's son? I mean, a human being is the most social being that there is."
The inmates want prisons to stop housing them in near-isolation for years on end, simply because they're associated with gangs.
(SOUNDBITE) (English) LYDIA CARBAJAL, MOTHER OF HUNGER S