(Inter)National Emergency Action: End
Sleep Deprivation Torture Of CA
Prisoners In Solitary Confinement
Tuesday, February 23rd 2016
#SleepDeprivationSiTorture#STOPsolitary#together#CaliforniaEmergency
Take urgent action on February
23 and
ongoing to end sleep deprivation torture
of California
prisoners in solitary confinement.
People are suffering sleep deprivation
for over 6 months in Pelican Bay
Security Housing Unit (SHU) - since
August 2, 2015- and in Central
CA Women’s Facility Death Row.
Prisoners in solitary have been
subjected to jarringly loud noise 40+
times day & night:
· reverberating
noise of the steel doors to units
opening and slamming closed,
·
stomping of guards through the pods, up
and down the stairs,
·
rattling
of keys and chains,
·
banging
Guard One metal pipes on the cells,
·
beeping
of Guard One metal pipes on metal
buttons,
·
guards
shining their flashlights into the
prisoners’ eyes.
These so called “welfare checks” serve
no welfare or security purpose; they
only harm the prisoners, mentally and
physically.
The 2012 California prisoners’ Agreement
to End Hostilities between
racial groups laid the foundation for the
CA Prisoner Hunger Strike of 2013 by
over 30,000 California prisoners and
100’s nationwide, and for winning the
2015 historic
settlement ending indefinite solitary
confinement in California.
Sleep deprivation torture appears to be
intended to stop, or prevent, future
effective organizing by prisoners.
Please make calls and click this
link to
send emails in opposition. Send
statements denouncing the sleep
deprivation, and
circulate this
letter for
signatures! Details for ways to take
these actions are below.
· Call
to demand a STOP to the “checks” in
Pelican Bay SHU and Central
CA Women’s Facility Death Row:
·
CA Dept. of Corrections and
Rehabilitation (CDCR) Secretary’s Office
(Scott Kernan): 916-323-6001
·
Kelly Harrington, CDCR Director of Adult
Divisions: 916-445-7688
·
Senator Loni
Hancock, CA Senate
Public Safety Comm. Chair: 916-651-4009
·
Assembly Member Bill Quirk, CA Assembly
Public Safety Comm. Chair: 916-319-2020
·
CA Governor Jerry Brown:
916-445-2841
Suggested script for calls:
Give your name, city, and state. Tell
them all: “Stop the so-called
“security/welfare” checks in the SHU at
Pelican Bay State Prison and in Central
CA Women’s Facility death row. Sleep
deprivation is torture.”
·
Click
this link from Californians
United for a Responsible Budget (CURB)
to
email state elected officials to oppose
the “security/welfare” checks.
http://tinyurl.com/ztjcos3
·
Organizations
and prominent persons, please write a
statement condemning
the sleep deprivation torture of
prisoners.[sample letter at
http://wp.me/P1BB1k-27L]
Send your statement/letter to
Prisoner Hunger Strike Solidarity
Outreach
phssreachingout@gmail.com
and
kohenet@sbcglobal.net
·
Print
this
letter
to the CA Senate and Assembly
Public Safety Committees and Governor
Brown. Circulate the letter for
signatures,
then scan and email signed letters to Prisoner
Hunger Strike Solidarity Outreach phssreachingout@gmail.com
or snail mail to
Peoples' Action for Rights and
Community, P.O.
Box 5692, Eureka,
CA 95502.
http://wp.me/P1BB1k-2mV
·
Share
this YouTube Video far and wide!
“Sleep Deprivation” from
Liberated Lens Collective
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zjWF3OtGSkQ
“The negative health consequences of
inadequate sleep ha[ve] been extensively
documented and nowhere in the literature
is there a report on as severe a
disruption in sleep as is occurring in
the Pelican Bay SHU.”
–Dr. Jamie Zeitzer, internationally
recognized sleep expert, 10/25/15
National Sleep Foundation scientists
reviewed 300 studies and found that
people 18-64 years old should get 7-9
hours of sleep a day. People locked up
in Pelican Bay SHU and Central CA
Women’s Facility death row are getting
0-3 hours of sleep a day. This is a
dangerous denial of a basic human need.
California prisoners are suffering
severe stress and irritation,
depression, weight loss, dizziness,
nausea, headaches, migraines, eye
problems, intestinal problems,
faintness, high blood pressure, fast
heart rates, stomach acidity and pain,
and vomiting.
Insufficient and disrupted sleep causes
defects in numerous critical
physiological functions, and increases
risk of many chronic and potentially
terminal illnesses. Dr. Terry Kupers, a
clinical psychiatrist and expert on
forensic mental health stated: “Sleep
deprivation has many significant
psychological consequences…Because of
the harm it causes, sleep deprivation
has been described as torture by
organizations such as Amnesty
International.”
For more info:
prisonerhungerstrikesolidarity.wordpress.com
phssreachingout@gmail.com
510.426.5322
Facebook:
Prisoner Hunger Strike Solidarity
End Sleep Deprivation Torture Now!
Support Prisoners Human Rights!
“National Sleep Foundation’s updated
sleep duration recommendations: final
report,” Sleep Health: Journal of the
National Sleep Foundation, Vol. 1, Issue
4, December 2015 , p A1-A4, 223-330 or
233 -243,
http://www.sleephealthjournal.org/,
AbstractFull-Text
HTML
PDF.
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