Advocates say 22 Texas inmates still on hunger strike but state disputes figure

Solitary confinement inmates protest against brutal form of incarceration but state says it’s only aware of six striking men

Ed Pilkington@edpilkington

Prisoners in Texas who have been kept in solitary confinement in some cases for more than 20 years are sustaining a hunger strike in protest against their brutal form of incarceration in the face of threatened retaliation from state authorities.

Outside advocates working with the protesting inmates say that in their latest count 22 men continue to refuse food, with two of them having been on hunger strike since the start of the action on 10 January.

A spokesperson for the Texas department of criminal justice (TDCJ) disputed those figures, saying they were aware of only six striking men, none of whom had protested from the start.

The action is directed against the widespread use by Texas of solitary confinement, in which male inmates are locked up in isolation for 22 hours or more a day as a means, the authorities say, of disrupting gangs. There are currently more than 3,000 prisoners held in “restrictive housing”, as the state refers to solitary – 138 of whom have been there for more than 20 years.

Texas has by far the largest number of prisoners held in isolation for more than a decade in any state in the union. All condemned prisoners on death row are also permanently held in isolation, and a class-action lawsuit was lodged last month calling for an end to such “cruel and unusual punishment”.

Messages sent by inmates participating in the hunger strike describe measures taken by the prison staff to disrupt the action, including threats of retaliation and forceful cell searches. Joshua Sweeting, one of the lead advocates of the protest who is currently refusing food in the Coffield Unit, a TDCJ prison in Anderson county, Texas, said that his cell had been searched three times in recent days……..more here

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