Between The Lines - Amy Fettig: Prisoner Hunger Strike in California Protests Solitary Confinement (Week Ending Oct. 14, 2011)

Award-winning Investigative Journalist Robert Parry (1949-2018)

Award-winning investigative journalist and founder/editor of ConsortiumNews.com, Robert Parry has passed away. His ground-breaking work uncovering Reagan-era dirty wars in Central America and many other illegal and immoral policies conducted by successive administrations and U.S. intelligence agencies, stands as an inspiration to all in journalists working in the public interest.

Robert had been a regular guest on our Between The Lines and Counterpoint radio shows -- and many other progressive outlets across the U.S. over four decades.

His penetrating analysis of U.S. foreign policy and international conflicts will be sorely missed, and not easily replaced. His son Nat Parry writes a tribute to his father: Robert Parry’s Legacy and the Future of Consortiumnews.

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The Resistance Starts Now!

Between The Lines' coverage and resource compilation of the Resistance Movement

"The man who predicted Trump presidential win now says Trump impeachment could happen," AM Joy with Joy Reid, MSNBC, Jan. 21, 2018
"Sketchy Kazakh money finds its way into Trump dealings," The Rachel Maddow Show, MSNBC, Jan. 15, 2018
"Red flags seen in many Trump real estate deals," The Rachel Maddow Show, MSNBC, Jan. 15, 2018
"Secret Money: How Trump Made Millions Selling Condos To Unknown Buyers," BuzzFeed, Jan. 12, 2018
"The Scandals of Donald Trump: Presidential Edition," The Atlantic, May 15, 2017
"Here's what we know so far about Team Trump's ties to Russian interests," Washington Post's ongoing compilation
"What Comey Was Investigating, Explained," The Moscow Project, Center for American Progress

"Donald Trump's Financial Ties to Russian Oligarchs and Mobsters Detailed In Explosive New Documentary from the Netherlands," Dutch TV documentary, Alternet.org, May 12, 2017
Ongoing compilation of Trump's creeping authoritarianism," MotherJones.com
Full resource list ...

SPECIAL REPORT: "The Resistance - Women's March 2018 - Hartford, Connecticut" Jan. 20, 2018

Selected speeches from the Women's March in Hartford, Connecticut 2018, recorded and produced by Scott Harris

SPECIAL REPORT: "No Fracking Waste in CT!" Jan. 14, 2018

Jen Siskind Jennifer Siskind, local coordinator for Food and Water Watch, describes the campaign to stop fracking waste in Connecticut, which so far has led to fracking waste bans in 34 towns around the state. Interviewed by Richard Hill on Mic Check, WPKN Radio, Bridgeport, CT

SPECIAL REPORT: "Resistance Round Table: The Unraveling Continues..." Jan. 13, 2018

Lindsay Kanaly The panel discusses Trump's long history of racism and the Republican voter suppression juggernaut confronting Democrats leading up to the 2018 elections. Special guest: Lindsay Kanaly, a lead organizer of the Women's Marches planned for Jan. 20, 2018. Panel: Scott Harris, Ruthanne Baumgartner and Richard Hill on Resistance Roundtable, WPKN Radio, Bridgeport, CT.

SPECIAL REPORT: "Capitalism to the ash heap?" Richard Wolff, Jan. 2, 2018

Richard Wolff, Economics professor Richard Wolff declares U.S. capitalism to be beyond repair and suggests the need for a radical alternative. Interviewed by Richard Hill

SPECIAL REPORT: Maryn McKenna, author of "Big Chicken", Dec. 7, 2017

Maryn McKenna, investigative journalist and author of Big Chicken, talks about the widespread use and dangers of antibiotics in commercial poultry, beef and fruit production. Interview by Bill Duesing, Richard Hill and Guy Beardsly on WPKN's Organic Farm Stand.

SPECIAL REPORT: Nina Turner's address, Working Families Party Awards Banquet, Dec. 14, 2017

Nina Turner, president of Our Revolution, talks about the fight ahead for progressives as she receives the Working Families Organization Award for Exceptional Leadership Towards Advancing Progress. The event was held in Meriden, CT. Produced by Richard Hill.

SPECIAL REPORT: Mic Check, Dec. 12, 2017

Working Families Party of CT talks strategy and issues for 2018.
Lindsay Farrell, executive director of the Working Families Party of Connecticut, discusses the state's electoral landscape and lays out the issues and strategies that could lead to progressive victories in 2018. Interviewed by Richard Hill.

SPECIAL REPORT: Resistance Roundtable, Dec. 9, 2017

Disturbing developments in the Trump/Republican Agenda
Focus on the tax bill, destruction of our public lands, North Korea and Trump's private CIA. Panel: Scott Harris, Ruthanne Baumgartner and Richard Hill. Special guest: Jo Macallero of Rise and Resist.

SPECIAL REPORT: On Tyranny - one year later, Nov. 28, 2017

Professor Timothy Snyder, author of the highly acclaimed resistance manual On Tyranny, discusses his book and offers a fresh assessment of the state of our beleaguered republic. Timothy Snyder, history professor at Yale, is introduced by Stanley Heller, administrator of Promoting Enduring Peace, a Connecticut-based organization that sponsored this event at the United Church Parish House in New Haven on Nov. 28. A brief interview with Snyder conducted by WPKN radio producer, Richard Hill, follows his talk.

SPECIAL REPORT: Mic Check, Nov. 12, 2017

Lynne Ide, director of program and policy with the Universal Health Care Foundation of Connecticut, talks about the current state of health care coverage in Connecticut. Interviewed by Richard Hill, WPKN radio producer

SPECIAL REPORT: Resistance Roundtable, Nov. 11, 2017

Focus on the Republican tax plan, the just-released autopsy on the Democratic Party, and Internet censorship by Google, Facebook and Youtube. Including an interview with Hilary Grant, a lead organizer with Action Together Connecticut, who discusses the local results of the recent election, with hosts Richard Hill, Scott Harris and Ruth Baumgartner WPKN producers

SPECIAL REPORT: Rainy Day Radio, Nov. 7, 2017

Two leaders from Redneck Revolt, an anti-racist, anti-capitalist movement, talk about their work organizing with white working class people in Suffolk County, New York. Interviewed by Richard Hill, WPKN radio producer

SPECIAL REPORT: Rainy Day Radio, Nov. 7, 2017

Bruce Gagnon, coordinator for the Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space, describes the extent of -- and motives underlying -- the vast US network of military bases around the globe. Interviewed by Richard Hill, WPKN radio producer

SPECIAL REPORT: Resisting U.S. JeJu Island military base in South Korea, Oct. 24, 2017

Joyakol, South Korean peace activist and singer, discusses the crisis on the Korean peninsula and focuses on the resistance to the U.S. huge military base being constructed on Jeju Island. The event was sponsored by the Greater New Haven Peace Council and this audio was recorded by Richard Hill, WPKN producer.
Joyakol discusses Americans' biggest misconceptions about the conflict between North and South Korea and the U.S., Interview by Richard Hill, WPKN producer.

SPECIAL REPORT: John Allen, Out in New Haven

John Allen, founding director of the New Haven Pride Center, Connecticut, talks about his new LGBTQ television show, Out in New Haven, which presents a range of political and cultural issues to the community. Interviewed by Richard Hill on WPKN's Rainy Day Tuesday, Jan. 2, 2018.

2017 Gandhi Peace Awards

Promoting Enduring Peace presented its Gandhi Peace Award jointly to renowned consumer advocate Ralph Nader and BDS founder Omar Barghouti on April 23, 2017.

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THANK YOU TO EVERYONE...

who helped make our 25th anniversary with Jeremy Scahill a success!

For those who missed the event, or were there and really wanted to fully absorb its import, here it is in video

Jeremy Scahill keynote speech, part 1 from PROUDEYEMEDIA on Vimeo.

Jeremy Scahill keynote speech, part 2 from PROUDEYEMEDIA on Vimeo.

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Between The Lines Presentation at the Left Forum 2016

"How Do We Build A Mass Movement to Reverse Runaway Inequality?" with Les Leopold, author of "Runaway Inequality: An Activist's Guide to Economic Justice,"May 22, 2016, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, The City University of New York, 860 11th Ave. (Between 58th and 59th), New York City. Between The Lines' Scott Harris and Richard Hill moderated this workshop. Listen to the audio/slideshows and more from this workshop.

Listen to audio of the plenary sessions from the weekend.

JEREMY SCAHILL: Oscar-nominated documentary filmmaker "Dirty Wars"

Listen to the full interview (30:33) with Jeremy Scahill, an award-winning investigative journalist with the Nation Magazine, correspondent for Democracy Now! and author of the bestselling book, "Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army," about America's outsourcing of its military. In an exclusive interview with Counterpoint's Scott Harris on Sept. 16, 2013, Scahill talks about his latest book, "Dirty Wars, The World is a Battlefield," also made into a documentary film under the same title, and was nominated Dec. 5, 2013 for an Academy Award in the Best Documentary Feature category.

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Prisoner Hunger Strike in California Protests Solitary Confinement

RealAudio MP3

Posted Oct. 5, 2011

Interview with Amy Fettig, senior staff counsel with the American Civil Liberties Union's National Prison Project, conducted by Melinda Tuhus

This week, 4,200 inmates in California prisons are on hunger strike, many in solidarity with prisoners at the Pelican Bay super-maximum security facility. Prisoners at Pelican Bay conducted an earlier hunger strike over the summer, but called it off when they believed prison officials would grant some of their demands.

Their demands included: ending group punishment and administrative abuse; abolishing the debriefing policy, which pressures inmates to provide information on the gang status of fellow inmates; ending long-term solitary confinement; providing adequate and nutritious food; and offering constructive programming and privileges for those held indefinitely in Supermax custody.

When it became apparent that prison officials would not enact substantive changes, prisoners began a second hunger strike on Sept. 29, and were joined by inmates at other state prisons across California, through a method of communication supporters on the outside either don't know or aren't talking about. Between The Lines’ Melinda Tuhus spoke with Amy Fettig, senior staff counsel with the American Civil Liberties Union's National Prison Project. She discusses the inhumane conditions at Pelican Bay, with a focus on the solitary confinement, considered by Amnesty International and other groups to be a form of torture.

AMY FETTIG: This protest arises from a number of things, but its chief concern is extended solitary confinement for – not months, not years, but sometimes decades – for men that are almost completely isolated from other human beings, who are kept in almost complete idleness so they have nothing to do, nothing to fill their time, and have no way to actually get out of the conditions they are subject to. They can't earn their way out; they're basically trapped in this limbo state with no means to solve their problems other than to try to get the world to pay greater attention by starving themselves.

BETWEEN THE LINES: Is this how all of them are treated in the super max? I remember when the super max prisons came on line several years ago, that was one of their defining characteristics, right, the prisoners are kept in solitary confinement all the time?

AMY FETTIG: Yes, on average for 23, 24 hours a day of complete social isolation. This means you don't get to interact with other human beings; you have your meals in your cell; you rarely leave your cell; you rarely have access to visiting anyone; and when you go outside for what may be called recreation, you are in a cage by yourself. So that is a level of isolation that is almost impossible for the average American to even imagine.

BETWEEN THE LINES: Amnesty International and many other groups, including mental health professionals, have defined this as torture.

AMY FETTIG: Yes, as have bodies in the United Nations. In fact, all the research that has been done for years and decades has found that these types of conditions impact human beings in extreme ways. For folks who have mental illness to begin with, this will no doubt cause that individual to become sicker and sicker. But conditions of extreme isolation also have incredible impacts on individuals who came into the system without mental illness; it literally makes you mentally ill. So there's some real questions about subjecting individuals to this type of isolation, especially when we're looking at not days or months, but years and even decades.

BETWEEN THE LINES: How many people are we talking about? You were talking about them starving themselves to death, but I'm sure before things got that far, they would be force-fed, no? Did that happen in the first round of the hunger strike earlier this year?

AMY FETTIG: You know, I'm not aware if it got that far in the last round. The initial round was three weeks, and the policy would be to force feed an individual before he or she actually expired; however, you get to a real state of degradation in your health when you're talking about starving yourself for such a long time. So these are very risky things to do; they're causing a great deal of harm, but I think you have to look at what the options are for these prisoners, especially now. Back in July, they reached out to prison officials, they went on strike, it looked like there would be some real negotiations, and what we can see from this next strike is that prisoners felt they weren't being listened to, they weren't being dealt with fairly, and they had no other options.

BETWEEN THE LINES: Amy Fettig, has Gov. Jerry Brown weighed in on this at all? In his first stint as governor in the 1970s, he was avowedly liberal with a spiritual streak. It seems like these conditions wouldn't sit well with him.

AMY FETTIG: AF: I don't know that he has expressed an opinion, quite frankly, but I would hope, as the leader of the state and someone who's engaged in prison reform, given the problems that are now endemic in the California system, that he would take a real interest in this because it's a red flag. It should tell all officials in California that there's something wrong with their prisons and they need to take action.

BETWEEN THE LINES: Pelican Bay is a super max, but the hunger strike has spread to other facilities that are not super max. If someone isn't already in isolation and starts resisting state authority by going on a hunger strike, are they then put into isolation?

AMY FETTIG: My understanding is that prison officials are now saying they are going to crack down on the hunger strikers, whether they're in Pelican Bay or another facility; that essentially they're going to get tough now. And I would say that's exactly the wrong reaction to have. Rather than sitting down and engaging in good faith negotiations and realizing that dozens of prisoners don't start starving themselves to death for no reason. That this is a time to take serious action and reflect on their policies and procedures here, rather than burying their head in the sand yet further. They need to change the way they do business. And frankly, other states already have. Using long-term isolation has, unfortunately, become a pervasive practice in this country. However, increasingly states are recognizing not only does it yield bad results because it has detrimental psychological impacts on people when they're released to the community; they have higher recidivism rates, and frankly it costs 200 percent to 300 percent more to hold people in these types of prisons. So it's really a lose-lose. And what we're seeing in places like Mississippi, Colorado, the state of Maine, New Mexico, is that state legislators are taking a second look at what has been happening in corrections, because it's costing taxpayers millions and millions of dollars and it's producing lousy results. And on top of that, it's inhumane.

For more information on the California prisoner hunger strike and a petition calling for an end to extended solitary confinement visit www.nrcat.org.