Pelican Bay Hunger Strike Update.

Pelican Bay SHU hunger strikers' demands sort of almost met by new policy.

Very brief skeptical summary... There is now a "step-down" process, that takes years of perfect conduct (and will probably be largely ignored or obstructed at CO and Wardens' whim). Meanwhile, the same policy also greatly expands the number of people who can be sent to the SHU in the first place.

It took hundreds of people starving themselves for weeks and four men's lives to win a victory that may merely obscure and complicate the repression they were fighting. I don't want to draw any conclusions now, from this distance, but i don't hear anyone closer to the situation shouting "victory!" yet, either.

I don't know what it will take, but we've got to find a way to break the stubbornness of the prison system. Whether it's prosecutors refusing to dismiss obviously bullshit cases, judges handing down bullshit sentences, parole boards refusing to let people out, appellate judges who simply deny writs that someone taught themselves the fucking law in order to write in order to save their lives, or review boards, investigators and wardens who refuse to concede any humanity to their captives.

My biggest hope is that adversaries so unyielding will shatter completely when we finally break them.