Inmates in at least 11 of California's 33 prisons have been on hunger strike this month over inhumane conditions inside a maximum-security unit at Pelican Bay. Prisoners there are kept in total isolation for 22~12 hours a day, a punishment that can lead to insanity and counts as torture, according to critics. This was just the latest reminder to the outside world of the barbarism that prevails inside the state's prison system. In May the federal Supreme Court ruled that California must reduce its prison overcrowding to be able to provide inmates with adequate health care.
展开▼
