San Quentin - Occupy Oakland joined together with prison reform activists, forming Occupy 4 Prisoners, outside the infamous prison February 20th to protest against the high incarceration and living conditions.prevalent in the facility. Some of their issues involved the strict sentencing, ending solitary confinement, and children being tried as adults.
"I myself experienced more than 14 months of solitary confinement and after only two months my mind began to slip," said Sarah Shourd. Shourd was one of three people, along with her friends Shane Bauer and Josh Fattal, who were imprisoned for in an Iranian jail in 2009. They have since focused their efforts toward prison reform.
"We have merged the prison rights movement with the Occupy Movement. The 99 percent has to be concerned about the bottom 1 percent," said activist Barbra Becnel said, quoting a message she said came from death row prisoner Kevin Cooper.
Demonstrators also held a moment of silence for Christian Alexander Gomez who died February 2 while on a hunger strike in California's Corcoran State Prison. He was one of the prisoners who staged a wave of hunger strikes in solidarity with other prisoners who united against the isolation unites in Pelican Bay State Prison.
No comments:
Post a Comment