After a starvation strike in a Pennsylvania jail, organizers say it was profitable Information | Pittsburgh

More than 20 Men Detained Hunger Strike In Phoenix, County Montgomery Correctional Facility Long-Term Solitary Detention That’s all.

The man was relocated from Delaware to Pennsylvania after the 2017 uprising. James T. Kirk Orthodontic Center – Operated in a centralized administrative unit that was not officially approved by the Correctional Bureau until recently.

This unit aims to bring detainees back to the general public from traditional restricted housing units or solitary confinement, whom the correctional bureau believes are the most problematic. However, one man in the unit said the unit was effectively functioning as a solitary confinement with no programming or services.

The man said they were only allowed to shower three times a week and were only allowed to relax outside of their cell for five hours a week.

Alejandro Rodriguez Ortiz, one of Delaware’s strike participants, said in a statement by the Abolitionist Law Center to Capital Star that he “has informed supporters that he is migrating from a hunger strike. I would like. “Proceedings and filing of proceedings on behalf of detainees in the state. “The general purpose of the strike was to untangle PADOC’s operations and remove them from the shadows. Now the world understands what PADOC is doing. ”

A key demand During the hunger strike that began on June 23, the man had to allow the DOC to recognize the existence of the IMU and to formulate a policy for unity.

Brett Grote, director of legal affairs at the Abolitionist Law Center, said he believes this is the first time the DOC has publicly recognized the existence of an IMU.

In addition to information about the IMU, Rodriguez-Ortiz said men would also have more access to showers and phones. Most importantly, he said, the correctional bureau offered to provide a way out of the cell for some of the men brought to Pennsylvania from Delaware.

For men like John Bramble, who came under the control of the Corrections Bureau in 2019, acquitted for the murder of a prison officer during the Bourne uprising, it may mean his first step out of the cell in more than two years.

Bramble is currently suing the Federal Court of Justice’s correctional office for continued detention in solitary confinement. The DOC denied fraud in its case.

The strike officially ended on July 2, shortly after Capital Star published its first report on the hunger strike, agency spokeswoman Maria Bivens said. Bivens did not confirm the concessions the man received from the prison as a result of the hunger strike.

“We see a 10-day strike as a success,” said Rodriguez Ortiz. “Thank you for your support. There is a lot we can only do behind our enemies. Without our colleagues in the world we would not have been half as successful.”

This story first appeared on the Pennsylvania Capital Star. Capital Star correspondent Josh Bourne has been an award-winning freelance reporter on Pennsylvania Criminal Justice for the past decade and more recently on The Appeal, a criminal justice journalism website. Readers can follow him on Twitter @Sentinel_Vaughn ..

After a hunger strike in a Pennsylvania prison, organizers say it was successful News | Pittsburgh

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