Gang members say hunger strike aim is to 'sell drugs, make money'

By Paige St. John
July 19, 2013, 3:58 p.m.
California prison officials in federal legal filings alleged that the ongoing inmate hunger strike was orchestrated by prison gangs.

Attached to legal filings in U.S. District Court on Thursday, the state included declarations signed by former members of the prison gangs known as Nuestra Familia and the Aryan Brotherhood. The two inmates, both convicted murderers, have agreed to provide information against the gangs in return for being moved out of isolation at Pelican Bay State Prison near the Oregon border.

Inmate Javiar Zubiate, who states he was a second-tier leader of the Nuestra Familia, said he and other gang members went on similar hunger strikes in 2011 because one of the public "leaders" was Antonio Guillen, a Pelican Bay inmate whom Zubiate alleges is the highest ranking "general" within Nuestra Familia.

"To my understanding, the Aryan Brotherhood and the Black Guerilla Family organized the hunger strike, and Nuestra Familia was the last to sign off," Zubiate's sworn statement says. "If you didn't participate, it would be remembered when the time came for promotion."

Guillen is one of four inmates whose name appears on the current protest demand letters from Pelican Bay. He also is one of 10 Pelican Bay inmates who are part of a federal lawsuit over solitary confinement conditions at the prison.

Zubiate and the other inmate informant contend that the chief aim of the hunger strikes is to free gang leaders from isolation at Pelican Bay.

"The goal of the 2011 hunger strikes, from the perspective of the Aryan Brotherhood, was to get out of the [Security Housing Unit] because we knew it would kill the organization," inmate James Elrod's sworn declaration states. "We believed that if we were in the general population, we could sell drugs, make money and develop an influence on the streets."

Corrections officials said 1,235 inmates remained on hunger strike Friday. Four inmates at three prisons Friday refused medical checks, including one who stopped intravenous fluids, according to the court-appointed medical receiver's office

That's the dumbest thing I ever heard in my life. Starve yourseslf and refuse medical treatment? Sounds like they want to commit suicide.
The Government doesn't care, their attitude would be let 'em kill themselves, we already have too many of them in here anyway.

What are you talking about Chicago? Stop hating man. This is organized crime at its fullest!

I believe your're joking. I'm telling you what the Government's attitude would be about it. NOT MY ATTITUDE.

I do think that it is silly to refuse medical treatment and starve yourself. Would you?

For the AB and BGF to be working together, solitary must be really bad.

Jez,

I wish all these guys would starve to death so I wouldn't have to pay the massive bill to babysit and feed these animals.

Nicky wouldent survive 5 seconds in the joint.

Believe it or not the government are the ones who are stepping in and helping these guys. They also did this in 2011. The feds made the Gov of California change many rules and livivng situation due to the 2011 strike and they are doing the same now, only the Gov of Cali is stalling. I am a c/o so i follow this stuff with much interest. California prison system is brutal. Im not saying what they do is right or wrong they just do their own thing. The feds had no choice but to step in. We will see if any real change is made.

I say they have a right to refuse food. It's their choice. If they suffer dying as a consequence it would fix the prison overcrowding problem.

Let them starve.

Inmate gets 11 years for smuggling meth into California’s Pelican Bay State Prison https://gangstersinc.org/blog/inmate-gets-11-years-for-smuggling-meth-into-california-s-pelican

They would just force feed them. They do not actually starve themselves, they keep food in their cells. Most of these food strikes involve refusing to eat in the cafeteria. They get back to their cells and have snacks and food stashed away, and it is within the rules to have it. It can be scary for the officers on duty, the Attica riot was preceded by a food strike the day before the riot.