Image courtesy of Change.org

A story that has not gained much coverage this week was mentioned by Michael Cox, director of policy for Black and Pink, Boston. In a press conference held by a coalition including Mass Public Health, Cox was the only participant who mentioned the strike for hunger that is occuring at North Central Correctional Instition in Gardner, Massachusetts (NCCI-Gardner).

According to Deeper than Water, a group dedicated to exposing human rights abuses in prisons, on May 5, more than 40 men refused to eat, protesting the lockdown that had been institututed by the Department of Correction (DOC) across the prison population. Carol Mici, DOC commissioner, said, as part of the Prisoners’ Legal Services’ class-action suit to decarcerate in the time of COVID-19, that she institututed the lockdown in response to the state’s “shelter-in-place order. The lockdown, as of the strike had been for 32 days, where prisoners were locked in for 23 1/2 out of 24 hours. 

Documented by Shawn Fisher of Old Colony Correctional Center (OCCC) here, and at DigBoston, the lockdown, Fisher shed light on the isolation, fear, anger and frustration for prisoners who were forced into this controversial response to the coronavirus.

Prisoners at Gardner said the food was not meeting basic needs, and refused trays slid under their door. They issued demands according to Deeper than Water: 

1. Free them all. All those who currently have the power to release people (Governor Charlie Baker, DOC Commissioner Carol Mici, district attorneys, parole and probation boards, MA Department of Public Health) need to exercise their power to decarcerate immediately.
   
   
2.  Until they are freed, provide healthier, more substantial, and more varied food options. Right now, the DOC is only offering meal options that are woefully inadequate in portion size and alarmingly high in carbohydrates and sodium content. These meals put those who are incarcerated at risk of developing or worsening chronic diseases.
   
   
3. Until they are freed, allow those who are incarcerated time to go outside into the yard. Since April 3, prisoners at NCCI-Gardner have been locked in their units 24/7 with no fresh air. Allowing them to go into the yard once a day for 30 minutes would not present further risk of disease spread, since they would remain with the same people in their units regardless. Being able to breathe fresh air would only improve the health and well-being of those incarcerated.

After the strike began, one of the organizers, Wayland X Coleman and others were sent to the hole (solitary), possibly as punishment for the strike. As of May 7, two prisoners remained in solitary confinement including Jeremy Woodley.

Hunger strikes are in the tradition of prisoner protests when injustice is so intolerable that refusing to eat becomes the only viable option. In California in 2013, 29,000 prisoners went on strike to protest conditions in the prison including the use of solitary confinement. They did get action on their demands and ended the strike after two months.

On May 8, DOC Commissioner Mici posted a notice in all Massachusetts prisons that people who are incarcerated would be allowed back outside into the yard “starting next week.” According to Shawn Fisher, on Monday, OCCC “started letting 10 guys go to the court yard for one hour of recreation.” He had no idea if this would continue.