Close to 100 family members and community supporters gathered outside the main jail in San José, Calif., April 23. The protesters rallied and then marched in support of a hunger strike by prisoners there and at the Elmwood Correctional Complex in nearby Milpitas that started April 15. This is the third hunger strike in two years around grievances that have included inmate isolation, substandard jail conditions, and grievance system abuse.
The action was organized by Silicon Valley De-Bug and Serve the People — San José. Other groups that participated included the Brown Berets (who provided monitors for the march), Green Party of Santa Clara County, SCC Peace and Freedom Party, and Party for Socialism and Liberation.
De-Bug community organizer José Valle opened the rally and led the march that followed, which ended at County Sheriff Laurie Smith’s headquarters several blocks away. A family member and a San José State University professor also addressed the crowd.
The hunger strike and other protests were organized on the inside by Prisoners United of Silicon Valley. This group send a two-page letter to Sheriff Smith dated March 26, 2018, that begins as follows:
“This letter is to inform you that we the S.C.C.J. prisoners housed in solitary confinement still continue to endure injustice, lengthy and indefinite periods of solitary confinement, and negligent abuse of the grievance system. We are deprived of our due process rights, our grievances/appeals are habitually delayed and our chief concerns are often misrepresented by staff or ignored completely.”
The letter goes on to detail the grievances and raise demands to address them.
According to the April 16 San José Mercury News, Sheriff Smith “has been at loggerheads with inmates over the protest tactics, a tension that led to her flippant comment last fall about how some of the inmates could stand to lose weight.”
Valle stated at the rally that prisoners had lost between eight and 22 pounds in the course of the latest hunger strike.
At least two candidates who tout their progressive credentials will challenge Smith, who has traveled in the past to Israel for extra training, in the upcoming election.
