SAN JOSE — Upset with Sheriff Laurie Smith’s comments about San Jose inmates’ threats to start a hunger strike over their grievances, some prisoners on Sunday began to refuse their meals even though the formal strike remains “suspended,” say inmate advocates.
Supporters said the inmates were making a statement by declining the food because they’re worried Smith is undermining agreements worked out last week between jail officials and an inmate group over improving jail conditions, such as the practice of “indefinite solitary confinement” to discipline troublesome prisoners.
“As of today, October 22, 2017 pre-trial detainees in Santa Clara County Main Jail housing units 4B and 5C have already refused their first and second meals,” inmate-advocacy group Silicon Valley De-Bug said in a statement.
The action came after an on-again-off-again series of meetings last week between inmates, their advocates, and jail officials, who reportedly reached an agreement to suspend the strike, only to have some parties disappointed and vowing to refuse their meals. In their news release Sunday, the inmate advocates said they hoped Smith would, as they said she’d promised to do, ensure that the uneaten meals be delivered to people in need.
“Although the suspension of the hunger strike is still active,” said the group, “willing participants are committed to refusing all custody meals every day until they see to it that Sheriff Laurie Smith in confidence donates refused meals to the hungry and courageously states that she and her staff have and will work with the jail population to meet all demands to improve inhumane and unconstitutional jail conditions.”
Earlier in the week, potentially hundreds of inmates in the Bay Area were on the verge of resuming a hunger strike they started last year after contending that officials have not sufficiently improved jail conditions as promised, particularly with alleged inmate isolation.
On Thursday, Prisoners United of Silicon Valley, the inmate coalition backed by local civil rights groups, announced that they would commence the strike Sunday. It was not clear how many inmates actually refused their meals. Jail officials did not immediately return calls for comment.
Jose Valle, a community organizer with Silicon Valley De-Bug, said Sunday afternoon that the formal hunger strike was still suspended, but that scores of inmates around the county were still refusing their meals as an act of resistance to get law enforcement’s attention. The sheriff’s comments seem to contradict or undermine the agreements worked out the past week between jail officials and inmate representatives, he said, adding that inmates worry Smith won’t support the deal worked out just days earlier by her underlings.
“We were making a lot of progress and decided to suspend the strike,” he said. “But when the sheriff made her comments, saying inmates could lose some weight and she’d happily donate the uneaten food to the Salvation Army, that seemed to disregard all the efforts that had been made to come to that agreement.”
Valle said, “the guys inside still want to honor the agreement they worked out with jail officials, but you have to remember that Smith is the boss and she’s saying things that undermine those efforts so the inmates have started to refuse their meals.”
The inmate coalition takes particular issue with policies that restrict an inmate’s ability to be downgraded security-wise based on gang affiliations. That grievance is of particular importance to Larry Lucero, who authorities describe as a regional leader of the Nuestra Familia prison gang and is in the Main Jail after being indicted along with 47 other people four years ago in the largest single gang-related prosecution in county history.
Lucero helped lead the talks that ended last year’s hunger strike. A law-enforcement source told this news organization that jail administrators worry that given his out-sized profile and influence, further integrating Lucero and inmates of similar stature into the broader jail population would lead to more jail violence. They already blame a purported rise in inmate-on-inmate violence this year in large part to rising gang tensions within the walls.
Valle said that potentially as many as 300 inmates at the main jail could eventually join the movement, along with inmates at other county facilities like the Elmwood Correctional Complex.
Sunday marked one year to the day that South Bay inmates “suspended” the last strike in 2016, which was planned for two weeks but ultimately lasted three days after jail administrators met with inmates and reached an apparent agreement.
San Jose Inside reports that the controversy around Smith and her comments comes as the sheriff is being challenged in the 2018 election by former Undersheriff John Hirokawa, who retired three months before last year’s hunger strike. Hirokawa has blasted Smith over how the meetings between jail officials and inmates have been handled.
