Support Hunger Strikers Protesting Indefinite Solitary Confinement Conditions at SCI-Greene

On June 7th, at least 16 people began refusing meals in order to protest the torturous conditions of their indefinite solitary confinement in the Intensive Management Unit (IMU) at SCI-Greene, the PA state supermax prison. They said they will continue with the hunger strike until the PADOC meets their demand for a pathway to get out of solitary.

You can support the hunger strikers by:

• pressuring the prison administration to heed the strikers demands by calling: Tabb Bickell, Executive Deputy Secretary for Institutional Operations 717.728.4122 | 4123. We want to relay the strikers’ demands to Bickell, who makes decisions about whether people remain in the IMU on indefinite solitary.
• donating to our #SolidarityNotSolitary fund, which sends all donations directly to people in solitary In retaliation for speaking out, the DOC has been charging the strikers an exorbitant medical copay of $25/day for unsolicited nurse visits. You can donate HERE or on cashapp at $hrcsolitaryfund to help cover the medical charges.

We need the PADOC to know that we are watching them and that we will not stand by while our loved ones and community members are tortured in indefinite solitary confinement. We want the hunger strikers to know that they are not alone!

The SCI-Greene strikers demand:

• Access to programming that is required for parole eligibility.
• The DOC follow its own policy in regards to the length of the IMU program—individuals must graduate a phase after nine months, especially if they have remained misconduct-free. 
• Full access to commissary to supplement inadequate, cold, uncooked food trays.
• The two additional family visits that were promised for Phase 4, but never granted.

Almost exactly one year ago, a hunger strike at SCI Phoenix presented nearly identical demands. Both strikes were initiated to resist the prolonged, indefinite solitary confinement that the DOC subjects them to under the name of the Intensive Management Unit (IMU) program. The IMU is just the latest in the list of alphabet soup terms (LTSU, SSNU, STGMU, BMU, RHU, SMU) that the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections has coined for solitary confinement. No matter what name the DOC uses, SOLITARY IS TORTURE and needs to end!

One striker, Michael Rivera, has spent the past 7.5 years in solitary confinement. The DOC has singled him out as a leader of the hunger strikers and has placed him in Disciplinary Confinement, another form of solitary confinement, for 60 days. Rivera says, “We could use your help getting the word out, so that we can spotlight the abusive tactics we’re being forced to endure. As we already proved, sunlight is the best disinfectant when it comes to PIC [Prison Industrial Complex] abuse.”