Giving Compass' Take:
- Maia Nehme spotlights the incarcerated hunger strikers seeking to improve health care, reduce lockdowns, and increase communication with the outside world in Connecticut prisons.
- How does humane treatment improve outcomes for incarcerated people? What actions can donors take to make the voices of incarcerated people heard?
- Learn more about key issues in criminal justice and how you can help.
- Search our Guide to Good for nonprofits focused on criminal justice in your area.
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Two incarcerated men have participated in a hunger strike for better conditions in Connecticut prisons for the past eight days. The incarcerated hunger strikers, Jacky Robinson Jr. and Cornel Myers — both in prison at MacDougall-Walker Correctional Institution in Suffield, Connecticut — have refused food since September 16. The men’s demands include improved medical treatment and mental health services for prisoners, fewer prison lockdowns and shakedowns, and increased communication between prisoners and the outside world. Robinson plans to continue the hunger strike until state Department of Correction Commissioner Angel Quiros provides him with a written agreement to his demands.
“If I don’t continue, things will just go back to how they were,” Robinson said. “That’s what continues to keep me moving forward… Even though we’re in here for crimes we committed, [we’re] still human. We don’t deserve to be mistreated.”
Quiros did not respond to the News’ request for comment about a potential written agreement to the incarcerated hunger strikers’ demands.
Six men participated in the hunger strike last Monday, with a seventh man joining them on the second day. But Robinson said five of the men ended their strikes prematurely because the state Department of Correction threatened to move them to different units. He noted that the men were worried the DOC would eventually place them on medical suicide watch, cutting off their communication with the outside world.
DOC officials distributed copies of the hunger strike policy to the incarcerated hunger strikers, Robinson said. The policy states that if multiple prisoners participate in a hunger strike, they must be separated, according to Robinson. The DOC did not respond to a request for clarification about its hunger strike policy.
By Friday, Robinson and Myers were the only remaining incarcerated hunger strikers. When DOC officials told Myers he needed to switch units or go into segregation, he elected for the latter, Robinson said. Since Robinson was the sole striker left in his unit, he was allowed to remain there.
Read the full article about the incarcerated hunger strikers by Maia Nehme at Yale Daily News.