Tag Archives: wisconsin

Dying to Live Hunger Strikers Kept on Brink of Death by Retaliatory DOC

From Dying to Live

Waupun WI- According to a letter from hunger striker LaRon McKinley, the Dying to Live hunger strike against solitary confinement at Waupun Correctional Institution (WCI) has become a serious health crisis after seventy-six days.

On August 15, the Wisconsin Department of Corrections (WI DOC) decided to suspend the force feeding they have subjected the prisoners to since June 17. They allowed McKinley and Cesar DeLeon, the two most committed hunger strikers, to go without food or water for 72 hours, until they were severely dehydrated. Then they tube fed them again on Thursday August 18.

“Presently, and for most of this week, we have been under retaliatory attack by our warden as a direct consequence of our political efforts… to force an end to prolonged Administrative Confinement,” the letter from McKinley reads. Continue reading →

Wisconsin Prison ‘Dying to Live’ Hunger Strikers Continue Quest to End Prolonged Solitary Confinement – LaRon McKinley Bey

From Arawak City Anarchist Black Cross, by Laron McKinley Bey, #42642

In a nation that would not tolerate shutting in zoo animals 23-24 hours per day the State of Wisconsin has no compunction confining prisoners to indefinite isolative Administrative Confinement (AC) alone in a parking-space size cell for 164 of the 168 hour week.  Such prolongued social, environmental, and occupational isolation and lack of stimulation is well known to pose a substantial risk of harm to mental and physical health.

Norman Uhuru Green and I, 2 of the longest standing Wisconsin prisoners held in this type of endless isolation at 18 years, and nearly 28 years respectively, together with Cesar DeLeon, form the 3 remaining original ‘Dying to Live’ movement hunger strikers who continue to refuse to eat or drink in hopes of forcing an end to the state’s practice of indeterminate seclusion.

On June 7, 2016, a group of 10 Wisconsin prisoners in solitary confinement at the Waupun and Columbia correctional institutions began refusing nourishment to expose the inhumane conditions of their confinement, and to facilitate dignified treatment of all humans.  Within a few weeks the Department of Corrections had obtained court orders to force-feed Uhuru, DeLeon, and I 3 times daily which entails being placed in full restraints, and then strapped into a ‘restraint chair’ and having a nasal-gastro tube inserted in one nostril to the stomach where a liquid mixture of nutrition is funneled.  Besides violating the sanctity of our bodies, this procedure is an invalid state response to a dignified struggle and it can cause significant internal injury.

Continue reading →

Milwaukee IWOC calls for a national day of action in solidarity with the Dying to Live hunger strike at Waupun Correctional Institution (WCI).

 “…Well the past few days have been hard. Apart from the pain, humiliation, and sick process I have to go through 3 times per day in this force-feeding, I am okay. The weather though make it hard. It makes you dizzy and sick. Plus it makes you hungry as well. I try not to think of food or else you break,”

– Cesar DeLeon’s most recent letter to Milwaukee IWOC.

Cesar DeLeon and LaRon McKinley-Bey began refusing food on June 7. They called their protest Dying to Live, and demanded an end to indefinite solitary confinement, what the Wisconsin Department of Corrections (WI DOC) calls Administrative Confinement (AC). On June 17 the DOC requested and got approval to force feed the hunger striking prisoners.

Milwaukee IWOC (The Incarcerated Worker’s Organizing Committee of the IWW) has been supporting this protest, in coalition with other groups for 60 days now. We have marched on the DOC twice, held rallies in Milwaukee and Madison, shamed DOC Secretary Jon Litscher at a public meeting he chaired, passed out hundreds of flyers and held banners over freeways many times. The DOC has conceded nothing, and conditions for the prisoners have remained abysmal.

June 10, Milwaukee, Photo credit: Sam Caravana. Published by Milwaukee Journal Sentinal

June 10, Milwaukee, Photo credit: Sam Caravana. Published by Milwaukee Journal Sentinal

Now Milwaukee IWOC is calling for national solidarity and mobilization to back up our next action. On Aug 13, we will mobilize against the WI DOC and we need others to amplify the signal and make the Dying to Live protest a national issue.

Why get involved?



Cesar DeLeon is a member of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) a militant labor union whose slogan is “An Injury to One is an Injury to All”. Cesar and LaRon have had tubes shoved down their noses to force bottles of ensure into their stomachs well over 100 times at this point. For a while, the staff doctor had advised that feeding three times a day was excessive, and changed the practice to once every couple of days, so we’re not clear on the actual number of
tube feedings. Continue reading →

Hunger strikes protesting solitary confinement proliferate within Wisconsin’s prisons

[Find a current list of hunger strikers and contact information here: https://solitarytorture.blogspot.com/2016/07/list-of-hunger-strikers.html

Please call DOC Secretary Jon Litscher at Phone: 608-240-5000 docweb@wi.gov and demand that he meet the hunger striker’s demands.]

by Solitary Torture

Hunger strikes by some state prisoners protesting abuses of solitary confinement at the Waupun Correctional Institute are reportedly spreading to two other state prisons, according to prisoners’ rights advocates.

The Coalition of Prisoner Supporters has also received reports of dozens of hunger strikers at Columbia Correctional Institution, according to a letter from prisoner Robert Ward.  The Wisconsin Department of Corrections has refused to release the number of prisoners involved in the hunger strikes at any of the state prisons.

The so-called “Dying to Live” hunger strikes are an attempt by prisoners to abolish long term solitary confinement in Wisconsin, according to Coalition member Ben Turk of the Milwaukee Industrial Workers of the World. LaRon McKinley-Bey and Ras Uhuru Mutawakkil (state name Norman Green) have drafted a proposal of new rules for DOC’s use of solitary confinement. These rules were delivered to the DOC along with a rally and protest by 20 members of the Coalition of Prisoner Supporters on July 5  at WI DOC central office, according to Turk. Continue reading →

Judge refuses to halt force feeding of inmate in solitary confinement protest

From WisconsinWatch.com

Inmate Cesar DeLeon’s request to stop nasal tube feeding on free-speech and religious grounds was rejected Thursday by a Wisconsin judge

By

Waupun Correctional Institution inmate Cesar DeLeon is shown being force fed June 20 in this screen grab from a video Thursday in Dodge County Circuit Court. DeLeon, who along with several other Wisconsin inmates is hunger striking to protest long-term solitary confinement, was unable to convince a judge to withdraw the force-feeding order.

Wisconsin Department of Corrections

Waupun Correctional Institution inmate Cesar DeLeon is shown being force fed June 20 in this screen grab from a video Thursday in Dodge County Circuit Court. DeLeon, who along with several other Wisconsin inmates is hunger striking to protest long-term solitary confinement, was unable to convince a judge to withdraw the force-feeding order.

A Dodge County Circuit Court judge on Thursday rejected a request by Waupun Correctional Institution inmate Cesar DeLeon to stop force feeding him after DeLeon testified that he would continue hunger striking if the court’s force-feeding order were lifted. Continue reading →

Action Round Up July 7th!

Prisoner supporters across the country are keeping up the pressure on prisons!

13592760_288673674810581_382776854150334616_nIn New York people gathered for a fundraiser on the 3rd, and a noise demonstration on the fourth. They gathered outside a federal prison in Brooklyn which houses federal pretrial, federal sentenced, and a lot of immigration cases. Also at this prison are a number of the 120 people arrested during a raid of public housing project in the Bronx a couple of months ago.
“Outside we chanted “brick by brick, wall by wall, we will make this prison fall” and inside, over the fence, we saw fists raised and heard others banging on their cell windows.”

‪The demo was co-organized by mothers and organizers up in the bx at the houses, iwoc, and abc.  Here is video and pictures, from the facebook event.

20160705_121739In Wisconsin, folks turned out lots of solidarity for their comrades on hunger strike. They held banners over the freeway all week, and spent from 8 am to 1 pm at busy intersections outside the WI DOC central office, creating a very visible presence, then they delivered a letter, including new rules for solitary confinement, written by the hunger strikers, as a way to move toward resolution.

Video is online here.

July 5th Solidarity Action Against Wisconsin Torture Practices

rally 6 21 16On Tuesday July 5, employees of the Wisconsin Department of Corrections (DOC) will return from a long holiday weekend of cooking out and summertime patriotism to a day of protest at their workplace. Starting before the office opens and continuing until the DOC commits to stepping down from the use of long term solitary confinement, we will protest in fierce solidarity with the prisoners who have been refusing food since early June.

Cesar DeLeon, LaRon McKinley Bey, Uhuru Mutawakkil kicked off a hunger strike on June 5, they called it the “Dying to Live Humanitarian Food Refusal Campaign Against Torture.” Dozens of prisoners were ready to join them initially, but DOC retaliation, harassment, transfers and threats divided and repressed many of them. Ten or so prisoners were on board on June 10 and 11, when supporters held the first rallies in Milwaukee and Madison. Continue reading →

Update and Summary of Wisconsin Hunger Strike

rally 6 21 16Wisconsin DOC is force feeding prisoners.

We have confirmed at least two of the perhaps dozens of prisoners who have been refusing food since the week of June 10th are being force fed by WI DOC officials. Using a practice which has been condemned by the American Medical Association (AMA) and the Red Cross as a form of torture and “never ethically acceptable,” Wisconsin DOC personnel have been forcing a feeding tube through the nose and down the throat of their restrained and struggling captives three times a day since last weekend.

On Tuesday, Cesar DeLeon, one of the most vocal of the hunger strikers was finally able to contact his family to describe the procedure, which he had already endured many times. During his weekly fifteen minute video visit with his sister Erika he said that staff often leaves the tube in his throat for a long time after the actual feeding, that the procedure causes bleeding and that they laugh at him and mock him while conducting it. According to the AMA inserting a feeding tube in an unwilling patient risks tearing the esophagus, or accidentally filling the lungs with fluid, both potentially fatal injuries. Tristan Cook, the DOC’s Communications Director has assured the public that the DOC is monitoring the hunger strike, indicating that DOC Director Jon Litscher is aware of and responsible for his staff’s conduct with these prisoners. Continue reading →

Wisconsin prison officials begin force feedings as solitary confinement protest continues

From WisconsinWatch.org

Wisconsin prison officials begin force feedings as solitary confinement protest continues

The Department of Corrections has obtained court orders to force feed three inmates participating in a hunger strike aimed at ending long-term solitary confinement

By

Chance Zombor, 36, leads a protest against the practice of solitary confinement at a rally in Madison Tuesday. Zombor has spent time in isolation at Waupun and Oshkosh correctional institutions. About 30 people marched to the Wisconsin Department of Corrections headquarters to deliver a letter arguing against the use of solitary confinement in Wisconsin prisons. Along the way they shouted "Our passion for freedom is stronger than their prisons!"

Coburn Dukehart/Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism

Chance Zombor, 36, leads a protest against the practice of solitary confinement at a rally in Madison Tuesday. Zombor has spent time in isolation at Waupun and Oshkosh correctional institutions. About 30 people marched to the Wisconsin Department of Corrections headquarters to deliver a letter arguing against the use of solitary confinement in Wisconsin prisons. Along the way they shouted “Our passion for freedom is stronger than their prisons!”

Continue reading →

Wisconsin Prisoner Hunger Strike Enters Second Week, Spreads to Multiple Facilities.

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Join the Facebook solidarity event here.

Prisoners who called for the “Dying to Live” June 10th food refusal campaign have not given up their protest, despite retaliation from the Wisconsin Department of Corrections (DOC) and increasing health concerns. Last week seven prisoners vowed to refuse to eat until the DOC moves toward eliminating their practice of long term solitary confinement. Some prisoners began refusing food early so that their hunger strike would be officially recognized by the 10th. At least one prisoner, named Ras Atum-ra Uhuru Mutawakkil (s/n Norman Green) has been refusing food since June 5th.

The DOC has responded by separating the prisoners to make a negotiated resolution of the protest impossible. Mutawakkil was transferred from Waupun to Columbia CI before the strike officially began, he has not yet received his property and Columbia officials deny that anyone is refusing food at their institution. Of the declared hunger strikers, two remain at Waupun CI, where the protest originated. Two others have been moved to Columbia CI, and one to Green Bay CI. LaRon McKinley, who has been in Administrative Confinement for more than 27 years and remains determined to participate in this protest, despite health concerns. Cesar DeLeon, one of the first hunger strikers who has been on AC in Waupun for years, has complained of stomach problems, which the hunger strike has exacerbated. The water at Waupun is known to contain high levels of copper and lead, and DeLeon is demanding uncontaminated water.
Continue reading →