Todd Ashkar, an inmate at California’s Pelican bay state prison, as well as a collective 30,000 inmates began a hunger strike with the intention to voice their demands and perspectives upon the unconstitutional prison institution (Wallace-Wells, 2014, p.1). According to the inmate-balance theory, the prisoners enacted in the hunger strike due to their natural rights being unruly stripped away from them by the prison system. Under the inmate-balance theory, prisons may be discerned as self-regulating social systems rather than administered institutions (Useem & Reisig, 1999, p.326). Wallace-Wells described Pelican Bay as “ a strange hybrid of a place: Systems of isolation and communication vie constantly for control” (2014, p.6).
The recent
…show more content…
One of the main concerns that were evident during the strike is the prisoner’s dissatisfaction with the terms of imprisonment used in California’s Pelican Bay State Prison. Some of these terms include restrictive prison unit and extreme isolation (Wallace-Wells, 2014). According to Wallace-Wells, the prisoners were outraged with being confined to immutably restrictive prison units which ultimately leads to extreme, inhumane isolation(2014, p.1). Ashker points out that “convicts stay in their cells 23 hours a day and leave only to exercise in a concrete” (Wallace-Wells, 2014, p.1). Ashker believes that he is subjected to continuous torture for nearly a quarter-century (Wallace-Wells, 2014, p.1). Ashker’s comments exemplifies the strict regime that the prison officials have over the prisoners, ultimately and inequitably limiting their freedom. Prisoners have natural rights and freedom that ought to be respected, but this is not the case of California State Prison. A psychology professor interviewed 100 of these Pelican Bay prisoners who’ve endured the oppressive isolation, and professor Haney “ found