Summary of Settlement Terms in Ashker v. Brown (Governor of California) | Prisoner Hunger Strike Solidarity

10.9.15

Summary of Settlement Terms in Ashker v. Brown (Governor of California) | Prisoner Hunger Strike Solidarity: When Ashker v. Brown (Governor of California) was filed as a class action in 2012, California held thousands of prisoners in solitary confinement, in Security Housing Units (SHU).� Hundreds of these prisoners had been isolated for decades.� They spent nearly 24-hours-per-day in cramped cells, often without windows, and were denied phone calls, all physical contact with visitors, and recreational, educational, and vocational programming.� Additionally, many of the prisoners languishing in SHUs were there not due to any rule infraction, but because of their alleged affiliation with a gang, often based on the evidence as innocuous as having supposedly gang-related artwork or tattoos.

In 2012, CCR joined the lawsuit originally filed by prisoners in the SHU at Pelican Bay State Prison to challenge this practice.� In September 2015, the case was settled, and far-reaching reforms were ordered.� These reforms are expected to dramatically reduce the number of prisoners currently detained in the SHU and limit the way SHU confinement is used going forward.