Just days after thousands of California inmates renewed a hunger strike, two Bay Area attorneys closely involved in mediation efforts got a surprise: They were under investigation by the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation for allegations of misconduct and unspecified security threats.

The attorneys – Marilyn McMahon, executive director of California Prison Focus, and Carol Strickman of Legal Services for Prisoners With Children – have been banned from state institutions until the investigation is resolved, according to temporary exclusion orders signed by Corrections Undersecretary Scott Kernan on Sept. 29.

The investigation will determine whether the attorneys “violated the laws and policies governing the safe operations of institutions within the CDCR,” the order states...

Prison officials in California Thursday confirmed that more than 4,000 inmates have been on a hunger strike since Monday.

It’s the second time this year that inmates have refused food to protest the prison system’s use Security Housing Units — known as “the SHU” — to control prison gangs.

Each day, inmates in the SHU at Pelican Bay State Prison near the Oregon border get 15 minutes to shower, and a little over an hour to exercise in a concrete yard...

More than 400 inmates in California prisons have refused food to protest what they call “inhumane” conditions in isolation units. Some of those inmates have not eaten for nearly three weeks, and say they're prepared to die to make their point. On Tuesday, the head of the state corrections department said he’d seek a court order to allow officials to force-feed inmates if necessary to save their lives.

Inmates in the SHU get an hour a day in a concrete yard with high walls and no direct sunlight. The other 23 hours, they spend in a cell. They and their supporters call those conditions “torturous,” and say Corrections’ policy of indefinitely detaining inmates identified as gang members in the isolation units only makes matters worse.

The hunger strikers at Pelican Bay State Prison, Calipatria, Corcoran, and the California Correctional Institute in Tehachapi say they’re prepared to die so they can force Corrections to end the practice. But the Corrections Secretary Matthew Cate says he’ll intervene to make sure prisoners don't get hurt...

[1]In a letter to the Bay View, SHU prisoner Mutope Duguma (s/n James D. Crawford), who wrote “The Call [2],” published in the Bay View online and in print in June, sheds light on the background leading to the hunger strike at Pelican Bay State Penitentiary that is set to begin July 1.

First and foremost, let me say that it is New Afrikans (Blacks) like yourselves who represent our new Afrikan nation (NAN) with compassion and dedication that is a reflection of the unconditional love and respect that our ancestors demonstrated during their enslavement by our historical enemies (HEs) who unfortunately see us (New Afrikans) as an obsolete people...