Prison Hunger Strikers 'Can Be Force Fed'

Prisoners on hunger strike in California could be force-fed if they are in imminent danger of dying, under a new federal court ruling.

Corrections officials made the legal request, fearing for the welfare of nearly 70 inmates who have refused all meals since July 8 - the start of the mass protest against the state's solitary confinement policies for gang leaders and other violent inmates.

Among the concerns is the belief that some of the prisoners may have been coerced into taking part in the strike.

Some 130 people in six prisons are still refusing meals. When the strike began it included nearly 30,000 of the 133,000 inmates in California.

Prison policy usually allows inmates to starve to death if they have signed a do-not-resuscitate (DNR) request. But Monday's decision gives a blanket authority to feed inmates in failing health - including those who only recently signed a DNR request.

Protesters against the use of solitary confinement in California prisons

The process, which prison officials call "refeeding", could include giving fluids intravenously or snaking feeding tubes through inmates' noses and into their stomachs.

A lawyer for some of the hunger strikers said she was not aware of inmates being coerced.

"They're exaggerating this," said Carol Strickman. "As much as I don't want to see anybody die, some people were choosing to sign those requests and some were not."

Joyce Hayhoe, a spokeswoman for the department responsible for prison medical care, said officials were merely trying to be proactive.

"Inmates can deteriorate rather quickly when they have starved themselves for this long period of time so we wanted to make sure we had the order in place ... for us to be able to save their lives," she said.

One of the solitary confinement cells at Pelican Bay

California incarcerates about 3,600 inmates in what are known as Security Housing Units, some because of crimes they committed in prison and others because they are confirmed gang leaders.

The highest-ranking among them are held at Pelican Bay, where the heads of four rival white supremacist, black and Latino gangs have formed an unlikely alliance to force an end to the isolation units.

The hunger strike is the latest problem to plague California's prison system, which is currently operating under a federal court order to reduce crowding by the end of the year, possibly by releasing up to 10,000 inmates early.

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