Texas prisoners stage hunger strike to protest use of solitary confinement

Geoff Bennett:

Dozens of inmates in Texas prisons have been staging a hunger strike for more than a week.

John Yang has the details on their demands.

John Yang:

Geoff, the prisoners want a change in the way that Texas prison officials use indefinite solitary confinement.

Right now, about 3,100 prisoners are being held in solitary, and hundreds of them have been held that way for more than a decade.

Paul Flahive is a reporter for Texas Public Radio.

Paul, tell us, what are the conditions? What is it like for these prisoners in solitary confinement?

Paul Flahive, Texas Public Radio:

My understanding is that they're held in their cells for as much as 22 hours a day.

In a complaint that they filed with the state legislature, they e-mailed held a bunch of legislators documents about their conditions. They said that they at times during the pandemic didn't have access to outside recreation for years, for months oftentimes, that they had access to showers once a week in one unit.

And so, obviously, it's been described as torture by some prison researchers across the country, the use of indefinite solitary confinement, and they are trying to change it.

John Yang:

How many prisoners are participating in this hunger strike right now?

Paul Flahive:

The number is up for debate. At last check, the state said it was 51. And independent advocates are — that are trying to help have said it's as many as 138.

But it's been — it's been a struggle to kind of understand exactly how many people are involved.

John Yang:

Why are these prisoners in solitary confinement?

Paul Flahive:

Yes, in the mid-'80s, there was an increase in gang activity within the jails. And many of these men are in prison gangs.

And along with the increase in prison gangs, there's just an incredible explosion in violence. And so they created this system of administrative segregation, many prison systems across the country did, to quell that violence. And as one prison researcher here in Texas said, in doing so, they did bring some modicum of safety to the rest of the inmates, but they created a system that really does, at times, torture these other inmates.

John Yang:

They're in solitary confinement simply because they belong to a gang, or are they also there because of things they have done, because of behavior?

Paul Flahive:

Yes, there's — there is a number of them that are in there because of disciplinary infractions, that they have history of assaults or have a current case against them within the system of violence.

There are others that are considered a high risk of fleeing, of escape. And those folks are kept in there as well. But my understanding is, most of them are part of this STG, or security threat group, which is another term for gangs.

John Yang:

Simply because they're gang members?

Paul Flahive:

That's right.

John Yang:

And is there a way that a prisoner can, I don't know, work their way out of solitary and be transferred to the general population?

Paul Flahive:

Yes, first, the TDCJ, the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, says that they use an exhaustive system to determine who should be in these places, who should be in administrative segregation.

And they say that they preliminarily or — excuse me — they periodically review those cases. And people that are kept there have an ability to appeal those decisions through the grievance process. But in terms of gang members, there's oftentimes programs that are — one is called the GRAD program, which is a Renouncement and Disassociation Program.

Basically, they are — have to leave the gang and inform on the gang oftentimes to be able to exit the gang — or exit solitary confinement.

John Yang:

How common is this practice? How does this Texas policy compare with other states?

Paul Flahive:

Yes, Texas is one of just a handful of states that still utilize status-based administrative segregation. They're one of the leading proponents of it, and it is far more severe than in other states, according to researchers I have talked to.

One of the other big proponents was California. But after similar circumstances where thousands of hunger strikers led to an increase in litigation around it, they lost a large lawsuit that forced them to reform their system.

John Yang:

What are the demands here that the — that these striking prisoners are making?

Paul Flahive:

Well, first and foremost, they just want them to end status-based administrative segregation. They want them to be based more on their behavior. They want to create a step-down program that would gradually reenter the vast majority of them back into general population, especially those that have an out date, a date when they would be released from prison, because the data around people that go straight from solitary confinement to the streets is not very good.

They often reoffend.

John Yang:

What's the status of efforts to try to resolve this?

Paul Flahive:

It's unclear.

The state has said it has — really doesn't have an interest in ending this practice. TDCJ said these are — these are violent offenders, part of violent gangs, and we just can't risk them having — being — having unrestricted access to recruit within their prisons.

John Yang:

Paul Flahive of Texas Public Radio, thank you very much.

Paul Flahive:

Thank you.