Thousands Of Inmates Refusing State Meals

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- Prison officials say that thousands of California inmates are refusing state-supplied meals to show support for a hunger strike that began at Pelican Bay State Prison to protest conditions there.

Prison spokeswoman Terry Thornton says 2,100 inmates at nine prisons refused meals Wednesday. The strike began July 1 in the specialized maximum security unit of Pelican Bay prison in Del Norte County. Thornton says 6,600 inmates at 13 prisons refused meals during the peak of the strike over the weekend.

She says most of the inmates refusing to eat were maximum security prisoners at prisons with the same type of specialized units as Pelican Bay, with some of the inmates paying for food at the prison canteen or eating meals in visiting rooms.

The Pelican Bay strikers were protesting conditions at the prison's Security Housing Unit.

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