Last month prisoners at Clallam Bay Corrections Center (CBCC) were notified that all those being housed in Intensive Management Unit (IMU) would have their hot meals terminated on November 7. Administration stated that was being done as a ‘pilot program’ for reducing violence in the unit. Prisoners did not foresee that the unit wide mandatory dietary restriction would a positive effect on their environment and since they’re complaints were not being heard by administration staff they organized a Hunger Strike to begin on the day that the program was scheduled to start. I received a letter notifying me of the strike in Washington with I moved through Seattle’s Incarcerated Workers Organizing Committee (IWOC) to assist with raising awareness on the outside about what was happening at Clallam Bay. From there while prisoners prepared to strike outside activists called into the prison to inquire about the reasoning behind the food change and to make staff aware that us on the outside were watching.
Cancellation Notice Sent by Superintendent Jeri Boe
On November 5, a notice was sent from Superintendent Jeri Boe to IMU inmates informing them that the “Food Service Pilot scheduled for Wednesday November 7, 2018 for all IMU offenders is being postponed”. The reasoning as to why the Superintendent cancelled the food service change was brief and did not reference the strike. It stated that the cancellation was due to low supply demands. An original copy of the letter is included below. I’d argue that if violence reduction was actually Superintendent Boe’s main priority then they would have been adequately prepared with resources to administer that change in many more areas than just the food. The notice also doesn’t even mention their goal of violence reduction or any other means by which prison officials are attempting to reduce violence among IMU inmates. Inmates argue that this could be done simply through incorporating more programming and activities into inmates schedules in IMU. The fact that prisoners are forced to spend 20-23+ hrs a day isolated in their cell is enough to cause any amount of tension to boil over and its more than obvious that reducing the standard of prisoners meals in this situation would only contribute to increased tensions. Prisoners refused to compromise on the health of their already unstable and volatile environment at Clallam Bay’s Intensive Management Unit
Clallam Bay Corrections Ctr. Superintendent Jeri Boe
Prisoners at Clallam Bay were inspired by the administrative response to their planning of a strike. They were able to unite forces behind the bars across racial barriers and gang affiliation while also gathering support on the outside behind their cause. Outside supporters called into the prison seeking more information as to why prisoners meals were being restricted and how that could possibly contribute to positive behavior changes and relationships in IMU. Only after a few days a new notice was sent cancelling the planned change. The incarcerated activists won! Whether Superintendent Jeri Boe references the strike in her cancelling of the policy or not, whatever the case may be, inmates in solitary can continue to receive the same meals as the rest of the inmates at Clallam Bay. Prisoners in IMU will not be discriminated against in the realm of the food they are served. Those inmates who made the bold and courageous decision to organize in response to the upcoming food change are heros and prevented not only the change in their prison, but most likely seeing the termination of hot meals happen in general population as well and even throughout prisons across the state. Prison officials should have the mindset that a win for their incarcerated population is a win for the prison. When the inmates feel that they’re being heard then this has a positive effect on the relationships between the staff and inmates.
Clallam Bay Prisoners’ Slowly Cooking the Crab
Learning from what’s recently happened at Clallam Bay, it’s essential that we stay connected to incarcerated activists. There is no way that we can change policies and establish new reforms without maintaining relationships with those who are incarcerated. Staying committed to the people who are inside keeps us informed of what changes are happening and the solutions that need to be brought inside through someone that is intimately interwoven into the system. Changing the way that prisons function in this country from dehumanizing and destroying individuals and their families lives to rehabilitating and restoring those lives is going to be a step by step process. It will not happen all at once, it begins with the little battles like maintaining hot meals and in person visitation before we are prepared to win the war against the monster that is our criminal justice system.
We need to remind ourselves that we are engaging in a slow boil process in the battle of these prisons. We’re softening the raw, inedible crab that is the violence of the system. If we start cooking with the heat on high then intensity of that heat will provoke the crab to immediately jump out of the pot. We want a dead crab, not an agitated one that’s hard to catch. We want a crab that doesn’t know it’s dying until it’s too late. The Prison Industrial Complex is a huge, dirty, nasty crab. As outside organizers our access is limited and highly restricted, slow moves are the strongest while building stronger relationships with incarcerated soldiers in this fight. The more battle we win as we boil the stronger our relationships become and the more effective our organizing will be as the battles become more complex we get more efficient.
Through this work with Clallam Bay I’ve realized that it’s relatively easy to influence policy changes though inside-outside partnerships, especially preventing new changes from occurring. Activists on the inside initiate, following with agitation from those on the outside until the inside activists perform their united call to action. During the prisoner’s call to action outside activists support those in the inside suffering from threats of retaliation while both groups await the administrative response to prisoners’ action.
Prison Strike Collaboration Formula
Of course there are more intimate details associated with making this formula work. Its success depends on the policy being targeted or the initiative being instated as well as the commitment of the organizers that are involved. At Clallam Bay this formula worked because prisoners initiated a call to action among the majority of the of individuals detained in IMU. After which they reached out to Sawarimi for support and Sawarimi in collaboration with Seattle IWOC raised awareness about prisoners upcoming strike among activists nationwide. Outside activists also supported prisoners by calling into the prison to inquire about the logic behind the food change letting staff know that we were watching. Both outside and inside activists awaited administrative response in the days leading up to the prison strike with just a couple days left before the policy was supposed to start before a notice was sent that it had been cancelled. This article acts as a documentation of IMU prisoners’ success in their Hunger Strike planning against the ludicrous pilot food change initiated by Superintendent Jeri Boe.
