The United Front to Abolish the SHU held our monthly protest the first Saturday in February in San Jose. Member organizations from across the state represented at this demonstration and the subsequent organizing meeting, including representatives of MIM and RAIL. In the 2.5 hour protest in front of the Martin Luther King Library in San Jose we collected 140 petition signatures and handed out many more flyers and leaflets.
We erected a replica of a SHU prison cell on the sidewalk. Constructed of PVC pipes, the replica showed people the actual size of these cells, where prisoners are locked up 23 or 24 hours a day for years at a time. The visual helped people imagine the torture the men and women locked in these control units suffer daily.
Passers by were generally friendly and willing to listen to activists explain the importance of shutting down these isolation units which are known to cause serious physical and mental health problems. One former prison guard stopped to sign the petition, saying that he agrees the system is messed up, and he blames it on the strong guards union. This union has a history of allowing its members to get away with abusing prisoners, while campaigning for stronger laws to lock up more people to guarantee their job security.
The United Front to Abolish the SHU is dedicated to shutting down Security Housing Units (SHUs) in California prisons. The SHU is one type of control unit, which are solitary or small group confinement cells. The inhuman conditions in control units, including total sensory deprivation, amount to torture. The United Front to Abolish the SHU demands that all control units be abolished across the country.
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