As of November 30, prisoners here at High Desert State Prison on D Facility Level IV are on lockdown due to a peaceful protest. Officials are placing timers on the toilets in the inmate's cells that would limit the flushes of the toilets to two flushes per hour, some say two flushes every fifteen minutes.
The prisoners received word that it was happening because officials, without telling prisoners, started placing timers on the toilets in C section on D-1 facility.
Prisoners here are housed two per cell, and placing the timers on the toilets will force the prisoners to have to smell his cellie's shit because mates have rules called "down one - drown one", meaning as soon as the 'turd' comes out, it must be flushed and you must keep flushing the lingering smell. Prisoners also use the toilets to wash our personal clothing because we cannot send our personals to the laundry, only state clothing.
So on November 30 when the prisoners received word on what was happening to the toilets, all inmates/all races on D-facility got together, united and agreed to board up the cell windows during 1600 hour institution count time to protest the inhumane situation.
When I was being handcuffed and escorted to the shower, I asked the officer how long will we be on lockdown. He said "it's going to be a long time because you guys pissed off the new director of prisons and that's a female…"
As it is, we are forced to be double celled in these cramped up cells, and now they are trying to force us to smell each other's defecation by placing timers on the toilets. I finally get it now. Since we are prisoners, we are not allowed to stand up for our rights, and even though it's inhumane for them to place timers on our toilets, we are just supposed to accept it.
- a California prisoner, December 2005