California inmates starve for more freedom

A hunger strike at several California prisons has entered its fourth week. The inmates want California to limit the use of small cells known as Security Housing Units, inmates call it solitary confinement. Our media partners at the Center For Investigative Reporting obtained exclusive video of these cells and were granted rare access to the state's highest security prison - Pelican Bay. They found inmates who have spent years and even decades locked up in these cells.

Pelican Bay State Prison in Crescent City was designed to hold the state's most dangerous inmates. Inside a bunker-like high security housing unit, hundreds of men have been held in isolation for more than a decade.

For the last five years, Peter Sartorezzi has spent 22.5 hours a day alone in a small cell. A federal lawsuit filed last year by a coalition of civil rights groups, alleges that inmates are held in isolation based on the slimmest of evidence -- tattoos, greeting cards and even a simple "hello" has been enough to lock up a convict.

"We're not allowed a cup. We're not allowed a bowl," said Sartorezzi, "We're not allowed phone calls. I haven't seen my family since I've been busted."

Sartorezzi is serving 25 years to life for attempted murder. Prison officials say he was separated from the rest of the prison population because an informant identified Sartorezzi as a member of a violent prison gang called the "Mexican Mafia."

"I'm not here for violence; I'm not here for discipline. I'm here because a man decided to use me as his way out." Satorezzi admitted, "I might have a few tattoos. This is prison, you know what I mean? I was never able to confront those who confined me here. It's all hearsay."

The suit asserts that years of solitary confinement causes severe physical and psychological damage, violating a constitutional ban on cruel and unusual punishment.

Pelican Bay Warden Greg Lewis rejects charges of abuse, "It is my position, and always has been my position, that these men are treated very humanely."

Lewis says the units are necessary, and alleges that all the inmates here are dangerous gang members.

"These are not your burglars, not your street corner drug dealers. These men are highly violent and it provides for the safety of my staff, which is paramount," said Lewis.

On July 8th Pelican Bay inmates launched the hunger strike. The action has sparked protests throughout California led largely by inmates' families. They are demanding limits on the amount of time inmates can be held in isolation. They also want more family visits, phone calls and rehabilitation programs.

Marie Levin is from Oakland. Her brother Ronnie Dewberry was originally convicted of murder and is locked up at Pelican Bay as an alleged gang member. He is one of the hunger strike leaders.

"The United Nations has declared that 15 days is the maximum amount of time that any one person should be in solitary confinement, but yet they have allowed my brother to be in solitary confinement for 29 years," said Levin.

The department has made some changes. It lifted a decades' long ban on inmate photographs, allowing prisoners like Peter Sartorezzi to begin sending new pictures to their families. Sartorezzi's mother, Madeleine, hadn't seen an image of her son in nine years.

Madeleine said, "He's alive, but you can't touch him, you can't hear him, you can't see him. That's what they call a ghost."

The family posed for a group photo and sent it to Peter. Madeleine just received a new picture of her son. She says it's a step in the right direction, but it doesn't go far enough. Like other families, she wants prison officials to ease restrictions and move more men to regular prisons. Protestors are demanding that men held in the security units for more than 10 years be let out within six months.

The strike, however, is now in its fourth week, and with both sides digging in, inmates say they are prepared to starve themselves to death.

Written and produced by Ken Miguel

(Copyright ©2013 KGO-TV.

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3 strikes reform brings hope to some inmates

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- The passage of Proposition 36 this week signals a new cost-conscious view of crime and punishment. Revising the state's three strikes law means thousands of prison inmates could soon be back on the streets.

With the help of California Watch, part of the Center for Investigative Reporting, we hear from three inmates awaiting their freedom.

Tuesday night was a chance to celebrate for supporters of Prop 36, the initiative to scale back California's three strikes law.

"Usually when people go to the polls, they are voting to increase penalties; this is one of the few times actually in U.S. history where they've said, 'No, it's too harsh,'" Prop 36 author Michael Romano said.

No one was paying more attention to the vote than one group of prisoners at San Quentin Prison. Called Hope for Strikers, the group has been meeting for many years to bring awareness to the three strikes law.

"My name is Eddie Griffin and I got 27 years to life for possession of cocaine," inmate Eddie Griffin said.

"My third strike is burglary of an unoccupied dwelling; it was my first relapse after being clean and sober for almost 10 years," inmate Joey Mason said.

"My third strike was instigating a fight; it was a non-violent, non-serious felony, and they gave me 25 to life," inmate Sajad Sakoor said.

Sakoor has already served 16 years behind bars. He is one of the 9,000 third strikers in California's prisons, and one of the 3,000 who will be eligible for a rehearing because of Prop 36.

"This is my second time in prison and my first two strikes came from one case when I was 18 years old, two burglaries," Sakoor said.

Now, a judge could decide to remove Sakoor's life sentence.

"If the life sentence gets taken off, then chances are that I may end up going home because I have so much time already in," Sakoor said.

Sutter County District Attorney Carl Adams opposed Prop 36.

"California voted for three strikes because they were tired of this idea of people going to prison, getting out, committing another felony, victimizing somebody else, going back, getting out, creating another victim, and so on and so on," he said.

Romano says California's three strikes law will still remain the toughest in the country.

"It is really trying to address what we think are the most excessive sentences in the country, close to in the country's history," he said.

California is one of 27 states with a three strikes law. Before Prop 36, it was the only state to impose life sentences for non-violent third strikes.

Romano says this week's vote will help reduce some of the strain in California's penal system.

"It makes sure that our prisons are not overcrowded with people who don't deserve to be there and also helps people who have been sentenced to life for very minor, nonviolent conduct," he said.

Since the three strikes law passed in 1994, crime has dropped in California, but it has also dropped in states without three strikes. As state spending on prisons has skyrocketed, politicians across the country are questioning whether the benefits of laws like three strikes outweigh the costs.

"We need a safe country, I want to live in a safe neighborhood, everybody does, but we ought to take a look at this corrections system and say is this really the way to do it," Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., said. "Is there another way to do it, which could save us money and still keep us safe? I think there might be."

As a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Durbin is leading a broad review of us prison policies.

"I believe that voters want to make sure that those in government are spending their money well and not wasting it," he said. "I also think that they don't want America to be known as a country that does inhumane things to its prisoners and, and incarcerates them unfairly, for any lengthy period of time that can't be justified."

This week's vote signals a new direction for California, which was at the forefront of introducing laws like three strikes.

"All eyes are on California here; California started this trend, as it starts so many trends, and people are really looking to see what people in the state are going to do with the three strikes law," Adam Gelb, Director of Public Policy Safety Research at the Pew Center on the States, said.

Gelb says other states have also started to temper sentencing laws.

"Those states may be willing to revisit what they've done and maybe go a little further and the other half of the states that haven't approached this issue in a serious way yet probably are going to say, 'Maybe now it's time,'" he said.

Meanwhile, for thousands of California inmates like Sakoor, Prop 36 may now offer a chance at a fresh start.

"I'm glad that the people of California are having a second chance to take a second look at this; I'm hopeful, I'm very hopeful," Sakoor said.

(Copyright ©2012 KGO-TV/DT.

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