Utah Hunger Strike: Utah State Prison Reaches Its Fourth Day

Forty-two inmates at Utah State Prison went on a starvation strike Friday morning and stated they gained’t eat till their calls for are met.

All 42 inmates are documented gang members, Adams said.

“The department also has inventoried food items in each participating inmate’s cell to document potential nutritional intake”, she said.

Medical staff tried to conduct exams Monday, but all of the strike participants refused to be weighed and all but one refused to meet with a nurse, Adams wrote.

The Mental health staff also visited each inmate on Monday and will again visit on Wednesday and Friday.

The inmates that are impressive each one is optimum- recorded team associates and protection inmates, based on Corrections’ Utah Department. The health of inmates will be monitored regularly by prison staff.

On July 21, the release states the Department of Corrections met with representatives from the ACLU of Utah and two other advocacy groups to discuss its efforts to revise aspects of its restrictive housing policy, including implementing new programming, increasing out-of-cell time and adopting an independent review process for restrictive housing decisions. Now, dozens of them are on a hunger strike aimed at changing the conditions. Prison officials back this up, sort of: They count 42 hunger strikers, but say some of the men have been accepting juice packets or seen eating food purchased from the commissary, the Salt Lake Tribune reports.

“We do not negotiate or respond to demands, threats or intimidation from inmates”, they added.