Inmates across the Santa Clara County jail system are staging a hunger strike to protest jail conditions that include a series of recent COVID-19 outbreaks and officials’ own admissions that adherence to safety protocols are lagging, and as a way to participate in ongoing movements for racial justice spurred by the police killing of George Floyd this spring.
Jose Valle II, an organizer with Silicon Valley De-Bug who focuses on inmate advocacy, said he has confirmed participation from inmates in housing units and dorms in both the Main Jail in North San Jose and the Elmwood Correctional Complex in Milpitas. Additionally, inmates’ family members, and criminal-justice reform advocates were pledging to fast Friday in solidarity with the strike, which is expected to last at least through the weekend.
“They hear and read about about de-funding the police and police brutality and the murder of George Floyd, and they’re looking at each other and saying, ‘That’s us,'” Valle said. “There’s no other party more impacted than the jail population. Now they’re participating in the way they know how, and with what’s worked.”
Valle was alluding to county jail hunger strikes in the Main Jail in 2016, 2017, and 2018, which largely revolved around securing concessions from jail administrators involving out-of-cell time, what they deemed unfair use of gang and other security classifications for housing inmates, and isolation practices that jail watchdog groups said were tantamount to illegal solitary confinement.
In a statement, the sheriff’s office said it was aware of the planned hunger strike and that jail staff will be monitoring those who take part.
“We take the health and welfare of those in our care seriously and we will work closely with Custody Health Services regarding those who elect to participate,” the statement reads. “Our office will continue to work to address and resolve concerns related to jail operations.”
Marco Antonio Ruiz, 23, has been in the Main Jail since 2017 and is awaiting sentencing on a murder conviction in the 2016 killing of a teen boy, which he said he plans to appeal. He said he participated in two prior hunger strikes at the jail, and added that he and others are preparing to take the hunger strike well into next week.
“Everyone here is united,” he said. “There are some bad people here, but you also have a lot of innocent people who should be with their families.”
Sajid Khan, an attorney in the Alternate Defender’s Office — which represents largely indigent and jailed defendants — was among numerous people taking part in a sympathy fast alongside the inmate effort. He agreed with Valle’s sentiment and added that many of the issues raised in the latest hunger strike, particularly authorities’ enforcement and prosecution of gang crimes, are emblematic of systemic racism that criminal-justice reformers are looking to end.
“It has to be noted that people inside jail, many of them were raised in San Jose and East San Jose, which are disproportionately heavily policed all in the name of gang investigations and prosecutions,” Khan said. “When we as a community stand up against police brutality, we’re not just talking about the police brutality that looks like the killing of George Floyd. It’s pulling people over without reasonable cause and corralling young Latinx boys and making them sit on a curb.”
The Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office has addressed criticism over gang enhancement charges, and last month announced it would largely refrain from filing such enhancements — which can sharply increase potential prison sentences — in misdemeanor cases.
In 2018, the sheriff’s office settled a wide-ranging lawsuit over jail conditions by agreeing to a federal consent decree to shape up its treatment of inmates, particularly with medical and dental care and isolation, and to revamp its grievance process. That lawsuit was underway but gained new gravity after the 2015 murder of mentally ill inmate Michael Tyree by three jail deputies who were convicted in his killing, spurring the formation of a commission that recommended an array of jail reforms.
In a letter sent by Valle to county officials on behalf of inmates, their stated concerns are familiar ones, involving granting of out-of-cell time, access to educational programming and legal research resources, and diminished phone access.
All of those issues have been compounded by the COVID-19 pandemic, where positive tests in the county jail system have more than tripled over the past month, to 166 as of Thursday. At least 75 of those cases have surfaced since the beginning of August, many of them concentrated in the M8 dorms of the Elmwood men’s jail.
Those surges occurred even after county officials instituted a series of early release, bail relief, and other amnesty measures that decreased the county’s daily jail census by more than 35%, to just over 2,000 inmates. Throughout, inmates, their families, and their attorneys have steadily called attention to the extreme difficulties of enforcing physical distancing in jail as well as inconsistent mask wearing and lagging hygiene and sanitation practices.
Last week, sheriff’s administrators acknowledged that adherence to those safety protocols in jail has fallen short of full compliance, and that they are working with health officials both in jail and with the county to expand testing for jail staff and get at least 20% of them tested every week.
TerriAnn Maciel’s son has been in Elmwood for a year and a half on a robbery charge. She said her phone calls with her son echoed concerns relayed by numerous inmates to this news organization over the past few months, revolving around lackluster sanitation and quarantining.
Last week, Maciel said her son joined the ranks of COVID-positive inmates.
“It’s one thing to have this deadly virus out here,” she said. “But in there, you’re so helpless.”
