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Calif. prison hunger strike leaders moved to separate quarters

Hunger strike leaders have lost access to news and some legal papers have been seized

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Inmates exercise in the main general population yard at the Pelican Bay State Prison near Crescent City, Calif., Wednesday, Aug. 17, 2011.

AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli

By Paige St. John
LA Times

SACRAMENTO — California prison officials have moved 14 inmate leaders of a hunger strike over solitary confinement conditions to more isolated quarters, cutting off their access to broadcast news and seizing some of their legal papers, according to one of their lawyers.

Another inmates’ lawyer was banned from all state prisons.

Wednesday was the 10th day of the statewide protest, with 2,327 inmates refusing their meals and 229 skipping their prison jobs and classes.

Inmates who have gone a week or more without food typically feel dizzy or weak, and since Friday, corrections officials have sent at least two by ambulance to a hospital for medical checks, said Joyce Hayhoe, a spokeswoman for the court-appointed overseer of prison healthcare in California.

Her office has had no reports of more serious medical complications, she said.

Full story: Prison hunger strike leaders moved to separate quarters