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Inmates Plan To Hold Weeks-Long Strike At Prisons Across U.S.

Organizers say the demonstrations, which are expected to include hunger strikes and a refusal to work, are in response to a riot at a South Carolina prison in which seven inmates died.
The planned demonstrations are in response to a riot that resulted in seven deaths in April at Lee Correctional Institution in South Carolina.

Inmates at prisons across the U.S. are expected to stage a weeks-long strike beginning Tuesday to demand better living conditions and prison reform.

Organizers say the demonstrations — including hunger strikes and a refusal to work — are in response to a riot in April at South Carolina's Lee Correctional Institution in which seven inmates died.

"The main leverage that an inmate has. "If they choose not to go to work and just sit in in the main area or the eating area, and all the prisoners choose to sit there and not go to the kitchen for lunchtime or dinnertime, if they choose not to clean or do the yardwork, this is the leverage that they have. Prisons cannot run without prisoners' work."

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