People as far as New York have stood in solidarity with this year's hunger strikes by California prisoners. (Creative Commons)

One prisoner wrote about the desolate and lonely conditions of solitary confinement, saying that his only wish was to be able to take a picture of himself and send it to his parents at Christmas time.

Another wrote a poem to the “fellas of the hood” saying that when he entered prison he felt he became an “afterthought in someone’s memory, wasting away.”

These and other letters were read over a loud speaker Thursday during an awareness rally at the University of California, Los Angeles telling passersby about the hunger strike going on in California’s prison system.

The strike is part of a movement by prisoners to protest what they say is inhumane and cruel treatment. As of Thursday afternoon, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation reported that 811 inmates were participating in the strike — a significant drop from the 4,252 inmates who were involved when the most recent strike began on Sept. 26.

The movement was initiated in the Pelican Bay State Prison in Northern California when inmates went on a 20-day hunger strike in July saying they weren’t given enough food, they were mistreated by guards and that groups of inmates were being unfairly punished for the wrongdoing of one or two of their peers.

Their biggest complaint, however, was that it is common practice to falsely accuse other inmates of gang-activity in order to get perks from the guards as a reward for snitching. Those accused end up in solitary confinement, where they can spend up to 23 hours a day without any human interaction.

“Solitary confinement is just torture,” said Keith James, a concerned citizen who has followed the issue and organized the rally at UCLA. “They are not in a court of law convicted and sentenced to long-term solitary confinement.”

In July, the strike was suspended because prison officials said they would improve inmate treatment. However, in the time that has passed, prisoners and advocacy groups say treatment has only gotten worse.

“Between the end of July and the end of September, (prisoners) felt that (prison officials) did not make good on the promises it made and that the prison administration had upped the level of oppression against prisoners,” said Isaac Ontiveros, spokesman for the Prison Hunger Strike Solidarity Coalition.

Prison officials said they had no notion the hunger strike was going to be resumed and haven’t had any communication with prisoners or the advocacy groups as to why it has.

“We heard about this starting up through the Internet,” said Terry Thornton, spokeswoman for the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.

Thornton said prison officials are open to discussion about the strike but that no one has reached out, but Ontiveros accused them of banning legal representatives from the prisons and threatening to be even tougher on striking inmates.

Thornton would not elaborate on the accusations, but a department press release stated that the legal representatives were banned pending an investigation.

In the mean time, advocates are concerned for the health of the inmates as they enter the 12th day of the strike.

“It’s not out of the question that prisoners could die in the next, even several, days,” James said. “They don’t want to … but they are at their wit’s end and think this is the only way they can determine their own destiny and actually get their word out to the world.”

Reach contributor Molly Gray here.