US has become a prison nation

Joe Iosbaker of the United National Antiwar Committee criticizes the judicial system in the United States, saying “over the last generation the US has become a prison nation.”

The US has more people-as many as 80,000– in long-term solitary confinement than anywhere on earth, Iosbaker said in an interview with Press TV on Saturday.

“And of course the prison system here is a racist system where most are African Americans or Latinos even though those are minority nationalities here.”

Many prisoners in Pelican Bay and other prisons in California remain on a hunger strike demanding an end to their indefinite solitary confinement.

“They are protesting the torture that they experience at the hands of the state of California,” Iosbaker said. “They want and end to indefinite solitary confinement which is a punishment handed out to 12,000 prisoners there.”

“Solitary confinement is a form of torture. That’s recognized in international law and even criticized by the US Red Cross,” he added.

“In California if a prisoner is designated as a gang member, that person can be placed in ‘supermax’ solitary confinement for years spending 23 of 24 hours every day in a concrete cell smaller than a bathroom,” the antiwar activist said. “And some of people have been placed in those cages for as many as twenty years.”

A federal court judge has reportedly approved a request from California officials to force-feed the hunger striking inmates if necessary.

The inmate hunger strike in California began on July 8 with more than 30,000 inmates participating. It is now the largest and longest hunger strike in the history of California prisons.