CA Prison Officials Meet With Hunger-Striking Inmates

Strikers are angry about solitary confinement

SACRAMENTO -- California prison officials have agreed to meet with advocates for inmates who are now in their third week of a statewide hunger strike. The discussions are to take place Tuesday in Sacramento.

Though state Corrections Secretary Jeffrey Beard said California has had "ongoing conversations" with leaders of the prison protest over solitary confinement conditions, Tuesday's meeting will mark the first time the state has sat down with outside advocates for those inmates since before the protests began July 8.

The discussion will include a top state prison administrator but not Beard himself. "We hope he will eventually talk to us himself," said Laura Magnani, one of the inmate advocates, from the San Francisco office of the American Friends Service Committee.