Demonstration and Demands

On April 27th, 2002, about a hundred protesters demonstrated at the gates of the Central California Women's Facility (CCWF) in Chowchilla, California, to show their outrage at the inhumane treatment and outright neglect of women in the prison's Skilled Nursing Facility (SNF).

Prisoners and their advocates demand:

• An immediate end to the human rights violations endured by prisoners: Prisoners are not sentenced to abuse, grossly inhumane treatment, or medical neglect.
• Compassionate release of disabled, terminally and seriously ill prisoners: We should not continue to imprison people when to do so fails to make our society safer.
• Public access and oversight for all publicly funded facilities including prison skilled nursing facilities: Access and oversight should be afforded family members and other loved ones, non-correctional oversight agencies, media, legal and community advocates, legislators, and other interested parties.
• Access to prison programs and other activities that sick prisoners are currently wrongly denied simply because of their medical status.