SACRAMENTO – As of today, 561 inmates in nine state prisons are on a
mass hunger strike disturbance, down from 12,421 inmates on July 11,
according to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation
(CDCR). An inmate is considered to be on a hunger strike after he has
missed nine consecutive meals.
A total of 385 inmates have been on a mass hunger strike continuously since July 8.
CDCR
is also releasing additional information on the death of California
State Prison-Corcoran (CSP-Corcoran) inmate Billy Michael Sell, 32,
following inaccurate and misleading statements from hunger strike
advocates about the circumstances of his death.
The Kings County
Sheriff’s Department Office of the Coroner conducted an autopsy and
preliminarily ruled his death was a suicide from strangulation;
CSP-Corcoran investigators have not found any evidence his suicide was
related to his previous participation in the mass hunger strike.
Inmate
Sell was admitted on May 28, 1999 from San Luis Obispo County (not
Solano County as initially reported) with a life sentence for attempted
first-degree murder. He began serving another life sentence
consecutively from Sacramento County on June 2, 2006 for aggravated
assault by someone serving a life sentence. Inmate Sell was being
prosecuted and facing the death penalty in Kings County for the December
16, 2007 murder of his 21-year-old cellmate Reuben Quesada Galasso, who
had been stabbed with an inmate-made weapon and strangled to death.
On
July 22, CSP-Corcoran officers conducting their 30-minute welfare
checks in the Security Housing Unit found inmate Sell unresponsive. He
was pronounced dead in the prison’s hospital at 9:32 p.m. Sell was
single-celled.
CDCR conducts 30-minute welfare checks not just
for inmates on suicide watch, but all inmates in Security Housing Units,
Psychiatric Services Units and Administrative Segregation Units. The
purpose of the staggered and unpredictable welfare checks is to limit
the opportunity an inmate has to commit acts of self-harm and is
consistent with American Correctional Association standards.
Inmate
Sell was documented as participating in the mass hunger strike when he
missed nine consecutive meals on July 11 and was removed from the list
when he resumed eating July 21.
In addition to CDCR’s ongoing investigation, the federal Receiver’s staff also investigates all deaths in custody.
CDCR
is also investigating the July 27 incident in which a CSP-Corcoran
inmate was assaulted by his cellmate because he refused to share food
items with other inmates participating in the mass hunger strike. The
inmate victim was taken to an outside hospital for treatment of facial
fractures. He is expected to be returned to the prison today.
