A US judge approved a request from California and federal officials to force-feed inmates if necessary as a statewide prison hunger strike entered its seventh week.
Officials say they fear for the welfare of nearly 70 inmates who have refused all prison-issued meals since the strike began on July 8. They protest the holding of gang leaders and other violent inmates in solitary confinement that can last for decades. The practice has been found to harm inmates' mental health.
When the strike began, it included nearly 30,000 of the 133,000 inmates in California prisons.
Prison policy is to let inmates starve to death if they have signed legally binding do-not-resuscitate (DNR) requests.
But state corrections officials and a federal official who controls inmate medical care received blanket authority from US District Judge Thelton Henderson to feed inmates who may be in failing health.
The order issued yesterday includes those who recently signed requests that they not be revived.
"Patients have a right to refuse medical treatment. They also have a right to refuse food," said Joyce Hayhoe, a spokeswoman for the federal official's office. However, "If an inmate gets to the point where he can't tell us what his wishes are, for instance if he's found unresponsive in his cell, and we don't have a DNR, we're going to get nourishment into him. That's what doctors do. They're going to follow their medical ethics," Hayhoe said.
The process, which prison officials call "refeeding," could include starting intravenous fluids or snaking feeding tubes through inmates' noses and into their stomachs.
The most high-profile case of force-feeding prisoners has been the involuntary feeding through nasal tubes of several dozen terrorism suspects held at Guantanamo Bay. Federal judges have turned down bids by the Guantanamo Bay inmates to stop the force-feeding.
"Force-feeding violates international law to the extent that it involves somebody who doesn't give their consent," said Jules Lobel, president of the Center for Constitutional Rights, who represents 10 inmates suing to end prolonged solitary confinement.
Lobel said prison officials should look for alternatives, including providing the inmates with a liquid diet of fruit and vegetable drinks as they have requested, or negotiating with inmates over their demands.
However, Lobel said he will not seek to overturn the judge's order.
