Pelican Bay Prison Inmates Go On Hunger Strike Over "Inhumane" Conditions

   CRESCENT CITY, Calif. (AP) -- Inmates in an isolation unit at Pelican Bay State Prison are on a hunger strike to protest conditions that they describe as inhumane.

   Advocates say several dozen inmates in the Security Housing Unit declined to eat their morning meal on Friday. The unit holds about a third of the 3,100 inmates at the Northern California prison.

   State prison officials confirmed the strike.

   The Security Housing Unit segregates prisoners from the general population who have been determined to be prison gang members or have committed a serious crime while in prison.

   Advocates say inmates there are subject to solitary confinement and forced interrogations.

   Prison officials deny those allegations and say additional restrictions on security unit prisoners are needed to reduce the influence of gangs.

   (Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press.  All Rights Reserved.)