Organizers now say supporters have a challenge to “match the courage of the hunger strikers” and “effectively pressure the CDCR to immediately negotiate on the standards any negotiation should follow: with the prisoners in good faith, addressing all of the demands, and with the prisoner-approved outside mediation team.”

A Freedom of Information Act request for documents on accused whistleblower to WikiLeaks Pfc. Bradley Manning’s treatment at Quantico Marine brig, filed by POLITICO, reveals that on multiple occasions Manning was recommended for removal from “prevention of injury” (POI) status by psychiatrists and psychologists but was not removed.

On July 1, 2011, Pelican Bay prisoners began an indefinite hunger strike to protest the conditions in the prison. Across prison-manufactured racial and geographical lines, prisoners came together behind five core demands to force the prison officials to end the use of “group punishment”; abolish a “debriefing policy and the current criteria for determining who is and who isn’t a gang member; comply with the US Commission 2006 Recommendation Regarding an End to Long-Term Solitary Confinement and end conditions of isolation.

Jeanne Theoharis is professor of political science at CUNY’s Brooklyn College, one who takes the responsibility of her profession towards her students, and to the society she lives in, very seriously. When she discovered that one of her former students, Syed Farad Hashmi, was being treated unjustly by the U.S. judicial system, she spoke out, and she continues to do so.

Besides conditions of solitary confinement, harassment day and night, restriction of reading material, making him walk in shackles if he leaves his cell, inability to communicate with any other prisoners, all imposed upon PFC Bradley Manning, who has never been convicted of any crime, we must now add the degradation and humiliation of hours-long forced nakedness

David House spoke with Dylan Ratigan this afternoon about his visits this weekend with Bradley Manning at Quantico Marine Base.

Details about the conditions of Bradley Manning’s incarceration — specifically the denial of in-cell exercise allowed described by his attorney — surprised me. Based on my experience with the incarceration of federal inmates and pre-trial inmates in Special Housing Units / Solitary Confinement, federal regulations allows for a regular exercise period and Bradley Manning hasn’t been allowed exercise. Why are Manning’s military detention conditions different from federal pre-trial conditions specified by regulations?

Military officials admitted today that Quantico Brig Commander James Averhart improperly classified Bradley Manning as a “suicide risk” in order to impose harsh conditions on him as punishment for failure to follow orders. Averhart’s order overruled the opinion of three brig psychiatrists who said Manning was not at risk.

The statement comes one day after David House, Manning’s only regular visitor, was detained for two hours by military police and prevented from seeing Manning until visiting hours were over.

Check out this list of the top 10 MyFDL diaries from 2010 (based on pageviews). Thank you so much to everyone who contributed to our fantastic community of writers. We look forward to reading your work in 2011.

What were your favorite myFDL diaries from last year? Share your picks in the comments!

Psychologists for Social Responsibility (PsySR), a non-profit organization of psychologists committed to social change and social justice, has written a letter to Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, protesting ” the needless brutality of the conditions to which PFC Bradley Manning is being subjected” at the Marine Corps brig at Quanitco, Virginia. The tortuous conditions of Manning’s confinement are similar to those of America’s Supermax prisons, except Manning has not been convicted of any crime.