THE STRIKE- movie

Amidst the redwood trees on the California-Oregon border sits one of the most infamous prisons in US history. Pelican Bay is a labyrinthine construction of solid cement blocks – a supermax prison – opened in 1989 and designed specifically for mass-scale solitary confinement. For decades, it held men alone in tiny cells indefinitely. Then one day in 2013, 30,000 prisoners went on hunger strike.
THE STRIKE weaves together a half-century of personal and criminal justice history into a single, compelling narrative around the drama of the hunger strike to end indefinite isolation. Grounded in testimonies from the hunger strikers themselves, the film details how the protest was conceived from a whisper inside the halls of Pelican Bay to a colossal feat across California prisons. With unprecedented access to state prison officials and never-before-seen footage from inside Pelican Bay, THE STRIKE reveals the panic that gripped the highest echelons of state government.

Extensive research over several decades has clearly and consistently shown that solitary confinement is profoundly harmful. Several states have ended the use of prolonged solitary confinement as a disciplinary sanction in favor of more humane and effective alternatives. Oregon must end solitary confinement.