Inside the prison, in the Uinta 2 housing unit, is where the Special Threat Group, or STG lives. The inmates living in STG are considered violent, and are kept in their cells with one cell-mate for 47 out of 48 hours. The inmates are all documented gang members, according to prison authorities.
The Utah Department of Corrections received a letter on Friday from 42 inmates, outlining six demands. One of the demands called for the relocation of a number of gang members within the maximum security area. Other complaints included being locked in the cells with one other person for extended periods of time, as well as the lack of rehabilitative services or educational programs.
But the Utah chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) joined in with support for the prisoners on Monday, saying in a prepared statement, “The ACLU of Utah supports the striking prisoners in their requests for relief from specific conditions they and their fellow prisoners face,” according to the Deseret News.
The ACLU insists the main concern of the prisoners participating in the hunger strike is not about moving gang members, but more about living conditions, like “squalid living conditions” and inadequate meals cited by some of the inmates.
In the statement from the ACLU, they specifically point to a couple of complaints by inmates they stood out. “First, (Special Threat Group) prisoners are locked in their cells with one cellmate for 47 out of every 48 hours, being allowed out of their cells only three times a week for about an hour, and only with their cellmate. Second, (Special Threat Group) prisoners are not given any access to rehabilitative or educational programming and no work opportunities. Some individuals who wrote to the ACLU have been living in these conditions for years,” said the ACLU.
Utah Department of Corrections does say that some of the conditions in the letter have already been under consideration. Officials also said on Monday that while the number of inmates on the hunger strike has remained steady at 42, many of the prisoners are eating or drinking juice purchased at the prison commissary.
According to a statement by prison officials, one inmate has accepted a breakfast tray twice, while several have accepted juice packets passed out by the staff. And the “staff have documented several inmates consuming commissary food in their cells,” according to prison spokeswoman Brooke Adams.
