Haney's research found that such prolonged isolation led to paranoia, anxiety, despair, anger and, eventually, numbness among people in the SHU. "When you're in the SHU, you don't feel," said Frank Reyna, who spent 20 years in solitary at Pelican Bay. "If you feel, you start getting weak. When people die, you just move on. You lose your emotions." Prison officials had built a fortress designed to keep people away from each other.
The usual hustle and bustle of protests - the loud chants, megaphones and fists in the air - was absent on Thursday afternoon as faith leaders and activists sat in meditation outside San Francisco City Hall, starting a hunger strike to protest ICE. About 100 rabbis, reverends and activists gathered on the City Hall steps to start a 24-hour fast to condemn what they called Immigration and Customs Enforcement's militaristic and violent policies.
Three people who are being held in prison on charges connected with the protest group Palestine Action have been on hunger strike for 45, 59 and 66 days. A fourth prisoner, Teuta Hoxha, ended her strike this week, after 58 days. She could suffer lifelong health effects. The remaining strikers, Heba Muraisi, Kamran Ahmed and Lewie Chiaramello, could pass away at any time.
Prisoners For Palestine says activist Teuta Hoxha needs to be hospitalised but has been denied medical treatment by prison authorities. Palestine Action activist Teuta Hoxha has paused her hunger strike in the United Kingdom after more than two months without food while demanding immediate bail and the right to a fair trial. Hoxha needs urgent medical care in hospital to prevent refeeding syndrome. The prison is refusing [her] medical treatment, which is required to prevent death in extreme cases of starvation.
I learned it in Guantanamo, when the only thing I could control was my own body. We were disappeared. Isolated. Forced into silence. Our words were redacted. Our letters were stamped secret. Lawyers were blocked. Time stretched and rotted. No court dates were given. No real charges were made. I was reduced to a number in an orange uniform, locked in a metal cage.
Six remand prisoners affiliated with the proscribed protest group Palestine Action who are on hunger strike are not receiving adequate healthcare and face an immediate risk of death, hundreds of British healthcare professionals have warned. On Thursday, more than 800 doctors, nurses, therapists and carers wrote to Justice Secretary David Lammy to warn that without resolution, there is the real and increasingly likely potential that young British citizens will die in prison, having never even been convicted of an offence.
Protesters hold a banner in support of the Palestine Action activists who are part of the group known as the 'Filton 24', who were arrested following a protest action at a facility owned by arms manufacturers Elbit Systems and who are currently on hunger strike, during a demonstration in Piccadilly as thousands of people march in support of Palestine in London, UK, on November 29, 2025. Vuk Valcic / SOPA Images / LightRocket via Getty Images
I am exhausted by this situation and find it deeply unfair and unjust. I arrived on a boat with 83 other people, and only 12 of us were moved to a detention centre. The rest are being processed through the asylum system normally and are now in hotels. Meanwhile, we are being held here alongside people who may have criminal convictions.
In a Facebook post on Friday, Ben Mbarek's sister, Dalila Ben Mbarek Msaddek, warned that her brother's health had now severely deteriorated and doctors detected a highly dangerous toxin affecting his kidneys. Msaddek said Ben Mbarek had received treatment but refused nutritional supplements at the hospital where he was transferred on Thursday night, insisting on continuing his now 17-day protest.
My cell is painted green, the same colour we once used in the newsroom. Two benches and a table are bolted to the floor. Nothing moves. The bed is narrow, but I haven't fallen out yet. When I was free, but already expecting arrest, I used to joke that prison would give me the time I always lacked finally, I could read.
As AI advances, so too does the desperation of those trying to stop it. Two men, worried about the threat AI poses to humanity's future, are now on hunger strike outside the offices of Anthropic and DeepMind. For Guido Reichstadter, a 45-year-old activist, Sunday marked a week of protest without food. Reichstadter told Business Insider he plans to remain until the company responds to his concerns about the direction of AI development.
The hunger strike began May 12 with 15 students, faculty and staff pledging to stop eating until the university meets a list of demands, including calling for Stanford to divest from companies linked to Israel's war in Gaza.
"The hunger strikers say they were inspired by students at Chapman University in Orange, who launched a similar campaign in April. That strike ended after 10 days with no concessions from their university."
