There’s a new warden at the North Lake Correctional Facility in Baldwin, and the group of mostly Black men who have been confined since March to the Special or Restricted Housing Unit started another hunger strike on Wednesday, August 5th. This is their fifth hunger strike and the sixth to our knowledge in the facility since March.

Donald Emerson, who had served as the warden at North Lake since its reopening in October, has been replaced. At first we welcomed this news since Emerson’s cruelty and his shameful mishandling of the COVID-19 crisis had been named specifically by people incarcerated at North Lake. But there are signs that his acting replacement, Angela Dunbar, is attempting to make conditions even worse. In 2016 Dunbar was sued by a federal prisoner in Indiana for prolonging his own confinement to a restricted unit for over six years without any procedural due process. Now, at North Lake, she has instituted harsh new regulations for phone use at a time when people desperately need regular contact with their families and loved ones.

While the conditions at North Lake are unacceptable for anyone, administrators had sought to appease people in the general population with increased phone access in the midst of the pandemic. The facility’s inmate handbook states: “To the extent practical, inmates in Administrative Segregation shall be provided with the same general privileges as inmates in general population.” The men in the RHU have been told that they are in Administrative Segregation, yet they continue to be treated as if they had violated prison policy. Dunbar first limited their phone time to 15 minutes every 30 days (as seen in this form). When they started their new hunger strike on Wednesday, August 5th, the limit was changed to 15 minutes every 10 days—a sign that their organizing makes a difference. But they are demanding a full reinstatement of phone access, as well as a transfer away from North Lake and access to another unit in the meantime.

CALL THE NORTH LAKE CORRECTIONAL FACILITY at 231-745-9711 to say you support the hunger strikers in the Restricted Housing Unit and their demands for fully restored phone privileges and access to a more spacious unit pending their transfers. We will continue to share updates as we get them.