(Reuters) California prison officials are grappling with starvation-related ailments among hunger-striking prisoners who have refused to eat for nearly six weeks to protest the state's solitary confinement policies.
As the hunger strike enters its 40th day on Friday, dozens of inmates have been sent to hospitals or prison infirmaries, and officials are bracing for more illness among the 118 prisoners who have not eaten since the strike began.
They are also expecting to have to deal with serious medical conditions plaguing those whose systems are weakened after fasting for weeks and who are now seeking to begin eating again.
The hunger strike is the latest difficulty to plague the state's prison system, which is under orders by a federal court to reduce crowding by the end of the year, possibly by releasing up to 10,000 inmates early.
Medical care in the prisons was taken away from the state as part of the same case, and placed under the control of a court-appointed receiver. Another court appointee is in charge of the system's mental health programs.
Among the complaints sending inmates to hospital are dehydration, cramping, vomiting, diarrhea, dizziness and lightheadedness, said Liz Gransee, a spokeswoman for the federal receiver overseeing care in the state's prisons.
"It can have long-term effects on your internal organs as your body is pretty much eating itself from the inside out," Gransee said, describing the effects of the hunger strike.
Prisoners launched the current hunger strike - the latest in a string of actions in recent years - in prisons statewide on July 8 to demand an end to a policy of housing inmates believed to be associated with gangs in near-isolation for years on end.
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