From: Truth-Out , July 13th 2013   By Paul Redd , Truthout  | Op-Ed    Prisoners in Pelican Bay State Prison's Security Housing Unit  (SHU) are isolated for at least twenty-two and a half hours a day in  cramped, concrete, windowless cells. They are denied telephone calls,  contact visits, any kind of programming, adequate food and, often,  medical care. Nearly 750 of these men have been held under these  conditions for more than a decade, dozens for over 20 years. This  treatment has inflicted profound psychological suffering and caused or  exacerbated debilitating physical ailments.       Ostensibly, these men are in the SHU because they associate with  gang members and isolating them is necessary to prevent gang activity  and racially motivated violence. But in the summer and fall of 2011,  these men, joined by other SHU prisoners throughout California, showed  this claim to be the lie that it is. Organizing across racial lines,  more than 6,000 SHU prisoners went on h...