This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2015, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Maximum-security inmates at the Utah State Prison are on a hunger strike, reportedly demanding — among other things — that gang leaders be moved elsewhere in the prison.
On Friday morning, 42 of the inmates refused to eat breakfast and told the staff that "they are beginning a hunger strike," according to a Utah Department of Corrections news release.
The on-strike inmates are documented gang members and have "given the department a list of demands that includes release of gang leaders now housed in a different maximum-security unit" to other housing within the prison, according to the news release.
Corrections spokeswoman Brooke Adams declined to elaborate on the other demands, but said that prison officials are reviewing them.
During the strike, the prison is offering inmates a medical evaluation to determine their baseline weight and other vital statistics, so that their health can be monitored.
The medical checks are scheduled to occur again Monday.
"The department also has inventoried food items in each participating inmate's cell to document potential nutritional intake," the release reads. "The department will continue to offer the inmates meals as regularly scheduled."
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