On ‘hunger strike’, Sikh priest dies in California jail

An inmate wrote a letter to state Senator Gloria Romero, a Los Angeles Democrat, pleading that she intervene, but it arrived a few days after Singh’s death on February 16. The inmate alleged that a guard had brutalised Singh in December, and that Singh was afraid of a second assault and hadn’t left his cell for meals or medical appointments for nearly 60 days.

The letter, obtained by The Los Angeles Times, describes a frail and wheelchair-bound Singh — whose 2001 conviction for sexual molestation in Stanislaus County brought him shame in the Sikh community — committing slow suicide. His weight dropped from 110 lbs to 80 lbs.

‘‘Mr Singh has not left his cell to go to eat — not once,’’ the inmate wrote to Romero. ‘‘They do not bring him any food. I smuggle bread back…Mr Singh is gentle, polite.’’ The guard who supervised the cellblock — the same one suspected of having assaulted Singh — is alleged to have told an inmate not to bother speaking out. ‘‘Forget it; he (Singh) is going to die,’’ the inmate quoted the guard as telling him, according to Romero.

A few days later, after collapsing in his cell, Singh died of lung and heart failure caused by starvation. ‘‘He was committing suicide right in front of them and they did nothing,’’ said Romero, chairwoman of the corrections oversight committee.

She provided accounts of the inmates to the Times on the condition that their names be kept confidential.

Prison officials said last week that they would talk to inmates and review their complaints as part of a growing investigation into Singh’s death. The case coincides with increased scrutiny of California’s vast prison system, which is riddled with accusations of brutality, cover-ups, fraud and poor medical care.

In the days after Singh’s death, corrections officials in Sacramento said he had been depressed since arriving at the prison in 2001, protesting against his molestation conviction and refusing to eat a diet that didn’t conform to his vegetarian practices. The official account was that he died after a series of ‘‘on and off again’’ hunger strikes. But the California prison system has a detailed policy on handling such strikes: guards must document refusal of meals, determine the reason for it and report it to a supervisor; nurses and doctors must visit the inmate daily and assess his weight, and if the inmate’s condition worsens, the prison could force-feed fluids and nutrients.

None of this was done for Singh, corrections officials admit. But now they say that Singh hadn’t officially declared a hunger strike. ‘‘He was refusing meals sporadically, but it wasn’t a hunger strike,’’ said Kelley Santoro, the prison’s public information officer. ‘‘Was he eating sporadically because he was a vegetarian and didn’t like the food served to him? Was he being monitored? All that is under investigation.’’

But the inmates tell a different story—of an inmate who didn’t have the language skills to communicate that he was on a hunger strike. Singh was lodged in the prison’s ‘‘special needs yard’’, a section for sexual offenders and others who are considered prey by more dangerous inmates. He was also fighting depression after having been convicted of sexually touching three kids in a case that divided the Sikh community around Modesto.

Inmates said he would pray and bow to them and guards, but would grow frustrated when prison staff insisted on serving meat. He would often eat just a piece of bread with peanut butter. ‘‘One inmate told us this whole thing is about vegetables. ‘If they would have just given him vegetables instead of meat, he would be alive today’,’’ Romero said. ‘‘But every time he was in line, they insisted on slopping down the meat’.’’ — (LAT-WP)