Kate Bradshaw

_{Organizer Deyna Cortez addresses attendees of a protest outside the Maguire Correctional Facility in Redwood City on June 25. Her boyfriend, Rodrigo Prieto, was leading the hunger strike inside. Photo by Kate Bradshaw.}

By Kate Bradshaw

June 26, 2020

Rodrigo Prieto and other inmates in a San Mateo County jail didn’t eat for 10 days, striking in protest of unfair food prices and a lack of video visits. But then, they won.

Prieto led a hunger strike within the Maguire Correctional Facility, a San Mateo County jail located in Redwood City, that demanded an end to price gouging within the county’s commissary system and pushed for expanded phone and video visitation access for inmates.

The Almanac spoke with him on his last day of the strike, June 25. His body ached, his joints hurt and his eyes had started to look sunken in, he said.

But by then, his cause had started to gain momentum. Outside the Redwood City jail that night, a group of about 40 people rallied, shouting their support for him and his fellow hunger strikers.

“The only thing they have to protest with is their body,” Missy, an activist who was formerly incarcerated, said to the crowd. The protesters stood outside, banging drums and pots and pans, blaring sirens, blowing whistles, honking car horns and chanting statements such as, “We hear you. We see you. We will fight for you. We love you. Your voice is not lost.”

Read more at almanacnews.com.