By Doreen McCallister

Thousands of prisoners across the state are expressing solidarity with inmates being held in solitary confinement at Pelican Bay State Prison in northern California.

It is a maximum security facility and problem inmates are held in the Security Housing Unit. Some inmates have been in the SHU, pronounced shoe, for decades.

The SHU is a place to put the “worst of the worst,” says Michael Montgomery, a reporter for member station KQED and the Center for Investigative Reporting, a nonprofit news organization in Berkeley, Calif.

He tells Morning Edition host Renee Montagne, “Men are placed in there after the Department of Corrections has determined they are prison gang members or that they have done really bad things in prison.”

At one time 30,000 inmates joined the hunger strike but that number has dropped to below 29,000, according to The Associated Press.

Michael tells Renee, Pelican Bay “inmates were able to coordinate the hunger strike through letters and visits, and families and advocates have helped get the word out to prisons throughout the state.”

Read More Inmates Across California Join Hunger Strike Over Conditions : The Two-Way : NPR.