LAS VEGAS — Through stifled sobs, Nina Fernandez described on Friday a different version of events than those shared by Nevada prison officials as to why her son and dozens of others have been on hunger strike at a maximum-security prison for more than a week.
The Nevada Department of Corrections has said the protest was prompted in large part by complaints about inadequate meal portions from a new food vendor, Aramark Correctional Services, according to statements released since the prisoners at Ely State Prison stopped eating on Dec. 1
But in a phone call on the second day of the hunger strike, Fernandez said her son Sean Harvell, 35, told her the protest was over what he called unsafe and inhumane living conditions.