HUNGER STRIKING FOR TRUE FREEDOM is a hunger strike by Donald “C-Note” Hooker, the world’s most prolific prison-artist to draw attention to the practice by the California prison system to deny eligible Third Strike African Americans access to nonviolent parole board panels.
FIVE CORE DEMANDS:
1.) Immediately release Donald “C-Note” Hooker, K94063 to supervised parole:
a.) According to CDCR records, Hooker’s Nonviolent Parole Eligibility Date (NEPD), was February 23, 2001. When prison officials discovered they were four years past their statutory deadline (15 CCR 2449.32), to take Hooker to the nonviolent parole board, CDCR’s response was to hide this from the public;
b.) When prison officials tried to provide a non-nonviolent parole board hearing, and Hooker refused to attend, Parole Board Commissioners his this fact from the public by creating a postponement ruse based upon a demonstrably false pretense, and in doing so, have further substantially delayed the process of releasing Hooker to supervised parole;
2.) Conduct an investigation at the Ombudsman level, as to why a delay of more than four years had elapsed to recognize Hooker’s status as a Nonviolent offender and for him to be released to supervised parole;
3.) Conduct an investigation at the Ombudsman level, as to why Nonviolent African American Third Strikers are being denied access to nonviolent parole board panels;
4.) Hold accountable any state employee responsible for breaching the will of activists, voters, and lawmakers, whose advocacy created specialized parole panels, such as youth, elderly, and nonviolent, through firing, pay docking, retraining, or any other form of disciplinary action;
5.) Ban any and all retaliatory actions against Hooker, and or his supporters for raising awareness regarding their concerns with the operations of the California specialized parole hearings for youth, elderly, and nonviolent.
On September 4, 2025, at the California State Prison, Los Angeles County (CSP-LAC), at 8:30 am, a parole suitability hearing was postponed under a false pretense for Donald “C-Note” Hooker, the world’s most prolific prison artist. As a result, Hooker plans a hunger strike at the CSP-LAC, for September 21, 2025 at 8:30 a.m., the 24th anniversary of the prison food strike, at the Kansas State Prison Farm, Lansing, Kansas.
Hooker is a nonviolent, African American, Third Striker, whose nonviolent-wobbler sentence was completed in 2001. Hooker had been at odds with the parole board, when Governor Gavin Newsom falsely declared Hooker to be ineligible to a nonviolent parole hearing. Hooker’s administrative appeals to Newsom’s claim all went unanswered and were exhausted. Hooker admonished the parole board, if it did not reinstate his parole board hearing status as indeterminately-sentenced nonviolent, he would not be attending. A promise he carried through on.
In response, Governor Newsom’s appointed Parole Board Commissioners, Commissioner Michael Ruff, and Deputy Commissioner Nancy Wong, along with CDCR staff attorney, appointed to represent Hooker at the hearing, Esi Banyarku, all signed off on postponing the hearing until next year, under the false pretense that Hooker never received the Comprehensive Risk Assessment (CRA) from the Board of Parole Hearings, Forensic Assessment Division.
However, text message screenshots from the CDCR approved GTL Getting Out App, have revealed Hooker communicated both to his art broker, author and Silicon Valley Fine Art and Real Estate Broker, Anna D. Smith (Queen of the Underground Art World), and to author and Smithsonian historian, Anita L. Wills on August 14th and 15th respectively, that he received his CRA and was generally pleased with the report.
The following work-week, August 18-22, his CDCR appointed attorney visited Hooker at CSP-LAC, where they discussed the CRA, and Hooker reiterated his stance he will not be attending the parole board hearing if Sacramento has not repealed its earlier decision to deny him access to a nonviolent parole board panel.
He also informed Benyarku, he filed a “Risk Rating Reevaluation” to the Board of Parole Hearings after Forensic Psychologist Angelika Marsic, PhD, concluded “Mr. Hooker’s final risk rating was largely influenced by credibility concerns. If the Board finds that his assertion credible that the substances ostensibly found in his cell in 2019 were not his, and the information in the Notice of Confidential Information in Advance of Parole Hearing dated June 11, 2025, as not credible, his risk may be reduced.”
Forensic Psychologist Marsic found Hooker to be a moderate risk for violence. However, Hooker pointed out, her assessment had been artificially inflated from a Low risk for violence to a Moderate risk for violence, based on a Confidential Memorandum that stated in November of 2019, Hooker was in possession with a prison made manufactured weapon with the intention of harming multiple prisoners. Citing legal precedent, Hooker noted in his brief to the parole board, “Risk Rating Reevaluation,” it can only use credible evidence. Prison officials at the time, did not deem this confidential information to be credible, evidence by taking no action upon receiving this confidential information, in spite of their fiduciary duty to protect those prisoners in their custody alleged to be harmed.
Hooker is not the only one raising concerns about the parole board acting outside of their jurisdiction. In the 2010s, activists, voters, and lawmakers created three specialized parole board panels that operate outside of the standard parole board panel, these are for the youth, elderly, and nonviolent, as their titles would suggest, each of these specialized panels have mitigating factors to be considered.
Former Alameda County Juvenile Delinquency Attorney, and former staff attorney with Legal Services for Prisoners with Children, Deborah Slone noted, “Many of the prisoners don’t know these parole opportunities exist,” stated Slone. “Some of these prisoners may well be qualified or eligible for these parole boards, but are not counseled on how to navigate the process, nor how to successfully apply. Therefore, community oversight would help to ensure that due process is followed.”
“Hunger Striking for True Freedom” is a 2021 political musical by Minister King X Pyeface. Its themes include the California prisoner hunger strikes of the 2010s, ending long-term solitary confinement, liberating our elders, the Agreement to End Hostilities, and more. Many of the musical themes were present in the 2024 documentary “Strike,” as Minister King X Pyeface had lived these experiences. In the mid-90s, King began to serve 24 years behind bars, six in the feds, and 18 in some of California’s worst prisons. King was the youngest principal organizer, who helped coordinate the hunger strike from solitary confinement, administrative segregation, and parallel to the general population where 30,000 prisoners participated in demanding liberation from solitary confinement. Home since 2019, King became the co-director of the California Prison Focus, and a prolific, respected artivist, who coined the phrase, “Political Musical.” His works revolve around prison abolitionism, prison firefighters, strategic community release boards, and the repeal of the 13th Amendment’s Slavery Exception Clause.
“I chose the 21st of September 2025, because I wanted to align my hunger strike to an earlier time, when men and women had put their bodies on the line in servitude to prisoner human rights. On September 21, 1971, there was a prisoner hunger strike at the Kansas State Prison Farm, Lansing, Kansas,” says Hooker.
To learn more, contact the prison-artist directly. He’s also available for Zoom and other forms of call-ins, at meetings or events. Write him a letter or Message him on the GTL Getting Out App: Donald Hooker, K94063, P.O. Box 4430, Lancaster, CA 93539
Leave a Reply