Inmates End Hunger Strike in California LOS ANGELES - Inmates at California state prisons have ended a two-month hunger strike, corrections officials and inmate advocates announced on Thursday. The strike was organized to protest the state's use of solitary confinement, in which some inmates have been held for years or even decades. It was the third hunger strike in California state prisons since 2011. At its peak in July, 30,000 inmates across two-thirds of the state's 33 prisons were refusing meals. That number had dwindled to about 100 this week, according to prison officials. "We are pleased this dangerous strike has been called off before any inmates became seriously ill," Jeffrey Beard, secretary of the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, said in a written statement. He added that the department would "continue to implement the substantive reforms" that began after hunger strikes two years ago. In a statement, the organizers of the protest, who are being held in isolation units at Pelican Bay State Prison, said that most of their demands had not been met, and that they would continue to fight for changes. "From our perspective, we've gained a lot of positive ground towards achieving our goals," the statement said. However, there's still much to be done. Our resistance will continue to build and grow until we have won our human rights. Protest organizers voted on Wednesday to end the hunger strike just days after two state lawmakers pledged to hold public hearings on the conditions in the state's maximum-security prisons and the use of long-term isolation. The hearings are expected to begin in October. "They felt really buoyed by that; they felt they had friends in our government," said Anne Weills, a lawyer representing some of the strike leaders. For weeks, prison officials had refused to negotiate with the protesters, Ms. Weills said. But in a conference call with strike leaders this week, she said, corrections department officials promised to meet with them this month to discuss their demands.