Parole Considered For Killer Who Led Inmate Hunger Strike

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) - A killer and reputed gang leader who helped lead a series of hunger strikes that at one point involved thousands of California inmates is up for parole.

A board is set to consider parole Wednesday for 57-year-old Ronnie Dewberry.

Corrections officials say Dewberry is the "minister of education" for a gang known as the Black Guerrilla Family.

He and other reputed gang leaders are suing California over conditions in the state's notorious Security Housing Units. The austere facilities are designed to keep dangerous or misbehaving inmates isolated from other prisoners.

Conditions there prompted prisoners to launch hunger strikes throughout the prison system in recent years, leading to some changes.

Dewberry is serving a life sentence at California Correctional Institution in Tehachapi for a 1980 Alameda County murder.