Eli5: Why do hunger strikes work?

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I’ve never understood this. Isn’t it in the interest of people in power or people jailing you to watch you starve to death? Yet in prisons and detention centers, it’s always the go-to. Why do they work?

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Anonymous 0 Comments

As the prison administrator, it’s your job to look after the people under your care, even if they are prisoners. If you willingly allow some idiot to starve to death without even trying to stop them, you will be held accountable for their death. So you have to do something. You don’t have to cave into their demands, but you have to at least try something. I’m guessing that they let the prisoner get good and hungry before negotiating though. Not at-deaths-door starving, but a few days of hunger pangs may make negotiations go easier for you.

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