A California prisoner in solitary confinement has died at one of the state prisons involved in a mass hunger strike. Authorities say the prisoner, Bill Sell, was not taking part in the protest and that his death is being treated as a suicide. But hunger-striking prisoners and advocates maintain that Sell was a participant and had asked for medical treatment in the days leading up to his death. Around 1,000 people in 11 prisons are said to remain on hunger strike after initial numbers of some 30,000. Prison clinics have reportedly been overrun with hunger strikers in dire condition.