Topless Activist Goes On Hunger Strike In Jail Because The Food Sucks

Topless activist (exactly what it sounds like) Phoenix Feeley has decided to go on a hunger strike during her time in jail, and expects that she will die. Two problems: One, she’s only in jail for 16 days, and two, she’s only doing it because she hates prison food.

Feeley wound up in county jail Monday after refusing to pay an indecency fine of $816 for years. The offense is that she took off her top and exposed her breasts on a Spring Lake beach in 2008, and that will also be her legacy if she does indeed die in prison.

And she definitely thinks she will. “You just filed a death sentence,” she told Municipal Court Judge George C. Pappas after her sentenced her to 16 days in the Monmouth County Jail on Thursday.

Never mind the fact that human beings can survive for between 30 and 40 days without food (and even then, death can be avoided for up to 61), Feeley’s reasons for her hunger strike have less to do with her topless activism and more to do with the quality (or lack thereof) of prison food.

She says the food is “inhumane, grade four, less than McDonald’s.” It is possible for Feeley’s hunger strike to successfully kill her if she completely avoids hydration, though. She says that prison water has dirt in it and makes her want to throw up.

Ominously, she says her jail cell has the words “help me” scrawled on the wall in blood. Hint: It’s not her blood.

Strangely, Judge Pappas seems to have gone way out of his way for Feeley. Despite being a multiple offender, he offered to put her on a payment plan for the fine, offered to let her pay with jail time (about $50 a day), and granted her four days credit for time served. She scoffed:

“I have a direct appeal in to the U.S. Supreme Court about (these) criminal charges that are discriminatory against my gender.”

She later added, “I refuse to pay the fines for an act that is legal for a man but not legal for a woman.”

He then suggested she file a formal grievance over her complaints regarding her prison accommodations.

“OK, so, whatever, I’m dead,” she replied.