322 Striking Prisoners Leave Cells : Visits: Proposed limits on overnight stays prompted inmates’ action, but breakfast on third day drew them out.

Apparently hungry for prison chow, about one-third of the inmates who had been on strike at the state prison here left their cells Wednesday, breaking ranks with those still protesting a proposed new rule that would sharply restrict conjugal visits.

Breakfast Wednesday morning drew 322 inmates from the California state prison’s maximum-security C-block, where about 1,000 inmates had gone on strike Sunday night, refusing to leave their cells for laundry, work, recreation or even meals.

“Quite a few” of those 322 also went on to work, prison spokesman Dean Crenshaw said, calling it “a first positive step toward resuming our normal program.”

He added that the strike--the first organized protest in the state’s 29-prison system against proposed new limits on inmate rights--remains peaceful. “It’s still quiet,” he said.

The strike at the 4,100-inmate prison was prompted by a proposal that would ban overnight family visits for those inmates serving time for murder, spousal abuse and a wide variety of sex crimes.

No protests were reported at the state’s other prisons, Department of Corrections spokeswoman Gloria Isaac said.

State Corrections Department Director James H. Gomez formally announced the rule Monday, but decided not to implement it until after an April 27 hearing, giving prisoners, their families and others time to comment.

The department also is instituting or considering other get-tough rules, including banning pornography and limiting access to weight lifting equipment in exercise yards.

The inmates sticking to their cells are apparently surviving on soup, crackers and chips purchased from the prison canteen, officials said.

Because the strike left the prison kitchen without many workers, Crenshaw said, breakfast Wednesday actually turned out to be a sack lunch--a meat and cheese sandwich with packets of mustard and mayonnaise, an apple, a bag of chips and a cookie.

Prison officials spent much of Wednesday affording inmates a chance to voice their concerns over the proposed restrictions on conjugal visits, calling inmates out of their cells for one-on-one talks, Crenshaw said.