"Secret" Prisons
A lot of media attention is being paid to the ringwing nuts' claims of secret prisons or concentration camps to lock up Republicans and other rightwingers.
At the 1:15min mark.
What is not getting as much attention is that secretive prisons already exist for political prisoners!!!
However, they do NOT include Republicans, Rush Limbaugh dittoheads, or even rightwing militia types. They house inmates accused of being tied to “terrorism” groups. These "Communication Management Units" overwhelmingly include Muslim inmates, along with at least two animal rights and environmental activists.
The CMU “experiment” limits prisoner contact with the outside world:
-Phone calls: Only one phone call per week, limited to 15 minutes, live-monitored by staff and law enforcement (according to attorneys, this includes the NSA) and scheduled one and half weeks in advance. It must be conducted in English. Other prisoners get about 300 minutes a month.
-Mail: All mail must be reviewed by staff prior to delivery to the inmate or processing at the post office. This means significant delays in communications (and, in my personal experience, letters frequently not being received by inmates).
-Visits: Four hours of personal visits per month, non-contact, behind glass, and live-monitored by staff and law enforcement. It must be conducted in English. When a CMU inmate is transferred to the visiting room, the entire facility goes on lock-down.
Who are in CMU's? They include:
-Rafil A. Dhafir, an Iraqi-born physician who created a charity called Help the Needy to provide food and medicine to the people of Iraq suffering under the U.S.-imposed economic sanctions. He was sentenced to 22 years in prison for violating the sanctions.
-Daniel McGowan, an environmental activist sentenced to seven years in prison for a string of property crimes.
-And, until recently, Andrew Stepanian. Stepanian was convicted of conspiring to commit “animal enterprise terrorism” and shut down the notorious animal testing laboratory Huntingdon Life Sciences, in a landmark First Amendment case pending appeal. The government’s case focused on a controversial website run by an activist group that published news of both legal and illegal actions against the laboratory. He was sentenced to three years in prison, and is currently on house arrest in New York City. Stepanian is believed to be the first prisoner ever released from a CMU.
_____
Let's also not forget the multitude of political prisoners in the USA. Many of whom have been in prisons for many many years.
Anarchist Black Cross Federation: political prisoner support
(thanks to Green Is The New Red)
At the 1:15min mark.
What is not getting as much attention is that secretive prisons already exist for political prisoners!!!
However, they do NOT include Republicans, Rush Limbaugh dittoheads, or even rightwing militia types. They house inmates accused of being tied to “terrorism” groups. These "Communication Management Units" overwhelmingly include Muslim inmates, along with at least two animal rights and environmental activists.
The CMU “experiment” limits prisoner contact with the outside world:
-Phone calls: Only one phone call per week, limited to 15 minutes, live-monitored by staff and law enforcement (according to attorneys, this includes the NSA) and scheduled one and half weeks in advance. It must be conducted in English. Other prisoners get about 300 minutes a month.
-Mail: All mail must be reviewed by staff prior to delivery to the inmate or processing at the post office. This means significant delays in communications (and, in my personal experience, letters frequently not being received by inmates).
-Visits: Four hours of personal visits per month, non-contact, behind glass, and live-monitored by staff and law enforcement. It must be conducted in English. When a CMU inmate is transferred to the visiting room, the entire facility goes on lock-down.
Who are in CMU's? They include:
-Rafil A. Dhafir, an Iraqi-born physician who created a charity called Help the Needy to provide food and medicine to the people of Iraq suffering under the U.S.-imposed economic sanctions. He was sentenced to 22 years in prison for violating the sanctions.
-Daniel McGowan, an environmental activist sentenced to seven years in prison for a string of property crimes.
-And, until recently, Andrew Stepanian. Stepanian was convicted of conspiring to commit “animal enterprise terrorism” and shut down the notorious animal testing laboratory Huntingdon Life Sciences, in a landmark First Amendment case pending appeal. The government’s case focused on a controversial website run by an activist group that published news of both legal and illegal actions against the laboratory. He was sentenced to three years in prison, and is currently on house arrest in New York City. Stepanian is believed to be the first prisoner ever released from a CMU.
_____
Let's also not forget the multitude of political prisoners in the USA. Many of whom have been in prisons for many many years.
Anarchist Black Cross Federation: political prisoner support
(thanks to Green Is The New Red)
posted by shane at 10:22 AM
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