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<![endif]--><big><big><b
style="">Strategizing to
Defeat Control Unit Prisons and Solitary Confinement</b><o:p></o:p></big></big>
<p class="MsoNormal"><big><big><b style="">--An interview with
author/activist Nancy Kurshan</b></big></big><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><i style="">By Angola 3 News<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://angola3news.blogspot.com/2013/02/strategizing-to-defeat-control-unit.html">http://angola3news.blogspot.com/2013/02/strategizing-to-defeat-control-unit.html</a><br>
</i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><br>
To Purchase the book, click <a
href="https://co.clickandpledge.com/advanced/default.aspx?wid=33028"><font
color="#ff0000"><b><big>here!</big></b></font></a><br>
<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Author and longtime activist Nancy Kurshan’s new
book,
entitled <a
href="http://www.freedomarchives.org/Out_of_Control/01_introduction.html"><i
style="">Out of Control: A Fifteen Year Battle
Against Control Unit Prisons</i></a>, has just been released by the <a
href="http://www.freedomarchives.org">Freedom
Archives</a>. Kurshan’s book documents the work of The Committee to End
the
Marion Lockdown (CEML), which she co-founded in 1985 as a response to
the
lockdown at the federal prison in Marion, Illinois. It quickly turned
into a
broader campaign against control unit prisons and human rights
violations in US
prisons that lasted fifteen years, until 2000.<span style="">
</span>The following excerpt from <i style="">Out of
Control </i>details CEML’s origins:<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b style=""><i style="">(beginning of direct quote)<o:p></o:p></i></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0.5in 0.0001pt;"><i>I had been
living
in Chicago for about a year when I heard the news that two guards had
been
killed by two prisoners in the U.S. Penitentiary in Marion, Illinois,
350 miles
south of Chicago. Although it was an isolated incident with no
associated riot
conditions, the prison was immediately placed on lockdown status, and
the
authorities seized on the opportunity to violently repress the entire
prison
population. For two years, from 1983 to 1985, all of the 350 men
imprisoned
there were subjected to brutal, dehumanizing conditions. All work
programs were
shut down, as were educational activities and religious services.<o:p></o:p></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0.5in 0.0001pt;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0.5in 0.0001pt;"><i>During the
initial stage of this
lockdown, 60 guards equipped with riot gear, much of it shipped in from
other
prisons, systematically beat approximately 100 handcuffed and
defenseless
prisoners. Guards also subjected some prisoners to forced finger probes
of the
rectum. Random beatings and rectal probes continued through the
two-year
lockdown. Despite clear evidence of physical and psychological
brutality at the
hands of the guards, Congress and the courts refused to intervene to
stop the
lockdown…</i><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0.5in 0.0001pt;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0.5in 0.0001pt;"><i>…Although
the terrible conditions at
the prison were striking, what drew us to Marion in particular was the
history
of struggle of the prisoners and their allies on the outside. When the
infamous
Alcatraz was closed in 1962, Marion Federal Penitentiary was opened and
became
the new Alcatraz, the end of the line for the “worst of the worst.”</i><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0.5in 0.0001pt;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0.5in 0.0001pt;"><i>In 1972
there was a prisoner’s
peaceful work stoppage at Marion led by Puerto Rican Nationalist Rafael
Cancel
Miranda. In response to this peaceful work stoppage, the authorities
placed a
section of the prison under lockdown, thus creating the first “control
unit,”
essentially a prison within a prison, amplifying the use of isolation
as a form
of control, previously used only for a selected prisoner. That was
1972. </i><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0.5in 0.0001pt;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0.5in 0.0001pt;"><i>At this
time, in 1985, after two
years of lockdown, they converted the whole prison into a control unit.
Importantly, because Marion in 1985 was “the end of the line,” the only
“Level
6” federal prison, there were disproportionate numbers of political
prisoners—those who were incarcerated for their political beliefs and
actions.
These included people such as Native American Leonard Peltier who had
spent
years there until recently, and now (in 1985) Black Panthers <a
href="http://www.sundiataacoli.org/">Sundiata Acoli</a> and <a
href="http://www.thetalkingdrum.com/bla1.html">Sekou Odinga</a>,
Puerto Rican
independentista <a
href="http://boricuahumanrights.org/free-oscar-lopez-rivera/">Oscar
López Rivera</a>, and white revolutionary <u><a
href="http://4strugglemag.org/tag/bill-dunne/">Bill Dunne</a></u>.
These were
people we knew or identified with, activists of the 1960s and 1970s
incarcerated for their political activities. Marion, like its
predecessor
Alcatraz and its successor ADX Florence, was clearly a destination
point for
political prisoners.</i><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b style=""><i style="">(end of direct quote)<o:p></o:p></i></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Kurshan writes that during the 15 years of work,
“CEML led
and organized hundreds of educational programs and demonstrations in
many parts
of the country and tried to build a national movement against
‘end-of-the-line’
prisons. Along the way the Committee wrote thousands of pages of
educational
and agitational literature and pioneered new ways of analyzing and
fighting
against this national quagmire that morphed into the proliferation of
the
‘prison industrial complex.’”<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Out of Control’s <a
href="http://www.freedomarchives.org/Out_of_Control/01_introduction.html">online
version</a> features several dozen links to the literature CEML
created, as
well as further documents, pamphlets, audio and video segments. Asked
to
spotlight a few of her favorites, Kurshan recommended: <a
href="http://www.freedomarchives.org/Documents/Finder/DOC3_scans/3.myth.pelican.bay.1994.pdf"><i
style="">The Myth That the Pelican Bay Control Unit
Has Reduced Violence</i></a>, a 1995 issue of <a
href="http://www.freedomarchives.org/Documents/Finder/DOC3_scans/3.walkin.steel.Fall.1995.pdf">the
CEML’s
newsletter Walkin’ Steel</a>, the <a
href="http://www2.ohchr.org/english/law/treatmentprisoners.htm">U.N.
Standard Rules
for the Treatment of Prisoners</a>, Bill Dunne’s 1988 <a
href="http://www.freedomarchives.org/Documents/Finder/DOC3_scans/3.dunne.book.introduction.1988.pdf">34-page
handwritten
article about Marion</a>, and an article by Kurshan herself,
entitled <a
href="http://www.freedomarchives.org/Documents/Finder/DOC3_scans/3.kurshan.women.imprisonment.pdf"><i
style="">Women and Imprisonment in the US: History
and Current Reality</i></a>. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">In this interview, Nancy Kurshan discusses her new
book and
covers a variety of topics, including the growth of solitary
confinement and
its relation to mass incarceration, the connection between US
militarism abroad
and domestic prisons, concluding with the lessons that today’s human
rights
activists can learn from the history of the Committee to End the Marion
Lockdown.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b style=""><u>Angola 3 News:</u></b>
<span style=""> </span><i style="">Your new book chronicles
fifteen years of organizing against control
unit prisons, from 1985-2000. Can you begin the interview by explaining
exactly
what a control unit prison is?</i><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b style=""><u>Nancy Kurshan:</u></b>
<span style=""> </span>There are at least 2 ways to answer
that question. One is to describe the daily workings. The other is to
elucidate
the underlying dynamics.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">There are variations from prison to prison, but
generally
speaking, a control unit prison is one in which every prisoner is
locked away
in their own individual box about 23 hours a day under conditions of
severe
sensory deprivation. The prisoner eats, sleeps and defecates in the
windowless
cell. Meals come through a slot in the door. In some cases the prisoner
may be
out of the cell a couple of times a week for exercise, but in other
circumstances the exercise area is even more limited and is attached to
the
cell itself. Most control unit prisons have little access to education
or any
recreational outlets.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Usually, control units severely restrict the
prisoner’s
connection not just with other prisoners, but with family and friends
in the
outside world. At Marion, only family members could visit, upon
approval, and
only for a small number of visits per month. The amount of time allowed
per
visit was severely restricted, and there was no privacy whatsoever and
no
contact permitted between prisoner and visitor. Visiting took place
over a
plexiglass wall and through telephones. Guards were always within
earshot. The
prisoner had to be searched before and after, sometimes cavity
searched. The
visitor had to undergo a body search as well. The prisoners were
brought to the
visit in shackles. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Regarding the underlying dynamics, the intent is
to make the
prisoner feel that his or her life is completely out of control. That
is not an
unintended consequence.<span style=""> </span>The purpose of
the control unit is to make the person feel helpless, powerless and
completely
dependent upon the prison authorities. The intent is to strip the
individual of
any agency, any ability to direct his or her own life. A control unit
institutionalizes solitary confinement as a way of exerting full
control over
as much of the prisoner’s life as possible. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">There is no pretense that this is a temporary
affair.
Instead it is long-term, severe behavior modification, and it is the
most vile,
mind & spirit-deforming use of solitary confinement. Control units
represent the darkest side of behavior modification. Inside a control
unit, the
prisoner usually has no idea how long he or she will be there. It is an
indeterminate sentence, and usually the rules or guidelines for exiting
are
unclear at best and impossible to comprehend at worst. It is a hell
without any
apparent end.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Being sent to a control unit prison is tantamount
to
torture, as<a
href="http://www.freedomarchives.org/Documents/Finder/DOC3_scans/3.allegations.ill.treatment.marion.5.1987.pdf">
acknowledged by many human rights organizations</a> including Amnesty
International and Human Rights Watch. Prisoners are held under
conditions that
today are not considered ‘humane’ even for animals. They are an extreme
abuse
of state power.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The existence of the control unit also functions
to control
other prisoners who are in the general population. This is as important
to the
system as the impact on those actually in the control unit. The fear of
imprisonment in this worst of all prisons is meant to scare all
prisoners into
tolerating intolerable conditions. The word ‘Marion’ was meant to
strike cold
fear into the hearts of prisoners throughout the federal prison system.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b style=""><u>A3N:</u></b><span style=""> </span><i
style="">You
write that “not only did federal control unit prisons proliferate, but
now
virtually every state system in the country is capped off by a control
unit.
Whether they are called Control Units, Supermax, SHU (Secure Housing
Unit), ADX
(Administrative Maximum Facility), a skunk by any other name still
stinks.” Can
you tell us more about how control unit prisons and solitary
confinement in US
prisons evolved since the mid-1980s when you began your work?</i><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b style=""><u>NK:</u></b> <span style=""> </span>When
we began our work, Marion was the only
control unit prison in the federal system, and there were none in the
state
systems. At the outset, the prison bureaucrats proclaimed that the
control unit
would allow the rest of the system to run more freely since it would
remove the
‘bad apples’ from the system and concentrate them in the control unit.
We
countered that argument by predicting that the control unit would serve
as an
anchor, dragging the whole system in a more repressive direction. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Activists were able to accomplish a significant
victory
early on. The strength of the <a
href="http://www.freedomarchives.org/Out_of_Control/08_permanent_lockdown.html">women
political
prisoners incarcerated in the<b> </b>Lexington Control Unit</a>,
along with a mass national and international campaign in concert with
legal
action, forced the Feds to close the Lexington Control Unit for Women
in 1988
just two years after it opened. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">But over the years, many state ‘prisoncrats’ came
to Marion
to see the control unit. As the years went on, most states built
control units
or modified existing institutions to accommodate control units. And, of
course,
the feds, in response to our criticisms of Marion, claimed that the
problem
with Marion was that it was not built to be a control unit. So they
built a
bigger and 'better' control unit in Florence, Colorado. This
demonstrates that
unless the ideology changes, they will respond to criticism by morphing
one way
or another, but never really moving in a progressive direction. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Long term solitary confinement has become a pillar
of their
'correctional' policy. However, it seems that two serious challenges
have
developed. First, this form of imprisonment is expensive and our
society is
running out of money, thanks in part to our bloated military agenda. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Secondly, in some places like California,
prisoners have
stood up in the thousands and said: “We won’t take it no more.” There
have been
hunger strikes of 6,000 or more prisoners and support on the outside
that has
helped give voice to their grievances (read coverage of the strike by
Angola 3
News: <a
href="http://www.alternet.org/story/151279/confronting_torture_in_u.s._prisons%3A_a_q%26a_with_activists_journalists_james_ridgeway_and_jean_casella">1</a>,<a
href="http://www.alternet.org/story/151944/after_the_hunger_strike%3A_criminal_justice_activist_discusses_the_potential_impact_of_prisoners%27_action">2</a>,<a
href="http://angola3news.blogspot.com/2012/10/amnesty-international-denounces-torture.html">3</a>).
In
response to hunger strikers at Pelican Bay, the New York Times in an <a
href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/02/opinion/cruel-isolation-of-prisoners.html?_r=0">editorial
on
August 1, 2011 entitled “Cruel Isolation,”</a> lamented that “For many
decades, the civilized world has recognized prolonged isolation of
prisoners in
cruel conditions to be inhumane, even torture. The Geneva Convention
forbids
it. Even at Abu Ghraib in Iraq, where prisoners were sexually
humiliated and
physically abused systematically and with official sanction, the
jailers had to
get permission of their commanding general to keep someone in isolation
for
more than 30 days.” <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Prisoners around the country are attempting to
cast light on
the situation, but they can only do so much from inside. And let’s face
it,
despite Albert Hunt's <a
href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/21/us/21iht-letter21.html?pagewanted=all">article
in
the NY Times on Nov. 20, 2011 entitled "A Country of Inmates</a>, that
“With just a little more than 4 percent of the world’s population, the
U.S.
accounts for a quarter of the planet’s prisoners and has more inmates
than the
leading 35 European countries combined,” this situation is not even on
the
national agenda. I listened to Obama’s State of the Union speech last
night,
and nowhere did I hear a mention of the fact that we are a country of
inmates,
disproportionately Black and Hispanic. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Unfortunately, economic concerns always trump the
moral. The
Governor of Illinois recently announced the closing of Tamms Prison,
the
state’s control unit prison that we fought so hard against in the
1990s. On the
heels of that decision, they have also announced that an Illinois
prison that
has been vacant, will now be sold to the feds, and part of it will be <a
href="http://solitarywatch.com/2013/02/08/feds-to-open-new-supermax-prison-cells-at-gitmo-north">a
new
control unit prison</a>. The same <a
href="http://durbin.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/pressreleases?ID=07260483-4972-4720-8d43-8fc82a9909ac">Senator
Dick
Durbin</a> who recently held <a
href="http://angola3news.blogspot.com/2012/06/angola-3s-statement-to-senate-judiciary.html">hearings
to
look into solitary confinement</a> on June 19, 2012 has heralded this
deal,
as it will bring more jobs to the community of Thomson where
unemployment is
high. The employment of some seems always to trump the concern about
human
rights for others. <i>(see the last question for more about Durbin)</i><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b style=""><u>A3N:</u></b><span style=""> </span><i
style="">How has
the rise of solitary confinement and control unit prisons related to
the mass
incarceration policies and escalated criminalization of poverty that
began in
the 1970s, and have now given the US the <a
href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_incarceration_rate">highest
incarceration
rate and more total prisoners than literally any other country?</a></i><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b style=""><u>NK:</u></b><span style=""> </span>Both
come out of a profoundly racist
ideology that blames the victim and refuses to deal with the structural
challenges and fault lines of our society. We have never really dealt
with the
legacy of slavery. We have not dealt with the immigration challenge. We
have
not dealt with the lack of jobs at a living wage. Rather we have met
the
challenge of a huge under-reported unemployment problem with an
imprisonment
binge. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The binge does not affect all sectors of the
population
equally. No, the prisons are overflowing disproportionately with Black
and
Latino prisoners. Albert Hunt wrote in "A Country of Inmates" that
“more than 60 percent of the United States’ prisoners are black or
Hispanic,
though these groups comprise less than 30 percent of the population.”
One in
nine black children has a parent in jail!<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Our prisons have no real plans for
'rehabilitation.' That
would require a restructuring of society, a real jobs and education
program--one that we need now more than ever but that is not on the
horizon. In
fact, the jobs program that we do have has been building more prisons
located
long distances from the urban centers that most prisoners call home and
offer
jobs to a totally different sector of the population. The imprisonment
binge
has served to get largely young men of color off the streets,<span
style=""> </span>warehousing them to prevent any disruption
that might come from millions of unemployed men of color out on the
pavement. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">In the 1960s there was mass unrest in this country
with
urban centers going up in flames. We can trace the connection between
that and
the beginning of massive incarceration.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Of course, Black people have also historically led
the way
in challenging injustice, which makes them a force to reckon with. The
Attica
prison struggle of 1971 was a watershed where prisoners stood up and
said: “We
are men. We will not be treated like beasts.” When the tear gas and
bullets
cleared, men were dead. Control units try to prevent that kind of
camaraderie
and resistance from developing. This makes it all the more amazing that
prisoners at Pelican Bay could organize a massive hunger strike. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">In 1975 the right-wing ideologue and Harvard
Professor
Samuel Huntington wrote <a
href="http://www.chomsky.info/books/priorities01.htm">The
Crisis of Democracy, a report for the Trilateral Commission</a>, in
which he
argued that there was too much democracy and things needed to change.
Well,
things have changed. And now the leading ‘democracy’ in the world is
also the
largest incarceration nation. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b style=""><u>A3N:</u></b><span style=""> </span><i
style="">You
write that the CEML’s 15 years of work is “the story of one long
determined
effort against the very core of the greatest military empire that has
ever
existed on this planet.” Then in chapter two, you write that “in this
day of
debate about Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib, it is absolutely essential to
realize
that a direct line extends from U.S. control units to these so-called
‘enhanced
interrogation’ centers throughout the world.” Why do you make this
connection
with the struggle against US militarism abroad?</i><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b style=""><u>NK:</u></b> <span style=""> </span>The
connection has always been there because
we live under one system, and that system has a domestic side and an
international side. But they are really just two sides of the same
coin. <a
href="http://www.freedomarchives.org/Out_of_Control/03_hell.html">I
write in my
book</a>:<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b style=""><i style="">(beginning of direct quote)<o:p></o:p></i></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0.5in 0.0001pt;"><i>[There was
a] 1962
Bureau of Prisons (BOP) meeting in Washington, DC between prison
officials and
social scientists. Billed as a management development program for
prison
wardens, it coincidentally took place the same year the BOP opened
Marion. Dr.
Edgar Schein of MIT, a key player at that meeting, had written
previously in a
book entitled Coercive Persuasion about ‘brainwashing’ of Chinese
Prisoners of
War (POWs). In the meeting he presented the ideas in a paper entitled
“Man
Against Man”:</i><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0.5in 0.0001pt;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0.5in 0.0001pt;"><i>“In order
to produce
marked changes of attitude and/or behavior, it is necessary to weaken,
undermine, or remove the supports of the old attitudes. Because most of
these
supports are the face-to-face confirmation of present behavior and
attitudes,
which are provided by those with whom close emotional ties exist, it is
often
necessary to break these emotional ties. This can be done either by
removing
the individual physically and preventing any communication with those
whom he
cares about, or by proving to him that those whom he respects are not
worthy of
it, and, indeed, should be actively mistrusted. . . I would like to
have you
think of brainwashing, not in terms of politics, ethics, and morals,
but in
terms of the deliberate changing of human behavior and attitudes by a
group of
men who have relatively complete control over the environment in which
the
captive populace lives.” (<a
href="http://www.freedomarchives.org/Documents/Finder/DOC3_scans/3.catholic.worker.hell.very.small.space.1980.pdf">Berrigan,
p.6</a>)</i> <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0.5in 0.0001pt;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0.5in 0.0001pt;"><i>Along with
these
theories, Schein put forward a set of ‘practical recommendations,’ that
threw
ethics and morals out the window. They included physical removal of
prisoners
to areas sufficiently isolated to effectively break or seriously weaken
close
emotional ties; segregation of all natural leaders; spying on
prisoners,
reporting back private material; exploitation of opportunists and
informers;
convincing prisoners they can trust no one; systematic withholding of
mail;
building a group conviction among prisoners that they have been
abandoned by or
are totally isolated from their social order; using techniques of
character
invalidation, i.e. humiliation, revilement and shouting to induce
feelings of
fear, guilt and suggestibility; coupled with sleeplessness, an exacting
prison
regimen and periodic interrogational interviews.<span style=""> </span></i><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0.5in 0.0001pt;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0.5in 0.0001pt;"><i>So-called
‘brainwashing’ strategies that involved physical as well as
psychological abuse
were being adopted from international arenas and applied inside U.S.
prisons.
Now, in 2011, similar strategies, honed in Marion and its progeny, are
being
employed around the world in the ‘war against terrorism.’ </i><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b style=""><i style="">(end of direct quote)<o:p></o:p></i></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The lines between domestic and foreign are
becoming
increasingly blurred. The U.S. is now willing to assassinate American
citizens
in its war on terror. The planned new prison in Illinois which will
house a
control unit that was blocked for a while by a Republican who feared
foreign
‘terrorists’ would be housed there.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The so-called “criminal justice system” is really
another
manifestation of militarism. It’s frightening to think of how many jobs
in our
society are tied to either the military or to prisons, and how that
shapes
peoples’ mentality. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b style=""><u>A3N:</u></b><span style=""> </span><i
style="">About
publishing the book, you write that “if current and future activists
who stand
in opposition to what Malcolm X called the ‘American nightmare’ can
benefit
from reading this and can move ahead with some greater insight and
effectiveness, then it was all worth it.” What lessons did you learn
that can
be applied to today’s growing movement opposing solitary confinement in
US
prisons?</i><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b style=""><u>NK:</u></b><span style=""> </span>The
underlying ideology has to be
challenged because if that doesn’t change, the rulers will tweak this
or that
to their conveniences, they may make some small changes, or even do the
right
thing at any given moment, for the wrong reason. But things will revert
toward
repression. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Also, studies don’t necessarily change things.
Pressure,
both legal and activist, does. Hearings can be a step in the right
direction
but they can also be a smokescreen to lull people into believing
something is
being done. Or they can be a rubber stamp for some negative
developments. For
instance, the BOP has apparently just recently agreed to undergo a
“comprehensive
and independent assessment of its use of solitary confinement in the
nation’s
federal prisons.” The assessment will reportedly be oriented toward
reducing
the population of “segregated” prisoners. It is to be conducted by the
National
Institute of Corrections, an agency of the BOP! That is something to be
watched, but skeptically. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Listen to prisoners. Trust what they tell you
about prison
conditions. Support their efforts to change their situation. Help their
voices
reach the outside world.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Work with everyone who is willing. We don’t have
to all
agree but we have to respect each other. Do not let the authorities
demonize
some activists and bestow accolades on others. That is the old divide
and rule.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b style=""><u>A3N:</u></b> <span style=""> </span><i
style="">With
this insight in mind, let’s take a closer look at the <a
href="http://durbin.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/pressreleases?ID=07260483-4972-4720-8d43-8fc82a9909ac">recent
work
</a><a
href="http://durbin.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/pressreleases?ID=07260483-4972-4720-8d43-8fc82a9909ac">of
Senator
Dick Durbin</a>, from your home state of Illinois, which you mentioned
earlier. The past hearings and upcoming review may present as an
opportunity to
make prison authorities at least somewhat more accountable.
Strategically
speaking, how can anti-solitary activists best use this moment?</i><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">I don't mean to be writing off Durbin. Those kinds
of allies
are important. The pressure he has brought to bear with these hearings
seems
great, and certainly the reduction in the number of prisoners being
held in
solitary is important. I just don't know why Durbin has to support a
Control
Unit in the planned new federal prison in Illinois. I would encourage
people to
question him about that. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">I once talked to both <a
href="http://www.freedomarchives.org/Out_of_Control/21_the_work_quadruples.html">Rep.
Kastenmeier
of Wisconsin</a> when he was no longer in office and Rep. Pat
Schroeder who was still in office at the time, and they both described
how
difficult it is to take decent stands on criminal justice issues.
Schroeder
pointed out that even nighttime basketball was a difficult sell, let
alone
issues regarding Control Units. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">So I think it's important for people to keep
pushing. Don't
lay back and expect the politicians to stick their necks out with no
backup.
They will not. But when you find an ally, work them him or her. Allies
like
that don't come along that often. We couldn't have gotten the toxic
water
changed at Marion without Kastenmeier's assistance. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Just keep pushing and don't compromise your own
principles.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b style=""><i style="">--Angola 3 News is a
project of the International Coalition to Free the
Angola 3. Our website is <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="http://www.angola3news.com">www.angola3news.com</a> where we provide the
latest news
about the Angola 3. We are also creating our own media projects, which
spotlight the issues central to the story of the Angola 3, like racism,
repression, prisons, human rights, solitary confinement as torture, and
more.</i></b><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
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