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<h1><font size=4><b>CCR Challenges Experimental Prison Units that
Restrict Communication and Forbid Physical Contact with Family Without
Due Process</b></font></h1><font size=3><b> Segregated Federal Units
Target Muslims, Activists<br>
</font><font size=1>
<a href="http://ccrjustice.org/newsroom/press-releases/ccr-challenges-experimental-prison-units-restrict-communication-and-forbid-p" eudora="autourl">
http://ccrjustice.org/newsroom/press-releases/ccr-challenges-experimental-prison-units-restrict-communication-and-forbid-p<br>
<br>
</a></font><font size=3> CONTACT:</b> press@ccrjustice.org<br><br>
<i>March 30, 2010, New York</i> – Today, the <b>Center for Constitutional
Rights (CCR)</b> filed a lawsuit challenging violations of fundamental
constitutional rights, including the right to due process, at two
experimental federal prison units called “Communications Management
Units” (CMUs). The units are being used overwhelmingly to hold Muslim
prisoners and prisoners with unpopular political beliefs.<br>
<br>
CCR filed <i>Aref v. Holder</i> in the D.C. District Court on behalf of
five current and former prisoners of the units in Terre Haute, IN and
Marion, IL; two other plaintiffs are the spouses of prisoners. The CMUs
were secretly opened under the Bush administration in 2006 and 2007
respectively and were designed to monitor and control the communications
of certain prisoners and to isolate them from other prisoners and the
outside world.<br>
<br>
Transfers to the CMU are not explained; nor are prisoners told how
release into less restrictive confinement may be earned as there is no
review process. Lawyers say that because these transfers are not based on
facts or discipline for infractions, a pattern of religious and political
discrimination and retaliation for prisoners’ lawful advocacy has
emerged. The five plaintiffs in <i>Aref </i>were designated to the two
CMUs despite having relatively or totally clean disciplinary histories,
and none of the plaintiffs have received any communications-related
disciplinary infractions in the last decade. Several of the plaintiffs
expect to serve the entire remaining duration of their sentences at the
CMU.<br>
<br>
“These units are an experiment in social isolation,” said <b>CCR Attorney
Alexis Agathocleous</b>. “People are being put in these extraordinarily
restrictive units without being told why and without any meaningful
review. Dispensing with due process creates a situation ripe for abuse;
in this case, it has allowed for a pattern of religious profiling,
retaliation and arbitrary punishment. This is precisely what the rule of
law and the Constitution forbid.”<br>
<br>
In addition to heavily restricted telephone and visitation access, CMU
prisoners are categorically denied any physical contact with family
members and are forbidden from hugging, touching or embracing their
children or spouses during visits. Attorneys say this blanket ban on
contact visitation, which is unique in the federal prison system, not
only causes suffering to the families of the incarcerated men, but is a
violation of fundamental constitutional rights.<br>
<br>
Said the <b>14-year-old daughter of one of the prisoners in the
lawsuit</b>, “The thing that hurts the most is that I can hear him but I
can never touch him. I haven’t hugged, kissed or held my dad since
December of 2007.”<br>
<br>
Between 65 and 72 percent of CMU prisoners are Muslim men, a fact that
attorneys say demonstrates that the CMUs were created to allow for the
segregation and restrictive treatment of Muslims based on the
discriminatory belief that such prisoners are more likely than others to
pose a threat to prison security. <br>
<br>
Others prisoners appear to be transferred to the CMU because of other
protected First Amendment activity, such as speaking out on social
justice issues or filing grievances in prison or court regarding
conditions and abuse.<br>
<br>
For more information on <i>Aref v. Holder</i>, visit CCR’s
<a href="http://ccrjustice.org/ourcases/current-cases/aref%2C-et-al.-v.-holder%2C-et-al.">
legal case page</a>.<br>
<br><br>
<i>The Center for Constitutional Rights is dedicated to advancing and
protecting the rights guaranteed by the United States Constitution and
the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Founded in 1966 by attorneys
who represented civil rights movements in the South, CCR is a non-profit
legal and educational organization committed to the creative use of law
as a positive force for social change.<br><br>
<br><br>
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