Prisons: Justice For All?

There are over 100 political prisoners and prisoners of war in the U.S. today. They include, progressive Christians, draft resisters, grand jury resisters, and members of anti-intervention and sanctuary movements. Some of these people are leaders of Black Nationalist, Puerto Rican and Native American struggles. Whereas these prisoners are honored, loved and respected by those in the movements they represent, the U.S. government contends they are criminals or terrorists. In an attempt to weaken movements and intimidate others from taking a stand, the government has placed these prisoners in the highest level security prisons (known as control units) in which the harshest treatment of any found in the U.S. prison system is administered.

Richard Korn, Ph.D., correctional psychologist and criminologist, issued an extensive report on one such unit. "The program sets up a hierarchy of objectives. The first of these is to reduce prisoners to the state of submission essential for their ideological conversion. That failing, the next objective is to reduce them to a state of psychological incompetence, sufficient to neutralize them as efficient, self-directing antagonists. That failing, the only alternative is to destroy them, preferably by making them desperate enough to destroy themselves."

The two control units presently operating in the U.S. are the Lexington Control Unit for women and the Marion Control Unit for men. These units contain both political prisoners and prisoners who have been singled out as the most dangerous within the prison system.

Marion was opened in 1963 to replace Alcatraz Prison, which closed that year. Since 1983, when two guards were killed in unrelated incidents by two prisoners, conditions for the 350 men housed at Marión have become brutal and dehumanizing. Prisoners are locked in individual cells, denied contact with each other and forced into total idleness 23 hours a day. According to the Committee to End the Marion Lockdown, during the initial stage of the lockdown, 60 guards equipped with riot gear were brought in from other prisons and assisted Marion guards in systematically beating approximately 100 handcuffed and defenseless prisoners. Beatings by a specially trained team in riot gear continue when a prisoner refuses a command.

All contact visits have been ended. No prisoner can touch or be touched by family or loved ones, instead they speak by phone while across a table separated by a glass wall. Additionally, all work programs, educational activities and religious services have been terminated at Marion.

Amnesty International has condemned Marion as being in violation of the Standard Minimum Rules of the United Nations - rules which require that prisoners be treated in such a way that encourages self -respect and develops a sense of responsibility. To the contrary, conditions at Marion produce feelings of intense rage and helplessness that are inevitably expressed through behavior that is either self-destructive or outwardly violent. The Lexington Control Unit, a 16-cell unit in the basement of the Lexington Federal Prison for women, opened in 1986. The fïve women currently incarcerated in this unit (including three active in Puerto Rican independence, Black national or Italian national movements) are constantly observed by video cameras and guards - in their cells, in the showers, and in the exercise rooms. Despite such strict surveillance, the women are subjected to strip searches whenever they leave their cells. They are allowed no personal posessions and can only wear prison clothing. Guards are instructed not to talk with the women and to log every interaction.

On October 24, 1987 the Committee to End the Marion Lockdown sponsored a conference in Chicago entitled "The People's Tribunal to Exposé the Crimes of the Control Units." At this conference, several family members of those imprisoned in the control units offered testimony. Rev. José Torres, to whom Puerto Rican independence activist and Lexington prisoner Alejandrina Torres is married, said the following: "Nothing is taken for granted inside the walls of the Lexington Control Unit. Not even eating. Sometimes the women are even denied food. The prison guards bring the food but often they do not call the prisoners to eat; a few minutes later, the guards send the food back to the kitchen. In addition, the guards do not allow the women to sleep; three or four times during the night they set off ie fire alarm to ruin their sleep and destroy their nerves. They also create all kinds of other noise during the night by moving chairs, speaking over the telephone in a loud voice, pushing the desk drawers, and making howling noises like wolves. They also shine flashlights in the women's faces during the night."

Manny Rosenberg, father of political prisoner Susan Rosenberg (associated with Puerto Rican and Black independence movements) who is also incarcerated at Lexington, described what it is like to visit his daughter in prison. "First we were processed through, then they take our pictures, and then we proceed through the various electronic devices. Then we are taken by one of the personnel about a quarter of a mile to the High Security Unit - the HSU. We approach a building which is seven stories, but our destination leads to the basement. Before entering it, it is necessary to be identified, checked by T.V. camera, and await the opening of first one electronically controlled gate and then another. I turned to note three rows of razor blade wires, not one row, but three rows on top of the fence and three rows on the ground. With the T.V. following us to the entrance of the cellar, we arrive at an electronically controlled door. The door is finally opened, and there are several steps down to the first inner room. Our pictures are checked and we go through still another electronic device. Finally, the fourth electronically controlled door is opened and we go inside. During our first visit, everything was white. Maybe I have seen too many films, but this reminded me of snow blindness. Complaints by the prisoners and their lawyers of eye problems, plus the adverse publicity, forced the prison authorities to change the color to tan."

Last fall, in response to national and international pressure, the Federal Bureau of Prisons revealed their plans to close the Lexington Control Unit In its place they plan to open an even larger control unit in Marianna, Florida. Locally, Michigan is using Marion as a model for a Maximum Correctional Facility in Ionia.

These control units have been the target of several national and international protests. On July 4, approximately 90 people marched to the Lexington Control Unit to denounce the continuing human rights abuses of political prisoners. On the same date in Puerto Rico, 3,000 marched in San Juan demanding that Alejandrina Torres be freed. Two groups active in opposing the control units are: the Committee to End the Manon Lockdown, 343 S. Dearborn, Ste. 1607, Chicago IL 60604; and the National Campaign to Abolish the Lexington Women's Control Unit, 294 Atlantic Ave., Brooklyn, NY 11201.