Voices from Solitary: Life in Unit-H, ADX Federal Supermax
by Voices from Solitary
The
excerpts that follow come from a declaration by Mahmud Abouhalima, who
was convicted of taking part in the 1993 bombing of the World Trade
Center (a charge he still denies). Sentenced to 240 years, he initially
spent most of his time in the general population at federal maximum
security prisons, where he was permitted to hold a job, make phone
calls, visit family, watch television, read what he chose, and pray with
other Muslims.
On
9/11, Abouhalima was placed in solitary confinement, and eventually
transferred to ADX Florence in rural Colorado, the federal government's
only supermax prison. In 2005, after exchanging letters with a Muslim
prisoner in Spain, he was subjected to "Special Administrative Measures"
(SAMs), which ban virtually all communications with the outside world,
and placed in ADX's H-Unit.
The
declaration, which describes Abouhalima's life in H-Unit, was compiled
for Ayyad v. Holder, a civil action filed in Federal District Court in
Colorado. It challenges his confinement on the grounds that it violates
his right to due process. Among other things, it claims that the FBI is
deeply involved in managing prisoners in the unit, even to the point of
overriding Bureau of Prisons officials. The declaration has been heavily
redacted by the FBI and U.S. Attorney's Office. --James Ridgeway
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Since
September 11, 2001, through today, I have been in administrative
detention and faced brutal and systematic mental, spiritual, and
psychological cruelty. I never believed that such an unusual punishment
would be extended up until today, where I have lived in a prison cell
for the last ten years that is the size of a closet. I am fed like a zoo
animal through a slot in the door, and manacled and chained at the
hands, waist, and legs when I leave the cell. A black box with heavy
lock is placed on top of my wrist chains in addition to this when I am
escorted out of the unit, like to the hospital or to a visit…
Sitting
in a small box in a walking distance of eight feet, this little hole
becomes my world, my dining room, reading and writing area, sleeping,
walking, urinating, and defecating. I am virtually living in a bathroom,
and this concept has never left my mind in ten years. The toilet only
works if you flush it once every five minutes, so if I press the flush
button twice by mistake, I have to wait for up to an hour, with the
smell of urine and defecation still there, everywhere I go, sit, stand,
or sleep.
For
my first four years in segregation, I kept fighting paranoia. I became
suspicious of everything around me. If I heard the range door open, I
stood up, feeling that they were coming to take me away, even though I
didn't expect to go anywhere. The one hour a day of rec outside the cell
didn't heal a damn thing. I struggled with myself, telling myself that
maybe next month, next year it will be better and I would be out of
solitary confinement. Eventually I lost all hope of getting out of
segregation.
I
lost appetite and just wanted to sleep. This was the first time in my
life that I experienced the brutality of force feeding. I also heard and
saw other inmates being taken by guards and medical staff in combat
gear and with cameras. Sometimes an inmate screamed so loud that I could
hear him…
I subscribed to a few magazines, like crochet and sports magazines, the Nation, and the Atlantic Monthly. When
the first issue of the sports magazine arrived at the prison, SIS staff
forwarded a copy of the magazine to the FBI office and refused to
release it to me without FBI approval. The same thing happened to all of
the magazines. The crochet and sports magazines were returned to me
after a few weeks' delay, with a few pages removed. However, other
magazines with political articles were reduced literally to only a few
pages.
For example, the first several issues of the Nation magazine
were reduced from around fifty pages to only fifteen to twenty pages. I
was told that the FBI removed all articles related to politics, as they
don't want us to read anything about politics. The same thing happened
with the Atlantic Monthly, Time, Newsweek, and other magazines. A
simple book like the world almanac was rejected twice because,
according to the FBI, certain information in it could be used for
terrorism. I filed administrative remedies and they were all denied,
because the BOP could not override an FBI decision…
Over
the last six years, three of my uncles, my grandfather, my aunt, and my
uncle's daughter have all passed away. I submitted request after
request just to send condolence letters to my family mourning these
deaths. I also requested to speak with my aunt before she died of
cancer. They denied all of these requests…
An
incoming letter in Arabic from my mother and brother was rejected
because my brother wrote that an old friend said hello to me. The letter
was sent back to Egypt after sitting in the FBI office for two months…
It
is clear to me now that the FBI, not the BOP, is the agency that
objects at each program review to my advancement into a tiny little
program that would allow me to be on the same range, inside the same
unit, with one or two inmates for only one hour…
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