Inside
the walls: Control Units, Supermax Prisons
and Devices of Torture
by
Rachael Kamel and Bonnie Kerness
A
testimony of Herman Wallace
On
May 29, 2002, while on the exercise yard, I witnessed Camp J security guards
abusing a prisoner even though the prisoner was in full restraints.
On
October 28, 2002, I was removed from the Camp J internal dungeon and placed on
the Level 3 unit. It was here I
happened to run into the same man I had seen abused in May. I decided to try my
hand at interviewing to expose some of the torture that goes on here in Angola.
This is uncensored and unedited:
HW: Please state your name, number and present living quarters.
MA:
Michael Alford, #97675, Cam J, Cuda-2-R-10
HW: What were you sent to Camp J for?
MA: It was a Rule 3 (Defiance).
I got in to it with a freeman who came on the tier and tackled me to the
floor.
HW: How long have you been here in the Camp J Program since
originally sentencing to Camp J?
MA: Two Years
HW: On or about May 20, 2002, while I was exercising on the front
yard, you were on the back yard?
MA: Yes, I remember.
HW: Can you tell me exactly what happened that day?
MA: You know I’m a runner.
I was on the back yard running the small animal pen. I had been running
at least 40 minutes of my allotted hour. I
looked up and saw security guards running towards my pen with sticks.
They got to my pen demanding I come to the gate so they could put me in
restraints.
HW: What went through your mind?
MA: I know of too many men back here who got the hell beat of
them while in restraints and so figured if they are going to try to kill me then
it would be with me fighting back. Ltd.
Robertson told me to pull my jumpsuit up so he could see the crotch.
There was a hole in it.
HW:
But most all of the jumpsuits have holes in the crotch right?
MA:
That’s true and they are the ones who gave it to me to go on the yard
with. Anyway, Ltd. Robertson told
me: “I’m locking you up for a 21 rule*”.
At that point I told the Ltd. to get me a Captain.
HW:
Who were the ranking officers involved?
MA:
Colonel Honeycutt, Captain James, Ltd. Robertson, Ltd. Barr, Ltd. Mills….
HW:
Why did they come at you in the first place?
MA:
The female guard in the tower called in and told security I had a hole in
my jumpsuit. She tried to tell them
I did not do anything, but security felt a need to kick my ass that morning and
that is what they did.
HW:
Since the female tower guard admitted you committed no act of disrespect
what was the purpose of the Disciplinary Court finding you guilty?
MA:
I was not written up for Rule 21, they wrote me up for Defiance because I
refused to let them restrain me before I spoke with responsible ranking officers.
I pled guilty to having refused the order to be shackled at that time –
I did not plead guilty to Rule 21. But
after they put me in restraints, they beat the hell out of me. They beat me on
the back, head and legs.
HW:
You told me earlier that the guards carried you holding you by hand and
foot occasionally dropping you and allowing you to fall on your face.
I saw this with my own eyes, do you know the name of the officer’s
involved?
MA:
Sgt. Perkins from the shakedown crew and Ltd. Robertson.
HW:
Did they take you to the hospital?
MA: Yes.
HW: Were you treated at the prison hospital?
MA:
Yes, and I was given some stuff for my back burns and pain pills for the
back spasm.
HW: It is the policy of this institution that all inmates be given
timely reports to know what they are charged with and ample time to prepare
their defense. Were you given a report and if so when?
MA: No, I was not given a report in a timely manner and when
I did get the report, I was shocked at all the reports they put on me in the
Disciplinary Court. The people who
hold court are far worse than the guards that lie about us.
HW: What were you charged with?
MA: Aggravated Sexual Offense ( Rule 21); Defiance ( Rule 3);
and Agg. Disobedience ( Rule 5)
HW:
I see that you have reports filed by three different reporting
officers on the same offense. Is
that correct?
MA:
Yes, they are just trying to make excuses for the abuse they forced me to
endure.
HW: You were found guilty and sentenced three times as I see you
had to pay $2.00 three times for the burst of mace used against you is this
correct?
MA:
True, ain’t that some shit? They
just keep proving how racist they are.
HW:
Brother Alford, please explain to the readers because it appears the
prison administration uses fabricated reports to keep men here in Camp J for
years even though it’s a six month program; are you an exception to the rule?
MA:
(Laughter) I file ARP’s against security people and they don’t like
that. Look I’m just tired of
getting beaten for no reason. I need some help.
HW:
Do you still have physical and mental pain from the beatings?
MA: My back hurts me all the time and my legs are giving me
problems. When I see these guards,
I get really spooked.
HW:
I see you have also initiated an ARP against those who beat you.
Since you are indigent, what type of hel are you seeking.
MA: I need some support and someone to represent me in this
plight. They really dogged me out.
This kind of thing should have never happened to me or anybody else for
that matter, yet, they do it all the time and get away with it because nobody
seems to care. When they were beating me they didn’t care who saw them.
They hurt me bad, but I will always fight for what I believe is right.
It
is my intention to expose the brutality here at Angola.
I know I will continue to be attacked as a result of my efforts, but this
must be done.
I’m
calling on all comrades to step up and expose the hidden abuse going on behind
prison walls. Don’t take it for
granted that the masses of people aren’t listening- they are there.
We
have a very corrupt warden running Angola and he has surrounded himself with
more corrupt security people. In
the book, God of the Rodeo, Cain told the books’ author that if an
inmate holding a shovel was still holding it when he returned, he’d kill him.
This is the same administration that shot and killed one inmate and beat the
other unmercifully after an unsuccessful escape attempt in 1999.
Remember
it was Cain who killed his brother Abel.
Herman
Joshua Wallace
Text
by Frank J. Atwood
The
wrong enemy
Hello,
My
name is Frank J. Atwood and I have been an anti-establishment radical since the
late 1960’s. Because of my success in organising countercultural forces and in
leading attacks against government the state framed me for a murder I did not
commit in 1984. Thus, I have been on death row for over eighteen years, confined
to a single-person cell for twenty-three hours a day. As a result I have
unfortunately become somewhat of an expert on prison conditions in the USA – a
topic covered in the zine Control Prison Units that was distributed
through a joint effort by Anarchist Black Cross Dijon, Gent, Innsbruck.
But
what I would like to speak about with you today is the attitude of amerikkkan
prisoners. I always envisiones the prison experience as akin to a prisoner of
war and providing complete support to other prisoners while offering absolutely
no information to or any indication of friendliness with our captors. However,
as the years go by I witness more and more prisoners fraternising with the enemy.
By
way of example, after last year’s WTC attack the vast majority of prisoners
could be found patriotic, pro-USA discussions… with prison guards! At the same
time, prisoners denounced me because of my continued stance against the
amerikkkan evil empire. An incident earlier this year clearly exposes the sad
state of affairs:
On
the morning of June the 11th I ended up confronting a pig who had
been making threatening comments for several months toward me because of my
radical writings – apparently some of the prisoners with whom I had discussed
my articles then informed guards that I was an ‘unamerikkkan communist’ and
this led to increased harassment. The end result of this encounter with the pig,
his lieutenant, and the riot squad was my having been gassed and thrown in an
empty cell. That evening I attempted to get supplies from other prisoners so I
could contact my family and lawyer but was told they, the other prisoners,
wanted nothing to do with me; they even refused to contact my wife and attorney
for me. Their reasoning was I had become a big trouble maker and if they
involved themselves with me then they could be targeted for harassment by the
prison.
I
am not sharing this with you to expose the lonely conditions experienced by
myself but rather intend to reveal how so many prisoners are motivated by fear
of losing esteem in the eyes of the pigs. Most prisoners do all they can to be
accepted by their captors to avoid losing their precious televisions or being
harassed. It is not the isolation I endure because of this friendliness between
prisoners and guards but rather the resultant successful immobilisation of any
attack against the prison system that must be the focus of our concern.
Consider
how in an attempt to inflict damage against the state I sollicited the aid of a
comrade at Austin ABC to provide key prisoners with a step by step plan. This
involved having material sent to prisoners who were leaders in each of the
eleven other ten-person areas that make up Arizona’s death row. The goal was
to have all death row prisoners get tested for hepatitis c because subsequent
costs for biopsies of the lives and treatment for those testing positive would
have smashed the state. To hit a capitalist agency, such as the department of
corrections, in the pocketbook is the most effective attack possible but on
Arizona’s death row only one, yes one, prisoner engaged in the plan to harm
government by seeking a hepatitis test.
What
I’m trying to say to you is that we seem to be targeting the wrong enemy. That
is, no matter how much support is provided by outside persons until the virus
infecting those on the inside can be eradicated, that unseemly poison that
unites prisoner and guard, there simply exists no way to effectively attack and
dismantle the prison system. This means that outside actions against prisons or
the state are misguided, can have no effect. I am sorry to draw such a bleak
picture but you must be aware of the real state of things. Only then can we
devise and implement effective anti-prison strategies.
Consequently,
I urge you to spend at least some time during this conference on considering how
to build prisoner resistance against the system. This must be our starting point.
4
years of solitary confinement
On
August 3rd, 2002, it has been 4 continuous years that I have spent in solitary
confinement in German prisons; before that I had already been in solitary
confinement from October 1996 to May 1998.
In
this treatise I will explain some of the laws concerning solitary confinement
(I), look at the situation from a human rights point of view (II) and finally
talk about my own experiences (III). I will mainly use the masculine form to
make the text more readable; but all this applies to female prisoners as well!
I.
Solitary Confinement according to German law ("Strafvollzugsgesetz")
The
German Strafvollzugsgesetz ("criminal executive law") regulates in
§§ 88 and 89 the so-called "specific safety measures". Collective
imprisonment is, as opposed to former times like the end of the 19th century,
regarded as normal.
Prisoners
in criminal custody are supposed to work and spend their spare time commonly.
If,
however, because of "the behavior or the mental state there is a higher
danger of flight attempts or of violence against people or objects or of suicide
or autoaggression", the leaders of the institution can apply "specific
safety measures" against inmates.
§88
(Abs. 2, Nr. 3) deals with short-term isolation, e. g. in an urgent crisis that
lasts only a few hours; §89 however allows for the permanent isolation of a
prisoner if this is "necessary".
According
to the German judicial tradition, the leader of the
institution has to check whether less drastic steps are sufficient;
furthermore the federal constitutional court demands that the rule of a suitable
relationship between the "problem" and the steps taken is adhered to.
Solitary
confinement means that the prisoner is separated physically and permanently from
the other inmates. Depending on the degree of isolation, he is also denied
participation in the daily walk on the yard (lasting 60 minutes) and the weekly
religious service. In this case, the prisoner has direct contact only to the
staff. Correspondence by letters is not limited,
but strictly supervised.
Usually
solitary confinement is combined with other safety measures, e. g.: the
withdrawal or denial of objects (e. g. instead of being allowed to possess a
pair of scissors or a razor, the inmate is handed out these objects for 15 to 30
minutes; after use, they are immediately taken away); the prisoner must be tied
up before leaving the cell; shortening of visiting hours (reason usually given:
increased number of staff is necessary, therefore only 60 or 90 minutes are
possible; the details vary from prison to prison); denial of "dangerous"
musical instruments; etc.
If
solitary confinement is to last for more than 3 months, then the law demands
that permission be asked from the minister of justice of the federal state. I
haven't heard of a single case in which this permission was denied.
Often
people (including prisoners) assume that solitary confinement must be temporary.
Many authors of judicial texts also demand that this way of imprisonment be
limited to a maximum of four weeks per year. This was planned in an alternative
outline of the "Strafvollzugsgesetz" dating
from 1973.
In
the present law and its practical execution these demands are being ignored.
Prisoners may remain in solitary confinement for 5, 7 or more years. Admittedly
this only concerns a small number of inmates.
II.
Solitary Confinement from a human rights point of view
Article
3 of the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights which was
released in 1950 prohibits torture and inhuman or humiliating treatments or
punishments.
More
specific regulations relating to solitary confinement are not part
of this convention. For that reason prisoners can only relate to this one
article when they appeal to the European High Court for Human Rights after
having gone through all national judicial levels (in Germany: Land-/Oberlandes-
and finally Bundesverfassungsgericht).
In
the 1970s the European Commission for Human Rights in Straßburg created basic principles as to what should be regarded as
"solitary confinement torture" and what should be regarded as "legitimate"
solitary confinement.
This
was a reaction to appeals of RAF prisoners [RAF = "Rote Armee Fraktion",
the translator].
It
must be noted that the commission and the European Court have not acknowledged
one single case of "solitary confinement torture"; they
always judged in favor of the charged states. This will probably not
surprise anyone seriously.
In
the decision of July 8th, 1978 (Az:7572/76, ua., published in "EuropäischeGrundrechtezeitschrift",
1978, S.314ff), the abovementioned commission explains that Baader, Ensslin and
Raspe were subjected to "unusual conditions of imprisonment", but that
these were necessary in order to cope "suitably" with their "dangerousness".
According
to the judicial tradition of Straßburg which is still in practice today, a
violation of the abovementioned article 3 is only reached when solitary
confinement aims at the destruction of the personality, combined with an "isolation
of the senses" and a "complete social isolation". There can
already be no "isolation of the senses" when the prisoners have, for
example, a cell window, books and a radio.
Concerning
the problem of social isolation it was only noted that there had been a
"relative social isolation", not a "factual cell isolation",
because the prisoners were allowed to welcome their lawyers and relatives for
visits.
Furthermore,
the state can "prove" that it did not aim at the destruction of the
personality or the spirit of resistance, so that measures like solitary
confinement did not have inhuman or humiliating character.
Seen
in relation to these standards and keeping in mind that the European Commission
is financed by European states, there is most probably no hope of having
acknowledged there that solitary confinement is a violation of arctice 3 of the
European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights.
III.
My own experiences
Because
of the suspicion of an increased danger of flight attempts, including the
suspicion I might want to take hostages, initiate mutiny or attack institutional
lawyers (because of the aversion I was said to have against this state and its
justice system), I have been in solitary confinement for several years.
Of
the almost 6 years of imprisonment I have spent 5 years and 9 months in solitary
confinement, including several years of having to be tied up before leaving the
cell, as mentioned above. I have not hurt anyone during my custody; for this
reason the institution says it is not reasonable to wait for such an incident. I
claim it my legitimate right to fight for my freedom; the judicial system
regards such statements as well as
statements
like "Revolutionary fight is more necessary than ever" as proofs for
my "dangerousness" and "lack of reasonability".
In
early 2002 I was - once again - taken to the Stammheim prison for "safety
reasons". They said my attitudes had not changed in 4 years of solitary
confinement in Bruchsal, I had become too much acquainted with the course of
affairs, and the safety cells had to be renovated. For 3 months I had to stay in
Stammheim, they said; now I sit in that same safety ward in which I had already
been from 1996 to 1998.
The
effects of solitary confinement which I feel in myself are: a low tolerance for
frustration, a high sensitiveness for stress, and latent difficulties with my
concentration during visits of comrades and friends. Furthermore, I start losing
my feeling for time; without the help of a calendar I can hardy say whether
something happened the day before yesterday, a week, a month or a year ago. Man
is thrown back on himself, finds himself in a permanent inner dialogue - this
makes concentration during visits a lot more difficult, for suddenly awareness
must be directed to without instead of within.
In
spite of these negative effects I do not suffer from solitary confinement. On
the one hand I have regular correspondence with some people in which I receive
pleasant solidarity. On the other hand I think of all the imprisoned comrades
worldwide which suffer from conditions which would make us shiver. What they
have to bear cannot be compared to the conditions here.
While
in the beginning I used to complain heavily about solitary confinement, I have
given up on that now. In comparison to other states it would be an illegitimate
use of the word "torture" if conditions in Germany were classified as
such.
Nevertheless,
solitary confinement is an attack on human dignity!
Thomas
Meyer-Falk, z.Zt. JVA, Aspergerstraße 60, D-70439 Stuttgart,
Germany
Three
months of isolation in Stammheim
I. Peliminary note
Some
time ago a comrade published a report on
his experiences with “8 days in Stammheim” on the internet (www.indymedia.de/2002/05/23085.html)
- i.e. his time in the famous Stammheim prison.
In
the summer of 2002 I spent three months in isolation there, and I want to report
on this time in the following
II.
Background
For
several years I have been in strict isolation, because the administration of
justice is afraid I might escape, break out or try anything like that. From
September 1998 to July 2002 I was in the Bruchsal prison under isolation
conditions. I was told that on the next day, July 4th 2002, I would
be transferred toStammheim for three months, for I was regarded as a “highly
dangerous prisoner” who had had the opportunities to find out about weaknesses
in Bruchsal over the past four years,which could help me escape. My
non-insulting behaviour and the fact that I had never attacked anyone were held
against me: this had to be regarded only on a tactical basis. My lawyer said in
a letter that he had never read anything more stupid.
I
was told I had to stay in Stammheim for ”only” three months because the head
of the institution there had refused to keep me any longer.
III.
The day of the transport
On
the morning of July 4th, 2002, I was brought to the
“Kammerverwaltung” (administration room) with all my personal belongings (transports
are dealt with there, and prisoners’ personal things are kept there). I was
allowed to pack twolittlecard boxes with important documents and books. The
safety guard officers were then highly interested in my mouth, m yarmpits and my
backside; i.e. they carried out the obligatory and highly humiliating body
search. (A court case against this is on its way.)
Equipped
by fresh clothing by the institution, I was seated in the Volkswagen Bus, with
my hands and feat tied. I was instructed that in an attempted escape shots will
be fired.
Struck
between grim-looking wards in paramilitary clothing I was taken to Stammheim.
IV.
The arrival
Germany’s
most famous and renownded prison, 8 stores high, looks like a monolith. It is an
example for many prisons in Europe, last but not least in Turkey, for it is
capable of isolating the prisoners from each other.
On
the edge of the city, next to wheat fields on the one side, suddenly the prison
appeared, and after passing through various gates, there were a lot of officers.
Since
I had already been in isolation in Stammheim from 1996 to 1998, I recognized
several faces.
The
ties were taken off, and I was put in a normal single cell for 30 minutes untill
my card boxes were unloaded. In the administration room there were the first
discussions because I was denied anti-fascist stickers (e.g. an anti-fascist who
smashesa swastika). When I asked the guard for his name, he didn’t tell me.
I
was offered a T.V., and I accepted – the leaders of Bruchsal prison have been
denying me a T.V. for years, and I wanted to find out what had changed over the
last few years.
Supplied
with clothing and plastic crockery I was taken to the “safety isle” on the
ground floor.
V. The safety area
Besides
the famous”7th floor” (in the 70ies Ulrike Meinhof, Andreas
Baader, Gudrun Ennslin and other RAF prisoners were there), there is another
safety area on the ground floor. Behind a double lattice there are 5 isolation
cells.
Instead
of cupboards there is only a metal shelf; the bed is not made of metal, but of
hard plastic; the cells have their own electric circuit (clever RAF prisoners
had used electric circuits asa means of communication in the 70ies); the windows
are especially secured
Since
mylast stay there the cells have been renovated, and the walls were now covered
by sterile tiles;
The
toilet as well as the wash basin were made of high quality steel.
There
I was with my few belongings in an empty cell. As I had done in recent years, I
started to putting my things upon the shelves,opened the window and had a look
upon what happened on the yard.
Right
in front of the window there is a meadow; about 10 metres further on there is a
double-storey-container in which now the priest and the counselor of the job
center have their offices.
VI.
The stay
Looking
back, the three months have passed rather quickly. There was always something to
do: reading, writing, talking to the people in the adjoining cells, or watching
T.V.
aa)
My neighbours in the adjoining cells
In
the one neighbouring cell there was a sex criminal in isolation who had been on
the news in 2001 when he had raped several women within two weeks after an
8-year-sentence.
In
the other cell there was an Arab who is suspected of being an extremist Muslim.
I had a very interesting talk with him, and when there was a language problem, a
prisoner from the first floor – in a cell above us – translated into Arabian.
A
weird situation: we never saw each other, we only knew each other’s voices,
had to call from window to window. But these talks interrupted the isolation.
bb)
The wards
There
is not much to tell about them, they didn’t cause any unnecessary trouble,
they were interested in getting the three months over and done with quietly.
They only brought me my mail, newspapers, and food; they led me to the prison
yard and to the shower or to visitors. One of them who once was unfriendly was
informed by his collegues after my complaint.
I
didn’t talk much to them, they were – and still are – helping to fulfil
the needs of this system. Only once one of the wards tried to ask me about my
opinion on “terrorism” a little naively. This attempt failed due to my lack
of readiness to talk to him.
cc)
The catholic prison priest
From
my last stay I remembered dean S. Again he visited me several times during my
walk on the yard. He does not aim at converting people – in this case I would
surely not have talked to him – but he understands his mission, which is of
course based on and motivated by his Christian faith, in such a way that he
wants to take care of the inmates in isolation as well. He told me that he had
also talked regularely to the RAF prisoners on the 7th floor.
Our
discussions were rather inspiring, touching socio-political topics as well as
topics dealing with daily life in prison; walking next to each other on the yard
relaxed the atmosphere.
dd)
Visits
Prisoners
are entitled to receive visitors three times a month for 30 minutes each. How,
in this way, family or friendship ties are supposed to be maintained, may only
be known to the administration of justice.
I
was allowed to combine these 30 minutes to one visit of ninety minutes each
month so that I received three visits in those three months. Each of these
visits was supervised optically and acustically; they don’t think much of
privacy.
ee)
Walks on the yard
The
yard for prisoners in isolation is found on the 8th floor. From there
one has a remarkable view over the surroundings; one can recognize houses, cars
and people.
For
me this was a real relaxation, after I had only seen grey prison walls in
Bruchsal for four years. The disadvantage, however, is that one can never see
one part of the sky without prison bars; one cannot smell or feel one blade of
grass or one flower. The yard in Stammheim on the 8th floor is
surrounded by prison bars, and above one there is a concrete roof.
I
enjoyed exposing myself to wind and rain, for in a sterile prison building like
Stammheim all other relation to nature is lost.
ff)
The television
After
almost four years without a T.V. I could hardly stand the amount of pictures in
the first couple of days; especially the primitive talk shows and court room
shows made me almost a little aggressive. I wondered how people can expose
themselves to this without becoming dull and lose their fantasy.
After
a couple of days I concentrated on the news channels n-tv and CNN and the odd
sitcom.
Since
television sets for prisoners have become common, spare time activities have
become less frequented (e.g. talk rounds, sports, games). Apparantly for many it
is easier to be lightly distracted than to become active themselves.
Now,
back in Bruchsal, I have no television set and miss nothing; nevertheless I
still try to enforce getting a T.V. (via law court), for as a grown up person I
want to decide for myself if or when I watch T.V.
VII.
Summary
Some
readers might have noticed that I wrote little about how isolation in Stammheim
felt. Well, I am a matter-of-fact person, and so I experience isolation which is
carried out on me rather quietly and relaxed. Some injustices or malices make
me, of course, react very clearly and find me getting into a temper. But I am
not the kind of person who lays down in bed, full of self-pity, and gets a
severe crisis. For I have goals, plans and wishesfor which it is worth living
and fighting.
Those
three months in Stammheim show me that this state is step by step perfecting the
custody of people. Direct contacts to the outside world are minimized, and I
admit that for many this state of being thrown back on oneself is like torture
– for the “normal” inmates have at least shared communication during the
walk on the yard or in a leisure time group. (This I say with regard to those
critics who accused me of not practising solidarity by denying the label
“torture” to the way isolation detention in Germany is used today.)
The
sole prisoner in Stammheim is no more than a transportable good which is stored
for the time being. In this respect Stammheim is hardly different from other
prisons; however, the monstruous architecture surely intensifies this impression.
Thomas
Meyer-Falk