Please join us Thursday, November 11, 2010 for an exciting and informative panel on “Experiments in Social Isolation: Communications Management Units and the Expansion of Unconstitutional Detention Policies in the post-9/11 Federal Prison System.”

WHAT: “Experiments in Social Isolation” Panel on Communications Management Units

WHERE: The Unitarian Community Church of New York City (Assembly Hall) – 40 East 35th Street (6-train to 33^rd Street, B/D/F/M/N/Q/R-trains to 34^th Street)

WHEN: Thursday, November 11, 2010 from 7:00 to 8:30 pm

WHO: Jenny Synan and Noor Elashi, family members of CMU prisoners; CCR Staff Attorneys Alexis Agathocleous and Rachel Meeropol; CCR Education and Outreach Associate Nahal Zamani, Suzanne Adely, Desis Rising Up and Moving

Sponsored by: The Center for Constitutional Rights, South Asian Americans Leading Together, The Arab American Association of New York, Support Daniel McGowan, CUNY Law School National Lawyers Guild
Chapter, Brooklyn Law School’s Student Animal Legal Defense Fund, the Center for Human Rights and Global Justice at NYU, NY Chapter of the American Immigration Lawyers Association,  National Lawyers Guild - NYC Chapter, and CUNY MELSA Middle Eastern Law School Association.

The Bureau of Prisons claims that CMUs are designed to hold dangerous terrorists and other high-risk inmates, requiring heightened monitoring of their external and internal communications. Many prisoners, however, are sent to these isolation units for their constitutionally protected religious beliefs, unpopular political views, or in retaliation for challenging poor treatment or other rights violations in the federal prison system. Unlike other prisoners in the federal system, CMU prisoners are categorically denied any physical contact with family members and are forbidden from hugging, touching or embracing their children, spouses or loved ones during visits. The CMUs are an experiment in social isolation.