Counting the days takes on a whole new meaning when you’re 22 years into a 25-year federal drug sentence. I was biding my time in a federal prison in Arkansas in 2013, when I was abruptly yanked from the compound and thrown into the Special Housing Unit. The reason? Writing articles critical of the federal Bureau of Prison’s Residential Drug Abuse Program, prison authorities intimated. Having been a prison writer for 21 years, I was accustomed to a bit of harassment. But this time was different. More extreme.
After sitting in “the hole” under investigation for 30 days, I was informed by prison officials that if I kept writing I’d get transferred to a Communications Management Unit (CMU), where I’d sit in a roughly 6- by 9-foot cell, with all my external communications restricted and monitored, making it almost impossible to practice journalism. If I stopped writing altogether, I’d get nine months chopped off my sentence. Needless to say, I quickly put away my pen.
A post 9/11 creation, “Little Gitmos” —- a term the press coined for CMUs —- were opened in 2006, drawing a torrent of criticism. Called the “black ops unit” or “where they keep the terrorists” by prisoners, the BOP’s program statement says “the purpose of the CMUs is to provide an environment that enables staff to more effectively monitor communication between inmates in CMUs and persons in the community.” This, they claim, is necessary to ensure safety and to protect the public. ...