Opening the Box: Sarah Shourd on Herman Wallace, California Hunger Strikers and the Horror of Solitary Confinement


READ:  Herman Wallace and Nelson Mandela: A Tale of Two Heroes (Ebony Magazine)

Please take Action for Herman Wallace of the Angola 3 by joining Amnesty International’s call to release him on humanitarian grounds! There are action pages for the: USA, United Kingdom, France, Belgium, and everywhere else.

(Recent photo of Herman: No Shackles!)

Opening the Box: Sarah Shourd on Herman Wallace, California Hunger Strikers and the Horror of Solitary Confinement
By Angola 3 News
Last month, we were devastated to learn that the Angola 3’s Herman Wallace had been diagnosed with liver cancer, and that he was continuing to be held in isolation in a locked room at Hunt Correctional Center’s prison infirmary. Reflecting on his confinement while battling cancer, Herman said: “My own body has now become a tool of torture against me.”
On July 10, Amnesty International launched a campaign directed at Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal, calling for Herman’s immediate release on humanitarian grounds (take action here). “After decades of cruel conditions and a conviction that continues to be challenged by the courts, he should be released immediately to his family so that he can be cared for humanely during his last months,” said Amnesty USA campaigner Tessa Murphy.

In recent years, Amnesty has initiated other campaigns challenging the over 41 years spent in solitary confinement by Herman and Albert Woodfox, also of the Angola 3, including the April 17, 2012 delivery of a 67,000 signature petition to LA Governor Jindal demanding Albert and Herman’s immediate release from solitary. Earlier this year, Amnesty called on Louisiana Attorney General James Caldwell to not appeal the US District Court’s overturning of Albert’s conviction. More recently, accompanying their call for Herman’s release, Amnesty also expressed concern about “the worsening conditions of confinement” for Albert at David Wade Correctional Center, where he remains in solitary confinement. “For approximately two months, Woodfox has been subjected to additional punitive measures – including strip searches each time he leaves or enters his cell, being escorted in ankle and wrist restraints, restricted phone access, and non-contact visits through a perforated metal screen. Temperatures in the prison cells are reportedly extremely high, regularly reaching up to 100 degrees Fahrenheit,” wrote Amnesty.

Public outrage intensified on Friday, July 12, when a letter citing the Angola 3 case, was sent to the Civil Rights Division of the US Justice Department by Congressman John Conyers, Jr. (D-Mich.), Ranking Member of the full U.S. House Judiciary Committee, Congressman Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.), Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on the Constitution and Civil Justice, Congressman Robert C. “Bobby” Scott (D-Va.), Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, Homeland Security, and Investigations, and Congressman Cedric Richmond (D-La.). The letter called for an investigation of the Louisiana Departments of Corrections for its “abysmal history of protecting the rights of its prisoners,” of which the “tragic story of the Angola 3 is a case in point.”
About Herman Wallace, the Congressmen wrote: “We have heard that he lost over 50 pounds within 6 months.  Despite that dramatic weight loss, and at 72 years old, the prison did nothing to treat or diagnose him until he was sent to an emergency room on June 14.   Given the late stage of his diagnosis, his treatment options are now limited.  He is frail and ill, but is still being treated as if he is a threat to security, and we hear that he remains under lockdown conditions. This is unconscionable.”
Within hours of the letter’s release, Herman Wallace was transferred out of solitary confinement, when Louisiana’s Hunt prison reduced his classification from maximum to medium security. Herman is now staying at the prison hospital in a 10-bunk dorm, with access to a day room, and does not have to wear leg irons anymore. While celebrating the more human conditions, Herman and the International Coalition to Free the Angola 3 emphasize that the transfer from solitary is not enough. They are asking folks to continue supporting Amnesty International’s call for humane release. The Angola 3’s Robert H. King, himself released in 2001 after 29 years in solitary confinement, says, “The wind is at our back and with your continued help our objective will be realized – freedom is in sight.”
The case of the Angola 3 is at the center of a 42-day fundraising drive begun for a touring play, entitled Opening the Box, that will focus on the use of prolonged solitary confinement in US prisons. The choice of fundraising for 42 days is a tribute to the almost 42 years spent in solitary by Herman Wallace and Albert Woodfox. The writer and producer of Opening the Box, Sarah Shourd, is herself a survivor, having spent 410 days in solitary confinement while held as a political hostage by the Iranian Government from 2009-2010. After returning to the US, she successfully fought for the release of her now-husband Shane Bauer and friend Josh Fatal.
Conceived specifically “to add to the momentum of a burgeoning movement” against solitary, Shourd will be working with Solitary Watch to “collect real stories from a diverse spectrum of people living in solitary confinement today–immigrants, children, lifers and women. Then, I’m going to write a play about it and go on tour.”
“While watching this play, I want the audience to breathe along with a young man having a panic attack after being denied a visit with his mother, to crawl inside the skin of an immigrant detainee terrified of being deported and to travel with a lifer on a magic carpet of memory–only to be pulled back into the stark, implacable reality of the hole. By hearing these stories, my hope is that the audience will be able to relate to the men and women enduring this torture in our prisons, to their pain but also to their resistance to the dehumanizing forces around them, their incredible resilience…and their refusal to be institutionalized,” explains Shourd.

In this interview, which Shourd dedicates to Herman Wallace, we take a closer look at her project, Opening the Box, as well as the ongoing prisoner hunger strike in California, the Angola 3 case, and the politics of prisons in the US. Currently based in Oakland, California, Shourd is an author and Contributing Editor at Solitary Watch. Before being captured by the Iranian government, Shourd was living in a Palestinian Refugee Camp in Damascus, Syria, working as a journalist and teaching for the Iraqi Student Project. She’s written for The New York Times, CNN, Newsweek’s Daily Beast and has a blog on Huffington Post. Her memoir (co-authored by Shane Bauer and Josh Fattal) will be published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt in Spring 2014. To learn more visit sarahshourd.com and/or follow her on Twiiter @SShourd.
(PHOTO: Sarah Shourd speaks in support of solitary survivor Bradley Manning)


Angola 3 News:         Why did you choose to spotlight the case of the Angola 3 with 42 days of fundraising?
Sarah Shourd:           I only knew a little about the Angola 3 before I was detained in Iran, but I thought about them when I was inside. I also thought about Mumia Abu Jamal, Nelson Mandela, my friend Jafar Saidi (who is being held in a Pennsylvania prison) and all the other prisoners I’d heard of being held in prolonged isolation. I reasoned that if these people found the strength to endure weeks, months or even decades alone, then that meant I could get through it too. Their example helped me believe that it was possible to survive indefinite solitary confinement, that with enough discipline and focus, I could learn to stay afloat, to ward off depression & hopelessness and even confront each day with some sort of dignity and purpose.
Now that I’ve studied Herman and Albert’s case, I know there is absolutely no evidence that either of them is guilty of the crime (murdering a guard) that landed them in solitary 41 years ago. The 70’s were an extremely volatile and politicized time inside Angola prison and prisons around the country. Herman, Albert and Robert were organizing and resisting mistreatment by guards inside Angola—and I believe that’s why they were targeted by prison officials and used to set an example.
Herman and Albert were given a sentence on top of their original sentence—life in solitary confinement. This ruling was made internally, without judge or jury, which in my opinion is unconstitutional.
A3N:   Following Herman Wallace’s recent cancer diagnosis and continued isolation, we are mobilizing public support for compassionate release. Can you say something in support of Herman’s medical release?
SS:      Herman deserves a release on compassionate, medical grounds more than any other prisoner I’ve ever heard of. It couldn’t be more obvious that he’s no danger to anyone and the yet extent of suffering that’s been heaped upon him over the last four decades is beyond comprehension. No human being, under any circumstances, should be subject to this kind of cruelty.
That said, there’s no changing what’s already been done. The best hope for Herman is that he be allowed to taste freedom and be with his loved ones for the last months or years of his life. After 41 years, Herman deserves much, much more than that—but all we can really hope for is that government officials decide to grant Herman a compassionate, medical release the most expedient way possible. This is the only way to make right even a fraction of the wrong that’s been done— before it’s too late.
A3N:   Last week, on the other side of the country, California prisoners began a hunger strike, following up on the demands first made by hunger strikers in 2011. How did the 2011 hunger strike affect you, following your release from Iran?
SS:      I’d been fighting non-stop for over a year when my now-husband Shane Bauer and friend Josh Fatal were finally released from prison in Iran. Just weeks later, the UN’s Special Rapporteur on Torture, Juan Mendez, issued a report condemning the long-term use of isolation on prisoners and calling it torture. Mendez went on to say that any period over 15 days in solitary can cause permanent psychological damage and should be subject to strict, mandatory review.
A few weeks later, the largest hunger strikes in history erupted in my home state, California. It was such an intense, mixed time for me. After more than two years since our initial arrests, the three of us were all finally together, free and back in the US. Yet, I was acutely aware of the tens of thousands of people in my own country, who were needlessly suffering the same kind of torture that the three of us had been subjected to.
I began speaking and writing about solitary confinement, connecting my own experience to what I saw happening around me. I knew the fight for justice wasn’t over for me—this was now a lifelong commitment.
A3N:   What do you think of the current hunger strike? Do you support the strike’s criticism of prison authorities’ response to the 2011 strike?
SS:      I’m angry that ten of thousands of prisoners have been forced to begin hunger striking again, but they have no other choice. The response from California prison authorities to the demands of the prison hunger strikers in 2011 was sorely inadequate. In fact, no tangible changes have been made at all. Prisoners in our country have next to no rights—they have to risk their health, safety and even their own lives in order to be heard.
I’m impressed, but by no means surprised, by how widespread resistance to solitary confinement has become inside our prisons—with 29,000 people refusing their food on the very first day. I think the renewal of this hunger strike is a sign that prisoners have reached a tipping point. They’ve made their grievances visible, so that now politicians, prison officials and the public can no longer afford to ignore the horrors happening inside our prisons.
A3N:   With over 2.4 million prisoners today, the US now has the most total prisoners and the highest incarceration rate in the world. How do you think this unprecedented level of mass incarceration relates to the widespread use of long-term solitary confinement?
SS:      Before I spent 410 days in solitary confinement, I knew that isolating a person was a cruel form of punishment. Still, it wasn’t until I experienced it myself that I realized it was torture. Long periods with little to no human contact violates a person’s psyche in the deepest, most insidious way—a way that usually leaves no physical marks but leaves most people psychologically damaged and changed forever
I see solitary confinement as the deep end of our very broken prison system. It’s the worst punishment our system dolls out. It’s also used routinely, often arbitrarily and with little to no oversight.
There are other ways to run prisons that are better for both prisoners’ individual health and public safety. However, instead of trying to deal with serious issues like prison violence (by inmates and guards) constructively, in U.S. we lock ten of thousands of people alone in cages where they lose their minds, often hurt themselves and commit suicide at a much higher rate than in the general prison population.
Still, prison authorities can’t keep them locked up forever. The majority of people that have been subjected to prolonged solitary confinement will one day be released back into society, where little to no services exist to help them recover, reintegrate and move forward in a positive way. That’s why so many ex-prisoners reoffend and the cycle continues.
Our prison system has veered so far from the path of rehabilitation over the last 30 years, there’s hardly even an attempt on behalf of prison authorities to give the impression they’re trying to provide inmates with resources or opportunities to change. Instead, prisoners are treated like raw material instead of human beings, warehoused away like surplus goods.
A3N:   Who, in particular gets targeted for solitary and why?
SS:      Solitary confinement is a perfect illustration of what our prison system has become. It’s used as a control strategy against anyone who presents any kind of hassle to prison officials and/or needs services that our prison system has neglected to provide. Guards use any excuse to get rid of people by sending them to the ‘hole,’ such as petty drug use, profanity and/or any small, petty (often non-violent) infraction.
The real reason many people wind up in solitary is because they have unpopular or threatening political beliefs, because they’re gay or transgender and need so-called ‘protection,’ because they’ve reported rape or abuse by prison officials and/or simply because they are mentally ill.
Human Rights Watch estimates that one-third to one-half of inmates in isolation had some form of mental illness before they were put there. Using solitary confinement instead of providing mental health and other rehabilitative services is inhumane, not to mention extremely negligent. This practice doesn’t serve society and that’s why we need to hold prison officials accountable and end this practice.
A3N:   Looking from an international perspective, how do other countries differ regarding the use of prolonged solitary confinement?
SS:      Many countries around the world only use solitary in their prisons as a very last resort. England, for example, tried implementing solitary confinement as a disciplinary measure. When prison violence increased, and they realized how expensive and cruel this practice was, they simply stopped relying on it. Today there are a few dozen prisoners held in prolonged solitary in the UK—compared to our estimated 80,000 on any given day.
The reason this mistake was caught and largely corrected in England was simple—they have a system of oversight in place, a government body that closely monitors what happens inside their prisons and keeps the public informed. In the U.S. we have nothing like this in place. As a result, this practice has gotten out of control and we’ve become by far the largest offender of this inhumane, senseless practice in the world.
A3N:   Why is theater a useful medium for telling these stories? How do you foresee this helping to build momentum against the practice of solitary confinement?
SS:      I believe a play can reach a new and different segment of the population with a human rights issue that should be of grave concern to everyone in our country. ‘Opening the Box’ also has the potential of humanizing this issue in a visceral, embodied way that an article or report can’t.
In the late 90s a play called The Exonerated—based on true stories of innocent death row survivors— came out and quickly spread like wildfire. Half a million people saw this play and actors like Susan Sarandon & Danny Glover did cameos and the Governor of Illinois was so affected by seeing the play he decided to commute all the existing death row sentences in his state to life in prison.
I believe that hearing, seeing and reading real, complex stories of people living through the daily hell of solitary confinement (there is also a book in the works, slated to be published in conjunction with the play) has the potential of effecting people in a way they can’t and won’t forget. The play is not only about entertainment, of course, we want it to be a catalyst for action, a humble effort to contribute to a nation-wide movement—one that’s gained more momentum in the last few years than it did over the last century.
‘Opening the Box’ is also a deeply personal journey—an attempt to understand what happened to me during the year I spent in solitary and to connect my own suffering to that of so many others.
–Angola 3 News is a project of the International Coalition to Free the Angola 3. Our website is www.angola3news.com where we provide the latest news about the Angola 3. We are also creating our own media projects, which spotlight the issues central to the story of the Angola 3, like racism, repression, prisons, human rights, solitary confinement as torture, and more.

Herman Wallace Removed From Solitary: More humane conditions for Herman, one big step towards compassionate release

(Recent photo of Herman by Hermanshouse.org)

Last Friday, July 12, Louisiana’s Hunt prison reduced Herman Wallace’s classification from maximum to medium security meaning Herman is no longer being held in solitary confinement. He will stay in the prison hospital in a 10-bunk dorm, with access to a day room, and won’t have to wear leg irons. This was confirmed by visitors who saw Herman over the weekend and who took this photo of him using the exercise bike. Herman wanted to show supporters he is fighting to survive.

This is not enough. The call for Herman’s release continues with Amnesty International leading the campaign. “The wind is at our back and with your continued help our objective will be realized – freedom is in sight” says Robert King.  We ask you to join us in this fight for justice.

Letter to US DOJ by Reps. Richmond, Conyers, Nadler, and Scott Calls for Investigation into Louisiana Prisons; Cites Angola 3

RELATED:  Times Picayune article II  Solitary Watch article
 
Below is the full text of the letter to the US Department of Justice and the accompanying press release issued today (view a PDF of the original letter).


For Immediate Release
Date: Friday, July 12, 2013
Contact: Andrew Schreiber (Conyers) – 202-225-6906
John Doty (Nadler) – 202-225-5635
David Dailey (Scott) – 202-225-8351
Monique Waters (Richmond) – 202-225-6636

           
Reps. Richmond, Conyers, Nadler, and Scott Lead Letter Calling for Investigation into Several Louisiana Prison Facilities

(WASHINGTON) – Today, Congressman John Conyers, Jr. (D-Mich.), Ranking Member of the full U.S. House Judiciary Committee, Congressman Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.), Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on the Constitution and Civil Justice, Congressman Robert C. “Bobby” Scott (D-Va.), Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, Homeland Security, and Investigations, and Congressman Cedric Richmond (D-La.) sent a letter to the Department of Justice’s Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Thomas Perez calling for investigations into the alarming conditions in several Louisiana state prison facilities. Specifically, the Members expressed deep concern that the Louisiana Department of Corrections has, “engaged in a pattern or practice of violations of the United States Constitution and federal law in its use of such confinement and detention practices.” In the letter the Representatives urge the Attorney General to begin an investigation into the use of solitary confinement, and other troubling detention practices, in numerous Louisiana prison facilities, especially in the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola, Louisiana.

The full version of the letter transmitted to the Department of Justice can be found below:


July 12, 2013





Honorable Thomas E. Perez
Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights
U.S. Department of Justice
950 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20530

Dear Assistant Attorney General Perez:

Under the authority granted to the Attorney General pursuant to the Civil Rights of Institutionalized Prisoners Act (“CRIPA”), 42 U.S.C. § 1997, we urge you to begin an in depth investigation into the egregious and extensive use of solitary confinement and other troubling detention practices in various Louisiana prison facilities, especially the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola, Louisiana (“Angola”).  We have reason to believe that the Louisiana Department of Corrections (“Louisiana DOC”) has engaged in a pattern or practice of violations of the United States Constitution and federal law in its use of such confinement and detention practices. We believe that an investigation of conditions at Angola and other facilities under the control of the Louisiana DOC could yield evidence of knowing violations of the 14th Amendment Due Process Clause, the 8th Amendment Cruel and Unusual Punishments Clause, as well as numerous additional violations of prisoners’ statutory and constitutional rights.  

The Louisiana DOC has an abysmal history of protecting the rights of its prisoners, and the tragic story of the Angola 3 is a case in point.  Herman Wallace and Albert Woodfox were charged with murder and convicted with evidence that has been called into question by numerous courts and stakeholders, including the victim’s wife. Another inmate, Robert King, was also subjected to decades of isolation after a wrongful conviction. His conviction was overturned and he was released in 2002.  Although held in isolation for being a purported threat to prison security, since his release he has toured the world speaking about his ordeal in isolation, and he was recently awarded an honorary Ph.D. from Cambridge University in England.  

Since their convictions (which are currently under review in federal court), Woodfox and Wallace have endured over four decades of isolation.  This is an unprecedented period of time by any standard, and quite possibly the longest any person has spent in solitary confinement worldwide.  Within the last five years, Woodfox and Wallace have been transferred from Angola to other facilities in the Louisiana prison system, including the David Wade Correctional Center (“Wade”) and the Evalyn Hunt Correctional Center (“Hunt”), where we understand the very same complained-of constitutional and statutory violations have been perpetuated.  We understand that upon their transfers, brand new Closed Cell Restricted (“CCR”) tiers were created at these facilities, and additional inmates are now also confined on these tiers.  We have reason to believe that, as at Angola, many of the inmates housed in the CCR tiers of Hunt and Wade suffer from mental health and other serious illnesses.  Woodfox and Wallace continue to be held apart from the general prison population, to the detriment of their mental and physical health.

Indeed, after years of what we have been informed was sub-standard medical care, Herman Wallace was diagnosed just weeks ago with liver cancer.  We have heard that he lost over 50 pounds within 6 months.  Despite that dramatic weight loss, and at 72 years old, the prison did nothing to treat or diagnose him until he was sent to an emergency room on June 14.   Given the late stage of his diagnosis, his treatment options are now limited.  He is frail and ill, but is still being treated as if he is a threat to security, and we hear that he remains under lockdown conditions. This is unconscionable.

We also have reason to believe that at the Wade facility, 68-year-old Woodfox, and all CCR inmates there, are being subjected to daily strip searches whenever they enter or exit their cells, even when there is no basis or reasonable suspicion that they might be in possession of contraband.  We have been told that even when Woodfox is removed from his cell to go to the exercise yard, where he is being kept under surveillance of guards and apart from any other inmates or prison visitors, he is strip searched when he leaves his cell and upon return.  

Moreover, we have reason to believe that the Louisiana DOC continues to knowingly engage in behavior that violates the due process rights of inmates held in solitary confinement.  The requirements of the 14th Amendment Due Process Clause call for periodic, meaningful hearings on the question of whether a prisoner should be held for continued closed cell restriction.  Yet, we are told that in many Louisiana DOC facilities, officials orchestrate sham 90-day reviews that take no consideration of a prisoner’s conduct while he was in solitary or the prisoner’s state of mind, and do not attempt to determine, by any defined standard, whether the prisoner should be released to a less restrictive cellblock or dormitory.  We have been informed that there may be more than 100 inmates who have been subjected to these fictitious reviews.

In addition to the above-detailed due process violations, this use of prolonged isolation over a period of 40 years at Angola and other Louisiana DOC facilities is indicative of cruel and unusual punishment, and its blatant and persistent use suggests that this practice is pervasive and not confined to the Angola 3. We have reason to believe that there are other inmates who have received less attention from the press who have also been subject to such onerous, punitive periods of isolation.

We do not allege these apparently unconstitutional patterns and practices lightly. Over the past 6 years we have engaged officials, inmates and stakeholders in conversations about conditions at the prison, and most of what we have heard is alarming.  Recently, lawyers representing inmates on Angola’s death row filed suit in federal court alleging that the conditions of confinement there are inhumane because the tiers are not air-conditioned, and the heat index goes as high as 195 degrees Fahrenheit in summer months.  On July 2, 2013, Chief U.S. District Court Judge Brian Jackson in the Middle District of Louisiana issued an order in that case directing that temperature data be collected for 21 straight days in advance of an evidentiary hearing set for August 5.  Just as with the death row at Angola, the CCR tiers at Angola, Wade and Hunt have no air-conditioning in the scorching Louisiana summer heat.

Finally, we have reason to believe that Louisiana DOC employees have colluded with persons from the Office of the Louisiana Attorney General to fabricate violations of prison rules to unjustifiably punish inmates. Significant issues also exist related to prisoners’ personal safety, unhealthy environmental conditions, inhumane sanitary conditions and excessive use of force by prison staff.  We have been told that e-mails between the Louisiana Attorney General’s office and Louisiana DOC employees document that, in the Fall of 2008, staff of the Attorney General’s office and Angola prison “joined forces,” as a February 10, 2010 Order of the federal District Court describes it, to search a year’s-worth of Wallace and Woodfox’s recorded phone calls for “‘sufficient justification for stiff disciplinary action.’”  Wilkerson v. Stalder, No. 00-304 (M.D.La.) (Doc. No. 374 at 9, 10).  This search coincided with proceedings related to Woodfox’s motion for bail after he was granted habeas relief by the federal District Court which was later overturned by a split Fifth Circuit panel.  We are told that as a result of their efforts to find pretextual disciplinary violations—which involved staff of the Attorney General’s office requesting and listening to privileged attorney-client calls—Wallace and Woodfox were written up for phone call violations; sentenced to a removal from the dormitory setting where they had peacefully resided for eight months; and placed back into isolation, where they remain today.    

In this day and age, the federal government simply cannot abide unconstitutional behavior of this magnitude from those who run corrections facilities. It simply cannot be that in this country, a state can subject men to inhumane solitary confinement conditions, for decades on end, with no standards for the review procedures in place to ensure that such profoundly harsh confinement is justified, without intervention by our federal government.  As the Supreme Court found in Brown v. Plata, “prisoners retain the essence of human dignity inherent in all persons.”  

In this spirit, we ask that the Civil Rights Division’s Special Litigation Section use the Department’s statutory CRIPA authority to investigate and ultimately take all appropriate action to ensure that Louisiana’s prison system fully complies with the mandates of the Constitution and all applicable statutes.  The Division’s work in the Orleans Parish Prison and St. Tammany Parish Jail cases have sent a strong signal that the Department is serious about its obligation to protect the rights of institutionalized persons in the State of Louisiana.  The situation at Angola, especially the treatment of the Angola 3, is ripe for investigation and immediate action.  We look forward to your earliest response.


Sincerely,
 
Cedric L. Richmond, Member of Congress
John Conyers Jr., Member of Congress
Jerrold Nadler, Member of Congress
Robert C. “Bobby” Scott, Member of Congress




cc:

Roy Austin, Deputy Assistant Attorney General, Civil Rights Division, Department of Justice

Jocelyn Samuel, Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General, Civil Rights Division, Department of Justice

Peter J. Kadzik, Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General, Office of Legislative Affairs, Department of Justice

Jonathan M. Smith, Chief, Civil Rights Division, Special Litigation Section, Department of Justice

The Honorable Bob Goodlatte, Chairman, House Committee on the Judiciary 

Take Action: Join Amnesty International to Demand Compassionate Release for Herman Wallace Now!

Please take action here!

(RELATED: article by The Advocate: “Amnesty International wants Jindal to free one of the Angola 3”)

Today, in response to the tragic news that Herman Wallace is terminally ill with cancer, Amnesty International has launched a campaign calling for Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal to immediately release Herman on humanitarian grounds.

Following his initial diagnosis on June 14, Herman continues to be held in isolation at Hunt Correctional Center’s prison infirmary. Reflecting on his confinement while battling cancer, Herman says: “My own body has now become a tool of torture against me.”

“After decades of cruel conditions and a conviction that continues to be challenged by the courts, he should be released immediately to his family so that he can be cared for humanely during his last months,” says Tessa Murphy, USA campaigner, about Herman Wallace.

Amnesty International has long criticized the legal process and lack of evidence that has resulted in both Herman and Albert Woodfox’s original murder convictions. In confronting Herman and Albert’s continued cruel confinement in solitary for over 40 years, Amnesty has declared it to be in violation of international human rights law, as well as the US Constitution itself.

In today’s statement, Amnesty declares that in the decades of Herman and Albert’s confinement, the “prison authorities have broken their own policies to justify their continued incarceration in harsh and inhumane conditions.” Amnesty also states that they are, “extremely concerned about the worsening conditions of confinement” for Albert in David Wade Correctional Center.

Creating public pressure for Herman is now more important than ever. We need Governor Jindal to get hundreds of thousands of emails demanding Herman’s immediate release, so please take action now and help us spread the word by posting on Facebook and forwarding it to your friends.

–The full text of the ‘take action’ email to Bobby Jindal – Governor of Louisiana, Paul Rainwater – Chief of Staff, Emily Riser – Executive Assistant,  and Tammy Woods – Assistant Chief of Staff reads:

Subject: We Call For Humane Release!

As I write you, 71 year old Herman Wallace is being held in isolation in the infirmary in Hunt Correctional Center. After spending more than four decades held in cruel and unusual solitary confinement, he has been diagnosed with terminal liver cancer. The time to act is now. I ask you to release Herman to his family on humanitarian grounds, so that they can care for him during his last months on earth.

Both Herman Wallace and fellow ‘Angola 3’ prisoner Albert Woodfox have spent most of the past 41 years of their lives alone in a tiny cell for 23 hours a day. Such conditions are cruel, inhuman and degrading. Prior to Wallace’s cancer diagnosis, these conditions had already negatively impacted both men’s physical and psychological health. In fact, in 2007, a US federal judge ruled that the conditions constituted a deprivation of a basic human need and that prison officials should have been aware of the potential for serious harm to physical and mental health.

Contrary to requirements under both international human rights law and the US Constitution, Herman has had no meaningful review of his continued isolation. Herman’s prison records do not demonstrate that he is a threat to the security of the institution, himself or others. Furthermore, there are substantial concerns about the fairness of the legal process that resulted in Herman’s conviction; a conviction that is still being challenged before the courts today. Evidence suggests that the decision to keep him in solitary is based at least in part on his political activism and association with the Black Panther party.

Herman Wallace and Albert Woodfox are believed to have spent more time in solitary confinement than virtually any other US prisoner in recent history. Now, after surviving 41 years of a nightmare, Herman doesn’t have much time left. Please release Herman to his family today.

(end of email text)

–Below is the full text of Amnesty International’s July 10, 2013 press release.

Amnesty International Appeals for Release of Terminally Ill ‘Angola 3’ Prisoner, after 40 Years in Solitary Confinement

Contact: Suzanne Trimel, strimel@aiusa.org, 212-633-4150, @AIUSAmedia

(NEW YORK) – Amnesty International appealed to Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal today to immediately release from prison on humanitarian grounds. Herman Wallace, one of the ‘Angola 3,’ is terminally ill with cancer and has been imprisoned in solitary confinement for more than 40 years.

“Herman Wallace is 71 years old and has advanced liver cancer,” said Tessa Murphy, USA campaigner at Amnesty International. “After decades of cruel conditions and a conviction that continues to be challenged by the courts, he should be released immediately to his family so that he can be cared for humanely during his last months.”

Wallace was diagnosed with cancer after being taken to hospital on June 14. He had been on medication for some time for what was diagnosed as a stomach fungus and over the last months, has lost considerable weight. He is now being held in isolation in the infirmary at Hunt Correctional Center.

Wallace and fellow prisoner Albert Woodfox were first placed in isolation in 1972; since then they have been confined for 23 hours a day to cells measuring 6 by 9 feet.

Both men were convicted of the murder of a prison guard in 1973, yet no physical evidence links them to the crime – potentially exculpatory DNA evidence has been lost and the testimony of the main eyewitness has been discredited. Citing racial discrimination, misconduct by the prosecution, and inadequate defense, state and federal judges have overturned Woodfox’s conviction three times, while Wallace’s case is once again up for review before the federal courts.

The two men are believed to have spent longer in solitary confinement than virtually any other U.S. prisoner in recent history. During this time, prison authorities have broken their own policies to justify their continued incarceration in harsh and inhumane conditions.

Before Wallace’s cancer diagnosis, the harsh environment had already had an impact on both the man’s physical and psychological health as acknowledged by a federal judge in 2007. The severe toll of solitary confinement on inmates’ mental and physical health has been extensively documented in studies. In recognition of this damage, the U.N. Special Rapporteur on Torture, Juan Mendez, has called on states to prohibit the practice in excess of 15 days.

Amnesty International is also extremely concerned about the worsening conditions of confinement for Woodfox in David Wade Correctional Center. For approximately two months, Woodfox has been subjected to additional punitive measures – including strip searches each time he leaves or enters his cell, being escorted in ankle and wrist restraints, restricted phone access, and non-contact visits through a perforated metal screen. Temperatures in the prison cells are reportedly extremely high, regularly reaching up to 100 degrees Fahrenheit.

Amnesty International is a Nobel Peace Prize-winning grassroots activist organization with more than 3 million supporters, activists, and volunteers in more than 150 countries campaigning for human rights worldwide. The organization investigates and exposes abuses, educates and mobilizes the public, and works to protect people wherever justice, freedom, truth, and dignity are denied.

Amnesty International: Herman Wallace of the Angola 3 Diagnosed with Liver Cancer, Send Messages of Support

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(Reprinted below is today’s statement of support from Amnesty International. Also released was a blog posting by Amnesty UK’s Urgent Action Network, and a solidarity card for Herman and Albert on their Tumblr page.)

 

Herman Wallace of Angola 3 Diagnosed with Liver Cancer, Send Messages of Support

By Jasmine Heiss, Amnesty International USA’s Individuals & Communities at Risk Campaigner

After 41 years in solitary confinement, Albert Woodfox and Herman Wallace of the Angola 3 have lived through a nightmare that no human being should have to endure. We work on their case with the hope that, one day, we can share the news that these men have been released from solitary and have seen justice.

But today is not that day. Today I am deeply saddened to tell you that 71-year-old Herman Wallace has been diagnosed with liver cancer, after spending the majority of his life isolated in a small cell, four steps long, by three steps across for 23 hours a day. I’ve often described the Angola 3 case as “injustice compounded” – that description has never rung more true than today.

Albert and Herman were convicted of murdering a prison guard at Louisiana’s Angola prison more than four decades ago. The two men were placed in solitary confinement and kept there, even as significant flaws in their trial rose to the surface from the dark, racially charged underbelly of the US prison system: potentially exculpatory evidence mysteriously “missing,” the retraction of eyewitness testimony and even compelling proof that the state bribed a key eyewitness.

On February 26, 2013, a federal district court ruled to put an end to this shameful legacy of injustice, overturning the conviction of Albert Woodfox for the third time. Louisiana’s attorney general appealed the ruling, however, so Albert’s case is still pending in the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. Herman’s case is also under Federal Court scrutiny on the basis of prosecutorial conduct and constitutional violations – but as the wheels of justice grind slowly, Herman’s time is running out.

Herman’s condition is grave and we are still waiting for details of his prognosis. Once we know more, we will ask you to make your voices heard to the Louisiana authorities so that our calls for justice ring from the state’s northern border to the very end of the Mississippi river.

But until then, please join me in reminding Herman and Albert that they are not alone – that there are hundreds of thousands of people standing with them, even as the state tries to keep them in total isolation.
You can download cards to send to Herman and Albert here. You should add a personal message and, if possible, also send pictures of your hometown, nature or animals to lift the two men’s spirits. Albert and Herman are held in two different prisons, so please be sure to write to both of them separately – Albert is struggling with the news of his friend’s illness, so he needs your words of support just as much as Herman.

Once you’ve written your message, take a picture of yourself with your card and join our solidarity tumblr. Help us show the Louisiana authorities that Amnesty International supporters around the world will continue to shine a light of hope, even when faced with the bleakest injustice.

Address your cards to:

Herman Wallace
#76759 SNU/CCR
EHCC PO Box 174
St Gabriel, LA 70776
USA

Albert Woodfox
#72148
David Wade Correctional Center, N1A3
670 Bell Hill Rd.
Homer, LA 71040

Angola 3′s Herman Wallace, Gravely Ill, Still Held in Isolation


(April 2013 photo of Herman Wallace)

Angola 3’s Herman Wallace, Gravely Ill, Still Held in Isolation

By James Ridgeway and Jean Casella

(Reprinted with permission from Solitary Watch)

Herman Wallace, 71, has been diagnosed with liver cancer. He is being held in a locked prison hospital room at the Elayn Hunt Correctional Center at St. Gabriel, Louisiana. The prognosis is grave, according to persons with direct knowledge of the situation. Wallace is one of the two members of the Angola 3 who, along with Albert Woodfox, is still being held in solitary after more than 41 years.

Tessa Murphy, U.S. Campaigner for Amnesty International, which has taken up the case, said in an email, “The tens of thousands of Amnesty International supporters worldwide who have campaigned over the years for justice in Herman and Albert’s case will be devastated by this sad news. Herman and Albert have been held in cruel conditions of confinement for over 40 years without meaningful review; neither of the men have disciplinary record to indicate that they are a threat to themselves, fellow prisoners or staff, and the Louisiana prison authorities have since 1996 broken their own policy to justify the men’s continued detention under these conditions.’’

Wallace and Woodfox were placed in solitary confinement at the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola in 1972, following the murder of prison guard Brent Miller. The men believe they were originally targeted for the murder, and have been held in isolation ever since, because of their association with the Black Panther Party. (The third member of the Angola 3, Robert King, was freed in 2001 when his conviction for the murder of a fellow prisoner was overturned; he had spent 29 years in solitary.) Several years ago, the two men were transferred out of Angola and sent to separate, distant prisons, where they have remained in solitary.

Angola Warden Burl Cain has stated in a deposition that “Albert Woodfox and Herman Wallace is locked in time with that Black Panther revolutionary actions they were doing way back when.” For this reason, he says, they must remain in solitary, because if he released them to the general population “I would have me all kinds of problems, more than I could stand, and I would have the blacks chasing after them.” Louisiana Attorney General James “Buddy” Caldwell has likewise promised to keep Wallace and Woodfox behind bars. (Caldwell also claims they “have never been held in solitary confinement.”)

Both men have been fighting to have their convictions overturned by the federal courts, claiming they are based on highly questionable evidence. Woodfox’s conviction was overturnedfor the third time earlier this year, but he remains in prison while the state appeals. Wallace lost his latest challenge, but continues to fight in the courts. At the same time, a civil case has been filed challenging the men’s four decades of solitary confinement on First, Eighth, and Fourteenth Amendment grounds.

For 41 years, Wallace and Woodfox have spent at least 23 hours a day in cells measuring 6 feet by 9 feet. They are sometimes allowed out one hour a day to take a shower or a walk along the cellblock. Three days a week, they may use that hour to exercise alone in a fenced yard. In their civil suit, their lawyers argue that both have endured physical injury and “severe mental anguish and other psychological damage” from living most of their adult lives in lockdown. According to medical reports submitted to the court, the men suffer from arthritis, hypertension, and kidney failure, as well as memory impairment, insomnia, claustrophobia, anxiety, and depression. Even the psychologist brought in by the state confirmed these findings.

“The injustice of being held under such harsh, restrictive and inhumane conditions for over four decades is compounded by the serious legal concerns that have emerged in their cases over the years of litigation, Amnesty’s Murphy said. “Amnesty International will continue its fight for justice for Herman and Albert; with the terrible news of Herman’s health, this fight becomes more important than ever.”

Two months ago Wallace had complained of feeling ill. Prison doctors diagnosed his condition as a stomach fungus and put him on antibiotics. By last week, he had lost 45 pounds, and was sent to a local hospital, where he received the news that he has liver cancer. He was returned to prison after a few days.

A team of lawyers, an outside doctor who has taken care of Wallace for years, and a psychologist briefly visited Wallace last week in a prison hospital room. Wallace was not manacled or shackled. The door was locked. There is no television and little contact with the outside world. Telephone privileges which were made available in the beginning have been revoked by the prison. According to one source, a warden ordered visitors out after ten minutes. “The level of inhumanity I am not used to,” said Nick Trenticosta, one of Wallace’s attorneys in Louisiana. “I am used to bloodthirsty prosecutors who want to kill people, but not this sort of thing.”

For Albert Woodfox, 66, who lived in solitary nearby Wallace at Angola and still keeps in touch by letter, the news was shocking. According to his brother Michael Mable,who saw Albert over last weekend, his brother is depressed and “afraid of dying in this prison.” Mable was only able to see Woodfox through a glass partition, and Woodfox sat with his hands manacled and feet shackled while a captain and a lieutenant stood behind him, Mable said. Woodfox was strip searched, even though the interview was just a short ways from his cell. He is allowed one visit a month. Woodfox suffers from diabetes, high blood pressure, and hepatitis.

It is not yet clear what the next steps will be for Herman Wallace in terms of medical care. Because the prison medical record appears scant, doctors are anxious for Wallace to see an oncologist at an outside hospital. He may go there some time this week.

Asked whether the state would consider compassionate release or hospice care for Wallace, Pam Laborde, Communications Director for the Louisiana Department of Public Safety and Corrections, said, “As you hopefully understand, I am not in a position to discuss an offender’s medical condition due to privacy concerns.”

In a 2006 letter to Jackie Sumell, an artist with whom he is collaborating on a project called The House That Herman Built (now the subject of a documentary film), Herman Wallace wrote: “I’m often asked what did I come to prison for; and now that I think about it Jackie, it doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter what I came here for, what matters now is what I leave with. And I can assure you, however I leave, I won’t leave nothing behind.”

(April 2013 photo of Herman)