Via the Center for Constitutional Rights: Members of Congress Send Letter of Inquiry to Bureau of Prisons over CMU Experimental Prison Units.

Given the breadth of human rights violations already being practiced in the US’ increasingly privatized and for-profit prison system, and the lack of effective oversight, just the phrase experimental prison units’ alone made my blood run cold. And it’s even worse than I anticipated…

‘This week, Members of the House of Representatives issued a Congressional Letter of Inquiry to the federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) expressing their concerns with the Communications Management Units (CMUs), experimental federal prison units with overwhelmingly Muslim populations.

‘…The Bureau of Prisons claims that the CMUs are designed to hold dangerous terrorists and other high-risk inmates; however, numerous prisoners are sent to the CMUs in retaliation for engaging in protected First Amendment activity, such as challenging poor treatment or other rights violations in the prison. Still others have clean disciplinary histories, and have been designated to the CMUs based on their religion. Individuals are designated to CMUs with no explanation and without a way to seek return to the general population—a due process violation that attorneys say allows for the abuse of power, retaliation and racial and religious profiling.’

So Muslims and/or people who challenge human rights violations are dispatched to these ‘experimental prison units,’ which are ‘an experiment in social isolation’:

‘Individuals detained in the CMUs are mostly Muslim and are limited in their communications and contact to the outside world. 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.

‘The Bureau 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.’

So basically, the US Federal Bureau of Prisons has created special prisons to house rabble-rousers, dissidents, and members of a religious minority. And, as of right now, the only action Congress has taken is to send a curious letter.