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2021-08-11: status
8:00 P.M. Wednesday, August 11, 2021
Yesterday afternoon---a month early---Unit Manager Mr. Todd Royer and Case Manager Ms. Rebekka Eisele called me into my six-(6)-month periodic review of my placement in this communications-management unit (CMU), aka Little Guantanamo.
First, CMU Unit Manager Mr. Todd Royer presented me with a form requesting my consent to a media interview, which I granted. The form specified neither when the BOP received the initial interview request nor the time for which the actual interview would be scheduled. I asked Mr. Royer for a copy of the form for my records and he refused to provide me one.
So, a FOIA request is now likely prudent to recover a copy of the form I just executed, the initial media request, and any other discoverable documents regarding the BOP's handling thereof.
Second, Mr. Royer and Ms. Eisele informed me that they are recommending me for "step down," i.e. to leave the CMU. There are still a few signatures required to approve this move, but overall it is a positive indication.
In December 2019, the CMU's powers that be showed their first burns of indigestion and tried to get rid of me. I stated, truthfully, on the record of Gottesfeld v. Hurwitz, et al., 18-cv-10836-PGG-GWG (S.D.N.Y.) that I wished not to leave so long as the government abuses the CMUs to silence political prisoners. I still had much reporting to see through.
In the time since then, The CMU Series hit FreeMartyG, The Liberty Sentinel, and Info Wars thanks to Dana, Lori, Kelen, Alex, and I imagine other unsung heroes I'm yet to meet. Also, Michael wrote on Daily Caller's front page about The Homeowners' Champ saving lives here on an otherwise dark day. Frank went public at DailyWire with the torture-chamber special-housing unit (SHU) known here as "the Burrito Cooker." Ryan interviewed Dana, Kevin, and others for Deconstructed about the human-rights violations endemic to this shadowy place. Walter took the CMUs to Forbes. Jordan wrote a hard-hitting feature for The American Conservative (and I very much look forward to Jordan's follow-up work, real soon, right Jordan?) John, himself a former modified-CMU prisoner, hacked away article after article about this place at Reader-Supported News and Consortium News and sat with Dana for Sputnik radio. And most recently, Dana again sat with RT's international TV news program, reaching over 700 million homes in 100 countries worldwide.
This reportage enjoyed a huge head start thanks to excellent prior work along the way by Eric (TheBlazeTV), Frank, Ted (Fox 25), Kevin (ShadowProof), Ryan (HuffPost then The Intercept), John, David (Rolling Stone), Michelle (everywhere plus CRTV and NewsmaxTV), Kelen (InfoWars), Alex (The New American), Elmira (RT), Mitchell (The New American), and others.
And all this reporting had a remarkable impact. Signs and portents bode badly for the CMU program. The demographic inside here has shifted dramatically away from politically inconvenient defendants. The job yet to be done in December 2019 is now largely completed. It's been a hell of a trip and I'm ready to move on.
Today, Ms. Eisele presented me with my MALE CUSTODY CLASSIFICATION FORM print-out from the BOP's chattel-tracking database, SENTRY, scoring me as a minimum-security prisoner, i.e. a camper. Thus---absent intervening shenanigans---I should soon be sent to a minimum-security federal-prison camp (FPC) within 500 driving miles of my primary residence. See 18 U.S.C. sec. 3621(b) (BOP's 500-driving-mile rule).
My understanding is that the BOP's website hosts an Inmate Tracker feature allowing the public to ascertain my location in (near) real-time.
Last week I submitted a written request to the CMU unit team requesting confirmation that my release address, i.e. my primary residence, is in the system correctly. This is the apartment that Dana and I have shared since before we'd ever heard of Justina and the troubled-teen industry. I am yet to receive the confirmation that I had requested that the system accurately reflects this address as my release address for the purposes of the BOP's 500-driving-mail rule, and tomorrow I shall inquire again at unit mail call.
Now, the BOP is not without tricks of its trade to send me to a low-security federal correctional institution (FCI) instead of a minimum-security camp. One of those tricks is the so-called "management variable." Even assigning me a management variable, however, would last a maximum six (6) months, after which I'd return to my true minimum-security classification. But I state unequivocally, for the record, that even now, in the CMU, where I've been held for 28 months and counting, my SENTRY print-out proves I am without a management variable. Further, as BOP aficionados may be curious to know, I am also without a public-safety factor (PSF) and assigning me one now would require much more trickery since I've never had one, even here in the CMU of all places.
Moreover, in light of the reportage enumerated above and its clear impact on the CMU program and Mr. Royer in particular, any effort by the BOP to assign me a brand-new management variable or public-safety factor from thin air, or to use an erroneous release address, would be clear retaliation in violation of The First Amendment and The Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA). Indeed, the relevant civil statute of limitations is yet to begin tolling on my continued CMU placement, which has ALWAYS been retaliatory and unlawful.
On a logistical note, I'll be without my property and commissary for some time if I transfer. Most federal prisons allow a "first time" commissary shopper to catch up. But please hold any commissary deposits until my new destination. My FRP-refusal status should not follow me (and today I requested a new FRP contract anyway).
The Homeowners' Champion ended his hunger strike today in a show of good faith that the administration likely won't reciprocate. He may hunger strike again. Everyday I'll pray for him and I hope you will too. He is a hero and his case is a travesty, an absurd injustice. And it's newsworthy---like many cases that have left here or which I'll likely now leave behind.
I am very cognizant the job is unfinished. Please do not let the light darken once I leave this place. Please make it shine brighter. The very idea of "communications-management units" is fundamentally un-American---and unconstitutional. Only at its peril does a free republic tolerate such "an abomination to civil liberty," as Jordan so aptly phrased it. Nothing is so offensive to a free press as the CMU program and the gratitude of the voiceless for being heard for the first time is life changing. The troubled-teen industry's creators would marvel at this place, as would Justina's abusers.
They must not win.
May THE LORD grant us Justice.
--MartyG signing off (hopefully) from the real-life Chateau d'If
