Just sent. I am not the greatest writer but here it is;

I am writing today to express my opposition to Central Management Units (CMU's) within our prison systems. Until recently, I wasn't even aware there were such places. The very existence of “secret” prisons are unconstitutional and violate a prisoner's rights. They are not even allowed to appeal these secret transfers or to get an explanation about why they are being sent there. Being kept in isolation is inhumane. Why do they not have the ability and the right to appeal to the courts? It is cruel and unusual treatment not allowing the prisoner's the ability to communicate with family members, and friends. The lack of physical contact takes a toll on families and further punishes the inmate emotionally. There are no specific reasons given for this abusive treatment.

These men and women are political prisoner's and are locked away for crimes that the government wants to keep from the public's view. They are not even told why they are being kept at these facilities and most have no prior history of communications violations or disciplinary problems of any kind. So why are they there? Why hasn't the government until now, allowed the public to voice their opposition, support or opinions about this topic? The public should have had a say before these places where even allowed to be opened. In a democracy, prisoner's still have the right to due process. I strongly oppose these secret prisons and demand that they are closed.

Sincerely,
Lisa Wilson

This is a great letter, Lisa! Thanks for posting!

My understanding of this proposition is limited to my knowledge. However it seems to me an infringement on basic rights of communication and an act of inhumanity. It frightens me how a government that is supposed to be by the people could become so disconnected with pivotal decency. Such facilities should be a crime.

I submitted this brief comment to the proposed rulemaking on-line. This is an outrage!! Keep up the great work.

“Communication Management Units should be closed as they violate basic human rights and due process. The inmates currently held in the two CMUs in the U.S. are denied contact with friends and family, privileged communication with legal counsel and other constitutionally protected due process rights. These men, who are disproportionately Muslim and political activists, have not be charged with substantive violent crimes, yet they are labeled as terrorists and kept in secretive, restrictive political prisons for years.
As federal prosecutors have failed to establish a compelling reason for such draconian treatment, CMU incarceration amounts to cruel and unusual punishment. The prisoners held in CMUs must be matriculated into the general prison population and the CMUs must be closed for violating prisoners' rights.”
Sincerely, Lucy Goodrum

Great! Thanks Lucy!

Submitted 5/10/10: I am vehemently opposed to CMUs. They are secretive in nature and deny prisoners due process in that they are unable to appeal their assignment to a CMU, nor is there a review process by which inmates can earn their way out of a CMU. Inmates in CMUs experience extremely limited communication with loved ones and family over the telephone, and are denied any physical contact in their rare visits, even with their children. The new regulations are even more restrictive, with only one phone call allowed per month (with immediate family only), and only ONE 3-page letter in or out. How is any inmate able to have a thriving relationship with family with these punitive restrictions? I can't even imagine what an inmate with no family would go through! I am also very concerned that the population of CMUs is exclusively either Muslim or political prisoners. Designation to CMUs appears to be solely retaliatory. All of the concerns a CMU is intended to address can be addressed through proper monitoring at any federal facility that already exists. CMUs amount to cruel and unusual punishment and should be dissolved immediately.

Mine is not much of a letter, but I believe it makes all the important points.

There are 3 things very wrong with these “Communications Management Units” (read: secretive political prisons):
1. The CMUs violate basic due process rights.
2. CMUs are cruel and inhumane and violate basic human rights.
3. Political prisons have no place in a democracy.

Inmate rights are virtually stripped of inmates in these “political prisons,” who should be notified of transfers to prisons, and allowed to make an appeal against such a transfer, but are not granted these rights. CMU detainees are denied their right to know why they are being singled out for harsher punishment. However, it is not just inmate rights that are violated. Basic human rights are violated in CMUs, where restrictions are tougher than some of the most extreme prisons in the country. The CMUs are designed to detain “problems” the government does not want to deal with, and does not want in the public eye. This processes is dangerously undemocratic and does not belong in these United States of America.

Here in Israel we live terrorism everyday by watching local news. And even that we live like this, the terrorist that were capturated have access to human rights. If wasn’t like that, the Us and some other countries would protest against it. So, I was wondering, why the US government is so afraid to let environmentalists like Andy Stepanian communicate during prison? On my opinion, when I go some centuries behind, I see La Place la Bastille. That in the end the freedom has prevailed. There is nothing that governments can do against the people who understand that we (as society) are developing in a wrong way. If they want to keep the policy to shut up environmentalist, they will have to expect to expend lots of money in institution like this CMU’s.

Here's the comment I just posted (short & sweet):

I am strongly opposed to the construction and use of CMUs. Considering the current level of violation of our own citizens' privacy and free-speech rights, the prospect of a legal system of shadowy incommunicado detention is frightening.

Transferring a person to a secretive facility with no advance notice, justification, or even chance to appeal is a violation of a that person's rights. Making this technically legal will not make it right.

Shutting political prisoners off from the outside world to prevent them from speaking and being heard is not democratic. This warped sense of justice and the war on our own citizens needs to end.

I'd like to reiterate that American political prisoners are already being subjected to these illegal conditions. To legalize CMUs would only justify these tactics and give the government further boundaries to push and test.

Here's what I wrote.

I oppose the existence of the Communications Management Units and want them abolished. I believe they are shockingly Orwellian in nature and further add to the list of secretive, Unconstitutional policies that have been the legacy of the so-called War on Terror. I believe that people should be subject to due process, instead of being spirited away to clandestine sites and prisons with special designations, to deprive them of their rights and seclude them from their families and legal support structure. I should also point out that the make-up of these Units are inordinately composed of Muslim men and are therefore a racist tool in the government's possession. Creating special rules for certain classes of criminals that deny them basic rights is disgusting and I'm ashamed to live in a country where measures like this are even considered.

My comment:

I am opposed to the creation and implementation of the CMU's. The US Government should not be in the business of curtailing human rights, it should instead be promoting and defending them. Secretive, political prsions belong only in the pages of dystopian novels like '1984' and should not become an accepted part of our world. The use of secret detention facilities in other parts of the world has only brought criticism and condemnation upon the USA – we should be focused on eliminating these abroad, not on creating more of them here.

In solidarity,
KCG

Here what I commented :

These political prisons are unethical and anti-democratic and I can't support legislation that would allow them to exist. they violate due process rights and many of the people sent there haven't done anything not protected by the first amendment, not that they are allowed to argue this point, becuase many aren't even told why they're being singled out to be sent to these units.

this is locking people up for being effective and it's wrong. if the government wants to shut people up, they should prove them wrong, not just rip them from their lives and silence them altogether. when did we become that kind of country?

these units are another step on a road that we as a country, that our founding fathers and mothers never wanted us to go down. it's not to late to turn around and go in the right direction.

Word, Potter. Thanks for posting this.
Love and Rockets,
Jess

To Whom it May Concern,
As a citizen who is proud of this country's commitment to the rule of law and upholding the rights outlined in the Bill of Rights, I'm appalled by very existence of the Communication Management Units and I do NOT want to see them become a permanent part of the American penal landscape.

Contrary to the stated goals of the CMUs, their purpose is not to protect the American people but to punish political dissent. Infinging on the rights of prisoners because the US government does not agree with their political views is a gross abuse of power that is wrong in all scenarios and particularly wrong in that it is selective. Slapping the title of terrorist on non-violent offenders is baffling at best, and with the advent of CMUs can result in cruel and unusual punishment at worst.

I urge lawmakers respect the Constitutional and Human rights of all prisoners and to abolish these illegal penitentiaries immediately.
Sincerely,
Jessica Levy

Just submitted:
CMUs are a very bad idea – for the prisoners, for democracy, for our system. I am very against the idea of CMUs and encourage you to shut them down. Please do not extend them permanently. CMUs are a total violation of human rights – not allowing prisoners to see their families during visitation time. Holding prisoners in secretive areas is very scary and does not belong in the 21st century America.

Just submitted this:

Prisoners are not stripped of their due process constitutional rights their human rights upon conviction of a crime. This statute, as written, leaves the door wide open for a variety of legal challenges. The statute appears to be on shaky due process ground due to the lack of notice given to transferees and the lack of transferees' ability to challenge their transfer without the benefit of any meaningful review process or external oversight, especially if such transfer is deemed to be punitive. The statute also appears to warrant human rights or cruel and unusual punishment challenges due to the intense isolation of the prisoners without adequate due process protections. Furthermore, if this statute is enforced in a similar manner that such units have been since their inception, it also appears to be open to equal protection, freedom of religion, speech, and association claims due to the overwhelming majority of prisoners being Muslim or political beliefs. All of these problems with the statute are especially problematic due to the lack of necessity of such units as the general prison population is subject to communications monitoring and regulations.

[...] New Red, who has been tracking the CMUs for some time, provides all the relevant information in this post, which we are running in full. The comments section of the post includes sample statements that [...]

I can't imagine that our government would condone the use of such barbaric measures to contain inmates in prison. This is torturous. It is total sensory deprivation. How can anyone believe that this type of confinement is to the benefit of anyone. Do they not understand the statistics that tell us that 98% of all inmates will return to the streets someday. The strategies learned in prison for behavioral management will return these men to the streets angry and much more hostile than when they entered the system. Who is the absolute 'moron' making these decisions, Hitler reincarnate. The purpose for the secrecy is to prevent the public from learning of these sick tactics. Dear God what have we come to?

From the regulations.gov site, it looks as tho' you can submit comments on the CMUs until June 7th.

Hi Kate. Yep, that's right. We've been telling folks the 2nd because the Center for Constitutional Rights is trying to round up comments by that day (they're one of the groups challenging CMUs in court).

My comment just submitted:

I am writing to register my grave opposition to the US' use of Communicationa Management Units (CMUs) and to register extreme opposition to the proposal that these units be made permanent. It's actually hard to believe that in our country, which is supposed to lead the world in democracy, we have gotten so terribly derailed and have had to resort to this cruel, inhumane and immoral form of detention, a form of detention which also quite clearly violates international legal definitions of basic due process rights and human rights. Rather than continuing to use CMUs and indeed building new CMUs, the US should instead be outlawing the use of CMUs immediately.

This is truly a frightening move. The prison system in this country is already far more politically driven than most citizens realize. At what point along the movement into fascism does it become impossible for the people to stop it. I don't think we should wait to see.

WOW>. this is AMERICA?
this is so sad,,,, I hope to gawd this sort of prison is reserved for ONLY Greedy politicians, Greedy Earth corrupters and members of the BOP and corrupt prison officials and employees…

yeah … nothing is as inhumane as this…. what is it to accomplish? what sadisitc bastard allows such censorship? this not only violates the typical 8th amendment RIGHT, but Our GIVEN FIRST AMENDMENT RIGHTS>… never would I think AMERICAN could be so SICK and DEPRAVED

So we have a winner! I printed out the comments page, numbered them, and then asked someone to randomly pick a number. And the winner is (drumroll…) Alexis Cornell! I'll email her privately for an address to send the copy of Dean Kuiper's book.

Thanks to everyone for submitting comments!