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CONTROL UNIT ABUSE: Bonnie Kerness Interviews Political Prisoner Jalil Muntaqim


Jalil Muntaqim captionPhoto of political prisoner Jalil Muntaqim


Effects and Uses of Control Units
This is Bonnie Kerness recording Jalil Muntaqim in
an interview for the hearings on control units held on April 27, 1996 in Philadelphia.



Bonnie Kerness: Jalil, how are you?

Jalil Muntaqim: I'm doing pretty good Bonnie.

B: Jalil, can you please give us your assessment on the purposes of a control unit, your experiences with control units either yourself or with others that you know


J: Well my experiences with control units have basically been based upon my political activism inside the prisons and of course through the nature of my case having been a member of the Black Panther Party and Black Liberation Army. In this understanding, or based upon this type of experience I have been placed in control units for what has often been considered organizing or teaching prisoners.


My experiences have been of sensory deprivation and, of course, isolation. In NY State, as an example, and particularly in the Elmira institution, there are prison cells that are for the most part, sensory deprived. There are no visuals outside of the cells, except for the back of the cells which is a doorway, which looks directly towards a wall. Also the ventilation is very bad, there is no peripheral vision. My experience there in Elmira has been one where they had many individuals there who were mentally impaired. So they would make noise all hour, of the day and all hours of the night.


B: Just so you know, we are seeing this all over the country. The mentally ill, very many of the folks who are let out of the hospjtals onto the streets and filtered into the prisons, are now in control units. In NJ we had one man who had been tormented to death.

J: Well, it's been similar. I have not confronted anything that led to anyone's death, but I have had times where I've experienced individuals who are so mentally out of it that they had to be restrained, sedated and in certain instances removed from the control unit and sent to outside hospitals because they could not handle the situation any more.

B: Jalil, can you talk a little bit about some of the feelings about being inside of a sensory deprivation cage? The claustrophobic feelings, any other things you may have experienced.

J: Yes, definitely. My last experience, I did in fact have an anxiety attack. I was subject to feelings of being closed in and unable to breathe from the ventilation system. The anxiety is more or less a panic attack. My ability to handle it has worked in trying to calm my nerves, going into meditation, trying to exercise, trying to create another mental environment, think about other things. Just basically trying to control myself from not succumbing to such panic attacks.

B: Can you talk a little bit more about your experience with the political uses of these isolation units?


J: Well, for instance in CA as one of my experiences, when I was in the Adjustment Center in San Quentin, they had an area they called "max-B" where they kept individuals who they felt were capable of influencing the prison population. Either they were considered to be gang menibers or they were considered to be political as was my case. What they did was essentially to corral us into tweny-three hour lock-ins and leave us there. They had no programs, no way to validate one's existence other than your own personal ability to find something to read or trying to communicate outside of your cell, more often than not, through loud talking.

But yes, they use it as a way to isolate individuals who they consider to be political and prevent them from influencing the general prison population. Naturally, when it comes time for individuals to reach their parole date, that is a strike agalnst them.


B: You mean because they were placed in a control unit, it is a strike against them?


J: Right, whether they did anything or not.

Then there is also the situation whereby there is a lack of communication to the outside world. You're not having the opportunity to get onto the phone as regularly. Or your mail is being tampered with by the administrators. Those who control the control units feel that they can do that with impunity, due to the fact that you are isolated.


B: Right, and we're seeing that all over the country too. With people in isolation, the tampering with the mail is much, much more prevalent.

J: Tampering as well as censorship, you know, so you don't have the type of information that one would say supports your ideas or your politics.


B: People will be listening to this tape who don't know very much about control units, about control unit conditions, about the purposes for control units. Is there anything that we haven't talked about?


J: I think another thing that is important to understand as far as control units is the experiences of additional constraints or restraints. For instance going to and from the shower, going to and from the one hour recreation period. Often times they would handcuff a person and essentially make them defenseless against any provocations by the administrators. And that's a concern. In CA, naturally, because of the gangs, they can restrain a person and essentially set him up to be injured when they would let out a rival gang member while the other person is restrained in handcuffs or some other type of restraints. So those are concerns that people should really consider in their deliberations on the issues of control units.


B: Yeah, in Jersey they shackle them and in Florence (CO) they submit them to anal probes coming and going. Which is pure humiliation, it has nothing to do with security.


J: It's degrading. And those are ways in which they try to break a person down psychologically.


B: Which is the ultimate aim.


J: Sure


B: Jalil, thank you very much, it was good to talk to you.
J: You're welcome.

For more information on Control Units or Political Prisoners and Prisoners of War write to:

Sundiata Acoli (Squire)
39794-066 I Box 3000
White Deer, PA 19887


Jalil Muntaqim (Bottom)
772A4283/BOX338
Napanoch, NY 12458


Bonnie Kerness
972 Broad Street
Newark, NJ 07012
201-643-3192

Prisoners addresses may change