The Epidemic of Control Units
An up close and personal look
into the addiction to control and terror

Contents

1. The State of Indiana‘s Administrative Segregation Controlled
Movenent

Onits.

2. The stat
Segregation.

3. Who are the considered high risk prisoners and those who
define the term.

s criteria for who's placed on Administrative

4. How long is €00 long - and do prisoners ever ses general
population
again.

5. Direct action and resolutions towards undeterminate
Administrative

Segregation.

6. A moment with the author.

The Epidemic of Control Units:

An up close and personal look into the addiction
to control and terror

"Pecple are alvays speculating - why i am as i am? To understand
that of any

whole life, from birth, must be reviewed. All our
fase into our personality. Everything that ever happened to us
s an

ingredient... i think that an cbjective reader may see how in the
society to

which 1 vas exposed as a (New Afrikan) black youth here in
Ameraxa, for me

o wind up in a prison was really just about inevitable.”
~ Malcoln X. 1965
The State of Indiana’s Administrative
Segregation Controlled Movement Units

AlL across the State of Indiana exist a prison institution.
These many

institutions have a time or another been developing new
alternatives of

Contzol. Once the state of political avareness began to sveep

throughout

these prisons, prison administrations acros
seek new vays’ .

2o control a prisoner’s movesents. While there is a distinct
disgerence ip

their application of (Indiana Prison Folicy), where it concerns
segregation,

Both measures constitute stricter confinement and isolation.
Disciplinary

Segregation is a fora of isolation varranted by a violation of
‘their codes

of prisoner conduct.

While Adainistrative Segregation is
and use of a

Specific unit, by prisoncrats of prisoners considered to be
potentially

Violent or have been violent, also these such units are used as
ware house:

Vhere prison organizers, agitators, or so-called street
organizational

Teaders are kept away from thé prison general population. ALl
access to a

Drisoner’s conrades, or associates are reduced to brief moments,

the State had to

discretionary application

on

Sccasions in passing during a visit.

Curtarely, Indiana Rave (3) contzol mit prisens, according to
Legal

torm of control units. The Maximum Control Facility in

Westville, Indiana,

Shich opated up'in 1991, the sight of much suictioned brutality,

Tesulting

in countiess lawsuits, which lead to a investigation of Amnesty

International and Human Rights Watch. The results of which a

publication

Zalled “cold Storage” was produced, exposing many forms of

abus.

The second unit is the (
Carlisle,

Indlana. The sight of many investigations launched into the
inherent abus

of prisoners by staff running it. A institution run by a
Southern 95% white

adsinistrative body, which speaks to the sbuses of mentally i1l

.0.), a Secured Housing Unit in

functionally illiterate prisoners also. The State of Indiana is
0 bent on

curtailing any or all potential violence that the existing
Adainistrative

Segregation units are now operating from the same (hand book)
these
Supernax) and (SHU) units are.
e Pritan Tnfamousty nowm as (e city vithia
it
Cel)tne’a Mninistrative Segregation unit called (Bast D-Cell

House
Adninistrative Segregation .) This unit came into existence
shortly after a

prison guard was stabbed and later died inside D-Cell House on
its Westside.

This entire area was called a preditor unit. Now one entire side
of a 300 to

300 man cell block houses A/S prisoners, fully cbserved by
electronically

controlled cameras for (10 floors), (5) floors on the west side
and () on

its east side. A/S prisoners only receive (1) hour out of 23
hours a day for

recreation.

The Pendleton Correctional Facility in Pendleton, Indiana also
maintains a

Adninistrative Segregation unit. This unit has been in existence
now for

nearly 15-16 years. Its existence is rooted in the history the
facility has

had in the past with prison uprisings. The sight of (2) prisoner
lead prison
takeovers and quards being stabbed cavsed the birth of a unit

(G-cel1-House Adninistrative Segregation (G-A-S.). This unit
also is

Connected to a “Preditor Unit” as termed by its staff, where the
worst of

the worst are housed. Kept and warehoused, away from the general
population,
by way of interacting with them, but not restricted from certain

recreational outlets like general population prisoners. This A/S
unit house:

up to (78) prisoners with (3) floors. In 2001 (all) priscners
were

Eransferred out to various prisons, so that comstruction to
renew (G.A.8.)
and (c-Celi-House) could begin. The prison grapevine reveals
that the unit

will be designed to promote further controlled moveaents. The
operation is

going to be functioning like a (ini Supermax) control unit.
Zike the

California and Texas styled units that have individual cement
recreational

runs. Something like “Dog Runs,” isolated spaces that separates
one prisoner

from another. Most new units bring with them disrespectful
prisoncrats

{ooking to nake names for theaselves, which will no doubt result
n i

and Human Rights violations. All prisoners under such forms of
abuse must

aatamlizh a 1ink tn antaida ranre

ntatives of aroups who will
help then
challengs the abused head on. Without collective representation
from real
good fresdom loving people, these institutions will continue to

get avay
with victinizing prisoners. The focus is the best interest of
prisoners.

The State’s Criteria for who's placed
on Mninistrative Segregation
Part o

Over a period of years, the State of Indiana has used a
discretionary set of
rules alien to prisoners, as to how they come up with these
criteria’s to
continue to justify placing prisoners on A/S, especially when
prisoners on
/S normally haven't committed no prison infraction.
only having been alleged to have or had the intentions do a
vielation to prison rules can land a prisoner on A/S. Also it's
been
thoroughly recorded that many prisoners after having

turn their g
) for whatever reason, convincing the

prisoner on A/S. 1'm avare of the Indiana law codes

When 1 looked last being a leader or educator isn't a crime.
organizing

study groups, religious studies, or teaching law isn't a crime
either. But

for some Teason these are actions prisoncrats are now using such
units for. -

#hile high profile prisoners who oppose the sanctioned abuse
overstand they’

11 always be targets, there still is a meed to confront and
expose the

unfair application of Indiana’s A/S criteria, because it is
zooted in

dfscrimination and subjectivity. Due to prisoncrats unchecked

bias, or

outright dislike, of of toward “revolutionary militant
prisoners,” all

Geterminations made by those prisoncrats on selective groups of
prisoners

ire 1008 subjectively done. Based on their personal belief and
not

cbjectively reviewing the person's adjustments. This is a
attitude

inherently voven into the prison system here inside Indiana.
New challenges to this control unit epidemic must be the focus
of any

argunent on the control unit criteria
then it's

incunbent on all A/S prisoners to draw-up blue prints which
would be

If they don’t exist,
suggestive of a (agreeable resolution.) If this process don't
begin to

occur, (Indiana Dept. of Correction officials) will continus to

silence in this
instance isn't

beneficial for A/S prisoners hoping to not spend their entire
prison temms

Confined on Administrative Segregation. This has been the case
for a

majority of the lot of A/S prisoners.

Adninistrative Segregation hers in Indiana has ultimately been
reduced to

wvarehouses, (“Hideaways”) for prisoners the prisoncrats simply
refuse to

deal with. With enough attention to the illegal selective
practice of A/S

units, things can slowly begin to change. Currently prisoners
have failed to

effoctively bring forth 3 challenge to Indiana’s. bogus A/8
criteria’s.

Hopefully priscners here in the State of Indiana will put their
ads

together. This sometimes isn‘t easy, when prisoncrats behind the
scenes are

(manipulating the environments) which creates unnecessary
hostile relations

between the prisoners.

Gradually prison relations between conscious New Afrikan
prisoners and

Conscious white prisoners will change. When this occurs, our
captors are

angered because prisoncrats over the years, have benefited off
prisoner

Conflicts. Unity is really despised by prisoncrats for its
potential to

Create a force from within the prisoners as a whole collective
unity on the

part of prisoners, when attempting to change their environment
should be

wanted by everyone. Stand up in defense of your right to be
treated fair

according to the Human Rights guaranteed you in this country. So
many

violations have occurred and never exposed.

The Criteria and Assignment to
G-Cell-House A/S

This application is so overly broad and it doesn’t state when
they’11 let a
prisoner out.
1. Past Conduct History:

A offender who has past histories of serious or continuing
patterns of

Violation which seriously disrupts the orderly running of the
facility and

the facility deems it necessary to control and/or restrict their
movement.

2. Gang Affiliations:

1f a gang affiliation exists, the following may be considered:
[ Gang leadership positions

() Intensive involvement in gangs or gang activities.

3. Incidents which indicates a prisoner is unable to adjust to a

normal
population setting:

%) The orderly running of the facility is effected by the
incidents;

(B) Contimed pr
presents
Sibstantial risk to the safety and security of staff and other
prisoners. g

i Confidential Information:

This is infornation gathered or received by the investigative
department or

from infornants considered reliable sources, which indicates the
prisones’s

Contamed presence n the population vould be detrinental to the
facility

and/or prisoner population.

nce of the prisoner in the population

5. History of escapes and/or attempted escapes:

&) Incidents involving possession of weapons;

(3) Incidents to where injury occurs as a result of the action
of the

escapee or attempted escapee;

(C) Continuing pattern of escapes or attempts to escapes
(D) Incidents involving the actual breaching of the fence or
wall of a

secured facility.

Those things outlined above is the criteria of their placing
prisoners on
A/S. But are also what's looked at when issues are discussed

jed back to the prison’s General Population.

elements
Bust focus in on if there is ever to be any effective changes to
the application of this criteria.
Who are”the Considered Aigh Risk
Prisoners and those who define the Term 7
Part Thre

Indiana prisons are overvhelming crowded, to the point of having
to send
many minimum security prisoners to other states to serve out
their
sentences. A private prison corporation called (CCA) Corrections
Corporation
of America is who runs most out of State contracts. People must
overstand
that prisons are places where all sorts of behaviors go on or
are born. Such
environments are abnormal, and being that it is this way,
violence or
brutality seems almost normal.

No one in prison are here for being a angel, while at the same
time some,
4f not the most, actions taken by prisoners against a staff
member or
another prisoner are sometines justifiabl
defend
themselves from “preditor instincts” of another badly troubled
prisoner or
from a brutal assault from guards, they will be somebody’s
victia. In most
cases involving prisoner violence is one of self-defense.
Defending yourseif
will land you on A/S units and you will be considered to be a
violent
prisoner.

1f prisoners don't

Some prisoners who are placed on (“high risk status”) almost
alvays are

buried deep inside a control unit or A/S. Some receive this

status if they’

ve been accused of attempting to

nay just be

good thinkers or prison organizers who they feel have influence

over other:

Prison counselors, internal affairs investigators, case managers
out.

the State of Indiana use (high risk status) to control a

prisoners

institutional movement. On this status they can prevent you from

Tequesting

a certain job assignment. They’re using this status so biasly to

underni,

many prisoners trying to integrate back into a “active” prison

population.

. This allows prisoncrats to keep the prison general population

ree of any

prisoners who possibly would harm staff members. Guilt from

(all) the wrongs

they do to prisoners compels a constant sense of fear in the

souls of those

responsible for applying the (high risk status) on prisoner:

cape from prison. Some others

Prison
counselors, case mange:
Dept. of

Corrections have been known to personally tell prisoners that
sone on A/S

may never 1ive down the reputations they acquired while inside
their

prisons. With that said, these prisoncrats establish their
reasons for

denying prisoners’ request to leave the Administrative
Segregation Unit:
The past prevents most prisoners’ files of conduct from being
reviewed

objectively. Most prisoncrats, counselor:
have the

authority to give a prisoner a fair shake, but it is a rare
occurrence in
Indiana.
Prisoners who have been accused of assault on staff, violeace
against
another prisoner, or being disruptive along with being
considered (a high
EsK), 'you vill be labeled (a threst to the safety asd sscurity
institution, staff, and other prisoners). The use of these
1abels benefits

unit team nanagers here in the Indiana

and case managers

extremely. All prisoners who are under these

demonized throughout the (ID0C) and state of Indians as & whole.

Prisons

also use A/S prisoners to ask for more State funds. They focus

on a heighten

sense of security and a call for more staff. A/S prisoners and

things they

¥ers accused of is blew-up by prisoncrats State vide when they

say it's

important to creats A/S unit:
The current use of

country must be

contested. Instead of it being a place to deter misconduct, it

has become a

S1ilegal varehouse” for those considered o be vayvard and

units by prisoncrats across the

o sting being a victim become a
crize. The
prison complex on a world scale, claims to be champions of
“Rehabilitation, ”
but they don’t rehabilitats
prisoners. When
they put labels on them like “high risk” or “security threat”
that hurts
prisoners more than it helps.

1,TheR You vonder hy ‘violence occur inside priscns on statf,
counselors, or
case managers, or unit managers. They are not the solution -
they are sinply
the problem where it concerns A/S units.

they create hate and frustrate
How 1ong is too long and do- Prisoners

ever see General Pogmnlat: .
Srer Popnlation agai:

ALl control units, disciplinary units, administrative
segregation units

alike are supposed to function on a set time frame. This time
frane would be

dependent on conduct, but you are supposed to be given the
chance to leave

these places of confinement. Control units here inside Indiana
must release

a prisoner after (2) years. No matter who they are or their
charge. What

changes this is the conduct of the prisoner. If prior to a
prisoner’s

pending (2) year release from the control unit, he receives a
infraction

considered major, it could alter his day to leave for
general
population,

Disciplinary units operate the same way, a prisoner receives a
fixed term

If 1t’s (1) year and he does it without any new

prisons. Prisoners on A/S fall under many categories, but for
all practical

purposes, in this release i am specifically focusing on
prisoners targeted

Py the prisoncrats and their cronies. Prisoners sanctioned to
s were

placed there by the prisoncrats, and not for comitting any rule
violations.

75% of guys on A/S are considered security threats to the
institution, men

who have the strength that other prisoners respect or look up
to, and for

Shat they aze hated by the prisoncrats across the State.
There exist a select class of prisoners in Indiana who are
shipped from one

A/S unit to another. Arbitrary treatment such as this, seems to
be.

“characteristically systemic,” used in a way that it seems they
want reveng

for some things done in a prisoner’s past, that the prisoncrats
never caught

a prisoner doing, but believe he was involved in all the same.
A/S units

have a unit tean that conducts (90) day reviews. These reviews
allovs the

prisoner to show his progress in good conduct and desire to be
sed into

general population. Cl
out of the

0% units. However, being good don't mecessaril: ean they'll
grant your

st As noted earlier, labeled like (high £3.<) or (security
threat) has

nficed in their circumventing objective revieus. The unit
teans are in the

eatmess of personalizing their determinations when it comes to

I conduct is the precondition to release

tho:
considered prons to be violent.
Hone oeg is too long? Well () yrs. of (23 hour) isolation is
oo long for
o moJpisoners here in Indiana on A/S status are spending wp
to 10-18
Soars isclated on A/S units, vith no designated date when they
will be
Y1) %8 release. Some of these men are usder clear conduct, with
foto 1
Ieace free of major infractions. Some of the
vith tailing
e e indltions. Due to lack of movement or exercise the husan
body begins

3¢ deterioration. But do they care, you all know the

men are elders

o prisoners are convicted of a crime and sentenced to prison,
the judge
Gian’t equally sentence prisoners to be forced further into
isolation. They

Izeady in prison, now they have prisoners locked up twice.
It's double
Jeopardy at its best, at the hands of these prisoncrats
controlling the
SoBiana Dept. of Corrections. In part five of this release i
hope to focus
on s more ‘Girect and mich needed approach that should be taken
na
Irallenge to the overvhelming long term sanctions placed on A/S
prisonexs.
§f there is no direct challenge to these actions by A/S
administrators scme

prisonars will die lnside these unics and be regarded as

Garbage, as

S thing. No human being should have to suffer in this vay.

oisongis on A/8 are restricted from all things the general

ation

P hacners doss that entales mobility. A/S prisoners are
corted, to the

Siting room, hospital, property ¥oom, in handcutfs and

shackles. If

Sitnessed by people in the free world, it will look like

something you see

on a slave plantation.

Direct Actions and Resolutions towards

undeterninate Adninistrative Segregation Terms 1
Part Five

When the “Supermax~ first opened here in Indiana prisoners were
being beat

Up and dehumanized. The same was the case with the second
control unit

“8.H.U.” here. But it’s very important to remember that after a
series of

hungerstrikes, demonstrations by the prisoners’s famili
outside these

control units, as well as a series of lawsuits, these direct
actions brought

enough attention to abuses occurring. The media got involved
locally,

prisoners began létter campaigns to newspapers on a underground
and above

ground level.

Groups like Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International
launched the most.

Lndepth tnvestigations into abuses also. After they toured these
control

units, conducting interviews with prisoners, the victins of such
abuses,

slowly the atmosphere began to change on these units. Almost 10
years since

Ehe intervievs and investigations it seems to be moving tovard
the o

patterns of abusive tendencies again.

Between the month of April, May and June of 2002 a series of
abuses_took

place by guards a the “Supermax” control unit in Westville,
Indiana, on the

A/S wing of Supermax where many prisoners from Pendleton
Correctional

Facility A/S wing prisoners are being held. History where it
concerns the:

types of uni
families, no
real change will come to stop the illegal application on who
1eaves A/:
units and who stays.

ys, no collective response from prisoners’

*Suggestion to Direct Action *

) Collective Unity:

A/S prisoners must begin to exchange ideas
should be

changed about A/S units.

(2) Hungerstrikes:

/8 Prisonera know that this is a real attention grabber, but
its use in

certain instances are being undermined by prison officials.
There must be

to what they feel
new aiternatives to gain tne meaia’s atTention, leaving a
hungerstrike as

the poasibly last resort, becsuse they will let priscners die 12
novadays.

[ Outside families voi

A/S prisoners have failed in recent years to incorporate their

families into

a collective voice. That could serve as a A/S prisoners advisory

group,

Vorkihg in conjunction with their loved ones on A/S. Their

voices vill be

heard loudly if they are brought together.

o) ‘Attorney for A/S complaints:

The familles of A/S prisoners who have spent over (5) years on

/8 could

ool recourses together to represent these prisoners in a class

act 1983

lavsuit.

[0) Petitions:

/8 prisoriers should create a draft petition, which expose the

use of A/S.

Generate coples for every prisoner

will be to

6t 1,000 signatures from where they live. Once complete copies

VAIL be sent

Yo Governor O'Bannon, and (ID0C) Comnissioner Evelyn

Ridley-Turner. This

will allow them to see famili

s

prisoners.:

© ‘Emergency response family network system:

/8 prisoners must encourage their family members to share and

compile a

Tia% of Ghone mumbers, faxes, and e-aall addresses, 30 that vhen
tine

omes for a large response from the outside, they all can be on

point with

%ach other. This response has proven effective in other are:

@ Prisoner letter campaign:

/3 prisoners must also be prepared to draw up their own

personal complaints

Zn their treatment on A/S units, to also be sent to prison

family. Who's responsible

are upset with the treatment of

and the Governor of their respective States.
A Moment with the Author
Part Six p

13

ny name is Bro. Khalfani Malik Khaldun, a New Afrikan
George Jackson

Styled Political Prisoner, who has been in prison now since
1987. i am not

the Political Prisoner in the traditional sense, as my fellow
conrades, who

were engaged in the Domestic resistence with this kountries
political agents

prior to their imprisonment. These comrades became targets in a
var launched

bY (J. Bdgar Hoover) which lead to “Cointelpro,” the
counter-intelligence

Pprogram that caused the destruction of the Black Panther Party
and lead to

countless arrest:

my political consciousness came several years into the
early stages of

doing time. Many forms of resistence to the brutal conditions
existing

inside the many prisons I became exposed to. With the ever
increasing cases

of prisoners being beaten by guards, invoked in me and other
ones a desire

to tempt our fate in some challenges, which culminated into a
culture of

rebellion and resistence in many of the prisons colonized inside
Indiana.

Not saying that many others weren’t engaged in wvars with
prisoncrats because

their struggles are the foundations which gave rise to our
struggles. The

older comrades paved the way for the emergence of a small
resistence
movement.

These challenges landed many of us on lock-up (23) hours
aday for many

years, We organized classes, created political study libraries,
which 'lead

to a gradual transformation in the prison communiti
Political

Bevolutionary consciousness grew, we became targets due to the
influence we

shared with other prisoners. Placed in tramsit, they separated
me from ny

comrades. They opened up the “Supermax” attempting to destroy
the unity

building, as well as stunt our growth and development.
Personally 1 have

been isolated from general populations across the State since
1989, close to

(14) "years due to actions taken by me to help raise the
conscious

. hs

Wa enbraced the concept: of the (New Afrikan Independence
sovesent) «

Thus, acknowledging our rights as a (New Afrikan Nation) inside 1 ‘i
0.,

Boriers. We educated New Afrikan prisoners on the (RA) and when

it came to

be. Now, over 90% of Black conscious prisoners see themselves as
ew

Afrikans, as opposed to Afrikan-Amerikans.
4 am a new breed of Political Prisoner:
countless
other., vho made their transformation once inside prison. We are
the “arorge
Jackso * Styled Political Prisoners for he too found his
humanicy after
coming to prison. Like George Jacksen, whe sutfered retaliation
due to his
Work to transform the California prison system by (CDOC)
officials. i too
have suffered the same fate. After a successful prisoner strike
was
organized on a unit D/S at the Pendleton Correctional Facility,
one_in which
T played a instrumental role, we who launched the strike were
‘transferred to
the Indiana State Prison. That strike consisted of New Afrikan
and White
erisoners.
We began to educate prisoners at the (ISP) in ways of
challenging
oppressive conditions. On Administrative Segregation we filed a
class action
Suit that scared State officials at the facility that prompted
them to
D-Cell-House, also
known as the preditor unit.
1" organized a Political Study cl:

along with the

, which aided prisoners
Studies, ‘and within (6) months a fully functional

were

Saaaites-to be completed vhen they returned the books. NY
activities and

actions during this time caused the prisoncrats to suspect my
Botives,

because prisoners were now challenging disrespectful guards
stopping the

pattern of abuse that was a norm.
on Dec. 13, 1994 a guard was stabbed and later died from
(2) stab

wounds, one in the neck, the other in the heart. Shortly after
this incident

they came after me and one of my guys. After several hours of
failed

interrogations 4 was taken to “Supermax” the control unit, where
i was later

told murder charges were being filed against me. On Jam. 31,
1995 1 vas

finger printed by Indiana State Police and read the warrant for
murder. This

Tead to what cylminated into a series of court appearances that
ted for

(7) years before a definite trial date vas set.

The days and months, which lead up to the trial, i was
forced to endure

retaliations and all kinds of harassment from the prisoncrats. i
also

experienced many forns of racism. The trial set to begin March
26, 2001

laited (6) cays, ve ended 1w vith & a1 white Juzy, vho returned
a guilt;
feTitet astor (8) hours of deliberation.

‘They sentenced me to (60 yrs.) in prison, and left me to
tight for my
1ife. They never presented a single eyewitness saying they sav
ne commit

this act. Having seen firsthand the real face of those people
running these

prisons i'm in a position to expose the brutality i have seen
comnitted

against prisoners by overly aggressive guards. These pecple call
e 4

Ccrininals, but their actions and abuse also are criminal.

Bro. Khalfani Malik Knaldun 874304
(Leonard Mcguay) A3-102

?.0. Box 557

Westville, TN 46391

© Copyrighted 2002 K.M.K.

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