Animal Rights Activist Jailed at Secretive Prison Gives First Account of Life Inside a "CMU"

The prisons were opened by the Bush administration with little public scrutiny. The first CMU was opened in 2006 in a special, isolated wing of the federal prison in Terre Haute, Indiana. A second CMU was opened last year in Marion, Illinois.

Most of the prisoners held in the CMUs have been Muslim men, but the units have also held several non-Muslim political activists including environmental and animal rights activists.

The government has provided little information about the special prison units. A search on the Bureau of Prisons website yields just one document even mentioning the program.

The ACLU lawsuit marks the first high-profile legal challenge of the prisons.

While President Obama has pledged to close Guantanamo and secret overseas prisons, he has said nothing about these secretive prison units known by some prisoners as “Little Guantanamo.”

Today, in a Democracy Now exclusive, we speak to Andrew Stepanian, an animal rights activist who was held at the CMU in Marion Illinois. He is believed to be the first prisoner released from a CMU.

In 2006, Andrew Stepanian was sentenced to three years in prison for violating a controversial law known as the Animal Enterprise Protection Act. Stepanian and six others were jailed for their role in a campaign to stop animal testing by the British scientific firm Huntingdon Life Science. They were convicted of using a website to “incite attacks” on those who did business with Huntington Life Science. Together the group became known as the Shac 7.

Andrew Stepanian joins us here in the Firehouse studio as does his attorney Paul Hetznecker.

We are also joined in Washington DC by the journalist Will Potter. He runs the website GreenIsTheNewRed.com.

Andrew Stepanian, animal rights activist who recently served a 26-month federal prison sentence including six months in a Communication Management Unit in Marion, Illinois.

Paul Hetznecker, Philadelphia-based attorney representing Andrew Stepanian.

Will Potter, freelance reporter who focuses on how the War on Terrorism affects civil liberties. He runs the blog GreenIsTheNewRed.com.

Related Links

• GreenIsTheNewRed.com

Related Democracy Now! Stories

• “Little Guantanamo”–Secretive “CMU” Prisons Designed to Restrict Communication of Jailed Muslims and Activists with Outside World (4/17/2009)