30 years in solitary
Angola prisoner faces new repression
By Leslie George
Angola 3 Committee
Herman Wallace of the Angola 3 has been sentenced to Camp
J., the Louisiana State Penitentiary's solidarity
confinement/punishment camp, following a disciplinary hearing
on March 13.
The Angola 3 are Wallace, Albert Woodfox and Robert King
Wilkerson. The three fought for prison reform in the early
1970s. As a result, prison officials framed them for crimes
they did not commit. Wilkerson was released on Feb. 8,
2001.
Wallace and Woodfox, who created a chapter of the Black
Panther Party behind bars in the early 1970s, remain locked
down 23 hours a day. On April 18, 2002, they will have been in
solitary for 30 years.
Now prison officials claim they found a small piece of metal
in Wallace's cell during a shakedown on March 11--the third
shakedown of Wallace's cell that week. Officials allege they
found contraband after searching his cell while he was out in a
"yard" for exercise. They claim the piece of metal, which
Wallace adamantly denies having, could be used to open
handcuffs.
Wallace believes he was set up in part because of a pending
American Civil Liberties Union suit against state officials for
his long-term solitary confinement.
At a disciplinary hearing, Wallace challenged the
authorities to give him and the officer who searched his cell a
lie detector test, but his request was denied and he was found
guilty.
At Camp J., Wallace will lose even the few privileges he is
afforded in his current solitary confinement status. He has
already been stripped of all his property except for writing
materials, a dictionary and his copy of "Lockdown America" by
Christian Parenti. He will be forced to wear leg irons during
his three hours per week of solitary exercise in a fenced-in
cage. Phone calls are limited to one per month.
For more information, visit www.Angola3.org.
Reprinted from the April 4, 2002, issue of
Workers World newspaper
This article is copyright under a Creative
Commons License.
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