Hello. My name is brother Khalfani Malik Khaldun, Indiana political prisoner. I am calling from Indiana Department of Corrections at the Wabash Valley Correctional Facility.
In September of this year, September 6, the Indiana Department of Corrections at Wabash Valley shut down an entire population unit called G Housing Unit and converted it into a Restricted Movement Unit, under the guidelines that they needed more security for guys who were being unruly and disruptive inside the Indiana Department of Corrections. However, the majority of the guys that they placed in this unit had no recent conduct, who had jobs. We went to religious services, we had equal access to the general library and the law library where we could work on our cases and have access to the courts and things of that nature. None of us was advised that we were being held or being reclassified and placed under this new criteria called Restricted Movement Unit.
The things that they denied us were: They took us away from our jobs. They took us away from being able to go and have congregational prayers with our respective religions. They took us away from having the ability to go and personally, and individually, work on our cases at the law library. They cut us off from being able to participate in other programs, which are rehabilitative and self help programs, yet they claim to be promoters of rehabilitation. They have a tendency of continuing to disconnect us from our families by disconnecting us from the visiting room as well, placing us on non-contact visitation, and things of that nature. Me, personally, you know, I’ve been out of trouble. I haven’t had any violence. I haven’t had any, you know, threats against staff. I haven’t had any escape charges or anything like that, and I’ve been in the general population now for five years, prior to them placing me under restricted movement on September 6.
So, me and a bunch of the guys got together and we decided to file a class action 1983 civil complaint to expose that they had placed a majority of us under the criteria of restricted movement without properly serving us notice and giving us access to due process and equal protection under the law. So they violated our 14th Amendment right to the Constitution. They violated our rights to be free from cruel and unusual punishment, and they also denied us the right to have congregational prayers with our respective religions, which would be a 1st Amendment violation of the United States Constitution.
We’re going to continue to fight. They removed me out of the unit last Thursday in an attempt to pacify me and another guy, and hopefully we would drop the lawsuit. It is not my plan to drop the lawsuit. I’m going to pursue it, even if I have to do it pro-se and go into court by myself and represent the guys who are being wrongfully housed in this unit. They’re a bunch of good guys – they’re conduct free, they’re religious guys, they’re model prisoners. Some of them are activists, some of them are political prisoners, and I believe they used this moment to open this unit to specifically target guys who they did not want to be in the general population. Or for some other reason – it could be something personal – they didn’t like these guys and they used the guise of using the Restricted Movement Unit to isolate these guys as well as myself.
You can check out our website at [www.idocwatch.org/], and you can, you know, keep up with everything that’s going on with us here in Indiana. I appreciate your support. You can write me directly at, Leonard McQuay or Khalfani Malik Khaldun, #874304, Wabash Valley Correctional Facility, PO Box 1111, Carlisle, Indiana, 47838. Thank you for your support. Power to the people. Thank you.
These commentaries are recorded by Noelle Hanrahan of Prison Radio.