Cross posted from Blue Indiana
A new prison facility in Terre Haute, Indiana is housing "potential terrorists" and requiring that they communicate exclusively in English, or forfeit their right to free speech. The Tribune-Star has a more extended piece on the new facility in Terre Haute that is raising eyebrows both in Indiana, and by first amendment organizations.
The U.S. Justice Department has opened a new unit at the medium-security prison in Terre Haute to monitor communications of its inmates more closely, which could include lower-risk offenders convicted of or associated with terrorism, a Bureau of Prisons spokeswoman said.
The Washington Post has reported that the unit houses "a hodgepodge of second-tier terrorism inmates, most of them Arab Muslims, whose ability to communicate with the outside world has been tightly restricted."
The self-contained unit opened in December and has about 17 inmates, although that number eventually could expand to 90, said Traci Billingsley, Bureau of Prisons spokeswoman.
Officials are quick to distance the program from the label of a "terrorist prison," but the details seem to tell a different story.
The so-called "Communications Management Unit," or CMU, "isn't a terrorist unit," she said.
The purpose of the CMU "is to provide increased monitoring of inmate communication in a self-contained unit. It assists in regulating and monitoring communication between inmates and those in the community," she said.
Those convicted of or associated with domestic or international terrorism "may be candidates for this unit," Billingsley said.
It eventually will house a variety of inmates, including sex offenders who try to communicate with victims or inmates who try to conduct illegal activity by phone or mail.
At first glance, the article seems to be implying that the fact this unit contains mostly "Arab Muslims" is almost coincidental, but as the description of the program continues, the project seems specifically designed to target non-native speaking inmates.
Telephone, mail and in-person communications of CMU inmates are closely monitored, and some advocates say the measures are too restrictive and perhaps unconstitutional. All inmate conversations, both by telephone and in-person, must be conducted in English unless otherwise negotiated.
Under the CMU program, telephone communications must be conducted using monitored phone lines, be live-monitored by staff, are subject to recording and must be in English. All letters must be reviewed by staff prior to delivery or sending; those written in non-English are subject to delays because they first must be read and translated.
Visits must be non-contact only, live-monitored, subject to recording and English only. If either party speaks non-English without prior approval, the call or visit will be terminated.
The only exception to the procedures is for privileged attorney-client communication, which cannot be monitored.
I understand the need to monitor the communications of some inmates. I understand the potential difficulties in finding adequate translation services. But when you begin to have programs such as this that directly mandate the use of English by prisoners, it certainly comes across as institutionalized racial profiling, and raises more questions for me than it answers.
I am by no means a legal scholar however, so I would be interested in hearing the thoughts of anyone else as to the potential constitutionality of this program.