Oregon Holds BLM Protestor in Solitary Confinement for 250 Days
On November 29, 2024, Malik Muhammad, 25, ended a nine-day hunger strike protesting nearly 250 days that he was held in solitary confinement at the Oregon State Penitentiary. His time in solitary exceeded the state Department of Corrections’ (DOC) policy limiting such isolation to no more than 90 days.
Muhammad is serving concurrent 10-year state and federal terms for throwing a Molotov cocktail at Portland cops during a 2020 Black Lives Matter (BLM) protest. Though confined in the same cell the whole time he has been held in isolation, DOC has changed his housing classification several times—each time resetting the 90-day clock on his solitary confinement.
DOC spokesperson Stephanie Lane said that Muhammad has been in the prison’s Behavioral Health Unit (BHU), which “is not the same as the Disciplinary Segregation Unit (DSU), although both units are within our Special Management Housing.” Using these various designations, said Civil Liberties Defense Center Litigation and Advocacy Director Lauren Regan, “DOC is attempting to sort of sneak this under the radar.”
According to Muhammad, who is a Black U.S. Army veteran with PTSD, his stint in isolation began after he was singled out by white guards who bumped him off the phone to let a white prisoner use it. When he demanded an explanation, he said that a group of 10 guards stormed his cell and Tasered him before placing him in isolation.
Though DOC is required to bring in a medical team to evaluate a prisoner within 48 hours after beginning a hunger strike, Regan said that no one came to Muhammad’s cell for at least six days. The only other person incarcerated as long for a crime committed during a BLM protest was Alan Swinney, a Proud Boys member convicted of firing paintballs and bear mace at protestors like Muhammad.
Source: The Intercept
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