The man who received the harshest federal sentence in connection with 2020 protests against police brutality has been in solitary confinement for more than 250 days. Last Friday, Malik Muhammad ended a nine-day hunger strike undertaken in protest of his solitary confinement at Oregon State Penitentiary.
At the height of Black Lives Matter protests in 2020, Muhammad, a disabled Army combat veteran diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder, had traveled from Indiana to protests in Kentucky and Oregon.
According to court documents, Muhammad participated in firearms training in Kentucky and later threw a Molotov cocktail at police in Oregon. In 2022, at 25 years old, he pleaded guilty to 14 felonies and received a 10-year prison sentence.
“We are talking about a conditions-of-confinement issue,” said Muhammad’s attorney, Lauren Regan, director of litigation and advocacy at the Civil Liberties Defense Center. The group advocates for civil liberties for political prisoners and took on Muhammad’s case last month. “Malik is designated 100 percent disabled as a combat veteran because of extreme PTSD. And the Department of Corrections knows that.”
Despite his conditions, Muhammad has been in solitary confinement for more than 250 days. His solitary confinement followed an incident where Regan said Muhammad asked to speak to a supervisor, and instead guards tased and beat him, then threw him in the hole.
90 days is still torturing someone for three months straight.
Disgusting.
250 days in the hole, not 90.
Right, I was saying that even the legal maximum allowance was already cruel and now they’ve almost tripled it.
Sorry, I didn’t even know there was a legal max. Good thing laws that protect people don’t mean shit anymore.
No worries, we’re all commenting here because it’s outrageous. I’m right there with you.
90 days in solitary is still insanely high. It should be like a weekend max if that
250
Two hundred and fifty days in the hole.
Yeah, that’s absolute fucking torture, because of crimes he committed partly due to ptsd. Solitary confinement in general is considered torture by psychologists who study it.
If it was done to POWs it would be a war crime.
And he was doing civil disobedience! Protesting is our right. I don’t give a shit if he threw a molotov as long as he didn’t hurt anyone innocent.
Any benefits he might have had with the VA for his disability have likely been revoked because of this. I have a buddy who caught some federal charges for arguing with VA cops while we were in a VA hospital getting treatment for ptsd, and he’s had to really fight to keep his benefits. I actually don’t know if he was successful. I hope Malik isn’t forgotten and he has support when he is released.
Compare this 10 year sentence to the slap on the wrist these January 6 insurrectioners got and tell me that’s justice. Most were given light 3 months sentences.
