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Puerto Rican Political
Prisoner Carlos Alberto Torres NEEDS OUR SUPPORT!
On January 19, 2010, Carlos Alberto Torres attended a video hearing presided over by a U.S.
Parole Commission hearing examiner whose task was to consider the disciplinary charges stemming from last January, and to
make a recommendation for what should happen with respect to his request to be released on parole. Carlos Alberto answered
the questions posed, and his attorney Jan Susler asked that the Parole Commission release him on parole as previously recommended,
regardless of the wrongful charges. She pointed out the vast, ongoing support for his release, and argued that there is absolutely
no risk in releasing him, as evidenced by the impressive example of his compatriots who were released by presidential commutation
in 1999. The hearing examiner then made a favorable recommendation. The Parole Commission will make the final decision, hopefully
within the next 30 days.
-Jan Susler, Carlos Alberto Torres' lawyer
The ProLibertad
Freedom Campaign is launching a 30 day online petition campaign! We want 1000 people to sign our petition within the next
30 days showing their support for Carlos Alberto Torres.
At the end of
the thirty days the petition will be mailed to the Parole Commissioner.
Sign this petition and forward it out to everyone you know!
http://www.petitionspot.com/petitions/Parole4CarlosAlberto/
Bureau of Prisons: relentless with Carlos
Alberto Torres
Monday December 21st, 2009:
As
part of the Bureau of Prison’s delayed entry into the 21st century, it is implementing TRULINCS (Trust Fund Limited
Inmate Computer System) throughout the federal prison system, to provide prisoners with access to email through a special
system allowing prison officials to monitor all incoming and outgoing emails.
Puerto Rican political prisoner
Carlos Alberto Torres was looking forward to the convenient, regular communication it facilitates, given that, since his transfer
to FCI Pekin, his postal correspondence is regularly delayed from one to three months.
But it was not to be.
On December 9, the SIS [prison intelligence office] lieutenant called him in to notify him that— unlike the rest of
the FCI Pekin population— he will not be allowed access to email. Why? Because of “his case and his background,”
offered the lieutenant, who had no response to Carlos Alberto’s inquiry as to why, after 29 years of impeccable conduct,
they would treat him this way, pointing out that his release might be just around the corner, citing the USPC hearing examiner’s
recommendation for April 2010 release. Nor did the lieutenant provide the required written explanation for his exclusion from
the program.
Show your support for Carlos Alberto by writing to the U.S. Parole Commission to encourage them
to adopt the recommendation and order his release!
__________________________
BOP increases the heat on Puerto Rican
political prisoner Carlos Alberto Torres
The Federal Bureau of Prisons has upped the ante in its efforts to derail the Parole Commission from adopting the hearing
examiner’s recommendation that Puerto Rican political prisoner Carlos Alberto Torres be released in April of 2010.
This month, BOP officials notified Carlos Alberto that he has been assigned a “Security Threat Group” [STG] status
of “Domestic Terrorist Associate” not insignificant timing, given his 29 years of conduct as a model prisoner.
But the timing is not at all odd, for the BOP’s purposes of derailing his parole.
For the BOP’s efforts, timing has been everything. First, on the eve of his January parole hearing, the BOP leveled
false disciplinary charges. The hearing was postponed; the charges were expunged. At the rescheduled May parole hearing came
the recommendation of release in April of 2010. Within days, the BOP renewed the same false disciplinary charges. The Parole
Commission then issued an order postponing for 90 days its decision whether to adopt the recommendation for release in April
of 2010. Before the 90 day period expired, and while awaiting the adjudication of the false disciplinary charges, the BOP
surfaced the STG status.
In addition to trying
to impact the parole decision, the BOP’s efforts are also calculated to destabilize Carlos Alberto. As a result of the
false disciplinary charges, the BOP held him completely incommunicado for 60 days, cutting off all telephone calls and visits.
Though he was supposed to be able to communicate by way of mail, officials significantly delayed his outgoing and incoming
Spanish language mail, due to a new translation policy, applicable solely to him. Their vigorous application of the new policy
penetrated even his confidential legal mail, as officials confiscated privileged legal materials in the Spanish language.
Thus, added to the uncertainty as to his future is the insecurity as to his ability to communicate, even with his attorney.
Protest letters to the warden and the director of the BOP are available at:
http://boricuahumanrights.org/2009/08/01/puerto-rican-political-prisoner-carlos-alberto-torres-parole-bid-foiled-by-bureau-of-prisons/.
Jan Susler
October 23, 2009
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Chronology of Federal Bureau of Prisons Intervention
in
Puerto Rican Political Prisoner
Carlos Alberto Torres’ Bid for Parole
Carlos Alberto Torres has served 29 years in prison
for his commitment to the independence of his country, Puerto Rico, serving a 70 year sentence. His release date is currently
set for December of 2024. His conduct in prison has been above reproach. In 1994, he appeared before the U.S. Parole Commission,
seeking release on parole. The commission denied parole and set him for another hearing in 15 years. That hearing was scheduled
for January 22, 2009. The following events demonstrate the Federal Bureau of Prisons’ attempts to intervene in and derail
his efforts to win parole:
November
2008
There is a disturbance in the prison population at FCI Pekin. Prison officials mismanage the incident. Officials
then lock down the entire population for a month.
December 2, 2008
As a result of the disturbance, FCI Pekin officials transfer all the prisoners from the
housing unit where Carlos had been assigned to a two man cell, and place him in Illinois 1 unit, cell A09, a ten man cell
where the other occupants had been living for many months.
December 2008
Carlos makes more than one request for a cell change to a two man cell, but his requests are
rebuffed.
January 14, 2009
Prison
staff serve Carlos with an Incident Report: “On January 14, 2009 at 3:00 p.m., while conducting a shake down of A09
in Illinois 1 unit, I found three shanks concealed in a light fixture in the bathroom area of the cell. This area is considered
common area, and inmate Carlos Torres #88976-024 is assigned to this cell.”
January 16, 2009
At his Unit Disciplinary Committee [UDC] hearing, Counselor Gebur tells Carlos that another
inmate had assumed responsibility for the weapons.
Maurice Wilkins, one of the occupants of the cell, told the
UDC that the weapons were his, and that neither Carlos nor the other cell occupants had any responsibility for them.
Lieutenant
Haynes, who investigated the Incident Report, tells Carlos that he had no information pointing to his guilt, and no information
indicating that Carlos had any knowledge of or involvement with the weapons; and further, that he had information implicating
Maurice Wilkins as the guilty party.
January
22, 2009
The disciplinary hearing officer finds Carlos guilty, stating, “Although inmate Torres indicated he
had no knowledge of the weapons, they were found in a common area of the cell. His contention the owner of the weapons was
to come forward and claim them, does not diminish his responsibility for them, as no one inmate in the cell was given sole
responsibility for possession of the weapons. Therefore, since the weapons were found in a common area of the cell, they are
considered to be in his possession.”
Stating that, “Although not directly related to the infraction,
privileges were taken to deter the inmate from this behavior in the future,” disciplinary hearing officer imposes punishment:
60 days forfeited commissary; 60 days forfeited visiting; 60 days forfeited use of telephone; 30 days disciplinary segregation,
suspended if there is clear conduct for 180 days; and 41 days forfeited statutory good time.
The finding of guilt
is a departure from the norm. Routinely, when one cell occupant accepts responsibility, the other cell occupants are found
not guilty.
January 31, 2009
Maurice
Wilkins, one of the occupants of the cell, makes a sworn statement accepting sole responsibility for the concealed weapons,
stating, inter alia:
* “no one living in cell A09 other than me had any knowledge of the shanks found. The shanks
were mine, and mine alone. I am the one who made the shanks and hid them in the light fixture undeknown [sic] to any other
person who lived in the cell.”
* “the shanks were mine and mine alone, and no one other than me had knowledge
of them.”
February 2009
The
National Boricua Human Rights Network, the Comité Pro Derechos Humanos de Puerto Rico, and other groups and individuals commence
an ongoing letter writing campaign to support Carlos’ bid for parole and denounce the Bureau of Prisons’ efforts,
sending hundreds of letters to the warden and the director of the BOP.
April 30, 2009
BOP regional director, in response to Carlos’ administrative appeal of the guilty finding,
admits a “procedural error,” and returns the incident report to the prison “for reconsideration.”
May, 2009
FCI Pekin staff inform Carlos the Incident Report
has been expunged.
May 26, 2009
Parole
hearing at FCI Pekin via videoconference with hearing examiner for U.S. Parole Commission; hearing examiner recommends release
on April 3, 2010.
June 10, 2009
FCI
Pekin Warden Smith approved the unit team’s request to process the re-written Incident Report.
June 2009
At the second UDC hearing, Carlos restates his innocence
and provides the committee with Maurice Wilkins’ sworn statement accepting sole responsibility and absolving Carlos.
July 2009
At the second DHO
hearing, Carlos restates his innocence and provides the committee with Maurice Wilkins’ sworn statement accepting sole
responsibility and absolving Carlos. Additionally, Maurice Wilkins testifies in person and tells the DHO that he was solely
responsible and that Carlos had nothing to do with, and did not know about, the weapons. Regardless, the DHO finds Carlos
guilty once again.
During the hearing, Carlos asks the DHO what information he needs to affirm Wilkins’
statement and prove his innocence. The DHO tells him “a UDC investigation.”
Carlos’ efforts
to obtain such an investigation have been for naught, with officials telling him there is no such thing.
July 27, 2009
U.S. Parole Commission issues Notice of Action,
stating: “Defer decision for up to 90 days to determine the outcome of the pending disciplinary report for Possession
of a Weapon. Upon disposition by the DHO, a copy of the misconduct report and DHO findings should be submitted to the Commission
for review.”
September 2, 2009
The
bilingual prison intelligence officer--- who has been translating Carlos’ Spanish language mail for more than
a year, and who continues to translate other prisoners’ Spanish language mail informs Carlos that he will be subject
to a new procedure for screening his Spanish language mail that henceforth his mail must be sent to a translator outside
the prison, which will delay for a month the delivery of his incoming and outgoing mail. The officer also tells Carlos that
the order comes from higher up, and that “they” are watching Carlos’ every move. The officer provides Carlos
with nothing in writing.
The initial response to Carlos’ grievance indicates only that “the change
in mail handling procedures is to ensure the safety and security of the institution.”
October 9, 2009
The warden’s response to Carlos’
further grievance about his mail informs Carlos, for the first time, that “you are on enhanced mail monitoring status
due to your STG assignment of Domestic Terrorist Associate. This STG assignment requires translations to be completed by a
certified linguist. Currently, there are no staff members at FCI Pekin that are a certified linguist for Spanish.”1
No one provided Carlos with any documentation
of such status, or with the criteria for placement on or removal from such status.
October 10, 2009
Prison staff violate Carlos’ confidential attorney-client mail, confiscating legal
materials written in the Spanish language, telling him they must copy and translate the privileged materials.
October 25, 2009
The Parole Commission’s 90 day deferral
expires.
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