SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
Incarcerated Climate Activist Tim DeChristopher Moved to Restricted Cell
Supporters of jailed environmentalist build campaign against move, call attention to injustice of his imprisonment
Mar 28, 2012
Climate activist Tim DeChristopher, who is serving a two-year sentence for unlawfully disrupting a Bureau of Land Management gas and drilling lease auction in 2008, has been moved from the minimum security section at the Herlong Federal Correction Facility in California to a more restrictive and isolating housing unit.
The move, according to a statement from DeChristopher's supporters at Peaceful Uprising (an organization he helped build), took place on March 9th and has severely restricted both his movements and his communications with the outside world. According to the statement:
"Tim was informed by Lieutenant Weirich that he was being moved to the SHU because an unidentified congressman had called from Washington DC, complaining of an email that Tim had sent to a friend. Tim was inquiring about the reported business practices of one of his legal fund contributors, threatening to return the money if their values no longer aligned with his own. According to Prison officials, Tim will continue to be held in isolated confinement pending an investigation. There is no definite timeline for inmates being held in the SHU -- often times they await months for the conclusion of an investigation."
Peaceful Uprising, along with other supporters, are calling for officials to intervene on DeChristopher's behalf. They will hold a press conference in Utah on Thursday and are building a campaign for supporters to weigh in on the issue.
Democracy Now! reports this morning:
Supporters of the jailed environmental activist Tim DeChristopher are raising new concern about his treatment behind bars. DeChristopher is currently serving a two-year sentence for posing as a bidder to prevent oil and gas drilling on thousands of acres of public land. According to his legal defense fund, DeChristopher was recently removed from a minimum security prison ward into an isolated cell known as a "Special Housing Unit," or SHU. He reportedly shares the tiny cell with another prisoner, and has been allowed outside of it just four times over a two-week period. DeChristopher's freedom to read books, write in his journal, and communicate with the outside world have all come under new restrictions.
And Jeff Biggers, writing at Common Dreams today, argues:
Unanswered questions abound over DeChristopher's extreme treatment and the role of Congressional members. He still faces nearly a year and a half of incarceration-potentially all of it to now be served in isolation.
As President Obama noted to Chicago host Oprah Winfrey about rising global temperatures: "It gets you thinking."
Such an outrageous act should also get the public, and President Obama, the US Congress and Bureau of Prisons officials to bring an end to DeChristopher's wrongful isolation-and unfair 2-year prison sentence.
Peaceful Uprising supporters are calling on prison officials, and members of the United States House Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security, to intervene and return DeChristopher to Minimum Security Camp at FCI Herlong.
# # #
An Urgent Message From Our Co-Founder
Dear Common Dreams reader, It’s been nearly 30 years since I co-founded Common Dreams with my late wife, Lina Newhouser. We had the radical notion that journalism should serve the public good, not corporate profits. It was clear to us from the outset what it would take to build such a project. No paid advertisements. No corporate sponsors. No millionaire publisher telling us what to think or do. Many people said we wouldn't last a year, but we proved those doubters wrong. Together with a tremendous team of journalists and dedicated staff, we built an independent media outlet free from the constraints of profits and corporate control. Our mission has always been simple: To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. Building Common Dreams was not easy. Our survival was never guaranteed. When you take on the most powerful forces—Wall Street greed, fossil fuel industry destruction, Big Tech lobbyists, and uber-rich oligarchs who have spent billions upon billions rigging the economy and democracy in their favor—the only bulwark you have is supporters who believe in your work. But here’s the urgent message from me today. It's never been this bad out there. And it's never been this hard to keep us going. At the very moment Common Dreams is most needed, the threats we face are intensifying. We need your support now more than ever. We don't accept corporate advertising and never will. We don't have a paywall because we don't think people should be blocked from critical news based on their ability to pay. Everything we do is funded by the donations of readers like you. When everyone does the little they can afford, we are strong. But if that support retreats or dries up, so do we. Will you donate now to make sure Common Dreams not only survives but thrives? —Craig Brown, Co-founder |
Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.
Climate activist Tim DeChristopher, who is serving a two-year sentence for unlawfully disrupting a Bureau of Land Management gas and drilling lease auction in 2008, has been moved from the minimum security section at the Herlong Federal Correction Facility in California to a more restrictive and isolating housing unit.
The move, according to a statement from DeChristopher's supporters at Peaceful Uprising (an organization he helped build), took place on March 9th and has severely restricted both his movements and his communications with the outside world. According to the statement:
"Tim was informed by Lieutenant Weirich that he was being moved to the SHU because an unidentified congressman had called from Washington DC, complaining of an email that Tim had sent to a friend. Tim was inquiring about the reported business practices of one of his legal fund contributors, threatening to return the money if their values no longer aligned with his own. According to Prison officials, Tim will continue to be held in isolated confinement pending an investigation. There is no definite timeline for inmates being held in the SHU -- often times they await months for the conclusion of an investigation."
Peaceful Uprising, along with other supporters, are calling for officials to intervene on DeChristopher's behalf. They will hold a press conference in Utah on Thursday and are building a campaign for supporters to weigh in on the issue.
Democracy Now! reports this morning:
Supporters of the jailed environmental activist Tim DeChristopher are raising new concern about his treatment behind bars. DeChristopher is currently serving a two-year sentence for posing as a bidder to prevent oil and gas drilling on thousands of acres of public land. According to his legal defense fund, DeChristopher was recently removed from a minimum security prison ward into an isolated cell known as a "Special Housing Unit," or SHU. He reportedly shares the tiny cell with another prisoner, and has been allowed outside of it just four times over a two-week period. DeChristopher's freedom to read books, write in his journal, and communicate with the outside world have all come under new restrictions.
And Jeff Biggers, writing at Common Dreams today, argues:
Unanswered questions abound over DeChristopher's extreme treatment and the role of Congressional members. He still faces nearly a year and a half of incarceration-potentially all of it to now be served in isolation.
As President Obama noted to Chicago host Oprah Winfrey about rising global temperatures: "It gets you thinking."
Such an outrageous act should also get the public, and President Obama, the US Congress and Bureau of Prisons officials to bring an end to DeChristopher's wrongful isolation-and unfair 2-year prison sentence.
Peaceful Uprising supporters are calling on prison officials, and members of the United States House Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security, to intervene and return DeChristopher to Minimum Security Camp at FCI Herlong.
# # #
Climate activist Tim DeChristopher, who is serving a two-year sentence for unlawfully disrupting a Bureau of Land Management gas and drilling lease auction in 2008, has been moved from the minimum security section at the Herlong Federal Correction Facility in California to a more restrictive and isolating housing unit.
The move, according to a statement from DeChristopher's supporters at Peaceful Uprising (an organization he helped build), took place on March 9th and has severely restricted both his movements and his communications with the outside world. According to the statement:
"Tim was informed by Lieutenant Weirich that he was being moved to the SHU because an unidentified congressman had called from Washington DC, complaining of an email that Tim had sent to a friend. Tim was inquiring about the reported business practices of one of his legal fund contributors, threatening to return the money if their values no longer aligned with his own. According to Prison officials, Tim will continue to be held in isolated confinement pending an investigation. There is no definite timeline for inmates being held in the SHU -- often times they await months for the conclusion of an investigation."
Peaceful Uprising, along with other supporters, are calling for officials to intervene on DeChristopher's behalf. They will hold a press conference in Utah on Thursday and are building a campaign for supporters to weigh in on the issue.
Democracy Now! reports this morning:
Supporters of the jailed environmental activist Tim DeChristopher are raising new concern about his treatment behind bars. DeChristopher is currently serving a two-year sentence for posing as a bidder to prevent oil and gas drilling on thousands of acres of public land. According to his legal defense fund, DeChristopher was recently removed from a minimum security prison ward into an isolated cell known as a "Special Housing Unit," or SHU. He reportedly shares the tiny cell with another prisoner, and has been allowed outside of it just four times over a two-week period. DeChristopher's freedom to read books, write in his journal, and communicate with the outside world have all come under new restrictions.
And Jeff Biggers, writing at Common Dreams today, argues:
Unanswered questions abound over DeChristopher's extreme treatment and the role of Congressional members. He still faces nearly a year and a half of incarceration-potentially all of it to now be served in isolation.
As President Obama noted to Chicago host Oprah Winfrey about rising global temperatures: "It gets you thinking."
Such an outrageous act should also get the public, and President Obama, the US Congress and Bureau of Prisons officials to bring an end to DeChristopher's wrongful isolation-and unfair 2-year prison sentence.
Peaceful Uprising supporters are calling on prison officials, and members of the United States House Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security, to intervene and return DeChristopher to Minimum Security Camp at FCI Herlong.
# # #
We've had enough. The 1% own and operate the corporate media. They are doing everything they can to defend the status quo, squash dissent and protect the wealthy and the powerful. The Common Dreams media model is different. We cover the news that matters to the 99%. Our mission? To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. How? Nonprofit. Independent. Reader-supported. Free to read. Free to republish. Free to share. With no advertising. No paywalls. No selling of your data. Thousands of small donations fund our newsroom and allow us to continue publishing. Can you chip in? We can't do it without you. Thank you.
To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good.
News & Opinion
Trending
Common Dreams, Inc. Founded 1997. Registered 501(c3) Non-Profit
Privacy Policy