To Whom it May Concern:

This is my experience without any hyperbole or revenge; It’s the truth as I saw it; as I lived it, as I heard, as I smelled it, as I taste it…It is my personal experience in Solitary Madness, i.e. Solitary Confinement. My name is Robert Molley. My name was legally changed in the 1980s to reflect my Islamic; I assumed the name Hakeem Shaheed.

Take your pick…I-East, I-West, The Basement, Building 67, Building # 5, A-Building, The Human Wringer, The Box Cart…or the Special Confinement Unit (on Death Row in Terre Haute, Indiana). My ordeal in Solitary Confinement began on October 19, 1995, around the time of the Million Man March. I gave a Speech at the United States Penitentiary USP Terre Haute on October 16, 1995 to a number of invited guests; guests which included Ms. Stevenson, NAACP Representative for the State of Indiana; Ms. Bynum, NAACP Representative for the City of Terre Haute, site of USP Terre Haute and other advocates and peace-loving people. I was an inmate at the above Prison. My speech included an indictment of the brutality which inmates were subject to (at that time); such as beatings, extended periods of lockdown, i.e. Solitary Confinement for bogus reasons, unnecessary pat searches (when there were countless metal detectors in the corridors), race insensitivity and religious discrimination. 

Prior to my Speech at USP Terre Haute, I was accosted by inmate George Brown, from Baltimore, Md. who informed me that Ward Clarke, Associate Warden Ceoli and Associate Warden Bledsoe asked that I be removed from the list of inmates scheduled to speak at the APPROVED gathering in the Inmate Chapel. The gathering was titled, “Annual Inmate Unity Day.”  As director of the NAACP Inmate Branch African American Studies, I was slated to speak on its behalf, however, pressure from the Wardens on the Inmate President of the NAACP, George Brown, I was denied to speak (for the NAACP). The threat, as inmate Brown told me included our inmate Branch being discontinue, inmate Brown being shipped/transferred to the United States Penitentiary (USP) Marion, at that time the most feared Prison on the planet. I then sought permission from the Imam, i.e. Muslim Religious leader to speak on behalf of the abused inmates through our Community, because each inmate group was allowed to put forward a speaker. There were 11-inmate groups (at that time). I was allowed to represent the Sunni Muslim Community (of Muslims). 

The Wardens then tried to apply pressure to the inmate Islamic Leadership to prevent me from addressing the invited guests. It didn’t work; and so on October 14, 1995 I gave my Speech. On October 16, 1995 the Million Man March went forward; There was no disturbance at USP Terre haute (where I was housed). On October 19, 1995 I was removed from my cell (without incident) in handcuffs by six guards. I was taken to SHU, the Special Housing Unit, and locked in a dark cell by myself.

The next day, I was given an incident report for the Speech I gave five days prior. The incident report alleged that I gave an inflammatory speech that could have “disrupted the orderly running of the institution.” The incident report was bogus, of course. The truth was I defied the Wardens and now was going to pay for such defiance. At the Disciplinary Hearing, I was found guilty of the infraction and was given 15-days in the “HOLE” (special housing unit) and a disciplinary transfer. The DHO (disciplinary hearing officer’s words were, “we have a place for you).”

Two weeks later word began circulating in the HOLE that inmate Shaheed (that’s me) was going to be “shipped” to USP Marion.  The most dreaded prison on earth (at that time). I immediately contacted my family and started a letter writing campaign to halt the transfer. I also filed an Injunction, begging the Courts to stop the Warden and his henchmen from sending me to the United States Penitentiary at Marion. The Judge responded to my Motion by simply telling me something I did not know, that there was nothing he could do to prevent the prison Wardens from sending me to USP Marion because “you are under the jurisdiction of the United States Attorney General, Janet Reno…it is that office who decide where each Federal Prisoner is to be housed.”

After six months of pleading with all the Wardens named above, along with the Courts through countless appeals, the U.S. Attorney General approved my transfer to Marion Federal Prison. I knew then I would not be the same IF ever released from that place. I knew this because for 8-years prior I had witnessed the results of inmates having been housed in USP Marion and then put back in General Population. They were like zombies; they were afraid of ever little noise, every little bark from the guards… I prayed all night before the day came for me to be sent into the unknown…

When I arrived at USP Marion, I could see it was a totally different prison from all the other prisons I had been to. Long before you enter the facility, you had to travel down this long dark road which leads to a kind of military checkpoint. Once cleared to proceed further, you drive deeper into the grounds which house this cold ancient looking structure. My heart pounded…I began to hyperventilate…The guards transporting me began to laugh; my heart pounded faster… It wasn’t another man I feared, it was my sanity I feared losing. We all had been told about USP Marion; the guards at other federal facilities talked about it as well as inmates who been housed there. And God Know, I did not want to lose my mind; I was not serving a Life Sentence. Going home was a real possibility for me.

After arriving in R&D, receiving & discharge area, I was made to strip and stand on a black wooden platform (like the old slave photos we saw in school books). After what seemed like an hour standing there naked and cold, a white man in plain clothes stood before me and spoke in direct words, “we know who you are; we have all of these Congressional Letters in your files; so there’s no need to be writing them from here; once you complete your 18-month Program we will send you to a prison close to your home. Hours later I was taken to F-Unit… My cell consisted of a concrete slab, a stainless-steel toilet and sink..NO WINDOW. Once in the cell, I began to pray…God, please don’t let me lose my mind. It was eerily quiet… Years later I began hearing things which were not being said; seeing things which were not there… I became very intolerant after years of constantly being awakened by guards banging on my cell bars for no other reason than to startle me out of my sleep… There had been times when my Holy Qur’an was thrown on the floor in the name of searching my cell. Spit had been found in my mash potatoes, staples in my meatloaf…

After 18-months of Solitary Confinement I was ready to leave USP Marion, however, unbeknown to me, no one leaves USP Marion in 18-months. I was denied to be transferred because, as the Warden stated at the Classification Board, “you have a bad attitude.” And when I responded by saying, “bad attitude; I don’t even talk to no one.”  He said, “that’s what I’m talking about, Shaheed; you see us make our weekly rounds and you do not speak.”  That meant I had to wait another year before I could be considered for transfer… When that year came, I was denied again. This time it was for having my Prayer Rug “exposed,” i.e. on my bed. Another year came…I was then sent to C-Unit, which is Step Two closer to being transferred out of USP Marion. After being in C-Unit for 6-months, the required time to spend at this stage, I was denied permission to proceed to B-Unit, i.e. the Pre-Transfer Unit. I was given notice why I was denied through the mail. It stated that, “the committee thinks that another 6-month is warranted.” When I complained to my Unit Manager about this decision, which he was a part of, I was sent back to Step One, the beginning of the Program. 

Three years now has past and now my mind is beginning to regress… Feels like my mind is “slipping away…” Paranoia is beginning to take a grip in a real way… I’m breaking out in sweats… My heart is  pounding…  I’m wondering is there a plot between USP Terre Haute officials and USP Marion officials to destroy me psychologically (like the other inmates I saw come from USP Marion).  Years come and go…but still I am in USP Marion. I make it to the Pre-Transfer Unit but am sent all the way back to the beginning stage. I later learned that this was part of the “breaking process,” where they move you forward but then send you back using bogus charges, i.e. incident reports. It could be for reasons as simple as raising your voice in the cell; singing a song too loud; not standing up for Count; using the toilet at the wrong time; asking a guard a question at the wrong time; having too many books in your cell; having too many blankets, too much food, or praying. Yes, praying. My 18-month Program turned into a painful 10-year ordeal; by the eighth year, I was so mentally and psychologically worn out I couldn’t even think right. 

I cried out to the U.S. Congress, the U.S. Senate and to Senator Dick Durbin, personally; all to no avail. Senator Durbin visited USP Marion so many times it was like he was an employee. His presence changed nothing for our situation. I had reported so much for so long about the brutality and mind draining tactics in USP Marion to every agency known to me. Finally in May of 2005, two agents from the Office of Inspector General (OIG) appeared at USP Marion to speak with a number of inmates who alleged abuse. I was one of those inmates, however by that time, 2005, I was so close to being released I refused to cause any trouble for myself so I declined to tell what I had endured and what I saw. However, when the Agents returned in August of that same year, 2005, and asked to speak with me again, I decided to share with them everything that I had known, simply because when I went back to my Housing Unit after their first visit certain guards began to harass me thinking I had told the OIG something; so fearing for my life and safety I told the OIG Agent Shuemer, (misspelled) all what I had endured in USP Marion leading up to his first visit, including after the 9/11 attack on our country. 

For my cooperation with the OIG against the guards I was targeted and then tortured by nine officers. On October 3, 2005, while housed in the Pre-transfer Unit, I was targeted by certain guards for my cooperation with the OIG agents. A provoked incident with one guard led to me being carried to the prison infirmary in handcuffs and shackles beat and tortured for two hours by a number of guards. After which, I was taken to the Special Housing Unit in the most barbaric fashion; once there I was abused and chained down to a concrete slab. Twenty-four hours later I was transferred from USP Marion to Death Row at USP Terre Haute. The OIG Agents were later told that I was transferred there for my own protection by orders of Warden Davis (of USP Marion) who feared that my life was in danger at the hands of some guards at USP Marion.

On June 14, 2006 I was released from Prison; eight months after being tortured; ten years after being housed in the notorious USP Marion. I served total of 18-years in prison, 10-years in solitary confinement. Since being home I have had numerous adjustment problems due to the psychological and emotional trauma I had to endure in Solitary Confinement. Horrifying nightmares, paranoia, trust issues and many more disorders were an every day reality for me until my family got medical help for me.

I see a Therapist twice a month to deal with the anger, rage and flashbacks that are a constant companion of mine. The Human Wringer, which I have named Solitary Confinement Units, has destroyed many inmates in its quest to control and dominate its young populations. The sad truth is that most of the inmates who are housed in Solitary Confinement will one day be released into our society…with all of their humanity wringed out of their being. The thought of that alone keep me up at night.