{"id":2657,"date":"2012-03-28T15:08:04","date_gmt":"2012-03-28T21:08:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/valleywatch.net\/?p=2657"},"modified":"2012-03-28T15:08:04","modified_gmt":"2012-03-28T21:08:04","slug":"climate-activist-tim-dechristopher-subjected-to-cruel-and-unusual-punishment-as-climate-destabilizes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/valleywatch.net\/?p=2657","title":{"rendered":"Climate Activist Tim DeChristopher Subjected to Cruel and Unusual Punishment\u2013as Climate Destabilizes??"},"content":{"rendered":"

March 28, 2012, by Jeff Biggers in AlterNet<\/a><\/p>\n

In the same March week that an unprecedented heat wave made even\u00a0President Obama\u00a0<\/a>feel \u201ca little nervous,\u201d imprisoned\u00a0climate change activist Tim DeChristopher<\/a>\u00a0languished mysteriously in isolation at the FCI Herlong\u2019s Special Housing Unit in California.<\/p>\n

According to a\u00a0press release<\/a>\u00a0from DeChristopher\u2019s Peaceful Uprising organization, an unidentified member of the US Congress possibly engineered the troubling transfer of the courageous \u201cBidder 70\u2033\u2013who brought\u00a0national attention\u00a0<\/a>to reckless public land auctions in Utah and climate issues\u2013due to personal correspondence between DeChristopher and a friend over a legal fund contributor.\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

According to Peaceful Uprising, the confinement to isolation limits DeChristopher\u2019s outside telephone communication to 15 minutes per month, among other restrictions, and raises issues of cruel and unusual punishment, especially considering the long waiting list for similar measures:<\/p>\n

Tim will continue to be held in isolated confinement pending an investigation. There is no definite timeline for inmates being held in the SHU \u2014 often times they await months for the conclusion of an investigation.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Unanswered questions abound over DeChristopher\u2019s extreme treatment and the role of Congressional members. He still faces nearly a year and a half of incarceration\u2013potentially all of it to be served in isolation now.<\/p>\n

As President Obama noted to Chicago host Oprah Winfrey about rising global temperatures: \u201cIt gets you thinking.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u2019s wrongful isolation\u2013and\u00a0unfair\u00a0<\/a>2-year prison sentence.<\/p>\n

Peaceful Uprising supporters are calling on prison officials\u2013and members of the United States House Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security\u2013to intervene and return DeChristopher to Minimum Security Camp at FCI Herlong.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the past two weeks, he has been allowed out of his 8 X 10 cell (which he shares with one other inmate) four times, each time for less than an hour. The SHU could have been designed by Franz Kafka,\u201d the press release noted.<\/p>\n

DeChristopher\u2019s legal team will hold a press conference on Thursday March 29th, at 1:30pm in front of the Salt Lake City Frank E. Moss Federal Courthouse. In the meantime, Peaceful Uprising is urging supporters to contact prison officials and members of the US Congress with the message: \u201cTim DeChristopher inmate #16156-081 be immediately removed from the Special Housing Unit (SHU) and placed back in the Minimum Security Camp at FCI Herlong.\u201d<\/p>\n

FCI Herlong
\n530-827-8000
\nRichard B. Ives, WARDEN
\nEloisa DeBruler, Public Information Officer<\/p>\n

Bureau of Prisons (BOP) Central Office
\n202-307-3198
\nCharles E. Samuels, Jr.
\nDirector<\/p>\n

United States House Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, and Homeland Security
\nPRIORITY CONGRESSIONAL MEMBERS TO CALL:<\/p>\n

Jim Sensenbrenner, WI, Chairman of Subcommittee
\n(202) 225-5101<\/p>\n

Louie Gohmert, TX, Vice Chairman of Subcommittee
\n(202) 225-3035<\/p>\n

Jason Chaffetz, UT
\nDC: (202) 225-7751
\nUT: (801) 851-2500<\/p>\n

Jeff Biggers is the American Book Award-winning author of Reckoning at Eagle Creek: The Secret Legacy of Coal in the Heartland (Nation\/Basic Books), among other books. Visit his website: www.jeffbiggers.com<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

March 28, 2012, by Jeff Biggers in AlterNet In the same March week that an unprecedented heat wave made even\u00a0President Obama\u00a0feel \u201ca little nervous,\u201d imprisoned\u00a0climate change activist Tim DeChristopher\u00a0languished mysteriously in isolation at the FCI Herlong\u2019s Special Housing Unit in … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[164,25,160,163,162,161,102,103],"class_list":["post-2657","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-civil-disobedience","tag-coal","tag-dechristopher","tag-department-of-interior","tag-fossil-fuels","tag-hero","tag-oil","tag-utah"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/valleywatch.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2657","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/valleywatch.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/valleywatch.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/valleywatch.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/valleywatch.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2657"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/valleywatch.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2657\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2659,"href":"http:\/\/valleywatch.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2657\/revisions\/2659"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/valleywatch.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2657"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/valleywatch.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2657"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/valleywatch.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2657"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}