Last fall the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction (ODRC) put prisoner-rights activist Siddique Abdullah Hasan on severe communication restrictions in a Serious Misconduct Panel (SMP) hearing that included a number of clear irregularities and violations of due process.

Hasan filed appeals of the decision, and attorneys Staughton and Alice Lynd and other supporters tried to rouse the Inspector General to review the decision and process. Neither the ODRC nor the Inspector General (who is tasked with “investigat[ing] the management and operation of state agencies”) have replied to these appeals or requests.

The SMP recommendation suspended Hasan from phone and Jpay (email) access for one year, from August 14, 2018 to August 13, 2019. The warden at Ohio State Penitentiary, where Hasan has been held since it opened in 1996, has the authority to reduce this suspension every 3 months after a review of good behavior and no further rule violations. No such review has occurred.

At the time of the restriction a number of Hasan’s visitors were permanently banned from visiting Ohio prisons, on the basis of sending Hasan letters about the nationwide prison strike or raising donations to support Hasan’s efforts on behalf of prisoners and fighting his own death penalty conviction.

Hasan has been held in solitary confinement since 1996, he’s led multiple hunger strikes and protests at Ohio State Penitentiary (OSP) and been a spokesperson for nationwide prisoner rights protest movements and strikes. In 1993 he was convicted based only on unreliable informant testimony of charges related to the Lucasville Uprising, an 11 day siege at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility (SOCF). 

The SMP decision and Hasan’s appeal can be found online here.