Controlling the Control Unit
by Laura Whitehorn

To me the over-riding thing of importance in surviving my various stints in control units was to refuse to relinquish control! By that I mean: kepping always in mind the purpose of the control unit - i.e., remembering what the state was trying t accomplish by putting me there, and then using my own powers of understanding to resist their plan. Among other things, this meant:

• Making a schedule for my days, instead of allowing the cops to determine my days.
• Having several different schedules, and alternating them, to avoid having the days all melt into sameness, and to keep track of what day and date it was, etc.
• Using exterior signals, such as changes in light, shift changes, regular noises from outside my cell, to keep track of time. The first few weeks I'd note a sound or other objective occurrence, then yell for the cops to find out what time it was, etc.
• Developing several different forms of exercise for different days and conditions. One technique of control used in every unit I've been in is withholding or postponing rec time. Since exercise was a very important way I controlled my anger so that I didn't become upset or stressed, it was crucial for me to develop ways to avoid letting this necessity for exercise become one more tool for them to use against me. I learned yoga and did isometric with-training in my cell, and I ran on the occasions I was able to go out to the rec yards.
• Developed some creative activity that allowed me to admire my own human creativity - i.e., draw, write, make things from what is available, etc. Reminding myself that my place in the universe was as a sentient, loving, creative human being, not a caged animal, was helpful. (This is why so many prisoners turn out incredible drawings in ball-point pen!)
• Learn something - undertake to study something and use the mind so I left each unit having grown rather than been diminished by the experience.
• Write letters - get pen pals if needed; some active communication with the outside.
• For me, as a political creature, it was essential to get a subscription to a major newspaper (I then managed to share it by smuggling it to another prisoner in the unit). I was fortunate to have friends who chipped in to get me the paper. I wonder if the Campaign to Stop control units could somehow get money or get people to get subs to weekly news magazines - Time or Newsweek, or a daily or weekly decent newspaper - for people in control units? In women's prisons and most control units, no news media are provided.
• I fought for every shred of what I was supposed to have a "right" to, based in the Code of Federal Regs, which governs the BOP. But it's hard not to get full of rage and frustration while doing this, so once in a while I would write a furious letter to the warden or someone else, saying everything I wanted and then tear it up. Therapeutic, to a point.

Warden Burkhardt of Alderson responded to my BP-9 (fed prison grievance form) protesting my isolation - he said I was being held in solitary because of my "associations and beliefs." Knowing what your enemy's goals are helps you a lot in resisting giving ground. In my case, on days when I felt (and was) particularly abused and mistreated, I could always find hope and strength in feeling it was an honor to be held in conditions of control - in the way Chairman Mao meant it in that old quote we used to love so much about it being a good thing to be hated by the enemy.

Finally, one thing about control units is that, since their goal is to dehumanize, to destroy one's personality, each individual kind of needs to design her/his own program for survival, based in her/his identity and sense of what makes each of us human. How one person expresses and controls rage is not necessarily right for another - for example, for some people, keeping busy is important; for others, maybe stillness and inward thought is important. What resources - internal and external - each prisoner has available make a big difference, too. (One reason why activist groups are so important!)

Finally, really, I do believe that every one who has spent time in prison, double for control units, suffers physical if not also mental damage. Having this recognized - say, by the international anti-torture forces - helps. I think it was Stuart Grassian who observed that the women in the Lex HSU developed illnesses as a result of the unit. When I read that, it helped me understand the damage to my own health that resulted or was exacerbated by the control unit time.

Venceremos!

P.S. Have you been able to see the comet? It's gorgeous! Every morning I get up at 5 to go to a window in our unit from which I can see it; now in the evening we can see it before we're locked in. Every time I look at it I think of all those in the control units who are robbed of this incredible experience.

Laura Whitehorn
California