ADX, the federal supermax prison in Colorado, is force-feeding hunger strikers

The Colorado Independent speaks with journalist Aviva Stahl about her 18-month investigation of the practice

Mohammad Salameh, a native of Jordan, was convicted on terrorism charges for his involvement in the 1993 World Trade Center attack. He told journalist Aviva Stahl that he was force-fed more than 200 times during the 11 years he was held under "special administrative measures" at the federal ADX prison in Florence, Colorado. (Photo courtesy of Aviva Stahl)

The United States Penitentiary Administrative Maximum Facility, also known as ADX, in Florence, Colo., is the highest security prison in the country, housing inmates the federal government has deemed to be the worst of the worst. All of its approximately 400 prisoners live in long-term solitary confinement. But one section of ADX, known as the H Unit, houses about a dozen inmates under even more isolated conditions known as “special administrative measures,” or SAMs. Several prisoners in H Unit have protested their restricted living conditions through hunger strikes. The federal Bureau of Prisons has responded by force-feeding them — often by inserting a tube into a nostril down the throat, into the stomach — a practice critics say violates medical ethics. The BOP and the U.S. Justice Department repeatedly have refused to comment about the technique and SAMs conditions more generally. Aviva Stahl, a Brooklyn-based criminal justice reporter spent 18 months in partnership with Type Investigations researching thousands of incidents of force-feeding at ADX. The Independent’s Susan Greene spoke with her about her findings, which were published earlier this month in The Nation magazine.

Greene: ADX’s H Unit has been described by some former inmates as the most isolated place on the planet. Reporting on what happens there is a challenge. What led you to take it on?

Stahl: I’d been reporting on prison conditions for a couple years, including many cases about conditions faced by terrorists. There had been a lot of reporting on hunger strikers and force-feeding at Guantanamo Bay, but almost nothing about this happening on U.S. soil in our federal prison system. It interested me because it’s usually the hunger strikers’ goal to bring enough media and public attention to their grievances to pressure prisons to improve their conditions. But at ADX, these strikers live in a black box, unable to communicate with the media. So, with all that secrecy around this issue, I thought it needed some scrutiny.

Greene: How were you able to gain access to these prisoners?

Stahl: I communicated with about five or six inmates who had spent time on H unit but since have been moved to other facilities. Most of the interviewing was done by letters, snail mail. But one inmate – Mohammad Salameh, the man I focus on mainly in the article – was able to speak with me by phone over a period of time from USP (United States Penitentiary) Florence (not far from ADX) where he was moved.

Greene: All of the men you interviewed are convicted terrorists and all of them are Muslim?

Stahl: Yes, and yes. Mr. Salameh is from Jordan and was convicted for his involvement in the (1993) World Trade Center attack. He served time in several high-security prisons without being subject to communications restrictions. But by 2002, after 9/11, the (Department of Justice) changed the rules toward harsher restrictions and less oversight. Mr. Salameh and a number of other men convicted of terrorism offenses were moved to ADX. And the number of prisoners put under SAMs began to multiply from 16 in November 2001 to 30 in 2009 to 51 in June 2017. Most of them, by far, are Muslim.

Greene: What led Mr. Salameh to hunger strike?

Stahl: Under SAMs, he was completely cut off from the world. He could make only one phone call a month and send one only three-page, double-sided letter each week. Everything he did was monitored. He was barred from TV and radio news, and reading material had to be individually approved. He wrote hundreds of complaints, but they were blocked. It’s like being buried alive. He had such a strong belief that what was being done to him was unjust. He had a sense of desperation to get word out about these living conditions. And, like with other prisoners, he felt that his body was his last resort, his only way to protest – by refusing to eat.

Greene: How do he and others describe force-feeding?

Stahl: I think for all of them it’s painful and uncomfortable and dehumanizing.

Mr.Salameh was force-fed nearly 200 times during his 11 years under SAMs. He describes being strapped to a chair for feedings that were extraordinarily painful and could last for hours. One of the most brutal involved 16 cartons of supplement – it’s (a liquid meal) called Novasource, like the equivalent of Ensure – which he repeatedly vomited. He compared himself to a lion, saying, “The Lion doesn’t want to be fed.” When I asked him about what he meant by that, he said he was going to find ways to resist what they were doing to him.

Greene: Your story seems to accept the premise that force-feeding amounts to torture. But why is it not considered saving a life of someone trying to kill himself through starvation? Why is force-feeding different than corrections officers cutting down a prisoner who has tried to hang himself with his bed sheets?

Stahl: If somebody decides to hang himself, they’re not putting a platform of demands before the prison. But hunger strikers do. It’s not that they want to die or are suicidal. It’s just that they’re willing to put their bodies on the line as a way to achieve a political objective. Under conditions like SAMs, it’s one of the few options available to them to say their restrictions are unbearable. Hunger strikers understand the risks they’re taking in making that decision. By breaking their hunger strike, by force-feeding them, the doctor or medical practitioner is acting as an arm of the prison and in the service of prison discipline, which is against medical ethics and a violation of inmates’ bodily autonomy. Yes, doctors are supposed to save people’s lives, but not to the extent that they violate people’s bodies against their wishes.

Aviva Stahl, courtesy of Aviva Stahl

Greene: Mr. Salameh is the only inmate whose name you cite in your Nation article. Why?

Stahl: The others were fearful of doing anything that puts them at risk of being put back at ADX or under SAMs. And they’re not willing to take that risk by speaking out about force-feeding. Mr. Salameh went back and forth on the question of whether to let me use his name, but decided to do so because he felt that speaking out, telling the story of his force-feeding might help conditions. He has accepted that he will never live in the free world again and that he will die in prison. But he will not accept conditions that are so extremely isolated and inhumane.

Greene: The World Trade Center attack that Mr. Salameh was involved in killed six people and injured more than 1,000. Why should readers care about him?

Stahl: Any time we discount one person’s human rights, it puts everybody’s human rights at risk. We’re all safer when everybody’s human rights are guaranteed. None of this is to say that what happened in (1993) wasn’t horrible. But I think it’s dangerous to define people by their worst or least ethical moments. I think lots of us have complexity to us and it’s important to honor that complexity.

Greene: What do you want Coloradans in particular to know about what’s happening inside ADX?

Stahl: I think they should think about how this prison, this complex they can literally drive by is so cut off from the outside world that torture is taking place there with no scrutiny. And I think they should consider that what makes these SAMs restrictions possible is that there are people who work at ADX, including people who are medical personnel and willing to carry force-feeding out against prisoners’ wills in ways that amount to torture.

24 COMMENTS

  1. These are the worst of the worst criminals convicted in the federal courts. However, in the interests of compassion (and to free up space for other offenders), I favor letting anyone of sound mind starve themselves to death.

    An inmate who says he’s been on a hunger strike for 11 years is, frankly, unbelievable to me. Maybe the prison officials should stop bringing him food or force-feeding him today; he’ll be filing suit for cheeseburgers, french fries, and chocoalte shakes by next week.

  2. Let me see if I got this straight:

    —– Force feeding a prisoner intent on starving himself to death is torture

    —– Allowing a prisoner to starve himself to death is guaranteeing that prisoner’s human rights

    —– It’s dangerous to define people by their worst or least ethical moments—like, well, being convicted of terrorism that resulted in the death of six people and injuring more than 1,000 more—- because all of us have complexity and it’s important to honor that complexity.

    Is that about right? Really!!!

  3. Let them starve themselves. Still give them their food, if they choose not to eat, who cares. They are in PRISON it’s not supposed to be a country club. Some inmates live in better conditions than free people. Free health care, food, shelter, I work my butt off for those.
    Let them starve themselves.

  4. …so really they are prisoners of war, they get to write a letter once a week, make a phone call once a month, eat three meals a day, watch ty (no news) read a selection of material not terrorist geared.
    WOW, this is more than our POW got , this such a joke, Wake up America when you got terrorist telling you they want a cushioned prison sentence and there is media coverage on this , we are disrespecting ALl our men went through.

  5. Msybr he should of did some more thinking about his actions….before he killed innocent people. Dont feel sorry for him….if people fear incarnation. They will usually abide by all laws….its simple

  6. I do live in Colorado, I’ll tell you what I think! So these terrorists come to our country and kill and they think they should be treated better. I think these terrorists shouldn’t have any contact with the outside world what so ever, they should be completely isolated, no TV, writing any letters to their loved ones. These terrorists brought this on themselves they get what they get! What about the people they killed their loved ones don’t get to write letters to them they never get to see them ever again. So when I drive by ADX I won’t think twice about the terrorists that are in there or how they are being treated.

  7. LMAO…Lots of Bacon!!!! These folks are in prison and did NOT consider anyone elses rights when they broke the law especially this dude who killed 6 and injured 1000. Let him starve himself.

  8. The author of this article should refer to Title 18 of U.S. Code, section 4042, which REQUIRES the Bureau to ” . . . provide suitable quarters and provide for the safekeeping, care, and subsistence of all persons charged with or convicted of offenses against the United States,”

    For our less learned author, that means the Bureau CANNOT allow an inmate to starve himself to death. Involuntary feeding has been going on for decades. Please feel sorry for people who deserve your sympathy.

  9. Another liberal ploy to weaken our nation and bring about their agenda to totally rewrite our Constitution. From a New Yorker non the less.

  10. They starve themselves and die, their families sue the federal prison system. It’s their job to keep these inmates alive, even if they try to suicide. This article is ridiculous.

  11. The BOP in itself is an embarrassment. I understand that there is a reason these men have been incarcerated. But the BOP has to follow through with the care of these men. My husband was in Florence for two years .. there were times where they made him use the restroom in a bucket because they kept him in a holding cell with no toilet . They wouldn’t feed him & he went without water for two days at a time . Then he was moved to Texas where he is now in a facility with black mold. Black mold on the walls , mold on his “bed” he was given & he hasn’t received a hot meal in three weeks . I understand prison is a punishment , but at the same time the BOP is responsible for making sure the conditions for these men is safe and not inhumane.

  12. Kyla, I know you want to believe your husband but he is just not telling you the truth. The BOP feeds three meals a day. They are served hot off the serving line. If your husband is in segregation his food is prepared and sent to him the same way people in hospitals are served. The food may not be piping hot when it gets to him but it is very edible.

  13. I know for a fact that not all b.o.p.inmates get 3 hot meals a day. At one facility my husband was at he got a sack lunch for dinner the entire time he was there and no he was not in segregation

  14. For such a wonderful state, Colorado has the worst history of any state with regard to the cruel treatment of prisoners. The In Re Medley case was about a similar solitary confinement prison in the 1800’s and not much has been learned.

  15. All these “muh husband said,” comments are inane. Guy who doesn’t autonomously respect law, goes to facility where respect of law is enforced and feels disrespected.

    #shocker

  16. Save your energy for vulnerable people like – woman who are sex trafficked and abused children. These people deserve what ever is coming to them. This person is wasting time and resources on evil people.

  17. Who cares. Let these terrorist starve themselves and die. As a 9/11 survivor these people only want to destroy the American way of life. These are the worse of the worse. They would kill you at the 1st sight. Instead of supermax they should be lynched in a public setting.

  18. Opps I forgot why is the USA taking care of and keeping El Chapo in Supermax. Let Mexico keep him in their prison. He is not America’s problem. Better yet Mexico should pay 500k a year to keep him at Supermax

  19. Only a prick who has never been in jail would say half witted things like ‘it’s not supposed to be a country club ‘. If you spent a week in jail I suspect you would piss yourself and be crying for your mommy.

  20. Thom, apparently you don’t know much about prisons for starters if you have never been then you cant say someone is lying or their food isn’t cold. I’ve been in prison several times and I can tell you 99% of the time your food is cold, people are mistreated daily. Yes it’s meant as punishment for your crime but some things are just inhumane. I believe what these people are saying about ADX and to be treated like that I see why they commit suicide. Its inhumane and something should be done about it.

Comments are closed.