"By concentrating resources in this fashion, it will greatly enhance the agency's capabilities for language translation, content analysis and intelligence sharing", according to a government statement released with the rules.
The bureau appeared to abandon the program, but on December 11, 2006, a Communication Management Unit (CMU) was quietly implemented at Indiana's Federal Correctional Complex, Terre Haute.
"[3] It is unclear who authorized the program; it was either the Justice Department Office of Legal Counsel, FBOP Director Harley Lappin or United States Attorney General Alberto Gonzales.
In addition to the already imposed restrictions, CMU "prisoners are banned from any physical contact with visiting friends and family, including babies, infants, and minor children.
It was physically situated in the former death row section, and all but two of the inmates are Arab Muslims, leading the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) to raise a concern about racial profiling.
The ACLU also charged that the communication restrictions are unduly harsh for prisoners who are not sufficiently serious security threats to warrant placement in ADX Florence, the Supermax facility in Colorado.
[7] Current and former inmates include "American Taliban" John Walker Lindh,[8] the Lackawanna Six, Enaam Arnaout, Aldrich Ames, Brandon Russell,[9] Kirksey Nix and Martin Gottesfeld.
The sorts of cases include:[20] Ed Ross of the Bureau of Prisons said the units were designed for the following offenses:[5] The Terre Haute CMU restricts Muslim group prayer to once per week (once per day during Ramadan) according to a 2010 lawsuit filed by inmates Enaam Arnaout and John Walker Lindh.
[8] On March 30, 2010, the Center for Constitutional Rights filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia on behalf of plaintiffs Yassin Muhiddin Aref, Avon Twitty, Daniel McGowan, Royal Jones, Kifah Jayyousi, Hedaya Jayyousi, and Jenny Synan "challenging policies and conditions at two experimental prison units that are being operated in Terre Haute, Indiana, and Marion, Illinois, as well as the circumstances under which they were established.