An American Radical: - Susan Rosenberg

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did to foreign terrorists ‘we’ do to our own every day of the year. America is a one-eyed jack, but Rosenberg has seen the other side of its face.”

      —Henry Bean, writer and director

      “In this gripping book, Susan Rosenberg tells a harrowing story that is painfully personal and an important part of American history. The psychological torture and physical cruelty of American prisoners can so often seem abstract. But not when you read An American Radical; its pages are packed with adventure, claustrophobia, heartache, constant political struggle, and Rosenberg’s indomitable will to survive.”

      —Christian Parenti, author of Lockdown America

      and The Soft Cage

      “Windowless underground prisons, unfounded charges, years in solitary confinement with no clarity on when that will end have been American practice well before Guantanamo. This is the story of a woman, imprisoned for a crime, sentenced for her politics, and treated horrifically in U.S. prisons. It describes a journey that is both personal and political. It reveals how the American criminal justice system has little to do with justice. It undermines our notion that our current human rights violations, so vividly demonstrated by the War on Terror, are recent overreactions to the threat of international ‘terrorists.’ Susan Rosenberg was considered a ‘terrorist’ in the early 1980s. Her story gives us perspective. It reminds us that these rights violations are not idiosyncratic of a failed Bush policy. Perhaps most important, however, through the clarity of her vision and relentless spirit, Susan Rosenberg gives us hope.”

      —Jane H. Aiken, professor of law,

      Georgetown University Law Center

      An American

      Radical

      Political Prisoner in My Own Country

       Susan Rosenberg

       All copyrighted material within is Attributor Protected.

      CITADEL PRESS BOOKS are published by

      Kensington Publishing Corp.

      119 West 40th Street

      New York, NY 10018

      Copyright © 2011 Susan Rosenberg

      All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means without the prior written consent of the publisher, excepting brief quotes used in reviews.

      All Kensington titles, imprints, and distributed lines are available at special quantity discounts for bulk purchases for sales promotions, premiums, fund-raising, educational, or institutional use. Special book excerpts or customized printings can also be created to fit specific needs. For details, write or phone the office of the Kensington special sales manager: Kensington Publishing Corp., 119 West 40th Street, New York, NY 10018, attn: Special Sales Department; phone 1-800-221-2647.

      Some names of individuals have been changed to protect their privacy.

      CITADEL PRESS and the Citadel logo are Reg. U. S. Pat. & TM Off.

      First printing:March 2011

      10 98 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

      Printed in the United States of America

      Library of Congress Control Number: 2010931894

      eISBN-13: 978-0-8065-3500-5

      eISBN-10: 0-8065-3500-8

       This book is dedicated to my loving parents, Bella and Emanuel Rosenberg, and to all the people who have been disappeared and exiled in U. S. prisons.

      [This] is sent out to those into whose souls the iron has entered, and has entered deeply at some time in their lives.

      —THOMAS HARDY,

       Jude the Obscure

      The degree of civilization in a society can be judged by entering its prisons.

      —FYODOR DOSTOEVSKY,

       The House of the Dead

      Contents

      Advance Praise for An American Radical

      Foreword by Kathleen Cleaver

      Acknowledgments

      Part One: Arrest and Trial

       Chapter Seven. Lexington High Security Unit

       Chapter Eight. Litigation

       Part Four: Washington, D.C.

       Chapter Nine. D.C. County Jail

       Chapter Ten. AIDS Epidemic

       Chapter Eleven. Cancer

       Part Five: Mariana

       Chapter Twelve. Mariana Maximum Security

       Chapter Thirteen. Breaking Rank

       Chapter Fourteen. My Father

       Part Six: Danbury

       Chapter Fifteen. Danbury General Population

       Chapter Sixteen. AIDS Epidemic

       Chapter Seventeen. PAROLE

       Chapter Eighteen. Political Prisoners

       Chapter Nineteen. Cancer

       Chapter Twenty. The Hill

       Afterword

       Notes

       Foreword by Kathleen Cleaver

      THE MASSIVE PROTEST movements and freedom struggles of the 1960s mobilized young people all over the world. Thousands were injured, arrested, jailed, and killed; thousands more watched, and millions of young people were inspired to act. Mass social movements surged during those days, marked by urban riots and insurrections, guerilla uprisings, and the scandalous murder of leaders such as Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, and Fred Hampton. Evening news broadcasts showed horrendous scenes of warfare in Vietnam, while thousands of young men were drafted to fight there. My conscience was seared when four young girls were murdered at the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing in Birmingham, girls who were part of the children’s campaign of constant protest marches during 1963. It happened in Alabama, my

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