UPDATE: Environmental Activist Daniel McGowan Released from
MDC Prison, Returned to Halfway House

https://ccrjustice.org/newsroom/pres...-halfway-house

Confirmed: Illegal Detention at MDC Based on Huffington Post Blog

[email protected]

April 5, 2013, New York – This af ternoon, activist Daniel McGowan was released f rom the Metropolitan
Detention Center in Brooklyn where he was taken into custody yesterday f rom the half way house where he
has been residing. His attorneys at the Center f or Constitutional Rights released the f ollowing statement:

Daniel McGowan has been released from the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn where he
was taken into custody yesterday and is back at the halfway house where he has been residing
since his release from prison in December. Yesterday, Daniel was given an "incident report"
indicating that his Huffington Post blog post, “Court Documents Prove I Was Sent to Communication
Management Units (CMU) for My Political Speech," violated a BOP regulation prohibiting inmates
from "publishing under a byline." The BOP regulation in question was declared unconstitutional by
a federal court in 2007, and eliminated by the BOP in 2010. After we brought this to the BOP's
attention, the incident report was expunged.

McGowan, who was released f rom prison in December and is serving out the last six months of his sentence
at a half way house, is a plaintif f in a Center f or Constitutional Rights lawsuit, Aref v. Holder, challenging the
constitutionality of the f ederal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) experimental Communications Management Units
(CMUs) where he was kept f or f our years. New documents uncovered in the case indicate he was placed in
these highly restrictive experimental units as retaliation f or his political writings on the environment while he
was in prison.

Aref v. Holder challenges the violation of prisoners’ f undamental constitutional rights, including the right to due
process. Attorneys say that because transf er to CMUs are not based on f acts or discipline f or inf ractions, a
pattern of religious and political discrimination and retaliation f or prisoners’ lawf ul advocacy has emerged.
Daniel McGowan recently amended the complaint to include claims of retaliation f or First Amendment protected
speech.

For inf ormation about CCR’s f ederal lawsuit challenging CMUs, visit the Aref, et al. v. Holder, et al case page
orwww.ccrjustice.org/cmu.

The law f irm Weil Gotshal & Manges LLP and attorney Kenneth A. Kreuscher are co-counsel in the case.

The Center for Constitutional Rights is dedicated to advancing and protecting the rights guaranteed by the United
States Constitution and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Founded in 1966 by attorneys who
represented civil rights movements in the South, CCR is a non-profit legal and educational organization committed
to the creative use of law as a positive force for social change.