Muslim Jailhouse Lawyers Are Reshaping the Fight for Prisoners Rights
In July 2020, when COVID-19 was wreaking havoc in prisons all over the country, Musa Bey was locked up in an Arizona prison. In the main wing of the prison, a couple of people contracted COVID. Instead of separating them to a different wing, prison officials kept them where they could infect others. So, Bey and five others spoke with the staff and conveyed that they felt unsafe living in close confinement with prisoners who had tested positive for COVID. Bey told them that he preferred to be moved to a closed facility that had cells instead of dorms. But prison officials interpreted this communication as a sign of the prisoners rebelling and decided to move them to a different, higher security facility called the Browning Unit.
As they were preparing to transfer them, they lined them up against the wall. “Prison officials started making a lot of comments,” said Bey. “Like, you guys think you’re all this, you think you’re all that. I don’t know what we’ll do to all you in here. Ain’t no cameras here, they can’t see us.”
Then, when Bey least expected it, the guards chained him, grabbed some clippers and shaved his beard off. “I said to him, look I’m a Muslim, don’t shave my beard, and they proceeded to shave the beard off forcefully,” said Bey.
After this incident Bey filed a grievance, addressing what happened to him and what he wanted the prison to do about it. The prison denied his grievance, which led him to appeal but that was denied to. Then, a year later, Bey followed the path taken by many incarcerated Muslims before him — he filed a civil lawsuit.
“The Muslim community is most tenacious when it comes to bringing lawsuits,” said Bey, “The overall majority of lawsuits that I’ve heard of that has been brought and won has been specifically by the Muslim community. One of the reasons why I think this is the case is because we have the will to go against injustice and do our best to combat it.”
https://truthout.org/articles/muslim-jailhouse-lawyers-are-reshaping-the-fight-for-prisoners-rights/
