Chelsea Manning, the transgender service member incarcerated for leaking national security information, faced solitary confinement for various disciplinary charges alleging that she possessed “prohibited property” and that she showed disrespect to prison staff, among other things. After a four-hour hearing without counsel present on Tuesday, Manning was found guilty of the four disciplinary charges against her, including having expired toothpaste, possessing various books and magazines including the Caitlyn Jenner issue of Vanity Fair, and sweeping food on the floor. She was, however, spared the “indefinite solitary confinement” that was the maximum punishment for her charges.
Still, Manning does face consequences. According to tweets she sent, she will receive 21 days of restriction on recreation — “no gym, library, or outdoors.” The convictions are also a permanent factor in any future parole or clemency hearing she ever faces. She “was expecting to be in [minimum security] custody in February,” she writes, but the transition from medium security could now take additional years.
Manning’s supporters delivered over 100,000 petition signatures in support of Manning to the Army on Monday. They demanded that she not be placed in solitary confinement, and according to Evan Greer, Campaign Director for Fight for the Future, “the pressure worked.” Greer added, “It’s absurd that Chelsea was found guilty, and that she has to endure any additional punishment beyond being wrongly imprisoned, but now the U.S. government knows that the world is watching their treatment of Chelsea closely. If they continue this unwarranted harassment of Chelsea, they risk losing all legitimacy in the eyes of millions.”
Chase Strangio, Manning’s attorney at the ACLU, said that he agreed that the petitions were effective. “It was no doubt this support that kept her our of solitary confinement.” Still, the discipline “sets a precedent for the remaining decades of her incarceration.” According to Strangio, “No one should have to face the lingering threat of solitary confinement for reading and writing about the conditions we encounter in the world. Chelsea’s voice is critical to our public discourse about government accountability and trans Justice and we can only preserve it if we stay vigilant in our advocacy on her behalf.”