Progressive Politics

The man who received the harshest federal sentence in connection with 2020 protests against police brutality has been in solitary confinement for more than 250 days. Last Friday, Malik Muhammad ended a nine-day hunger strike undertaken in protest of his solitary confinement at Oregon State Penitentiary.

At the height of Black Lives Matter protests in 2020, Muhammad, a disabled Army combat veteran diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder, had traveled from Indiana to protests in Kentucky and Oregon.

According to court documents, Muhammad participated in firearms training in Kentucky and later threw a Molotov cocktail at police in Oregon. In 2022, at 25 years old, he pleaded guilty to 14 felonies and received a 10-year prison sentence.

“We are talking about a conditions-of-confinement issue,” said Muhammad’s attorney, Lauren Regan, director of litigation and advocacy at the Civil Liberties Defense Center. The group advocates for civil liberties for political prisoners and took on Muhammad’s case last month. “Malik is designated 100 percent disabled as a combat veteran because of extreme PTSD. And the Department of Corrections knows that.”

Despite his conditions, Muhammad has been in solitary confinement for more than 250 days. His solitary confinement followed an incident where Regan said Muhammad asked to speak to a supervisor, and instead guards tased and beat him, then threw him in the hole.