The 1996 crime for which Nadim Haque was convicted has long since been settled. The 50-year sentence imposed on the University of Southern Maine student will cost the taxpayers of Maine upwards of $3 million, a price far too high for the “bread-and-water” brigade of anonymous bloggers.
That Haque is a strict Muslim confirms for many the stereotypical Jihadist image fueled by much of America that claims inheritance rights to Christian roots.
Refusing to double-bunk, an in-prison crime
Haque recently surfaced in a July 18, 2014, Bangor Daily News report, “ Maine prisoner on monthlong hunger strike to protest living conditions.” According to the article, he had been on a hunger strike for one month. As a single-bunked prisoner in the “close” security unit, Haque refused to submit to double-bunking without the administration screening cell mates for physical and mental health and religious preferences.
The specific grounds for his protest reflected his strict Islamic upbringing in India:
— No pork products consumed or stored within the cell.
— To expose oneself while using the cell toilet would be in violation of religious principles.
— Prayers are to be performed in a clean place free of “idols,” statues and pictures. The TV being considered in violation unless turned off and covered would likely be a basis for conflict with a non-Muslim cellmate.
The hunger strike was apparently a last-ditch effort by Haque to demand his constitutional rights. What allegedly preceded the hunger strike were the steps of firing him from his coveted prison industries job and then segregating him to solitary confinement with 23-hour-per-day lockup, considered by most mental health professionals to be psychologically damaging. This is where it gets interesting.
Has the Department of Corrections really curtailed abuse of solitary?
The imposition of solitary as punishment for policy violations was greatly curtailed in 2011, after a public outcry over its abuse. Then Corrections Commissioner Joseph Ponte imposed a seven-day limit for Supermax stays for prisoners being investigated for in-prison crimes. (Haque, a model prisoner, was segregated not for in-prison crimes but for religious protest.) Haque was held in solitary from June 20 to July 24, at which point he was transferred to the infirmary. Prison administration took action two days after the publication of the BDN article.
Associate Corrections Commissioner Jody Breton explained in the article the procedure for responding to hunger strikes. After missing three meals, prison staff start a hunger strike log so that the prisoner’s medical condition may be monitored to determine if hospitalization is necessary. Intravenous force-feeding remains an option.
Haque avers that the offer made to him was to serve out his sentence in Supermax or “mini-Supermax,” the current use for the former “close” unit. He politely declined. Meanwhile, he has lost his good time and employment and has handed the Department of Corrections a major financial and political headache they cannot win over the long haul.
My money is on Haque, who, unlike the prison administration at the Department of Corrections, has nothing to lose and is fighting for what little remains of his dignity. Tough odds!
An upside-down system
What emerges from this saga is that with Ponte on to bigger and better prison problems in New York, the only single cell options at the prison are Supermax, mini-Supermax and the Medium G Pod, reserved for special prisoners, some of whom have been useful to prison administration. While Haque’s religious rights are allegedly ignored, he is carefully monitored so that the medical rights that he is voluntarily surrendering will not be abused. The department, it seems, screens its wards for medical health but not for religious bias.
In a world in which the right to freedom of religion is embedded in the Constitution, while the right to medical care is not and is routinely debated, something is clearly upside down with this picture.
Could it possibly be that fresh ideas are needed? One idea might be to clear out those convicted of petty drug offenses, leaving more single-bunk cells for those remaining and far less stress on administration.
The Rev. Stan Moody is pastor of Columbia Street Baptist Church in Bangor and a former legislator. He is founder of the Maine Prison Chaplaincy Corps, and he has served as a chaplain at Maine State Prison in Warren.