Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) on Tuesday called for whistleblower Chelsea Manning to be released on bail from her current detention in solitary confinement. Manning was jailed on March 8 after refusing to testify before a grand jury about Wikileaks. On March 23, “Chelsea Resists,” a group supporting Manning, said she was being held alone in her cell for 22 hours a day, and had been since the 8th. On Monday, Manning’s lawyers argued in a court filing that her confinement was in itself “punitive” and “an incurable due process violation that necessitates her release.”
Related: Chelsea Manning has been trapped in solitary confinement for refusing to answer questions before a Grand Jury.
Solitary confinement is torture.
Chelsea is being tortured for whistleblowing, she should be released on bail, and we should ban extended solitary in the US. https://t.co/95ef4xYt3k
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) April 2, 2019
Nobody who isn’t a high violence risk should be kept in solitary. It is torture. We are social animals.
Whistleblower protections and Sunshine laws make sure that we have the information, campaign finance reform and protecting the right to vote guarantee we can put that information to use.
Sorry, but Wikileaks is a Russian asset and needs to die.
That being said, solitary needs to universally stop. It is cruel and unusual punishment. Period. End of story. She can be kept incarcerated but safe in another manner. No excuses.
“whistleblower”
The way I learned the term, people who were whistleblowers acted with the full knowledge, understanding, and acceptance of the consequences of their actions.
Chelsea Manning continues to aid and abet a hostile foreign intelligence service.
I dunno… What would be crueler, to be Trump’s cell-mate, or solitary?
But on the serious not, that’s certainly an issue with transgender people. Where do you put them? As we evolve our understanding of the human psyche and the fluidity of gender, then the old binary conclusions no longer work… And with prisons especially, that’s definitely a new nut to crack and one that our system isn’t built to handle.
OTOH, Chelsea has only herself to blame here. She’s being held in contempt of court, so all she needs to do is answer their questions, and she’d be happily on her way. By her own account, there’s nothing that she hasn’t shared before, so not sure why she’s taking a stand on this…