Santa Barbara News Press

Inmate questions post-Sept. 11 treatment

Richard Williams, at Lompoc for 10 years, has been segregated since attacks

7/1/02

Nora K. Wallace

News-press Staff Writer

Mere hours after two planes smashed into the World Trade Center towers last September, guards came and hustled Richard Williams out of his cell at the Lompoc Federal Penitentiary.

He and 10 other men, most of Middle Eastern or Arab descent, were moved into a special administrative detention unit.

According to the Department of Justice, the move, which took place in concert with similar shuffles at prisons around the country, was necessary for the safety and security of the prisoners, and to continue the orderly running of the penitentiary.

During the next few weeks, all except Mr. Williams were returned to the general prison population. He remained alone and under constant supervision, until Feb. 11 -- five months after the attacks -- when he was returned to his old cell among the general population. Then, on April 30, he was sent back to the special housing unit, where he remains today, said his attorney, Lynne Stewart.

The inmate, a self-described "anti-imperialist" convicted of numerous bombings and the murder of a state trooper, was among the "high profile" federal convicts nationwide who were segregated into special units -- which outsiders describe as a euphemism for solitary confinement -- after the attacks.

But because the government hasn't linked him to the recent terrorist acts, Mr. Williams, his family and attorney are all questioning the reasoning behind his treatment. Ms. Stewart, a high-profile attorney who is the subject of an FBI investigation, says he is being singled out because of her legal difficulties.

His children, concerned about his health, want their father to have some stability. The Department of Justice demands security -- and isn't talking.

The Bureau of Prisons says the inmate's housing change is part of post-Sept. 11 Department of Justice policy changes designed to protect the nation from potential threats domestically and internationally. The government can determine if prisoners should be placed under "special measures," such as being housed in special units, transferred, or given restricted access to visitors and mail.

His attorney says Mr. Williams, who has been in the Lompoc prison since 1992, was kept out of the general population longer than any other similar inmate in the United States. The day after being placed back in his old cell in February, he suffered a mild heart attack. "I was in this prison 10 years prior to Sept. 11th and at no time have I ever threatened or done any violence to anyone, staff or prisoner," Mr. Williams, 54, wrote in response to queries by the News-Press. "I have no connection to any groups or people that could in the least be considered violent. I do not support the actions of Sept. 11th. It is not something I would do, nor would I advocate it."

In the early 1980s, Mr. Williams was reportedly among a group of seven men and women who formed the United Freedom Front. They were all arrested in Ohio after a three-year manhunt that Mr. Williams' attorney described as more extensive than the hunt for the Lindbergh baby kidnappers. Though authorities say otherwise, Mr. Williams said he never admitted to participation with the UFF, but instead supported an "armed clandestine movement."

The UFF was accused of a series of about 18 bombings in protest of the U.S. relationship with South Africa's apartheid government and the U.S. government's Central America policies in the early 1980s. Among the targets were South African Airways, IBM Corp. and Union Carbide.

"I took up revolution in this country because it is my country," Mr. Williams wrote. "I want to see change here. I do not hate the people of the U.S. I do hate the policies the government pursues. I feel it is criminal. And to not try to change it makes me, as a U.S. citizen, complicit in my government's crimes."

According to numerous reports, no injuries or deaths are associated with the UFF bombings. In 1986-87, Mr. Williams was tried on 11 bombing counts, and convicted of five -- at an Army Reserve Center, a Naval Reserve Center, a Navy recruiting office and General Electric and Union Carbide Corp. laboratories. He received a sentence of 45 years.

He was also convicted in a later trial, along with UFF member Tom Manning, of the murder of New Jersey state trooper Philip Lamonaco. Mr. Williams, whose first trial in that case ended in a hung jury, was sentenced to 35 years to life for that crime.

DIFFERENT KIND OF TERRORIST

The federal Bureau of Prisons releases little information about prisoners, citing privacy concerns, and because it could compromise safety and security, said Sven Jones, a Bureau spokesman in Washington, D.C. He would say only that Mr. Williams has a projected release date of Nov. 11, 2018; after that, he would serve the murder sentence in New Jersey. He is one of 1,147 men in Lompoc's maximum-security penitentiary.

Mr. Jones rebuts the characterization of special administrative detention units as solitary confinement or isolation, the term frequently used by Mr. Williams' supporters.

"It serves many purposes," Mr. Jones said. "It's for behavioral purposes, or the safety and security of an inmate. That's not infrequent. Sometimes inmates are being moved from one place to another, and they're not put in the normal population."

Mr. Williams' son, Netdahe Williams Stoddard, 24, takes it as a personal affront that the Justice Department considers his father a possible terrorist. Mr. Stoddard, who lives in Vermont, has visited his father in the penitentiary for the past seven years, including some visits that involved months-long stays on the Central Coast. He was used to relatively open access to his father, including the chance to hug, or hold hands.

Since Sept. 11, the visits have been more limited in time and contact.

"He's never been a threat to you or I," said Mr. Stoddard, during a recent visit to Lompoc. "He has been, and is especially in ideology, a threat to how the government stands. He's really aware of that."

His sister, Henekis Williams Stoddard, was just a toddler when their father was first incarcerated. Now 22, she visited him about a week ago for the first time in five years.

"I don't have any bad feelings about it," she said. "It's great to have somebody like him. I'm totally proud of him, 100 percent. I support what he believes in. I take a very drastic, very different approach to life, how I view things. That doesn't negate what he does. I really respect that."

The government's action, Miss Stoddard maintains, "is just vengeance. Just straight-up fear they have of whatever, and they take it out on whoever they have captive. He said to us, 'I haven't done anything wrong except what I was convicted of 20 years ago.' Nothing new has happened, except he's gotten a little older, a little mellower ... He's the same person he was before Sept. 11."

Though the federal Bureau of Prisons will not confirm his status, Mr. Williams' children believe he is about to be classified as a high-level security risk. If that occurs, he will be transferred to an ultra-high security penitentiary in either Florence, Colo. or Marion, Ill.

"He's got this resolve: 'These people cannot break me and I will not let them,''' Mr. Stoddard said, after visiting his father. "He's being reclassified to a more secure level without any behavior problems. He's being penalized a second time for crimes he committed 21 years ago." A

PRISONER OF CONSCIENCE?

Mr. Williams is among more than 100 men and women called "political prisoners" by various human rights activist organizations, largely because his crimes were directed at U.S. government policy. He -- as well as others with whom he was arrested -- are regularly mentioned on Web sites and in letter-writing campaigns to elected officials.

UCSB professor Diane Fujino, and her husband Matef Harmachis, a Dos Pueblos High School teacher, are members of the Interfaith Prisoners of Conscience group, and have written letters to Rep. Lois Capps, D-Santa Barbara, seeking help with the case.

Mrs. Capps' office made an inquiry to the penitentiary, and received a response simply detailing Mr. Williams' status, said Marla Viorst, spokeswoman for Mrs. Capps. Ms. Fujino, Mr. Harmachis and several other Central Coast residents visit or correspond with Mr. Williams.

"He's a political prisoner, incarcerated because of his political actions, beliefs and associations," said Ms. Fujino. Ms. Fujino understands some people may question her support of a man the government might consider a domestic terrorist.

"The reason I support him, they took great care not to hurt any people," she explained. "They were symbolic actions against U.S. imperialism. He was not fighting for his own self-interest. He was really trying to break down racism and imperialism in the U.S. This was the way they thought made sense to do it."

Mr. Williams appears mystified as well to the reasons behind his segregation and possible transfer. "The fact that I am singled out for special punishment even after 17 years in jail for no concrete reason that the authorities will give puts proof that they feel I'm a threat," he wrote. "It is not a physical threat, as they pose, but an intellectual threat, which they will never admit.

"I am an unrepentant revolutionary. They cannot stand it."