By Arun Kundnani
Earlier this month, I was finally able to visit Imam Jamil Al-Amin, formerly H. Rap Brown, at the federal prison in Tucson, Arizona. Imam Jamil is one of the great political activists of the Black and Islamic movements. Most people have never heard of him. If they have, they are usually surprised to discover that he is still alive. His imprisonment is designed to make the world forget about him, and it has largely succeeded.
The last time I met with him was in August 2021 when I was able to spend two days in the Tucson prison interviewing him for the biography I am writing. Last year, I applied to visit him again, hoping I would not have to repeat the long, drawn-out legal process I had to go through to meet with him the first time. But the Federal Bureau of Prisons only allowed me to do another visit after the Cornell University Law School and Arizona State University Law School First Amendment Clinics threatened to go to court to say that blocking my visits was a violation of my constitutional rights.
In any case, when I landed in Arizona, I thought that everything had been agreed, and I would be able to spend four hours recording Jamil Al-Amin speaking about his life. I also expected to learn about the medical neglect he is experiencing. He’s 81 years old and has had various health issues over the years of his incarceration. But recently a photo of him emerged showing a large swelling on his face that the prison was refusing to treat.
When I got to the prison, two unexpected things happened. Firstly, I was told by the corrections officers that I was not allowed to record Jamil Al-Amin speaking. That meant I wasn’t able to get a recording of him talking about his medical situation, which would have been a powerful way to galvanize support for him to receive proper treatment. I assume that was exactly why the warden of the prison didn’t want me to record the conversation.
Secondly, on my second day with Imam Jamil, I found out that he had in fact been taken to a hospital that morning. But instead of proper care, he received yet more abusive treatment. Someone attempted to pierce the swelling on his face by cutting it, hoping to drain the fluid. But that didn’t work. So Imam Jamil was sent back to the prison, with a bandage over the left side of his face, the swelling untreated, and still without any diagnosis. He was in considerable pain, found hearing hard as the swelling was beginning to cover his ear, and could not swallow solid food; while I was with him, a prison guard gave him a nutritional shake, his only diet.
No-one should have to suffer this way. But for a man of Jamil Al-Amin’s stature to be treated like this left me feeling enraged. I urge everyone reading this to support the campaign calling for an emergency medical transfer of Imam Jamil to the Federal Medical Center at Butner, North Carolina, and for him to receive immediate medical treatment there. You can use this link to access email and phone call templates to make the request to the Federal Bureau of Prisons.
I’ve also done two interviews recently you might want to check out.
With the publisher Verso Books, I did a 26-minute video interview discussing how Trump’s election can be viewed as the War on Terror returning home, and how the far Right’s emotional appeal rests on exploiting the ruins of racial capitalism. I develop both of these arguments further in my book What is Antiracism? And Why it Means Anticapitalism.
And in an interview for WBAI’s Law and Disorder radio show, I talked about my new graphic booklet Homeland Security: Myths and Monsters, why the Dept of Homeland Security is a gift to the new Trump administration, and how to begin the fight back.
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Peace,
Arun
email: arun@kundnani.org
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