“But that does not mean the court lacks the power to determine their rights were violated and order relief to ameliorate the lingering effects of that violation.”

Jayyousi sought when they originally filed this case while imprisoned in the CMUs,” said Center for Constitutional Rights Senior Staff Attorney Rachel Meeropol. “It is too late for the court to order much of the relief Mr. Attorneys further note that this erroneous information could be shared with law enforcement and affect them further in the future. Both men remain emotionally distressed over their arbitrary CMU placement. Jayyousi remains under a 20-year term of supervised release, and modification of that term or its conditions will be determined in part based on the information contained in Mr. Aref remains in immigration detention and suspects his CMU designation is the reason he is being held in the prison’s lockdown unit under restrictive conditions. Though both men are no longer imprisoned in the CMUs, this information continues to affect them. This information was not corrected even when challenged by the prisoners and their lawyers. Incorrect information about Aref and Jayyousi created through the flawed CMU procedures remains in their BOP files. Every day that false information persists in my file that process is impeded.” Now that I am out of prison, I aim to rebuild my life and recover from those emotional wounds. “This isolation was based on erroneous information. “For five years, I was denied physical contact and adequate communication with my family, including my young children, and kept in a segregated unit, separated from other prisoners,” said Kifah Jayyousi. Today the men opposed that motion, explaining that if the court were to find their rights were violated, it could order expungement of all information contained in their federal Bureau of Prisons files created through the CMU’s flawed designation and review procedures. Last month, the Bureau of Prisons moved to dismiss the former prisoners’ longstanding case as “moot,” arguing that because both men have been released from Bureau of Prisons’ custody, their due process challenge can no longer lead to any meaningful relief.

For the past decade, the men have been challenging their designation to the CMU on due process grounds, arguing that the procedures the Bureau of Prisons used to send them to the restrictive unit were nothing more than a sham and failed to protect against arbitrary, discriminatory, and retaliatory placements in the segregated prison unit. The two men who petitioned the court today, Yassin Aref and Kifah Jayyousi, were held in the CMUs for four and five years, respectively, despite having clean disciplinary histories. Sixty percent of CMU prisoners are Muslim, though Muslims comprise only six percent of the federal prisoner population. CMUs are highly restrictive prison units that strictly monitor and control the communications of certain prisoners and segregate them from other prisoners and the outside world. W ashington, D.C., – Today, two men formerly imprisoned in federal Communications Management Units (CMUs) asked a court to deny the government’s motion to dismiss their suit. False Information Created by Bureau of Prisons Continues to Affect Released Prisoners, Must Be Expunged

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