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Chelsea’s fellow inmates

Saturday, June 11, 2016 United States Disciplinary Barracks Chelsea Manning

, I read Yan Zhu’s recent blog posts (1, 2) about her experience visiting Chelsea Manning in prison. I realized I had no idea about Chelsea’s whereabouts or living conditions except the assumption that she is imprisoned. I was really moved by Yan Zhu’s account and wanted to learn more about Chelsea’s situation. So I started reading about the United States Disciplinary Barracks (USDB). That is the prison in which she has been [1] and where she is supposed to spend the next 32 years.

I first looked into the other inmates of that prison. I wanted to understand what people she has to spend her days with.

General notes about the population

440 inmates are imprisoned in the USDB. They were all convicted under US military law. Currently, all inmates are members of US military. In theory, prisoners of war could be held there as well. The USDB is limited to convicted officers regardless of their sentence and regular soldiers serving sentences over 10 years.

Only convicts the US military considers male are hold in the USDB. I could not find a clear definition, but it seems to be based on the gender assigned at birth. Chelsea’s case and slow developments in the Department of Justice’s guidelines might improve this in the future, though.

According to a 2013 brochure, 90% of the inmates were convicted of crimes against persons, 4% of crimes against property, 4% of drug-related offenses and 2% are imprisoned for »strictly military offenses«.[2] Sexual offenses currently account for more than half of inmates’ crimes.[2:1][3] Of those, again half are in for sex offenses against children.[4] I would expect the other roughly 40% of inmates convicted of crimes against persons to be in for murder due to the high sentences inmates serve. Hide details about crimes against personsShow details about crimes against persons

Individual inmates

Content Note: I will mention the names of the crimes people were convicted of. That includes violence and sexualized violence.

This is a very incomplete list of inmates of the United States Disciplinary Barracks. I could not verify in each case that the person is still in the USDB, but it should be the case for most.

There are 6 men on death row. I am pretty sure about these, since they are high-profile cases. The last execution in the USDB took place in 1961. Chelsea will not be able to interact with them, though, since they are not part of the prison’s regular population.

Another pretty specific category are inmates sentenced to life in prison without possibility of parole (LWOP). This does not mean that they will die in the USDB, since their sentences can be commuted to regular life sentences. Afterwards, they can theoretically be paroled or get their sentences further reduced. They will definitely spend many years in prison, though. They are part of the normal prison population.

LWOP sentences have only been available in courts-martial since 1997, so the number of convictions is limited. In 2010, officials at the prison stated there were 18 men on LWOP in USDB.[6] In 2014, the Chief of Staff of the USDB said 17 inmates were convicted to life without the possibility of parole.[7] The same year, the Army News Service claimed a total number of 10 LWOP prisoners in the USDB.[3:1] In any case, the following list of 10 inmates is not exhaustive.

There are 2 former death row inmates whose sentences were converted to life sentences, but I do not know if it is LWOP or not.

Most other former death row inmates got re-sentenced to life with possibility of parole. They might have moved to other prisons, though:

Another easily recognizable group are the soldiers right-wingers call »Leavenworth 10«[24]

Other probable inmates:

This list is obviously not complete, it has about 70 names compared to 440 inmates. It probably also contains quite some errors. Still, it should give you a good idea about the people Chelsea had to spend the last years with.

  1. http://www.leavenworthtimes.com/article/20130830/NEWS/130839903 ↩︎

  2. USDB brochure ↩︎ ↩︎

  3. USDB at about.com ↩︎ ↩︎

  4. http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=681306 ↩︎

  5. deathpenaltyinfo.org ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎

  6. http://www.stripes.com/news/air-force-general-upholds-maximum-sentence-for-child-rapist-1.129600 ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎

  7. http://www.plattecountylandmark.com/Article11905.htm ↩︎

  8. http://www.thefreelibrary.com/MARINE+ACCEPTS+LIFE+BEHIND+BARS+IN+WIFE'S+KILLING.-a083829763 ↩︎

  9. http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/us-military-latest-sentence-reversal-follows-trend-rarely-using-death-penalty ↩︎

  10. http://gazette.com/its-life-without-parole-for-fort-carson-soldier/article/1541787 ↩︎

  11. http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/05/17/18312861-soldier-sentenced-to-life-without-parole-for-killing-5-at-combat-stress-clinic-in-iraq?lite ↩︎

  12. http://www.theleafchronicle.com/story/news/local/fort-campbell/2016/04/22/man-gets-life-role-fort-campbell-soldiers-shooting/83362516/ ↩︎

  13. Army releases results of March courts-martial at ArmyTimes ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎

  14. http://www.stripes.com/news/germany-based-army-officer-convicted-of-raping-three-daughters-1.285804 ↩︎

  15. http://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/politics-government/article24735214.html ↩︎

  16. http://off2dr.com/smf/index.php?topic=8316.0 ↩︎

  17. http://edition.cnn.com/2013/07/28/justice/military-death-penalty/ ↩︎

  18. http://www.caaflog.com/2010/05/14/another-former-military-death-row-inmate-resentenced-to-life/ ↩︎

  19. http://articles.latimes.com/1994-07-12/news/mn-14806_1_death-row/2 ↩︎

  20. https://www.loc.gov/rr/frd/Military_Law/Military_Law_Review/pdf-files/127-100-174%202002.pdf ↩︎

  21. https://www.jagcnet.army.mil/DOCLIBS/ARMYLAWYER.NSF/c82df279f9445da185256e5b005244ee/4feca0c81fbcf38385256e5b0054dc1c/$FILE/Article%208.pdf ↩︎

  22. https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=10150396529866043&id=108057101042 ↩︎

  23. https://www.jagcnet.army.mil/DOCLIBS/ARMYLAWYER.NSF/c82df279f9445da185256e5b005244ee/4feca0c81fbcf38385256e5b0054dc1c/$FILE/Article%208.pdf ↩︎

  24. http://www.foxnews.com/us/2016/03/26/members-leavenworth-10-languish-in-military-prison-while-gitmo-detainees-freed.html ↩︎

  25. http://www.freeclintlorance.com/faq.html ↩︎

  26. http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-hutchins-verdict-20150617-story.html ↩︎

  27. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7972103.stm ↩︎

  28. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/21/world/middleeast/21briefs-USMEDICGUILT_BRF.html ↩︎

  29. http://www.wtotrial.com/as-senior-army-trial-counsel-led-a-team-prosecuting-the-murder-of-a-fort-lewis-soldier-the-defendant-received-a-life-sentence-without-possibility-of-parole ↩︎

  30. http://web.kitsapsun.com/archive/2000/11-15/0066_state_briefs.html ↩︎

  31. https://www.jagcnet.army.mil/Portals/Files/ACCAOther.nsf/27280d2ab261c2a18525755a0074bfbd/8b3366d11a2d0dcf852571ca00646e00?OpenDocument ↩︎

  32. http://www.dothaneagle.com/news/crime_court/former-army-colonel-sentenced-to-months-for-attempted-sexual-abuse/article_a40737e2-2cf3-11e6-9ce4-d31ced5fd9c6.html ↩︎

  33. Maywand District murders in the English Wikipedia ↩︎ ↩︎

  34. Mahmudiyah rape and killings in the English Wikipedia ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎

  35. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2927569/Former-Army-prosecutor-served-Iraq-Afghanistan-sentenced-20-years-prison-sexual-assault.html ↩︎

  36. http://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/crime/article34946334.html ↩︎

  37. http://www.stripes.com/news/ringleader-gets-life-in-slaying-of-fellow-seaman-on-okinawa-1.38209 ↩︎

  38. http://www.jag.navy.mil/courts/documents/archive/2006/PERSON%20R.L.%20200600076%20UNPUB.pdf ↩︎

  39. Army releases verdicts of March courts-martial at ArmyTimes ↩︎ ↩︎

  40. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barry_Winchell ↩︎

  41. http://www.calpernia.com/aboutme/soldiers-girl/killers-released/ ↩︎

  42. http://old.seattletimes.com/html/latestnews/2023462230_wolfsentencedxml.html?prmid=4748 ↩︎

  43. http://www.stripes.com/news/europe/oliver-sentenced-to-life-with-parole-for-killing-of-afn-broadcaster-1.326733l ↩︎

  44. http://www.stripes.com/news/alaska-soldier-guilty-of-premeditated-murder-in-3-year-old-son-s-death-1.312197 ↩︎

  45. Army releases results of December courts-martial at ArmyTimes ↩︎

  46. Special and General Courts-Martial for November 2015 of the US Navy ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎

  47. Army releases results of January courts-martial at ArmyTimes ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎

  48. Army announces results of February courts-martial at ArmyTimes ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎

  49. http://www.watertowndailytimes.com/news03/fort-drum-soldiers-sentenced-for-sexually-abusing-children-20160319 ↩︎

  50. http://www.theleafchronicle.com/story/news/local/fort-campbell/2016/03/24/fort-campbell-soldier-sentenced-25-years-nightclub-murder/82194228/ ↩︎

  51. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3515575/Ex-US-soldier-given-30-years-killing-Panama-girlfriend.html ↩︎

  52. Army releases results of April courts-martial at ArmyTimes ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎ ↩︎

  53. http://www.swoknews.com/area/court-martial-ends-prison-sentence ↩︎