Chelsea Manning found guilty of violating prison rules

Chelsea Manning was found guilty today on four charges of breaking prison rules and will receive 21 days of restrictions on recreation as punishment, but she has been spared the harshest penalty: indefinte isolation.

The other two charges relate to contraband found in Manning’s cell, including the Vanity Fair magazine issue with Caitlyn Jenner on the cover, an issue of Cosmopolitan which featured an interview with Manning, and a few periodicals on transgender studies.

Over the weekend, Manning reported that she is being refused access to the law library at the prison as she prepares to go before the disciplinary board.

Some military legal experts familiar with the facility expressed skepticism that Manning would be punished with indefinite solitary confinement.

Manning, a former Army intelligence analyst serving 35 years in a military prison at Ft.

“During the five years she has been incarcerated Chelsea has had to endure horrific and, at times, plainly unconstitutional conditions of confinement,” said Chase Strangio, Mannning’s attorney at the ACLU. “It was no doubt this support that kept her out of solitary confinement”.

Manning, who joined military service as a man, changed her name from Bradley to Chelsea.

“She now faces the threat of further dehumanization because she allegedly disrespected an officer when requesting an attorney and had in her possession various books and magazines that she used to educate herself and inform her public and political voice.”

In advance of the hearing, Manning supporters delivered a petition with more than 100,000 signatures to Army officials, asking that the new charges be dropped.

The situation has thrust Manning into the spotlight as the tip of the spear for conversations around the treatment of transgendered inmates and the thin line between “whistleblower” and “traitor”. “We are hopeful that the prison will respond by dismissing these charges and ensuring that she is not unfairly targeted based on her activism, her identity, or her pending lawsuit”.

Evan Greer, campaign director of Fight for the Future, added, “The U.S. government has a terrifying track record of using imprisonment and torture to silence free speech and dissenting voices”. Manning’s supporters say the threat of solitary and the current disciplinary charges amount to torture, and is a kind of vindictiveness and retaliation for Manning’s outspoken criticism of US policies.