February 1, 2001

                   "THE United States is a federation of states (this is not a roundtable;
                   I just have to explain first so you will understand later on)¼

                   "I am in a federal prison, or to be more precise, a Federal Detention
                   Center for prisoners whose trials are not yet complete. It’s like a
                   transitional center before you go to a penitentiary or are set free¼ .

                   "When they arrested us, they put us on the 13th floor for a few
                   days¼ This is quite a new prison, it was finished in about 1994. It’s a
                   big building with 13 floors. The 13th floor was a regular floor where
                   they put high security prisoners, government witnesses, etc. When
                   we arrived it was empty and we were there for a few days, each in a
                   separate cell, and we were not allowed out of them. They only took
                   us to wash a couple of times. Then we were ‘transferred’ to the 12th
                   floor, the Special Housing Unit, or SHU. People call it ‘The Shu’ or ‘The
                   Hole.’ This is where prisoners go when they are punished (or rather,
                   punished more than usual), or those in very dangerous or high
                   security cases. For the prisoner it’s all the same, because you’re all
                   under the same regime. It doesn’t matter if you’ve been put there as
                   a punishment or for security reasons. They held us there for 17
                   months, which is not a record but it’s a very good average.

                   "They are quite small cells with a metal toilet-washbasin, shower, a
                   piece of concrete that acts as a table, another that acts as a chair
                   and an iron bunk.... We had to be in this cell 24 hours a day. We
                   were only taken out for an hour a day on weekdays, for ‘recreation,’
                   if it was not raining, thundering or a public holiday. The ‘recreation’
                   consisted of being taken to a bigger cell with a part-mesh roof so we
                   could breathe fresh air. There you can use engage in all the
                   ‘recreation’ you like, as long as it involves running or walking,
                   because there’s nothing else to do there.

                   "It was quite a difficult time, not just because of the conditions but
                   also because it just so happened that those were the first months.
                   But it was nothing to be scared of and after a few months we had
                   gotten used to The Hole.

                   "The Hole was also a ‘school.’ We learned a lot about ourselves and
                   about others, about honor and human dignity"