My brother was placed in IMU, Intensive Management Unit, which is the same as the SHU in California. You receive 3 showers a week, and 5 hours a week in the small recreation area by yourself. He's been there since September 2004, but there are others that have been there for 2,3 and even 4 years.
Our IMU holds around 110 beds and we also have two other units for over flow when IMU is full. Each of those units hold an additional 100 convicts. That is 310 segregated convicts at Walla Walla alone. We have IMU units at nearly all of our prisons here in Washington and I was recently told by a C/O that every segregation unit in the state is full.
They've even resorted to contracting us out to other state: Minnesota, Nevada, Colorado and Arizona. Washington State is out of control and in my opinion is a time bomb waiting to explode.
I'm writing this letter in regards to your February 2005 issue of MIM Notes. I would like to request two things. One is the petition to abolish 3 strikes, and second is the petition against control units. Trust me when I say that I would have written a long time ago, but I just recently received my first issues of MIM Notes.
-- a Washington Prisoner, July 2005