Dear Friends:
Please help the Phil Berrigan Family by writing to Attorney General
Janet Reno on their behalf as indicated at the end of this story
from today's Boston Globe.
Thank you.
Francis A. Boyle
Professor of International Law
Law Building, 504 E. Pennsylvania Ave.
Champaign, Illinois 618200
Phone: 217-333-7954
Fax: 217-244-1478
fboyle@law.uiuc.edu
Board of Directors, Amnesty International USA (1988-92)
WASHINGTON - Philip Berrigan, the former Catholic priest
and peace activist who has spent a decade of his life in prison
for civil disobedience, has lost more than his freedom in a federal
penitentiary in Virginia.
Berrigan, 74, who is serving a two-year term for damaging a Navy
last year at the Bath Iron Works shipyard in Maine, recently was
banned from seeing visitors, including his wife and three children,
for a year.
The federal bureau of prisons imposed the punishment after Mairead Corrigan Maguire of Northern
Ireland, recipient of the 1976 Nobel Peace Prize, staged a nonviolent
sit-in at the prison in Petersburg, Va., on Feb. 16, after visiting
Berrigan.
Thirty years after Berrigan began his career of civil disobedience
by pouring bottles of blood over Selective Service files in Baltimore
during the Vietnam War, he was segregated from the general population
the federal prison for over a week after Maguire's demonstration.
A prison hearing officer then found Berrigan guilty of ''disruptive
conduct'' for not alerting authorities about Maguire's planned
protest. The finding and punishment have outraged Berrigan's supporters.
Maguire, in recent letters to federal prison officials and Attorney
General Janet Reno, called Berrigan's punishment ''illogical,
unjust, and unfair.''
''Philip Berrigan is being punished for something that he did
not do, but for something that I did,'' Maguire wrote. She said
she had never met Berrigan before the visit, which she made a
month after nominating him for the 1998 Nobel Peace Prize.
Todd Craig, a spokesman for the federal bureau of prisons, said
Berrigan was obligated to inform authorities about Maguire's intended
sit-in so order could be maintained in a ''safe, secure and humane
way.''
Maguire, 43, who said she staged the three-hour sit-in to show
solidarity with Berrigan and to protest the possible attack on
Iraq by the United States, was arrested by police from nearby
Richmond, Va. She was charged with trespassing, jailed overnight,
then freed the next day after a federal judge dismissed the criminal
complaint against her at the request of prosecutors.
However, prison officials pressed the matter. ''The incident did
disrupt the orderly operation of the facility,'' Craig said. ''Therefore,
Mr. Berrigan was appropriately sanctioned with the loss of social
visiting privileges for a year.''
Berrigan is appealing the sentence, although it is unclear whether
the appeals process will be completed before his earliest possible
release date of Nov. 20. He was awaiting a date for the first
of several administrative appeals he would need to exhaust before
asking a federal judge for relief.
Berrigan and his family could not be reached for comment. But
his friends said Berrigan believes his loss of visitation privileges
is particularly unfair to his relatives.
''He certainly feels his family is being deeply punished,'' said
Sister Ardeth Platte, a friend of Berrigan who lives with his
wife, Elizabeth McAlister, and their children in the Jonah House
pacifist community that Berrigan helped to form in Baltimore in
1973.
Platte said Berrigan testified at his disciplinary hearing that
Maguire informed him of her planned demonstration. Platte said
Berrigan testified that he told Maguire ''to follow her conscience.''
Maguire shared the 1976 Nobel Peace Prize with Betty Williams,
also Northern Ireland. At the time, they were Roman Catholic housewives
who had withstood death threats and physical attacks to form a
woman's movement to try to stop the sectarian killing in the province.
They began the effort after Williams saw a terrorist's runaway
car run down three children, killing them. Maguire was the children's
aunt.
Berrigan, who has been jailed repeatedly for civil disobedience,
led five other religious peace activists in secretly boarding
a nuclear-capable Navy destroyer in Maine on Feb. 12, 1997, Ash
Wednesday. The protesters hammered to damage the control panels
and poured bottles of their blood on the ship before they were
arrested by military police.
At the arraignment, Maine District Court Judge Joseph Field called
Berrigan ''a moral giant, the conscience of a generation.'' But
a federal jury in Portland, Maine, convicted the group three months
of conspiracy and destroying federal property.
Maguire, in her letter to Reno, lashed out at the prison sanctions.
''I am appalled that the United States, which prides and presents
itself to the world as the model of democracy, should so unjustly
remove such a basic right as all visitations to a prisoner,''
she wrote. ''This treatment of Philip Berrigan, which is really
cruel and barbaric, is not acceptable behavior from any democratic
country.''
Amnesty International joined the protest. ''The Bureau of Prison's
vicarious punishment of Phil Berrigan constitutes cruel and inhuman
and degrading treatment in violation of his rights under international
human rights laws and treaties to which the United States government
is a party,'' Francis A. Boyle,
a director of Amnesty International, wrote to Reno.
As word spread of Berrigan's latest predicament, among his supporters
were Catholic social justice workers who said they have long drawn
inspiration from him. Said Kathy Shields Boylan, at the Dorothy
Day Catholic Worker House in Washington, ''She made a decision
to protest. He should not be held responsible for the conscience
of another person.''
27 March 1998
The Honorable Janet Reno
U.S. Attorney General
U.S. Department of Justice
950 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Suite 4400
Washington, DC 20350
Fax No.: 202-514-4371
By Mail and Fax
Dear Ms. Reno:
I am writing to protest the decision by the Bureau of Prisons
canceling all visitation rights for Philip Berrigan, who is currently
incarcerated at FCI Petersburg, Virginia for his Prince of Peace
Plowshares Act of Conscience against a nuclear-capable Aegis Cruiser
in Maine. One of the judges involved in that case publicly called
Phil Berrigan "the moral conscience of our generation."
My sentiments exactly.
Phil Berrigan was recently nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize
by the distinguished Irish Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Mairead
Corrigan Maguire, one of the Co-Founders of the Peace People Movement
in Northern Ireland. Ms. Maguire cited Phil Berrigan and his brother
Father Dan Berrigan, S.J., for a lifetime of dedication to the
cause of promoting peace, justice and human rights around the
world, and especially here in the United States of America. Ms.
Maguire decided to meet personally with her Nobel Peace Prize
Nominee at FCI Petersburg in order to offer her personal support
to Phil Berrigan for his continuing work for peace. After the
meeting was over, and in light of the impending bombing of Iraq
by the United States, Ms. Maguire decided to stage a protest for
peace by refusing to leave the prison. According to Ms.Maguire's
Statement, a copy of which is attached to this letter, Phil Berrigan
had nothing to do with Ms. Maguire's peaceful protest. I have
never had any reason to doubt the word of the world-renowned Irish
Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Mairead Corrigan Maguire.
Ms. Maguire was held overnight in Richmond City Jail, and brought
before a judge the next afternoon. The Prosecutor recommended
that all charges against her be dropped and the Judge immediately
released her. Nevertheless, Phil Berrigan was punished because
of Mairead Corrigan Maguire's peaceful, non-violent and non-criminal
protest against an impending war, which was protected activity
under the First Amendment to the United States Constitution. The
Bureau of Prison's vicarious punishment of Phil Berrigan constitutes
cruel and inhuman and degrading treatment in violation of his
rights under international human rights laws and treaties to which
the United States government is a party.
In particular, Article 12 of the Universal Declaration of Human
Rights states quite clearly: "No one shall be subjected to
arbitrary interference with his privacy, family, home or correspondence,
nor to attacks upon his honor and reputation. Everyone has the
right to protection of the law against such interference or attacks."
The Bureau of Prisons has arbitrarily interfered with Phil Berrigan's
family by terminating their visitation rights for one year because
of Mairead Corrigan Maguire's peaceful, non-violent, non-criminal
protest against an impending war. I should point out that the
United States government has been in the vanguard of the international
movement maintaining that basic provisions of the Universal Declaration
of Human Rights such as Article 12 constitute customary international
law.
Article 12 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights has now
been codified in Article 17 of the International Covenant on Civil
and Political Rights, to which the United States Government is
now a contracting party. Covenant Article 17 provides as follows:"1.No
one shall be subjected to arbitrary or unlawful interference with
his privacy, family, home or correspondence, nor to unlawful attacks
on his honour and reputation.2.Everyone has the right to the protection
of the law against such interference or attacks." By terminating
Phil Berrigan's visitation rights with his family for the act
of Ms.Maguire, the Bureau of Prisons has arbitrarily interfered
with his family. Moreover, as Attorney General of the United States
of America, you are
obligated to protect Phil Berrigan and his family from such arbitrary
interference by the Bureau of Prisons that falls under your domain.
I should point out that the International Covenant on Civil and
Political Rights and Article 17 thereof is a treaty to which the
United States Government is a contracting party and therefore
"the supreme Law of the Land" under Article VI of the
United States Constitution, the so-called Supremacy Clause. For
these reasons, I ask you to order the immediate restoration of
Phil Berrigan's right to visit with his family.
I look forward to hearing from you at your earliest convenience.
Yours very truly,
Francis A. Boyle
Professor of International Law
Board of Directors, Amnesty International USA (1988-1992)
Attachment
cc: Director, U.S. Bureau of Prisons
520 First Street NW
Washington, DC 20001
Stephen DeWalt
Warden
FCI Petersburg
PO Box 1000
Petersburg VA 23804-1000
Fax No.:804-863-1510
By Mail and Fax
Peace People, Friedhelm, 224 Lisburn Road, Belfast, BT9 6GE
March 14, 1998
To: Director, U.S. Bureau of Prisons
520 First Street, NW
Washington, D.C., 20001, USA
From: Mairead Corrigan Maguire
I am writing from Belfast, Northern Ireland to appeal to you to
reverse the recent decision canceling all visitation rights for
the internationally known, nonviolent peacemaker, Philip Berrigan,
age 74, who is currently being held in the Petersburg, Virginia
Federal Correctional Institution. I am appalled at this decision.
Firstly, let me say, that Philip Berrigan is being punished for
something that he did not do, but for something that I did. This
is unjust.
As I understand it, on March 10th, the Regional Supervisor of
Virginia Prisons issued an order that Philip Berrigan is not to
receive any further visits for one year. The Regional Supervisor
is punishing Philip Berrigan not because of something Philip Berrigan
did, but because of something I did. Three weeks earlier, on Monday,
February 16th, 1998, while I was in the United States, I visited
Phil Berrigan in the Petersburg prison. It was the first time
I had met him, and I came to offer him my support in his work
for peace.
At the time, the United States was threatening to bomb the people
of Iraq, and so, in an effort to protest U.S. war preparations
and ongoing U.S. nuclear weapons policy, I staged a peaceful protest
in the Petersburg prison by refusing to leave--after my visit
with Philip Berrigan had already concluded. My peaceful protest
was an act of solidarity with this great man and his work for
peace.
My action was solely my decision. I acted alone. This was not
an action that Philip Berrigan suggested or talked me into. Why
then punish Philip Berrigan for something that I did?
I was held overnight in the Richmond city jail and brought before
a judge the next afternoon. To my surprise, the prosecutor recommended
that all charges against me be dropped and the judge immediately
released me.
Philip Berrigan should not be punished for something that I did,
especially when the local judge and prosecutor decided that my
action was not worthy of punishment. I was willing to take any
punishment for my protest against United States war preparations,
but none was given to me by the judge. It is illogical, unjust,
and unfair then that Philip Berrigan should be punished for an
action that I had taken, that he did not urge or take, that I
was willing to be punished for, and that the courts decided was
not worthy of punishment. Philip Berrigan's wife, children and
friends should also not be punished for the next year because
of my action. I am horrified by the Regional Supervisor's decision
to cancel all visiting rights to Philip Berrigan for one year.
To me, this is draconian punishment.
Secondly, let me say that I am appalled that the United States,
which prides itself and presents itself to the world as the model
of democracy, should so unjustly remove such a basic right as
all visitations to a prisoner--and in this case, to such a noble,
nonviolent person as Philip Berrigan. This treatment of Philip
Berrigan, which is really cruel and barbaric, is not acceptable
behavior from any democratic country. Philip Berrigan stands in
the tradition of Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr. He
is one of the century's great voices for peace. I urge you to
reverse this decision, and restore his right to regular visitations.
For my part, I will leave no stone unturned in the pursuit of
Philip Berrigan's right to have regular visitations. Thank you
very much for your immediate attention to this matter.
Sincerely yours,
Mairead Corrigan Maguire
(Co-founder, Peace People, Northern Ireland;
1976 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate) March 14, 1998