Committee To Free Russell Smith
In his early career, in 1977 Mehler was the founder of the Committee to Free Russell Smith, later the International Committee to Free Russell Smith (ICFRS). Smith was one of the "Marion Brothers", a group of prisoners kept in long-term segregation and illegal solitary confinement in the Control Unit of the U.S. Penitentiary in Marion, Illinois. Smith and the rest of the Marion Brothers proved that they were illegally locked down due to their political activities in prison rather than misbehavior or failing to observe prison rules. Smith had been active in organizing prisoners to fight against prisoner rape. After his release from the Control Unit, Smith was again raped. He retaliated in what he claimed was a necessary defense against further assaults, and prison officials charged him with assault.
Mehler and the committee (ICFRS) supported Smith during his trial following charges of assault. They also provided a home for him after his release from federal prison in 1980.
Using the resources of the ICFRS, Smith formed the grass-roots "People Organized to Stop Rape of Imprisoned Persons" (POSRIP). Smith and Mehler did not continue working together, as Smith disappeared in the 1980s.
About 1983 Tom Cahill and Stephen Donaldson resurrected POSRIP, in the 1990s incorporating it as Just Detention International.
Read more about this topic: Barry Mehler
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