'Guantanamo North' prison units in the Midwest are under fire for their harsh conditions
CHICAGO - At 13, Sara Jayyousi started a new lunchtime routine. Once a week, she'd rush to the cafeteria, buy lunch and take it to the school parking lot where her mom would be waiting in the car. She and her two sisters would sit in the backseat while her mom dialed the number for a special prison unit in Terre Haute, Ind.
During those lunch periods, the Michigan family was using the 15 minutes a week they were allotted to speak to Sara's dad. Afterward, Sara would return to class, stopping sometimes to cry in the bathroom.
"You can't say anything in 15 minutes. You say 'everything is fine, everyone is fine,'" said Hedaya Jayyousi, Sara's mom. "It was torture for the kids."
More than a decade later, Kifah Jayyousi is no longer in prison, but his daughter - who struggled through her teenage years without her father - is among those speaking out against a law enforcement strategy they believe unfairly targets Muslims.
Jayyousi was convicted of conspiracy to murder, kidnap and maim people overseas and two counts of providing material support to terrorists. A year after his conviction, he was moved to a special unit called a "communication management" unit in Terre Haute's federal prison.
These special units are sometimes the last step in a law enforcement strategy, escalated after 9/11, to target
