Thus, the lockdown was not a professional response to the killing of two correctional guards in the Control Unit in October 1983 or to some other emergency situation. Steps in the direction of turning all of Marion into a control unit were being taken as early as the 1979 accession to power of Warden Harold Miller. These included the beginning of the elimination of work for inmates and needlessly increased harassment and restriction, which prisoners resisted peacefully. The process continued with the artificial deterioration of conditions that started with the complete elimination of work and most educational and other opportunities for inmates and escalated into the imposition of an indefinite semi-lockdown. In the process, corrections officials sought to cut prisoners off from legal and community support. These conditions aggravated the pressures on prisoners. Corrections officials used selected facts, sensationalism, distortion, and disinformation to create an impression of incipient riot and takeover at Marion. A period of brutality and intimidation followed. The current situation is both qualitatively and quantitatively different from any previous conditions and represents both direct and indirect political repression. The Federal Bureau of Prisons continues to lie about the reality at Marion; this facility and the ones being modeled after it pose a danger not only to inmates but to the society in which they will be released. Notes and 45 references