John Strand, Jan. 6 defendant, said he endured four months of solitary in federal prison
A Jan. 6 defendant said he spent four months in solitary confinement in federal prison, harsh conditions that could have been avoided in light of the Supreme Court’s ruling that the Justice Department overreached when it charged hundreds of the U.S. Capitol defendants with felony obstruction.
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John Strand, who was released early from prison last week, said federal prison officials in Miami locked him in solitary confinement for four months of his term over accusations ranging from publicly revealing online how far he had to walk to reach a computer, to helping other Jan. 6 defendants in prison receive support from outside groups.
“It’s kind of like your entire existence is within a giant concrete shoe box,” Mr. Strand, 39, said of the cell where he served his sentence at the Miami Federal Correctional Institution. “It’s covered on all sides. There’s supposed to be a window, there’s usually some sliver of excuse for a window, but it’s not much of a window to the outside, so it’s almost windowless.”
Mr. Strand was sentenced to two years and eight months in prison after a Washington, D.C., jury found him guilty of a felony charge of obstruction of an official proceeding and four misdemeanor violations stemming from the Jan. 6, 2021, attack at the Capitol.
But the obstruction charge was erased after the Supreme Court ruled last month in the case of another Jan. 6 defendant that the government was misapplying the obstruction statute. Federal prosecutors had filed the charge against multiple other defendants in the attack at the Capitol, including Mr. Strand.