"They’re sending me to investigate the prison-industrial complex"
Imprisoned for Committing Journalism
In 2014, Brown was facing over 100 years in prison before he agreed to a plea deal sentencing him to 5 years and 3 months. In addition he was ordered to pay $890, 000 in restitution and fines. Remarkably, Brown was not arrested because of hacking charges, he went to jail for "merely linking to hacked material".
While it's true that at one point Brown was considered the unofficial spokesperson of the Hacker Collective known as Anonymous, he was a talented journalist and writer, first and foremost, penning articles for a wide assortment of media outlets. The Onion, the Huffington Post, Vanity Fair are just a few of the publications he worked for, later he would also win a National Magazine Award for a 2016 series he authored for the Intercept while incarcerated.
As hacker culture began to grow as did the demand for Barret Brown's work. He broke a few major stories that may have landed him in hot water with the Feds.
Brown quickly became a symbol of the attack on press freedom after he was arrested in 2012 for reporting he did on the hacked emails of intelligence-contracting firms. Brown wrote about hacked emails that showed the firm Stratfor spying on activists on behalf of corporations. Brown also helped uncover a proposal by intelligence contractors to hack and smear Wikileaks defenders and progressive activists.
Latest Arrest
In November 2016, Brown was released from prison but as part of his parole agreement he was to remain at a halfway house until May 2017. According to Brown's mother, he had not violated any of the conditions of his parole, had not failed a drug test or missed a check-in with law enforcement. Nevertheless, Brown's lawyer, Jay Lieberman, said Brown was taken into custody following a check-in.
His mother was able to speak to him by phone and he said he believes he was arrested for failing to submit the proper permission documentation in order to give interviews to the media. Brown claims he was not informed by the Bureau of Prisons about the proper paperwork requirements. Subsequently, Brown to ask his Check-in officer about the issue who apparently provided him with improper forms. Last week, Brown had completed two days of interviews with Vice media and was planning on doing an interviewed for a PBS documentary film but was arrested the day before the scheduled interview.
The Intercept:
Leiderman said he had not been presented with a formal justification for the arrest but was told that it had “to do with failing to abide by BOP restrictions on interviews.”
Leiderman called the impromptu media restrictions “disgusting” and said he believed the arrest was an act of reprisal for criticizing the government. “I would call the people who did this a bunch of chicken-shit assholes that are brutalizing the Constitution,” Leiderman said.
Whereabouts Unknown
Although Brown was able to contact his mother by phone, authorities have not disclosed where Brown is being held and detained.
More Sources
Source: The Guardian