I want to share an important update about Michael Orr’s situation and why our continued support matters so much right now.

Michael has officially filed an appeal — a critical step toward justice — but that appeal seems to have been placed on hold due to the recent government shutdown. Even after the shutdown ended, the delay has continued, leaving his case stuck in limbo through no fault of his own.

During this time, Michael endured a 40‑day lockdown, an experience that took a serious toll on his emotional well‑being. if you have never heard of a lockdown in prison, it is a practice that is quite frankly psychologically abusive to inmates. Any violent situation at all that occurs in the prison, even though that are not in the same floor or unit as Michael, is caused for a lockdown. These periods of full lockdown include only being released from the cell to take a shower that is supervised. That means inmates are In their cell 24/7: no phone calls, no emails, no programming, no connection to the outside world at all, no matter what. On top of that, during the lockdown his father experienced stroke activity and was rushed to the hospital. He is back home again in care of hospice and the distance between Michael and his family has made this even more heartbreaking.

We are now fighting to have Michael transferred to a facility closer to home, where he can maintain family connection, receive meaningful support, and continue pursuing his appeal with stability and dignity. Hopefully his father would be stable enough to travel with short distance if we can get him to a prison that is in South Carolina. We also ran into the hardship of getting his max custody lifted. He has for a long while been able to be in a lesser custody/security prison however they continue to deny his request despite us writing the FBOP in hopes to bring light to his father situation that they may review his points again. We received one email back out of the many that we have sent. At this point I am not sure if they are actually reviewing his case or not.  

Your signatures, shares, and voices are helping us push for fairness, transparency, and basic humanity in Michael’s case.

Thank you for standing with him — and with all families navigating a system that too often forgets the people inside it.