Jake Lang is not a terrorist or murderer. He’s a Trump supporter who got caught up in the Jan. 6, 2021, protests—and tried to rescue people from violence. He’s been in jail for more than one thousand days without trial, and he wants Americans to know the abuse and appalling living conditions imposed on Jan. 6 prisoners, many of whom haven’t been tried for crimes— let alone convicted.
Physical assault. Months of solitary confinement. Filthy cells crawling with cockroaches. That’s been the reality of life for young Jake Lang in Biden’s America. Lang spoke to The Epoch Times, which published his comments on October 19. Lang rescued Philip Anderson from a stampede at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6; the late Roseanne Boyland was crushed under a police-induced stampede that day, so Lang save Anderson’s life. Violent Antifa and BLM activists burned down U.S. cities with few consequences, pro-abortion activists violently attacked dozens of pregnancy centers without any arrests, and a pro-Palestinian group with a history of supporting terrorists just stormed the Cannon building on Capitol Hill to barely any media attention. But Jake Lang? He’s been in jail for three years without trial, in conditions that aren’t fit for terrorist prisoners, let alone peaceful patriots. Yet Lang still firmly believes justice will eventually triumph.
It’s important to note that Lang isn’t the only Jan. 6 prisoner to report terrible conditions. There is a 2021 congressional report about the scandalous situation. Therefore, 28-year-old Lang’s story isn’t mere assertion or a lone accusation, but one tragic story out of many, confirmed by official investigation (though Congress seems unfortunately to have taken very little action). He described Jan. 6 prisoners being deprived of family visitation, suffering months of solitary confinement, constant shifting from one facility to another while shackled, spending months with no sun, having lights on all night (thus preventing sleep), and being deliberately denied haircuts and shaves.
He argued that officials wanted the prisoners to appear like “deranged terrorists” or “homeless vagrants” when they went for their court appearances. Lang, who has yet to go to trial, has been charged with several counts, including “obstruction.” The latter charge could result in a 20-year prison sentence, and Lang has challenged it with the U.S. Supreme Court. Lang was arrested all the way back on Jan. 16, 2021, and has been shipped from one jail to another ever since.
The tactic of shackling “troublesome” prisoners together for long journeys by bus or plane to another facility is what is called “diesel therapy.” The trips can last anywhere from hours to weeks. He was in three different facilities in New York, including the one where infamous sexual criminal Jeffrey Epstein was held. He then went to Oklahoma, then to Virginia (Northern Neck Regional), and then to the D.C. jail that Jan. 6 prisoners refer to as “The Gulag.”
Fights are frequent. Personal belongings and discovery for their trials—family photos, exculpatory documents, and notes related to their cases—are often lost.
While in “The Gulag” he was forced to spend 23 hours and 15 minutes of every day confined to his jail cell. Lang said he was often physically assaulted, and detailed one instance that occurred in Sept. 2021 before a D.C. rally supporting the Jan. 6 prisoners. Around 6 in the morning, according to Lang, “around 70 officers began banging on the cell doors” of Jan. 6 inmates. The order was to dress and grab their mats in order to be moved to “a more secure location.” The prisoners were frightened and confused.
“Some thought we were being taken outside to a firing squad,” Lang explained to The Epoch Times. “They thought they were going to kill us.” To calm his fellow inmates down, Lang started to sing the U.S. National Anthem, which didn’t go over well with one guard, who “threw him against the wall and punched him in the ribs.” The prisoners were then hauled down to the basement and locked in cells lacking any windows, sinks, or toilets—for eight hours. From there, Lang was “tossed in the hole.”
“It’s disgusting down there,” Lang said. “The walls are wet. There’s vermin and cockroaches, and there’s a little slot in the door that they feed you through like a dog.”
About 10 months later, Mr. Lang was brought back up to the pod—an independent section within the facility that holds a small number of prisoners. His fellow Jan. 6 prisoners gathered at his cell door to greet him.
“One of the guards yelled for them to get away from my door, just arbitrarily enforcing a rule that didn’t exist,” he explained. “He called the sergeant, who opened the door and unloaded a whole can of military-grade pepper spray directly into my eyes.”
Naked and in cuffs, an emergency response team dragged him from the cell and brought him to a shower. Female guards watched, “laughing hysterically” at his pain.
He wasn’t given soap, so the oil ran down his body to his groin where the burning became excruciating. In his cell, the burning oil transferred to his mattress. He woke from nightmares thinking he was on fire.
When he was thrown back in “the hole,” he went on a 12-day hunger strike that cost him 30 pounds. He was back in “the hole again,” prompting him to do a 12-day hunger strike (he lost 30 pounds). He wanted family visitation, a haircut, and a congressional investigation into the killings of Ashli Babbitt and Rosanne Boyland by Capitol police.
Lang was shifted about to Alexandria Regional Jail, then Pennsylvania, then Stafford, Virginia, then Northern Neck again, then back to Pennsylvania, and then finally the D.C. “Gulag” once more, where he is now. During the time period of these transfers he gave multiple interviews. His trial was supposed to start Oct. 10 but “was postponed pending an indication on his Supreme Court petition.”
Lang has not allowed the Orwellian ordeal to crush him, though. “Friday, October 13th marked my 1,000th day in prison. But God’s grace has supplied me and the rest of the January 6 prisoners with strength, endurance, perseverance, and hope, knowing that we will have vindication from this political persecution,” he insisted. “One day, from all over the country, more than 200 of us will emerge from these prisons and gulags. We will be redeemed and restored and all of the things they’ve done to us will all be washed away.” I pray he is right.
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