Shaka A. Shakur is a New Afrikan revolutionary writer and organizer who has been imprisoned since 2002, when he was convicted of murder in Indiana and sentenced to sixty-three years. He is now held at the Lunenburg Correctional Facility in Victoria, Virginia, after a 2018 interstate transfer out of the Indiana Department of Correction. His supporters describe him as a political prisoner and run a national campaign for his release; Indiana corrections officials point to a series of violent disciplinary incidents, including the stabbing of a correctional officer, as the reason for his continued confinement and out-of-state placement.1Findlaw. Shakur v. Hendrix2The Jericho Movement. Shakur, Shaka Profile
The Murder Conviction and Added Time
Shakur was convicted of murder in Indiana in 2002 and sentenced in 2003 to sixty-three years. Three later convictions inside prison added substantially to that time: twenty years in 2005 for possession of a dangerous device, two years in 2006 for battery by bodily waste, and three years in 2017 for battery. The 2017 battery also cost him 3,190 days of previously earned credit time, pushing any potential release further out.1Findlaw. Shakur v. Hendrix
The Shaka Shakur Freedom Campaign disputes this picture. It maintains that the original charges were politically motivated and that Shakur has already served the duration of his initial sentence, arguing that what keeps him inside is his organizing rather than any legitimate penological concern.3Indianapolis Liberation Center. Shaka Shakur Freedom Campaign
Transfer to Virginia and Long Solitary Confinement
In December 2018, Shakur was moved out of Indiana entirely to the Nottoway Correctional Center in Burkeville, Virginia, under an interstate compact. According to court records, the transfer followed an incident in which he removed his restraints, produced a sharpened piece of plastic, and stabbed a correctional officer multiple times. Annie Goeller, chief communications officer for the Indiana Department of Correction, said publicly that the stabbing was the reason for the transfer.1Findlaw. Shakur v. Hendrix4Indiana Daily Student. IDOC Books and Censorship Investigation Shakur and his supporters reject that framing and call the move “domestic exile” imposed because of his political work.
Much of his incarceration has been spent in isolation. By his account, he spent ten years in solitary at the Maximum Control Complex in Westville, Indiana, and more than thirteen years total in super-maximum facilities, including the Boscobel Supermax in Wisconsin.5ShakaShakur.org. Red Onion Symptom
Access to his own books has been a recurring friction point. When he arrived in Virginia his law books did not travel with him, which he said made it hard to meet legal deadlines, and he was later required to send home more than ninety personal books after exceeding a thirteen-book limit; the excess was classified as contraband.4Indiana Daily Student. IDOC Books and Censorship Investigation
Health Concerns
A September 2025 update from his supporters reported that Shakur was diagnosed with Stage 2 kidney disease in 2009 and, according to the campaign, went fourteen years without treatment. He was reportedly awaiting a knee replacement and dealing with inadequate nutrition. The same update alleged that he had been denied video calls with family and had lost access to personal property after a facility transfer.6Indianapolis Liberation Center. Urgent: Shaka Health Update
His Federal Lawsuit Against Indiana
In February 2019, Shakur filed a federal civil rights action under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 against Indiana Department of Correction officials, raising Fourteenth Amendment due process claims and an Eighth Amendment cruel-and-unusual-punishment claim. He challenged his long-term solitary placement, the revocation of his earned credit time, and what he called medical neglect.1Findlaw. Shakur v. Hendrix
The trial court granted summary judgment to the officials on June 9, 2023. Claims about his housing status from 2005 to 2016 were barred by Indiana’s two-year statute of limitations. Challenges to his disciplinary proceedings and credit time revocation were not cognizable under § 1983 and, under Heck v. Humphrey and Edwards v. Balisok, would have to be pursued through habeas corpus. The Eighth Amendment claim failed for lack of evidence of deliberate indifference.1Findlaw. Shakur v. Hendrix
On April 18, 2024, the Indiana Court of Appeals affirmed in Shakur v. Hendrix, No. 23A-CT-1564. The panel rejected his argument that years of disciplinary segregation amounted to a single continuing wrong, treating the placements as separate events, and held he lacked standing to challenge sanctions imposed after October 2017 because he had not actually served them. On the Eighth Amendment claim, the court cited evidence of regular access to mental health professionals and the absence of a psychiatric diagnosis.7Indiana Courts. Shakur v. Hendrix, No. 23A-CT-1564 The ruling left his credit time and confinement challenges largely unresolved on the merits, with the court pointing him toward habeas corpus for any further pursuit.
Why Supporters Call Him a Political Prisoner
Shakur identifies as a New Afrikan revolutionary. The Jericho Movement, which advocates for the release of political prisoners in the United States, lists him as a New African Political Prisoner under prisoner number 1996207.2The Jericho Movement. Shakur, Shaka Profile His supporters describe him as a leader in the New Afrikan independence movement who continues to organize from prison.8The People’s Forum. Screening: Across Enemy Lines – Shaka A. Shakur
In a 2023 essay for Black Agenda Report titled “I AM FOR THE RIGHT TO BE FREE!!!!,” Shakur called for a classless society in which the means of production are controlled by working people and for the elimination of institutionalized racism and colonialism, framing his incarceration as a “theater of struggle” situated “behind enemy lines.”9Black Agenda Report. I Am for the Right to Be Free
His writing from inside has continued to appear in print. 1804 Books released a collection of his work, Manifestations of Thought: When the Dragon Comes, in 2025. Earlier booklets include The Right to Be Free: Fighting for Liberation Behind Enemy Lines and From the Republic of New Afrika to Palestine: National Liberation in Context, published by the Indianapolis Liberator in 2024.10Indianapolis Liberation Center. New Shaka Book
The Freedom Campaign and Documentary
The Shaka Shakur Freedom Campaign is a nationwide 501(c)(3) organization headquartered at the Indianapolis Liberation Center, with chapters in Virginia and elsewhere. It coordinates legal fundraising, public advocacy, and a clemency petition.3Indianapolis Liberation Center. Shaka Shakur Freedom Campaign11ShakaShakur.org. New Afrikan Political Prisoners
The campaign also produced a documentary, Across Enemy Lines: Shaka A. Shakur, directed by Derek Ford and TheKingTrill. Carrying a 2025 copyright, the film was released worldwide in late 2025 and examines why Shakur remains imprisoned.12ShakaShakur.org. New Shaka Shakur Documentary3Indianapolis Liberation Center. Shaka Shakur Freedom Campaign8The People’s Forum. Screening: Across Enemy Lines – Shaka A. Shakur
No public information indicates a projected release date. Supporters continue to press for clemency on the view that his imprisonment is politically motivated, while Indiana corrections officials point to the accumulation of violent disciplinary infractions as the basis for his continued confinement and out-of-state placement.