<p>Supporters of a former 1960s black militant jailed for killing a deputy rallied Monday to protest his treatment in prison.</p><p>The group of about 50 family members, friends and activists said the 61-year-old Jamil Al-Amin, once known as H. Rap Brown, is subjected to solitary confinement 23-hours-a-day and forced to submit to humiliating strip searches in front of female guards.</p><p>His brother, Ed Brown, compared the practices of the Georgia prison system to the U.S. military's abuses of prisoners in Iraq.</p><p>"This borders on Abu Ghraib. It's totally unacceptable," Ed Brown said.</p><p>Al-Amin has been serving a life sentence without parole for the March 2002 shooting death of Fulton County Sheriff's Deputy Ricky Kinchen, 38. The Georgia Supreme Court denied his request to overturn his conviction in May 2004.</p><p>Kinchen was killed and his partner, Deputy Aldranon English, was wounded when they went to serve a Cobb County warrant to Al-Amin on March 16, 2000. The warrant was for failing to appear in court for charges of driving a stolen car and impersonating a police officer. Al-Amin was captured by U.S. marshals in Alabama four days after the shootings.</p><p>Following Monday's protest at the headquarters of the Georgia Department of Corrections, the group sent a letter with their allegations to Corrections Department Commissioner James Donald.</p><p>Adam Baswell, Donald's executive assistant, said Al-Amin is under lockdown because of his security risk level, which is based on an inmate's criminal history and behavior in prison. Lockdown means a prisoner can only leave his cell _ with cable TV _ for an hour a day to exercise and shower, he said. Baswell added that 900 of the 1,200 inmates at Al-Amin's prison also are under lockdown.</p><p>"It's nothing personal. It's just (based) on his classification level," Baswell said, declining to specifically define the reasons why Al-Amin is considered a maximum security risk.</p><p>But Baswell denied that Al-Amin would be subjected to strip searches in front of female guards because the typical procedure is to have a "search by someone of the same gender."</p><p>"That would surprise me," Baswell said of the allegation.</p><p>Mauri Saalakhan, the director of operations for the Silver Spring, Md.-based The Peace and Justice Foundation, said the lockdown prevents Al-Amin from being a positive influence on young men, particularly those in prison.</p><p>"We believe the reason for his confinement is he is a Muslim," Saalakhan said. "It's an age when Islam and Muslims have become the new boogeymen in the land."</p><p>Prior to the court case, Al-Amin had lived quietly in Atlanta for years and led one of the nation's largest black Muslim groups, the National Ummah, which has formed 36 mosques around the nation and is credited with revitalizing poverty-stricken areas.</p><p>Defenders have suggested Al-Amin was framed as part of a government conspiracy they said had dogged him since his days as a prominent Black Panther in the '60s.</p><p>"I have great respect for him and I want to do whatever I can," said Connie Curry, 71, of Atlanta, a former 60's activist who has known Al-Amin for 45 years.</p>
