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George Ostensen

Released
Full name:George Michael Ostensen
Date of birth:22. 12. 1954
Age:71
Gender:Male
Race:White
Era:1980s
State:Wisconsin
Time Imprisoned:
3 Years 6 Days
Support
Anti-Nuclear Plowshares Movement
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Biography

Acting as the Harmonic Disarmament for Life action (Aug. 16, 1987), he cut down three ELF poles and damaged control boxes at the ELF transmitter site near Clam Lake, WI (with Helen Woodson named as co-conspirator from prison).

Plowshares anti-nuclear political prisoner born December 22, 1954 in Freeport, New York. Lived in community at Jonah House in Baltimore. On August 16, 1987, he entered Project ELF, the U.S. Navy's first-strike trigger for nuclear submarines in northern Wisconsin, poured his blood, cut three transmission poles, and notched the center pole, shutting down the system for 29 hours. Convicted under Wisconsin's sabotage statute and sentenced to 33 months; parole was denied for not having served sufficient time for punishment.

Cases

Oakhill Correctional Institution
Charges: Sabotage (Wisconsin statute 946.02(1)(a)) for ELF Plowshares action
Arrested: Aug 16, 1987
Incarcerated: Aug 16, 1987
Released: Aug 22, 1990
Sentence: 33 months
Convicted: Yes
Institution State: Wisconsin
ELF Communication System Transmitter Site (Clam Lake)
Charges: Sabotage (two state counts; convicted on one, acquitted on the other)
Arrested: Aug 16, 1987
Sentence: 33 months; released September 1989; re-arrested Oct. 2 1989 and ordered to serve remaining 11 months; released Jan. 30, 1990
Convicted: Yes
Institution State: Wisconsin