Biography
Shaka Adiyia Shakur is a New Afrikan political prisoner held under Indiana Department of Correction number 1996207. He has been held since 2002 and is serving a 63-year sentence for the attempted murder of a Gary, Indiana police officer — a charge his supporters describe as politically motivated, arising from harassment by Gary police. He became a New Afrikan revolutionary organizer and jailhouse lawyer while incarcerated at Indiana State Prison, where he was mentored by fellow prisoners Zolo Azania and James "Yaki" Sayles, and he helped expose conditions at Indiana's supermax through Human Rights Watch's report "Cold Storage." Identified as one of the politically active "Indiana 6," he was confined in the Westville Control Unit and, in 2018, transferred to Virginia in what supporters call "domestic exile" intended to disrupt his organizing and cut off his support networks. He is listed among current U.S. political prisoners by the Jericho Movement.