Rudolph: Prison causing mental illness(Olympic bomber)

AP ^ | 12/11/06

[Valin]

FLORENCE, Colo. -- Olympic bomber Eric Rudolph laments in a series of letters to a newspaper that the maximum-security federal prison where he is spending the rest of his life is designed to drive him insane. "It is a closed-off world designed to isolate inmates from social and environmental stimuli, with the ultimate purpose of causing mental illness and chronic physical conditions such as diabetes, heart disease and arthritis," he wrote in one letter to The Gazette of Colorado Springs.

Rudolph, who was captured in 2003 while scavenging for food behind a grocery store in Murphy, N.C., wrote that he spends 23 hours a day in his 7-by-12-foot cell, his only exercise confined to an enclosed area he described as a "large empty swimming pool" divided into "dog-kennel style cages." "Using solitary confinement, Supermax is designed to inflict as much misery and pain as is constitutionally permissible," he wrote in a letter.

One of Rudolph's victims had no sympathy for him. "It gives me a great deal of pride to think he's never coming out of there," said Diane Derzis, who runs a Birmingham, Ala., women's clinic Rudolph bombed in 1998. "He should never see daylight again."

The newspaper reported in its Sunday editions that it has corresponded by mail with Rudolph for more than a year, and prison officials have refused the paper's request to interview Rudolph. The Gazette refused Rudolph's request that it publish his writings in their entirety. The newspaper said if it published articles, it would print portions of the letters as long as they were not hate literature or libelous. Rudolph, an anti-government extremist, pleaded guilty in April 2005 to setting the bomb that killed one person and wounded more than 100 at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, and three other bombings, including a fatal explosion at a Birmingham clinic.

[the lone wolf]

He is trying to set up a legal case. He wants the ACLU to declare that the Supermax system is "cruel and unusual."

Prepare for a decade of legal wrangling.

[Valin]

There's a rope with his name on it, that's waiting for him.

[SuziQ]

Olympic bomber Eric Rudolph laments in a series of letters to a newspaper that the maximum-security federal prison where he is spending the rest of his life is designed to drive him insane.

Oh yeah, that's rich, coming from this goober!

[Valin]

FYI
Iraqis Line Up to Put Hussein in the Noose

KIRK SEMPLE
http://www.theledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061209/ZNYT03/612090350

BAGHDAD, Dec. 8 — One of the most coveted jobs in Iraq does not yet exist: the executioner for Saddam Hussein. The death sentence against Mr. Hussein is still under review by an appeals court, but hundreds of people have already started lobbying the prime minister’s office for the position.

They have sent messages through cabinet officials and their assistants, and by way of government guards and clerical workers. One candidate, an Iraqi Shiite living in London whose brother was killed by Mr. Hussein, telephoned an aide to the prime minister to say he was prepared to drop everything and fly to Baghdad to execute the former ruler.

“One of the hardest tasks will be to determine who gets to be the hangman because so many people want revenge for the loss of their loved ones,” said Basam Ridha, an adviser to Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki.
(snip)

[pandemoniumreigns]

Not mine jacki...just alittle google search...((;O)

But to be series for a minute...this guy was already a couple cans short of a six pack...when the right (or wrong) lawyer decides to make a name for himself, this could become a cause celeb for all kinds of lefty,s...

[Valin]

I recall a caller to Sean Hanity(?) when Moussaoui was being sentenced, that after awhile they (the inmates) all go insane. You spend 23 hours a day in an 8X12 foot room, you get one hour a day recreation (a bare room with one set of pull up bars, 3 showers a week, all outside contact heavily monitored, a 12 inch window set in the ceiling that point up to the sky. So you pretty much spend your time all alone, no one too talk to. It ain't Club Fed.

[Bigh4u2]

""Using solitary confinement, Supermax is designed to inflict as much misery and pain as is constitutionally permissible," he wrote in a letter."

Well. As long as it's 'constitutionally permissible' then we don't have a problem with it.

[Ole Okie]

What, no TV?

How very crewel!

[Nuc1]

I bet if we had more prisons like this we would have fewer repeat offenders.

[aumrl]

o yeah - like "cruel and inhumane punishment" maybe the french cud name a street 4 him !

[jim_trent]

The ACLU won't touch him. They only represent left wing murderers.

[SuziQ]

It ain't Club Fed.

It ain't supposed to be. Rudolph isn't in there for rehabilitation; he's being punished for his murderous actions.

[AmishDude]

Actually, a Muslim prisoner (a famous one, I can't remember which) recently claimed the exact same stuff.

[Valin]

See reply 26

[AmishDude]

It sounds just like my job and I'm just a mathematician.

And mathematicians don't go insa...

Never mind.

[stockpirate]

There are way s to survive being alone like that, but not for the rest of your life with no one to talk to. It would certainly make one go the rest of the way over the edge.