Posted on 06/04/2012 10:29:30 AM PDT by presidio9
At New York City’s Rikers Island Detention Center, where I worked as a chaplain for 23 years until 2007, the solitary confinement unit was called the “bing.” When I asked a prison captain what the term meant, he explained, “When some prisoners come here, their minds go ‘bing.’ ”
Indeed, when I would make visits, walking cell by cell, I was overwhelmed by the lethargy and depression of the inmates.
The damaging effects of isolation are not unique to Rikers inmates. Decades of studies prove that solitary confinement causes severe and lasting harm.
Dr. Stuart Grassian, a nationally recognized expert, reported perceptual distortions among the common symptoms described by the hundreds of prisoners he evaluated in solitary confinement.
He highlighted this symptom as especially concerning because perceptual distortions, in which objects shrink or appear to “melt,” are more commonly associated with neurological illnesses, especially seizure disorders and brain tumors, than with psychiatric illness alone.
Dr. Craig Haney, professor of psychology at the University of California, Santa Cruz, found extraordinarily high rates of symptoms of psychological trauma among prisoners held in long-term solitary confinement in his systematic analysis of prisoners held in supermax prison.
More than four out of five of those evaluated suffered from feelings of anxiety and nervousness, headaches and the like, and over half complained of nightmares, heart palpitations and fear of impending nervous breakdowns. Nearly half suffered from hallucinations and a quarter experienced suicidal ideation.
When I worked at Rikers, some prisoners held in solitary experienced this heightened risk of suicide. In fact, responsible inmates were trained to act as Suicide Prevention Aides. Through small glass openings, they monitored the activities of those in isolation cells and reported any self-destructive behavior to the unit officer.
I can imagine the response of some reading confronting these facts: So what? These are convicted criminals. Many are violent offenders. They deserve it.
That’s not how our system is supposed to work. We have prohibitions against cruel and unusual punishment.
We value our shared decency and humanity.
I understand the need to maintain order and safety in prison. But holding people in isolation until they are mentally broken is not acceptable. And it’s actually no safer for guards and other inmates.
Over the past three decades, numerous state and federal prisons have made long-term solitary confinement a default management tool, subjecting prisoners to conditions of extreme isolation not as a response to violent behavior but rather as a routine practice for minor rule infractions, and for “their own protection.”
Some prisons consist of nothing but single-cell isolation units. Nationwide, an estimated 80,000 persons are kept in these inhumane conditions, sometimes for months and years on end.
Recently, the number of inmates held in “punitive segregation” at Rikers has increased dramatically; today, more than 900 inmates there are being held in their cells for 23 hours per day.
The widespread imposition of solitary confinement
should trouble everyone. Prisoners with mental health disorders suffer debilitating trauma, and studies indicate that prisoners released directly from solitary confinement to society have significantly higher rates of recidivism.
If all that weren’t bad enough, the cost per inmate of solitary confinement far exceeds other types of imprisonment. Indeed, Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn recently announced a proposal to close a notorious supermax facility in order to save over $20 million annually.
A handful of other states have adopted measures to rein in the practice, and their outcomes demonstrate there are more efficient, effective and humane alternatives to solitary confinement. For example, Maine’s corrections commissioner, Joseph Ponte, who ushered in reforms leading to a 70% reduction in Maine’s solitary confinement population in 2011, says that “the more data we’re pulling is showing that what we’re doing now is safer than what we were doing before.”
Mississippi’s prison system also had an infamous segregation unit, referred to as Unit 32. As a result of litigation,
the state transferred many of those inmates to the general prison population.
The number of violent incidents requiring guards to use force to restrain prisoners plummeted. Unit 32 was eventually closed.
Every human being has inherent God-given dignity, a quality that does not disappear behind prison gates. Recognizing that prolonged solitary confinement is a cruel form of punishment, people of faith and conscience must work to abolish this indefensible practice.
Raise the bar for conviction in the US.
Caning for lessor infractions.
For serious offenses: Rape, Murder, Attempted Murder, Conspiracy to Commit Murder, Torture, Ongoing Criminal Enterprise, Drug Dealing, extortion, serious political corruption, second DUI etc. - After conviction, mandatory review, then execution within 30 days. If necessary, death by crucifixion for certain groups like MS13 and muslim terrorists.
No more prisons, vast sums of money saved and a crime rate 1/10th of what it is now. It's very simple.
Nifster summarized what the rest of you said.
And to you all, I say this: You would argue unlimited punishments in *THIS* legal environment??!? Where the sale of incandescent light bulbs is illegal; where New York City bans 'too large' soft drinks; where failure to pay for the individual mandate in Obamacare could be declared a criminal act???!?
Well God Bless ya, then. May you never feel the lash, especially this particlar one.
Me, I'll labor on two fronts, one of them being, that we uphold the Constitutional protection against cruel and unusual punishments.
OK, so why not put them to death in cases where they've murdered someone, etc.? Wouldn't that be less cruel and unusual punishment? At the very least, it would be quick and painless versus possibly going crazy or time.
Besides, aren't those that kill people generally insane, perhaps not legally, already?
I’ll go out on a limb and say you will not be thrown into Solitary for owning a light bulb. But if you are assaulting other prisoners or guards, you probably shouldn’t be around other prisoners or guards.
Prisoners don’t get put into solitary because they’re nice people. I’m not terribly concerned with what happens to them.
You are correct, I have worked in corrections and even a relatively brief stay in solitary can have a very detrimental effect.
One reason I believe, is that your usual criminal is ill equipped for introspection or penitence. Placed in solitary he is completely without the inner resources to both deal with it or benefit from it.
I will defer to Justice Frankfurter's concurrence in United States v. Rabinowitz:
"It is a fair summary of history to say that the safeguards of liberty have frequently been forged in controversies involving not very nice people."
The point is, we should care about how prisoners are treated not because of who the prisoners are, but because of who is responsible for the treatment of prisoners (e.g., the government). There are cases where solitary confinement is appropriate - violence towards other prisoners and guards is a prime example. According to this article and others, however, solitary confinement is also being increasingly used for minor prison . That is arguably unconstitutional (cruel & unusual punishment), and we should be concerned any time the government violates the Constitution, even when it does so to "not very nice people."
Prisoners don’t get put into solitary because they’re nice people.
Excellent observation and very true.
Life sucks when you make bad calls. It’s nice that he’s trying to change, but prices must be paid. I had a lot of bad decisions come back and bite my butt 5 to 10 years later.
One of the early prisons in this country was all solitary confinement. They moved away from it because of the space problems. It’s not cruel or unusual it’s punishment, something they earned by breaking laws. Maybe if they were a little better at being by themselves they would have avoided prison.
Good. Punishment is useless if its not “cruel” and “unusual.”
Just make certain that there is a sturdy fixture in the ceiling and that the sheets are nice strong...
When I’m Dictator, you’re getting drafted for the head of the Department of Justice...
When reading the above, do you get the feeling the hard number of 80,000 is inflated by 'prisons that consist of single cells'? Maybe the equivalent of 'private room' which is NOT the same as solitary confinement? I generally don't trust liberals as they freely lie in the name of furthering what they see as a 'good cause'.
You are incorrect, if I remember my Bill of Rights correctly.
Amendment 8: Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.So, if you wish something different, you may need to fly against the will of the Founding Fathers.
It seems ALL people have a need for social interaction, and the deprivation of that is akin to depriving a person of food, only slower and ‘only’ resulting in insanity.
With this administration, I'm not willing to stand with you on that assertion. When true dictatorships form, the usual response to any violation is over-the-top. OTrauma is nothing if not desirous of a dictatorship, with him as the Mugabe.
But if you are assaulting other prisoners or guards, you probably shouldn’t be around other prisoners or guards.
I see your point and agree. However, we are creative people. Can we not think of other methods of securing the rights of other inmates, and of course the guards, without torture?
This credibility of this phenomenon is not based on prisoner testimony. It is based on observation of nearly 100% of prisoners, other people (an example is Terry Anderson, Iranian hostage), and test subjects, and has been observed and documented since the 1800's.
Kinda already is.
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