Cruel and usual: US solitary confinement

[babsbunny]

Cruel and usual: US solitary confinement

As incarceration rates explode in the US, thousands are placed in solitary confinement, often without cause.
James Ridgeway and Jean Casella

http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/features/2011/03/201137125936219469.html

The spectre of Bradley Manning lying naked and alone in a tiny cell at the Quantico Marine Base, less than 50 miles from Washington, DC, conjures up images of an American Guantanamo or Abu Ghraib, where isolation and deprivation have been raised to the level of torture.

In fact, the accused Wikileaker, now in his tenth month of solitary confinement, is far from alone in his plight. Every day in the US, tens of thousands of prisoners languish in "the hole".

A few of them are prison murderers or rapists who present a threat to others. Far more have committed minor disciplinary infractions within prison or otherwise run afoul of corrections staff. Many of them suffer from mental illness, and are isolated for want of needed treatment; others are children, segregated for their own "protection"; a growing number are elderly and have spent half their lives or more in utter solitude.

No one knows for sure what their true numbers are. Many states, as well as the federal government, flatly declare that solitary confinement does not exist in their prison systems. As for their euphemistically named "Secure Housing Units" or "Special Management Units", most states do not report occupancy data, nor do wardens report on the inmates sent to "administrative segregation".

[jaxx]

1. Poor guy, you'd think stealing classified info would get him a suite

at some fancy hotel. :sarcasm:

[MH1]

3. If they didn't bring Manning into it, they might get a more sympathetic response.

I didn't read the full article, but from the excerpt, I think they are raising a valid point.

Whether or not this treatment should be applied to Manning is a separate argument. I think it is a definite fact that it's being applied to many people who don't deserve it.

Many people are incarcerated who should not be.

But making Manning the poster-boy for drawing attention to the practice, is probably not helpful. Of course it's Al-Jazeera so average Americans aren't watching anyway.

[aikoaiko]

2. I'm ok with the possibility of the convicted being held in solitary confinement

Especially those who act out in prison.

[Rabblevox]

4. I have a relative who used to work in the "Prison-Industrial Complex"...

Solitary confinement used to be used for two purposes. To isolate those few who were truly dangerous to the point that they were a constant threat, and to punish, short-term, those who broke the rules. (I'm not necessarily justifying either use, but I can see the logic)

It is now being used, routinely, to "break" detainees who have yet to be convicted of any crime. And because so many detention facilities are now either private, or "off the books" completely, we will probably never know the extent of the abuses.

We look a bit more like Nazi Germany or Stalinist Russia every day.