Lose Contact
Aging Inmates: "Drop to the floor..."
Solitary Confinement's Effect on the Psyche
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Lose Contact Aging Inmates: "Drop to the floor..."
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Solitary Solitary Confinement's Effect on the Psyche
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http://www.ucnewswire.org/news_viewer.cfm?story_PK=5657&%20CFID=572&CFTOKEN=14A8F7FF-C07E-EA7D-DD2E5A976DDDC1A8An impossible condition that destroys human psychology When a society considers it normal and appropriate to place people in conditions that are impossible for a human being to psychologically endure, how then can one consider it sensible to open-up to that society, to work for it, or feel that one "owes" something to their fellow man - when "fellow" man is itching to subject others to kidnapping (arrest), robbery (fines) and imprisonment?
"They're 'criminals'!," they declare with satisfaction. People's frustration with everyday life is relieved by believing there are those who are worthy of torture and abuse; for then they can implement that torture vicariously through the overseeing government. The ordinary dullard feels that any unintentional abuse a prisoner experiences is appropriate, whether it leads to unnatural contact, mental breakdown, or death.
What is the logic to the concept of "Removal of Time" as a punishment? Does the incarcerating agency draw value from an involuntarily confined human? Does the prisoner "learn" self-improvement from years of physical entrapment in a mind-warping solitude that can only remove one's ability to process reality in a normal, "human' fashion?
Of course there are the 10% or so feral animals who need to be caged; but the judicial and corrections systems are too eager and too imprecise to discern the difference between those types and those who are just a little flaky and in need of "structure" and training, or even those who are simply innocent altogether. Perhaps there is a financial incentive for the government to cage-up an increasing amount of slave labor. That needs to be brought out into the open. The majority of the American population has been debased so severely that they do not cringe at the idea that personal liberty, once a Constitutional cornerstone, is so cheaply violated by unprovable edicts lightheartedly issued by a jaded judiciary. Because of this attitude, personal freedom can only be practiced as an "underground" lifestyle.
Lose Contact
[From a prisoner "pen-pal" site www.inmate-connection.com]
90% of inmates lose all contact with family, friends and loved ones after 3 years. They also lose all contact with the outside world. They often feel loss of independence, character, dignity, self-worth and self-respect. A letter, a card and a friend can lift their spirits in ways we could never imagine. Ever wonder what it's like living in Jail? For a real taste of prison life, try living 23 hours a day in your bathroom. Remove everything but the toilet, use the bathtub as a bed, lock the door, and make yourself comfortable.
http://www.cnn.com/2003/US/Southwest/10/29/chain.gang.reut/ (one source; following is from another site, obviously propaganda) Women in Chains
It is now equal opportunity time on chain gangs, and the female inmates are "thrilled." Women awaiting trial or sentenced to jail for nonviolent offenses and are not deemed escape risks are eligible to join the chain group. "They are so excited," claimed an official. "They know it is good therapy." They wear black and white striped uniforms and pink underwear. Since inmates smuggled out 50,000 pairs of underwear in the past, they are now made to wear the identifiable (and embarrassing) pink underwear, ostensibly to prevent future theft.The chain gang is voluntary to inmates confined in disciplinary "lockdown" where four prisoners are shut in a cell 8 by 12 square feet 23 hours a day. If they spend 30 days on the chain gang, picking up trash, weeding or burying bodies, they can get out of the punishment cells and back to the general inmate population housed in tents.
"It feels weird being seen in public, chained up together, wearing stripes. People honk their horns or shout at you," one of the chained women said.
The chains aren't bad, as chains go. Several inmates actually say they can sometimes step out of their chains because jail officers often manacle the chains loosely to inmates' boots.
But these women say they would never step out of the chains, which they recognize as a publicity ploy. And they say even if they had no chains at all, they wouldn't run away. Here's why: Inmates are chosen for the chain gang precisely because they are neither dangerous criminals nor escape risks.
Chain-gang women don't mess up their nails or tattoos. Work gloves are provided to inmates, who have a lot of time in jail to do their nails and decorate their hands and wrists with jailhouse tattoos.
In the morning at 6 a.m., 15 women assemble for chain gang duty. They are padlocked together by the ankle, five to each chain, and marched military style out to a van that transports them to their work site.
------------------ http://www.rnw.nl/amsterdamforum/html/031030chain.html[Opponent]"...It's a question of whether the object is to rehabilitate offenders. They have to be taught how to function in their environment once they have been released. Chain-gangs only teach inmates to hate even more. Their slogan is `fuck the world´. I know because I worked in the prison system for 18 years."
Conjugal Visits
www.prisonersoflove.com
In France we don't have conjugal visits. We can meet in the 'parloir' a little cell where you are locked in one side, & you wait & then they bring your spouse in & he's locked in his side. You are locked in for half an hour.
At the beginning, all the visitors line up outside the prison & smile at each other, but no one talks except the ladies who've known each other awhile. Then the door is opened & we are all ushered into a big empty area where they scrutinize our IDs & our permits-which we have to obtain in advance. They call out the surnames of the prisoners we are visiting.
Next we are taken into a check in area & put our handbags into a locker-you have to memorize the code you used, I didn't know how to do it but a lady helped me, She was a bit wild but she confided in me that she was on drugs & that helped.. as if!
Then we are all herded into a waiting room which is locked at both entrances. There you wait, if you're lucky you get a chair. It's quiet except for the family groups who talk, but most of us are alone & just sitting looking at the floor, avoiding eye contact..This takes half an hour or more while they are searching the bags of clean linen that we've brought in for our guys. The walls of that room are all scribbled over with messages & no smoking notices. Later they herd you out & direct you to the individual parloirs. There you wait to meet the love of your life.. the prisoner.
We meet in the parloir: just a little cell where you are locked in one side, & you wait & then they bring your spouse in & he's locked in his side. You are locked in for half an hour. After twenty minutes they set of a screaming alarm to warn you there's ten minutes left, but that means you only keep looking at your watches instead of talking.. .
There is a table & two chairs. The room is filthy. You can hug & talk but they walk up & down & watch you. You talk & hold hands. That's all.
Then reverse-collect your bag & wait & are herded out into the street. You walk away, you catch the bus home. At night I sit & smoke & drink & I'm all alone.
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We don't get overnight visits. We're allowed to spend 4 hours in a small room with just a bed, sink and toilet. The staff treats us like garbage. I think they resent the fact that we get to be together. The visiting rooms are almost like a big service station restrooms. They don't allow visitors to bring in condoms; they stopped it when some of the men used them to hide or smuggle contraband. So we have to take our chances. You can imagine how stressful that is. They also do a count once during each visit. Why I can't imagine because the little windows don't open and they're barred...
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The Aging Inmate Population
March 10, 2006
The prison inmate population is aging rapidly, but prisons have not yet adapted to the physical and mental needs of geriatric prisoners, according to a study conducted by researchers at the San Francisco VA Medical Center. The study analyzed responses by 120 female prisoners aged 55 or older in the California prison system.
Aging prisoners must perform daily prison activities that are beyond their normal abilities. These include dropping to the floor rapidly when an alarm goes off, climbing onto a top bunk, hearing orders from correctional officers, standing in line to be counted, and walking to the dining hall, which may be a considerable distance from a prisoner's cell.
"When an alarm goes off, every inmate has to get down on the floor immediately, in order for the staff to maintain control of the inmates. Even people in wheelchairs are expected to get out of their chairs and onto the floor," explains Williams, who is also a fellow in aging research at the University of California, San Francisco. "You can imagine that for someone who has trouble walking, or with brittle bones, a very quick drop to the floor can be quite hazardous. And alarms may go off several times a day." Failure to respond quickly enough results in additional punishment for the prisoner, who is labled "troublesome."
"As three-strikes laws and mandatory minimum sentencing laws become stricter, more and more people will be spending their entire lives, including old age, in prison," she observes. "In addition to the economic burden, the incarceration of the elderly poses fundamental questions of how we as a society treat our elders. As a society, what do we want to do with a prisoner who is so demented he doesn't remember his name, or who has had a stroke and is completely paralyzed? I think we need to ask how we can make society safe but also have a reasonable system of incarceration."
In addition to the graying of the nation's prisons, the stress of life behind bars can make them even sicker. "It's heart-rending to see some of the older people in the condition they're in," one inmate said. "You have to wonder why they haven't had a little leniency on them to let them go home? What can an 80-year-old man in a wheelchair do? Run?"
Women Locked Up in the Tombs
From: http://www.counterpunch.org/beattie03162006.html
March 16, 2006
It was dismal. Lockup isn't supposed to be fun, but we're innocent until proven guilty... right?
I was arrested with Cindy Sheehan, Medea Benjamin, and Rev. Patti Ackerman last week as we attempted to deliver to the U.S. Mission a petition with 72,000 signatures of women against the war. The Iraqi Women's Delegation had already been received warmly at the UN. Not so for us, although our group had been told the petition could be delivered to a receptionist. But as we approached, security guards locked the doors.
We left and read the petition aloud when police arrested us. Cindy, Medea, and Patti locked arms and legs to avoid being hurt. I held tightly to our banner. The police lifted me, pulled my arms behind my back, and carried me to the paddy wagon.
I yelled, "George Bush killed my nephew." I said this over and over.
We four "dangerous-to-society" women were driven to a police station where we were photographed and fingerprinted. The walls and floor of our cell were decorated with feces, blood, and urine.
The police officers allowed us to order a pizza. Some said they support our work.
About four hours later, we were cuffed, chained together, and transported to a holding cell at the Criminal Courthouse, 100 Center Street, once known as the Tombs Prison. We were taken to a holding cell. Cindy was dragged and bounced across the pavement by policemen. The toilet in the cell didn't flush so we were led to another.
THE CELL: Narrow benches line the walls, with another bench in the center of the room. All of these are bolted to the floor and three twin-size pads are provided. A toilet is in the corner. On the wall is a mealtime schedule. There is also a sign with: "Cover your mouth when you cough." There was plenty of coughing.
Breakfast is supposed to be served between four and five AM. At 1:30 AM, an officer yelled, "Wake up." She told us to come out into the hall where Frosted Flakes and milk were distributed. We ate this in the cell. At some point, we heard the same, "Wake up." This time we were told to put the pads on the benches so that the floor could be mopped. The mop was dirty and the disinfectant hardly masked the odor of the room. By morning, 20 women were in the cell. The roaches moved too fast to be counted. Four women were asleep on one "mattress."
I didn't expect the Ritz. But to be locked in these conditions is to understand powerlessness and despair. It was a shock to realize that this demeaning treatment is reserved for people who are only awaiting arraignment.
We were lucky. We had lawyers working for our release. Most of our fellow "guests" were poor. Some were young. Many looked much older than their ages. A few could barely lift their heads off the floor and struggled to go into the hallways when commanded. Rev. Patti offered words of encouragement and counseling to the addicts.
I didn't want to be arrested. But the experience of sharing a cell with the other women was important. They made bad choices. But, sometimes, life only serves bad choices.
The Bush Doctrine is making sure that the poor and middle class are increasingly without good choices. Programs to help these people are being cut because a staggering amount of money is financing an illegal war and occupation. But hope lay in people's ability to see this and work to change it.
Solitary
PR.org, July 27, 2006 · Prisoners confined to long-term segregation live in isolation, in small, often windowless cells, for years or even decades. They are passed food trays through slots in the doors. A few times a week, they are let out, in handcuffs and shackles, for a shower or to exercise in a small, enclosed space. As a general rule, they have almost no human interaction except with guards, no access to newspapers or television, and are allowed few personal items -- a few photographs, perhaps a book.
Estimates suggest at least 25,000 U.S. prisoners are held in such "Supermaximum security" conditions.
NPR discussed these concerns with Jamie Fellner, director of the U.S. program for Human Rights Watch.
Q: What worries you most about long-term segregation?
Our research shows that segregation is used far more frequently, for far longer periods of time, and under far harsher conditions than is legitimately needed to manage inmate security.
The conditions of isolation are harsh and degrading. The absence of normal social interaction, of mental stimulation, of exposure to the natural world -- of almost everything that makes life human and bearable -- is emotionally, physically and psychologically destructive. No other Western democracy imposes such conditions of confinement for prolonged periods on so many people.
And segregation can last for decades. Officials have complete discretion when to release an inmate; there's no guarantee good behavior will secure a release.
More than a decade ago, a federal judge noted that prolonged segregation pushes the bounds of what human beings can tolerate. Whether or not it produces clinical psychiatric symptoms, living in such conditions for years is likely to produce unfathomable misery and suffering.
Some inmates with no prior history of mental illness develop clinical symptoms of psychosis or severe affective disorders. For prisoners with a history of mental illness, the isolation, lack of social interaction and lack of structured activities can aggravate their symptoms. Even worse, mental health service for prisoners in segregation is usually far worse than for the general population. The result is mental agony, sometimes to the point of suicide. Inmates whose illness becomes acute may be transferred to mental hospitals -- but once their condition is stabilized, they are returned to segregation, where the cycle of illness begins again.
In several states, lawsuits have resulted in bans against placing mentally ill prisoners in segregation. But elsewhere, in state after state, a disproportionately large number of prisoners in long-term segregation are mentally ill.
by Laura Sullivan In U.S. Prisons, Thousands Spend Years in Isolation Life in Solitary Confinement
NPR.org, July 26, 2006 ·
Over the past two decades, solitary confinement has moved out of the prison basement and into whole facilities built just for isolation. These places have many names -- Supermax, intensive-management units, secure housing -- but the meaning is the same: years alone, out of the public view and away from public oversight.
Isolation today means 23 hours a day in a concrete cell no bigger than a bathroom. One hour a day is spent alone in a concrete exercise pen, about the length and width of two cars.
Most inmates held in solitary have no contact with the outside world other than the U.S. mail. Depending on the state, inmates have limited access to visitors. Most can't watch television, call anyone on the phone or even touch another person while in the units.
Some inmates have been incarcerated in these conditions in U.S. prisons for more than 20 years. Most have been there for more than five years.
Conservative estimates say that there are more than 25,000 inmates serving their sentences this way in 40 states. The inmates aren't in these facilities because of what they did on the outside. No one is sentenced by a court or a judge to serve their time in isolation. Inmates held in solitary confinement have almost no way out. Many stay in isolation until their sentences run out. And that's pretty common.
There are no windows here. Inmates will not see the moon, stars, trees or grass. They will rarely, if ever, see the giant, gray building they live in. Their world -- 24 hours a day, seven days a week, every day of the year.
Prisoner advocates such as the American Civil Liberties Union and Human Rights Watch are calling for an end to long-term isolation, arguing that it may make inmates more violent and render them unable to rejoin society.
Although all the inmates are in isolation, there's lots of noise: Keys rattle. Toilets flush. Inmates shout to each other from one cell to the next. Twice a day, officers push plastic food trays through the small portals in the metal doors.
Going Insane in Solitary
"A lot of guys go crazy; sometimes I ask myself, 'Am I losing it?'" Jason says behind his small cell-door holes. "It breaks you psychologically. People do develop phobias."
When inmates do go crazy, there is another part of the prison for them -- the psychiatric SHU.
Treating Mental Illness in Solitary
In the psychiatric SHU at Pelican Bay, one inmate stands in the middle of his cell, hollering at no one in particular. Another bangs his head against the cell door. Many of the inmates are naked, some exposing themselves.The psychiatric SHU is full -- all 128 beds. One in 10 inmates in segregation is housed here. There's even a waiting list.
Lt. Steve Perez points to the board outside the unit, where little markers describe some of the psychiatric problems of inmates held there.
"Here we are with Vic -- indecent exposure. He's got to be in a jumpsuit," Perez says. "Nichols -- he's on a razor restriction. This guy Flores -- staff assault through the food port."
The board says one inmate had his shoes taken because he kept kicking the cell door over and over.
'Group Therapy' in a Cage
Lt. Troy Woods works in the psychiatric SHU. He says they treat mental illness by monitoring the inmates and sending them to what he and others call "group therapy." It consists of a small room with six phone-booth-sized cages.
"Depending on what the group is, they'll either listen to music, watch movies, play games, have art, current events -- a lot of different types of groups," Woods says.
There are no therapists in group therapy. Woods says the idea is to help inmates socialize with each other and behavior normally again.
"Normal" for these prisoners means they don't smear feces on themselves or throw urine at the officers. They shower when able, eat when told and keep their cells tidy. For the most part, when prisoners do achieve this, the reward is a return to the regular SHU.
From: realcostofprisons.org/blog/archives/2006/07/index.html
Protective Custody Protective custody involves placing a person in a secure setting. An example of the need for protective custody is a witness is intimidated not to testify because the alleged perpetrator has threatened violence against him. Although there is no implication of imprisonment, protective custody usually involves placing the protectee in a jail or prison. For example, non-criminals and defendants in pending trials have been held in protective custody in a prison setting as a protection against physical violence. Protective custody may last only until the end of a trial or it may last for several years, sometimes as an assignment to a Witness Protection Program.
http://www.answers.com/topic/protective-custody
Google Results: protective custody
Solitary Conditions: Robert Blake http://www.crimeandjustice.us/forums/lofiversion/index.php?t5407.html
"I have been in solitary confinement," Blake said. "I live in a cement block 24 hours a day, every day. I have no human contact. I get out for ten minutes every other day for a shower by myself. I get a priest for a half hour on Sunday ... I get to shake his hand. That's the human contact I have.
"I get to go up on the roof every two days for an hour at a time and sit in a cage like a monkey."
Blake complained bitterly of his life in jail and the mind-numbing isolation of solitary confinement and said it would be on his lawyer's conscience if he died in a cramped prison cell. "I'm an old man. I'm pushing 70. If I'm going to die in that box, I want to talk before I go," he said. He fears dying in jail and being wheeled "out of here feet first with a tag on my toe," according to a video deposition made public yesterday. "I don't think I'm going to make it - I think I'm going to go down," said Blake, his hair completely gray and receding.
"In this place its real simple. Its not how are you doing. You're alive or you're dead. You wake up in the morning, you win. You don't wake up, you win ..."
• "No, I'm not going to be found guilty," the "Baretta" star responded when asked if he would be convicted. "Why? It's real simple. Because God has never, ever deserted me. Can't say I haven't deserted Him from time to time."
Blake, who would face a life prison term if he is found guilty, says he is not concerned about that possibility. "What do I care?" Blake said. "How do you kill a dead man? What are they gonna do to me that they haven't done already? They took away my entire past. They took away my entire future. What's left ... to take? They gonna take my testicles and make earrings out of them?"
"In my heart I believe that some man maybe 10, 15, maybe 20 years ago -- because she used to get married to them ... I think she destroyed a lot of lives," he said. "And I think one life she destroyed saw her on television ... Because we got engaged and it was in all the newspapers."
Blake said, "Jay Leno has got my blood running down his chin on television two or three nights a week and the people are laughing and enjoying it."
http://www.cnn.com/2005/LAW/05/17/blake.lkl/index.html[After acquittal]
He said he held "a lot of anger for the media" for a long time before he realized "they're out to get everybody -- anybody above the gro und, they'll cook and eat. There's a whole litter of lunatics out there, pig-face bags of rat guts that are telling all kinds of lies, and the media's soaking it up," Blake said.He said he has received offers to work again, but he has spent a lot of time driving around the Southwest. "I'm not good right now at staying put, or making engagements, or appointments, because all I do is hurt people's feelings. I'm here because I had some things I wanted to say. But most of the time, I'm out letting the wind blow in my hair."
Solitary Confinement's Effect on the Psyche http://www.questionhub.com/YahooAnswers/20071031130312AA8uc06
Q: Why does solitary confinement make people crazy? What effect does solitary confinement have on the brain? I was watching National Geographic about Alcatraz, and they said something about how people go crazy from solitary confinement. What does solitary confinement do to the brain?
A: The brain requires a certain amount of interpersonal stimulus in order for it to comprehend its environment, as well as one's fundamental sense of reality. Without any reference points, there are no more definitions as to what is "sane" or "insane," for no action one performs produces any perceived change to environment. The absence of life eventually results in a breakdown of cognitive abilities where the normal governing forces of the brain atrophy and cease functioning.
"Coping With Solitary Confinement"
General Comments From Inmates
Techniques
From Condemned Man by Larry R. NielsonOne: Ask yourself, what can I do to occupy my time so that I can stay busy and constructive while in isolation?
Two: What am I good at? Whether writing, drawing, working out, making things, philosophy, poems, etc.
Three: How can I structure my time throughout the day? Rather than dwell on my misfortunes.
Four: Read! How can I find the best books to educate myself while in isolation?
- Turn stress and anger into a well-forged tool to refine your life while in isolation.
- Keep in mind that isolation was built for the sole purpose to break your will. DO NOT LET THEM HAVE YOUR MIND.
Segregated Lesbians Virginia Women's Prison Segregated Lesbians in 'Butch Wing'
For more than a year, Virginia's 1,200-inmate Fluvanna Correctional Center for Women rounded up inmates and stigmatizedwho had loose-fitting clothes, short hair or otherwise masculine looks, sending them to a unit officers derisively dubbed the "butch wing," prisoners and guards say.Dozens were moved in an attempt to split up relationships and curb illegal sexual activity, though some straight women were sent to the wing for "appearing to be lesbian." The practice was stopped recently after The Associated Press began questioning it.
Two guards and former guard William Drumheller said targeting masculine-looking inmates was a deliberate strategy by a building manager. Inmates said in letters and interviews that they felt humiliated when guards took them to the separate wing — referred to as the "little boys wing," "locker room wing" or "studs wing."
"I deserved to do my time there," said Summer Triolo, who spent nearly six years at Fluvanna for theft before being released in February 2008. "But my punishment was by the judge to do time in prison away from my family and home - not all the extra stuff."
Living conditions in wing 5D weren't worse than the rest of the prison, but the women were verbally harassed by staff, with remarks such as, "Here come the little boys," when they were escorted to eat. They were taken to the cafeteria first or last to keep them away from other inmates.
Building 5 manager Timothy Back came up with the idea to break up couples by sending inmates to the wing. The 60-inmate wing was filled with women targeted because of appearance.
"I heard him say, 'We're going to break up some of these relationships, start a boys wing, and we're going to take all these studs and put them together and see how they like looking at nothing but each other all day instead of their girlfriends,"' Drumheller said.
Warden Barbara Wheeler called the policy a figment of the inmates' imaginations.
"With female offenders, relationships are very important, and often times when they're separated from those relationships they might perceive it as punitive," Wheeler said.
A dozen inmates interviewed in person or by letter contradicted Wheeler, saying there's no doubt why they were moved. Triolo said she had gone four years without getting in trouble until she shaved her shoulder-length brown locks. She soon was moved to 5D, away from her girlfriend.
"I never felt as degraded, humiliated or questioned my own sexuality, the way I look, etc., until all of this happened," O'Neal, 33, who is serving time for forgery and drug charges, wrote to the AP.
Sex — whether forced or consensual — is forbidden in prisons primarily to prevent violence and the spread of diseases.
Segregating homosexual inmates in men's prison has been upheld by federal courts to protect them and maintain order, though courts have ruled against total isolation or harsher conditions.
Separating women based on appearance, though, violates the Constitution's guarantees of equal protection and freedom of expression, said Helen Trainor, director of the Virginia Institutionalized Persons Project.
LINKS Article - "[abuse] experienced by many inmates who are convicted of nonviolent offenses borders on the unimaginable..."
• Their home page - spr.org• Criticism, details, history of solitary confinement & long-term use; - 4strugglemag.org
• Google: "coping with" "solitary confinement"
• solitarywatch.com - Advocacy site for Solitary Confinement Issues
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