Colorado State Penitentiary II Opens With 300 New Solitary Confinement Cells

by | September 1, 2010

Colorado already has hundreds of “administrative segregation” cells, and Colorado State Penitentiary’s ad seg unit is becoming notorious since National Geographic fimed a show on solitary confinement there. The state is also broke, making deep cuts to education and other public services. Nevertheless, following a protracted budget battle, Colorado came up with more than $10 million to open one tower of its new high-security penitentiary–officially part of the Centennial Correctional Facility, but widely known as CSP II.

The opening of CSP II will bring more than 200 new jobs to the Cañon City area, which already has 23 prisons and few other job opportunities. (Cañon City is the subject of the “web documentary” Prison Valley.)  Unsurprisingly, the report in the local paper, the Cañon City Daily Record quotes the company line from the state Department of Corrections, which insists the ad seg cells are urgently needed.

After years of waiting and building, one tower of the expanded Centennial Correctional Facility is ready for its first round of inmates.

“There’s a lot of history with this from lawsuits to being our own supervising agent on the project,” said DOC Executive Director Ari Zavaras on Wednesday at the dedication ceremony. “There are a lot of things that went into it.”

The expansion, which was originally built under the name Colorado State Penitentiary II, is a high security prison. When the facility is fully open, it will house 948 administrative segregation inmates.

The one tower that is currently opening — no plans are yet in place to open the other two towers — will house 316 inmates by Sept. 30. Beginning Sept. 1, the facility will begin accepting 15 inmates a day through the end of the month. About half the inmates, 150 will come from the statewide administrative segregation wait-list and 166 will come from the Colorado State Penitentiary, making room for that facility to house the system’s mentally ill inmates.

The expansion’s opening has been bumped several times throughout the past seven years — most recently because of funding issues during the state’s budget crisis, which would have prevented staffing it. This spring, the General Assembly approved $10.8 million to open the tower…

Ground was broken on the facility in August 2007 after lengthy court battles challenging legislation signed by then-Gov. Bill Owens authorizing the construction in 2003.

Attorney General John Suthers said the opening was overdue and that adequate high security beds are absolutely essential for the safety of everyone — inmates and officers — in Department of Corrections. The expansion, Suthers said, is a “much needed addition to the Colorado Department of Corrections.”

“We will all be a lot better off with this facility,” Zavaras said. “We have a very solid program in place. This is an essential tool.”

To get a glimpse (and surely not the worst) of what life will be like in CSP II, take a look at National Geographic Explorer: Solitary Confinement.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=65HWXomI3Jk]

Share

Jean Casella and James Ridgeway

James Ridgeway (1936-2021) was the founder and co-director of Solitary Watch. An investigative journalist for over 60 years, he served as Washington Correspondent for the Village Voice and Mother Jones, reporting domestically on subjects ranging from electoral politics to corporate malfeasance to the rise of the racist far-right, and abroad from Central America, Northern Ireland, Eastern Europe, Haiti, and the former Yugoslavia. Earlier, he wrote for The New Republic and Ramparts, and his work appeared in dozens of other publications. He was the co-director of two films and author of 20 books, including a forthcoming posthumous edition of his groundbreaking 1991 work on the far right, Blood in the Face. Jean Casella is the director of Solitary Watch. She has also published work in The Guardian, The Nation, and Mother Jones, and is co-editor of the book Hell Is a Very Small Place: Voices from Solitary Confinement. She has received a Soros Justice Media Fellowship and an Alicia Patterson Fellowship. She tweets @solitarywatch.

Help Expose the Hidden World of Solitary Confinement

Accurate information and authentic storytelling can serve as powerful antidotes to ignorance and injustice. We have helped generate public awareness, mainstream media attention, and informed policymaking on what was once an invisible domestic human rights crisis.

Only with your support can we continue this groundbreaking work, shining light into the darkest corners of the U.S. criminal punishment system.

Donate

COMMENTS POLICY

Solitary Watch encourages comments and welcomes a range of ideas, opinions, debates, and respectful disagreement. We do not allow name-calling, bullying, cursing, or personal attacks of any kind. Any embedded links should be to information relevant to the conversation. Comments that violate these guidelines will be removed, and repeat offenders will be blocked. Thank you for your cooperation.

19 comments

  • shawn

    I spent a little over two years in CSP. I have been out and clear for almost 10 years. I was not a violent offender by any means. I got tagged as being part of an STG (security threat group). No physical or legitimate proof, not even close. One “man`s” words sent me to adseg for the remainder of my sentence. Ten years later I still have some pretty severe psychological issues. Do some people deserve to be locked away from civilian society? Yes. Most folks sitting in CSP do not deserve, to use Dawn`s words, that fate. There is a word for living that way. It’s not in any way, shape, or form corrective or rehabilitative. It’s fucking human storage. As a pretty normal, run of the mill criminal going in, I am now a I’ll tempered, impatient, mentally disturbed citizen. Your neighbor. The guy behind you in line at Kroger. That place, that solitude… I mean… It’s a difficult thing to explain. All you have in there is the guy looking at you in that scratched up mirror. If you can’t live with him, well, your done for. Good luck to those of you decent mugs in there, and those of you unfortunate fellas on your way. By the way, progression out of there, back to the main line; might as well be a fucking fairy tale especially when you have a Dawn-like individual writing you up for having a piece of cardboard on your window. God forbid you get some fucking sleep.

  • amos

    The punishment is cruel. As Sebastian Canadian stated, the purpose of the DoC is for rehabilitation. Solitary confinement is torturous, inhumane, and cruel. Again, the purpose of the DoC is to rehabilitate, not to “get back” at the criminals.

    @ Dawn: Do you know why it is cruel? From your perspective it sounds like you have a personal vendetta towards the people you “work with,” aka, the inmates. From the last that you stated, I thought you were nothing more than a Corrections Officer making a bit more than minimum wage. Who are you to judge the inmates? The answer is, you are no one, especially not a Judge, a Jury, and certainly not God.

    What type of PROVEN rehabilitation evolves from solitary confinement, Dawn? Let me ask you this; have ever heard of men by the name of Terry Anderson or Tom Sutherland? Let me give you a brief rundown of who Mr. Anderson is. In 1985 Mr. Anderson was the Chief Middle East Correspondent for the Associated Press. He was kidnapped and held hostage for an undisclosed duration, in solitary confinement. Terry was a thoroughly educated man via college, life experience, and USMC war tours; to say the least, he is a strong minded man. Several stories have been made on him regarding his remarkable, yet inhumane experience. He was in solitude for months and months at a time, with absolutely zero human interaction, and from that he said he would have rather had a bad, abusive, hatred, chaotic, disrespectful, and etc, companion, than none at all; and at this point, you should be asking why, Dawn? I’ll tell you –Humans are creatures of human interaction; we’re creatures of affection. Social Neuroscientist from University of Chicago, Dr. John Cacioppo, states, “loneliness is very much like pain, it was evolved over time to change our behavior so that we reconnect with others which is necessary for our survival,” which is precisely why it is torturous.

    Judges do not sentence criminals to receive physical or mental abuse to the sentenced parties, do they? No, because it is inhumane. We are a civilized people, so the A.D 1500’s caliber punishments like physical abuse, impalement, amputation and etc, have been put to rest, and civil and HUMANE punishments have been implemented –like incarceration. The point of incarceration is for rehabilitation, not physical/mental abuse. Psychiatrist, Dr. Stuart Grassain states that there is “a syndrome associated with solitary confinement that consists of, difficulties with thinking, concentration, memory, disorientation –it’s basically a delirium…one of the things we find in solitary confinement, is that people become very paranoid. Many individuals exposed to these conditions are absolutely tortured by it.” There are, if any, very few positive results from months and months, and years and years of solitary confinement, yet there is ample documentation of the results of the grave negative effects that solitude presents.

    From a sociological perspective, solitude breaks down the human psyche because of the following. One’s identity is defined by the relationships people establish, for example: A man is a father to his child, an employee to his manager, a husband to his wife, a friend to a friend. When in solitude, all relationships dissipate as do relationships’ dependents (which in this case is one’s ‘identity). Relationships with objects or belongings form and the bond is extremely strong because there is no other bond/relationship that one in solitude can establish. For example, someone becomes over-protective of a Tv, empty wallet, physical space.

    How one governs his/behavior in said relationships is often defined by societal established norms. Those whom act outside of the norms are known as deviants. In solitude there is no realistic society so I ask you this, Dawn, by which norms is someone’s (as stated above) lost identity suppose to be governed? Now, referring back to your demeanor, it sounds like you would say something along the lines of, “well, those rapists and murders and so on, deserve it,” but again, I ask you this –what is the point of the DoC? Is it to punish or rehabilitate?

    When people that have been solitarily confined reenter society, they experience a, hands-down, overwhelming level of human interaction. Their thirst for human affection resurfaces, but the tools to safely and healthily pursue that affection, is non-existent. They don’t know how to behave in accordance with societies norms, because they have been living sans society for the past x years in solitude. That alone provides a basis that solitary confinement is counterproductive to our society. Well, that and the fact that as the superpower of the planet Earth, we are number 26 in overall education; but you’re right Dawn, it is beneficial to society, criminals, and the USA to continue supporting solitary confinement. Forget our kids, let’s torture our citizens instead. Good call, Dawn

    Checkout this article http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2009/03/30/090330fa_fact_gawande , and scroll down to the paragraph starting with “Prolonged isolation…” but before you do, I’ll give you a rundown of it. It pretty much says that, because 100% of the victims (solitary confined inmates) didn’t go crazy, they deemed it constitutional. They acknowledge that most of the victims had greater issues than before they were confined, and the same degrading mental/emotional/interaction symptoms occurred among all impacted victims.

    Look at this link also: http://ccrjustice.org/newsroom/press-releases/lawsuit-challenges-solitary-confinement-california-prison

    Bottom line is that you are no one to judge, and that sounds like on what you are basing your perspective. You say, “Well those people this; and those people are that, so they deserve,” but once again, the last I knew, you are just a ‘hair’ above minimum wage state worker, that’s got a chip on your shoulder –you’re not a judge, nor a jury, and certainly not God. Are you just mad because you barely graduated high school, clearly didn’t have what it takes to complete college, so you went the easy, low paying state job route of being a CO? Anyone can go threw a 6 week “boot camp,” handed a weapon, and be put in charge of people. COs are like a rent-a-cops  they’re kind of cute but super annoying and because of the unwarranted chip on their shoulder, subsequently being disrespected and frowned upon by everyone in society who has actually achieved, not took a rent-a-cop job. Are you so unhappy with yourself that you need to feel empowered by working around people that are held down by the state and restricted by bars; is that how low you’ve stooped? So I ask again, Dawn, who are you to judge?

    Reference:
    Yost, P. (Director) (2010). Solitary confinement [Television series episode]. In Halperin, J. (Executive Producer), National Geographic. New York, NY, USA: National Geographic. Retrieved from http://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/national-geographic-channel/shows/explorer-1/ngc-solitary-confinement-101/

    News.co.uk (2003, October 10). Brain scan shows rejection pain. Retrieved from http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/3178242.stm

    Scott, E. (2010, December 14). Loneliness: How to cope with loneliness. Retrieved from http://stress.about.com/od/psychologicalconditions/a/loneliness.htm

    Gawande, A. (2009, March 30). Hellhole. Retrieved from http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2009/03/30/090330fa_fact_gawande

    http://ccrjustice.org/newsroom/press-releases/lawsuit-challenges-solitary-confinement-california-prison

  • Sebastian Canadian

    Sick America , needs help fast.
    I watch some of the Lock down episodes on MSNBC, it’s cruel, inhumane and just not what should be done to prisoners
    Did the Americans forget what department of corrections means.
    Your are to help rehab a person not turn him into an animal.
    Gage a dog for a week see what happens.
    Shame on the American justice system.

  • Alan CYA # 65085

    Your reaction to the outside highway and my own to the sounds of the trains passing me while I sat in the hole are very similar. Also your observations of the futility of those acting up in cells around you and of the character of some inmates that are held there i.e. your last line (“I did see people in there that I would NEVER wanna see on a yard in Gen population let alone on the streets.”) are also very similar to my own brief experience as a youth.

    You can read my experience here:

    http://solitarywatch.com/solitary-voices/memoirs/in-solitary-at-las-juvenile-hall/

    The question is “Are these inmates further damaged or just controlled for the time being?”

    Since almost everyone is released one day society needs to find a way that both controls these volatile personalities and at the same time heals them. I’m not sure exactly what that answer is but it is certainly not more of the same failed approach.

  • I once was a dumbass

    I was an inmate in ad seg/ISU at CSP back in 93′. I was 22 and arrested for auto theft, “I test drove a car from a car lot and never came back”. It was not my first time doing it more like my 4th. I was sentenced to 3 yrs and sent to a work camp in Delta Co. I was still in that listen to no-one but myself mode. I hopped the fence a ran off with 2 other guys after a few weeks. I was out for about 2 months b4 being caught at the stampede in Greely CO. I went to Delta County jail where I was charged with escape and another auto theft. Got an add. 6 years. Then the prisons got me and had another court hearing through the prison system. they sentenced me to 15 months in AD Seg and loss of all good time.
    I arrived at CSP in like a basement area. I got searched, my blankets,and personal stuff and was taken up to my cell. My first impression was that it was bigger than the county cells.
    They told me to face the back of cell,. I heard them open door and set something inside. A 13″ B&W TV! whoo hoo. I had 12 channels and any classes were done over the TV, “GED, AA or whatever you had to take. But I still got to watch TV whenever I wanted.
    I couldnt see but barley into 2 cells across from me and I had a little slit window that could see hwy 50. Many hours imanging me being in one of those cars.
    The first week/month was the hardest but then time started to fly by so fast it was scary. I would sleep all day and watch Tv and emmerce myself into books all night. Mostly fanatsy J.R.R Tolkien, L ron Hubbard Battlefield Earth. The Library cart came by once a week.
    I did wake up quite a few times and I was talking to a gaurd or standing at my door window, “very scary”. I think I was complaining about a book or something when I woke up. It was kinda like a dream state most of the time. The gaurds “cough cough” I mean officers. I noticed were nicest at that facility more than any other. I never had any ill treatment, the gaurds were always decent. It was almost like they didnt want to adgitate people so they would always talk calm. But oh Lord help the poor guy that has the sort team run into there cell. That was always a show. How easy your time there or anywhere in the system is tottaly up to you.
    It seems like the lower security level you go the harder the gaurds are to deal with. The real wierd thing is I never wanted to go to the recreation cell. I went maybe twice during my 15 months there. All it consisted of was a pull up bar and a step the rec yard was just another cell with metal screen instead of glass where the window slot was. I did see and hear people freak out and flood out thr cells and one guy broke his tv and cut his wrist. The sad thing is people were encorageing him to, screaming and hollering to do it and when He finally did the guy across from him said OMG!! then all the yelling stopped and it turned to every1 hitting thr panic buttons calling out help 4 him. I never screamed or kicked my door, those guys just got there clothes and TV taken away.
    But I have to say that Ad Seg worked for me. It opened up my eyes, kinda like I just woke up when I got there. I looked around the POD, “well what I could see of it”. then looked out my lill slot window and said to my self. “would I rather be in here or out there on my way somewhere”. I have not had so much as a right up the rest of my stay there. I spent 2 more yrs at Limon a few months in Bent County work camp and finally a work realease facility where I was kicked out about a yr early on parole.
    I know it opened my eyes up and did nothing but good for me. But I did see people in there that I would NEVER wanna see on a yard in Gen population let alone on the streets.

  • Valerie Guerriero

    I used to feel sorry for myself for not being able to financially get myself above the poverty level here in Colorado. After watching a documentary and reading up on CSP I am very happy now that my income is not enough to where I would pay any taxes to the state of Colorado to support such an institution. In that sense, I applaude all the low income citizens of Colorado, the ones who do not make enough money to pay state taxes. To those people and to myself feel good that you are not supporting an evil such as this. The documentary covered too many inmates in CSP that did not commit violent crimes or bodily harm to anyone. So for any of you people out there who are living in poverty, feel good in knowing that you are a decent Human Being in not supporting such a barbaric and Dr. Mengele style experiment. I believe the experiment will be over once enough people on the outside are harmed by these inmates who were released after solitary confinement. I would like to see reports, documentaries about inmates who were released from solitary confinement that are success stories proving that this is humane and a proactive approach towards rehabilitation.. but I won’t hold my breath on that. All I can say to the state of Colorado is good luck with your experiment and I hope that you have discovered in all your wisdom a proper and 21st century intellectual way of treating these people. God Bless.

  • lyn

    I write to a man in csp who is in 23 hr lockdown, he didnt murder anyone/rape/molest a child etc, but because his crime was against the police he is going to die in jail. I think its cruel, unfair and abusive! The ‘gym’ is a room with a pull up bar. I actually cry for my friend, I think its sick! Yes of course if somebody murders a another human they should spend their life in incarceration, thats my view, but not everyone in there has done anything like that and since my friend was mentally ill at the time of his crime, and now has improved since getting the right meds why the hell is he still on 23hr lockup along with others in the same situation as him???? Its very sad. Who ever disagrees with me, read the reports from scp, the negative ‘chrons’ they recieve for something as stupid as being ‘unresponsive’ without knowing so they cant appeal it. There is no way to work towards a better way of prison life for many of the inmates, they dont get the vhance, they are refused medication that their own trained doctors prescribe, but a medical assistant who actually works within csp can just piont blank refuse to administer the script, they dont need to give any explainantion to the inmate or the doctor. And there is plenty more thats very wrong with the system, if you bother to look into it.

  • fuck the system

    this makes me fucking sick, our fucking society is so fucked up that this can be allowed to happen. these people need our HELP not to be tortured…America is gonna fucking fall into destruction and chaos fuck anyone who supports this narcissistic cancer

  • Alan

    Doug as a father of four I feel for your loss. I can’t imagine the pain in your heart. I feel terrible when my kids just get their feelings hurt. I don’t think I could take such a loss without extensive grief counseling.

    But as you said “This guy will someday leave prison…” and run into other sons and daughter’s. Do you want him to be better or worst than they went in?

    Here is what one correctional officer said about this issue. Echoing your own words:

    “Those people are going to be your neighbors some day,” Harkins says. “And if our system is maintaining people in a negative, antisocial way, we’re not doing ourselves any good. We’re not doing society any good.”

    http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5589233

    You don’t have to have committed a murder to end up in this type of position. Non-violent prisoners also end up in a SHU. There are many such prisoners some die, either by their own hand or by abusive guards, and some are ” just” driven mad. And the ones that get out are walking time bombs.

    Looking past your hurt to see the errors of the system is very difficult for sure. I wish your family the best and hopefully as a people we will find the correct solutions that will greatly reduce the number of such senseless crimes in the future. No family should have to bare the pain that yours has.

  • Doug

    My son was murdered 2 years ago. One of the men convicted of his murder is in CSP. I personally hope he rots in that cell. My son left 2 small children….he didn’t know the people who shot him. Some of you feel that the inmates at CSP are treated unfairly. Do you think my son was treated unfairly? This guy will someday leave prison…what about my son and my family? We will never leave the heartache and anguish we feel.

  • Dawn

    Alan
    You are right on the aspect of inmates being put in the SHU for no reason. I don’t agree with PC (protective custody). I think they should put PC inmates together in their seperate unit. They should have more prerelease jails for imates to go to before they are released. I know Colorado has prerelease in Canyon City. At the same time everybody is different. Some handle being in Solitary fine and others don’t. Just like Law Enforcement everybody is different.
    I didn’t say about Joshlyn’s writing to be igornant, I was saying it to help. Some of Joshlyn’s writing was hard to understand.
    I never said I think everybody that goes to jail or prison should be on 23 hour lockdown. I think the one’s that deserve it should be though. If somebody is in prison for murder than yes, they should be on lockdown. That person could kill another inmate.
    I think prisons should have more programs like Colorado does like the horse program the gardening, and other classes.

  • Alan

    Dawn if that was not enough read this article from another guard’s perspective.

    Harkins worked in a prison’s isolation unit.

    “It’s only when you leave it that you really truly understand how much stress you were under,” he says of his time in the solitary ward.

    Isolation means 23 hours a day locked in a cell the size of a bathroom. One hour alone in a small exercise yard. No contact with anyone. No television. No windows.

    These conditions can be difficult for inmates who spend years — and in some cases, decades — in them. But, as Harkins found, they are also difficult on the officers.

    “I kept thinking about it. I couldn’t get away from the job,” he says. “I’d be dreaming about what happened the day before at night. So you would relive some sort of cell extraction or some sort of altercation — you would relive it.”

    Dark Days

    While working in the giant, windowless, gray prison building, Harkins says months went by where he’d never see the sun: “You’re down there for 12 hours a day. You walk in at six in the morning just as the sun is coming up. In the wintertime, you’re going in when it’s dark and coming out when it’s dark. Sometimes, you can never see the sun.”

    Every day, the routine was the same. Deliver food on plastic trays. Take inmates to the shower. Walk the tiers for hours, in front of hundreds of inmates who are often angry, frustrated and abusive.

    “When people are driving on you, telling you you’re bad, you suck — all day, eight hours a day — you gotta have 16 hours a day where you get all the positive.”

    But, he says, a lot of officers he knows don’t have that.

    “Some of them go to the bar. Some of them go home and kick the cat,” he says. “I mean, various people would have different ways of trying to get rid of the tension. And some people didn’t do a very good job at doing that.”

    In general population, Harkins says, he could spent half his day talking with inmates about sports or the news. But in isolation, the inmates don’t talk to the officers, and the officers don’t talk to the inmates: “An us-versus-them attitude quickly takes over.”

    Cold Interactions

    Harkins says there were inmates in the general population with whom he was on great terms. But when they got sent to segregation, they would no longer even look at him.

    “When he gets down to segregation, to IMU, to Intensive Management, something changes,” he says. “They become hostile. They become withdrawn a bit. They won’t talk to you.”

    Any interaction is short and businesslike: “Instead of saying, ‘Please pick the papers up off the floor,’ you walk in and say, ‘Pick the papers up.'”

    And he says the relationship would get even more tense, because in isolation, the inmates can’t do or get anything for themselves.

    ‘We’re Not Doing Society Any Good’

    As each day passed on the dim and noisy tiers, Harkins says he began to feel trapped like his prisoners; he asked for a transfer back to general population, where he worked until he retired.

    When he thinks about solitary now, from outside the prison’s walls, he says he finds himself worried as much about the unit’s effect on prisoners as he is about its effect on officers.

    “Those people are going to be your neighbors some day,” Harkins says. “And if our system is maintaining people in a negative, antisocial way, we’re not doing ourselves any good. We’re not doing society any good.”

    Many officials seem to agree.

    http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5589233

    And check out this very informative series from NPR.

    http://www.npr.org/series/5584841/life-in-solitary-confinement

  • Alan

    Dawn thank you for exhibiting the sensitivity of some, if not most, of the people that work in these places.

    Criticizing Joshlyn’s penmanship, someone deprived of a proper education while housed in this system as a youth, is a low blow.

    I think most of use believe there is some utility in isolating problem inmates for a short period of time. It is when this is an indefinite amount of time that concerns us. Other issues too numerous to list here are just as disturbing such as housing the mentally ill in these conditions for prolonged periods.

    You are absolutely correct that many of these human beings are dangerous and have earned special treatment but not all others have been placed there for their own protection or have been misidentified as gang members and the appeal process is not working.

    Read this study and learn why even the inventors of this system question if it is doing more harm than good. Here is an excerpt:

    http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2010/12/07_supermax.shtml

    Inmates sometimes say that there are only three ways out of supermax: “parole, snitch, or die.” (WHY?)

    Boon or hazard to public safety?

    “We think of supermax as taking the worst of the worst,” says Reiter — noting that California inmates are sent to the SHU if they’re determined to be a gang leader or if they commit a serious infraction of prison rules, such as attacking a guard, while inside. “Yet most supermax prisoners get out eventually.”

    California releases 50 to 100 prisoners a month to parole from supermax — often without any transitional programming inside to re-acclimate them to human interaction, or prepare them to make a living on the outside.

    You don’t have to have a law degree or a human-rights orientation, as Reiter does, to wonder whether such a system is the best way to protect the public, especially given longstanding concerns about the psychological effects of solitary confinement.

    For those with documented pre-existing mental vulnerabilities, such as schizophrenia, the federal courts have outlawed supermax confinement as cruel and unusual punishment. (But this doesn’t stop them does it?)

    ….what surprised Reiter most, she says, “is how powerful and powerfully sad these former prisoners’ stories were.” Each “had different, but poignant, anecdotes about the way they experienced the deprivation conditions,” she recalls. People spoke of having no clocks, daylight, or seasons to mark the passage of time; growing pale from lack of sunlight; and being amazed at the sight of a single bird, insect, or even the moon, after months or years of virtually no exposure to the natural world. (SAD!)

    …lack of contact with other human beings is its own psychological endurance test. A man who spent 10 years in solitary confinement at Pelican Bay told Reiter about what happened once when his cell and his neighbor’s opened just slightly at the same time: a prisoner from a rival gang reached through and the two tough guys held hands. In the moment, being enemies “didn’t really matter,” she says. “They were just happy for the human touch.”

    (Now if this doesn’t put a lump in your throat this time of the year they have the wrong people held.)

    Reiter, Keramet. (2010). Parole, Snitch, or Die: California’s Supermax Prisons & Prisoners, 1987-2007.

    UC Berkeley: Institute for the Study of Social Change. Retrieved from:

    http://escholarship.org/uc/item/04w6556f

  • Dawn

    I have worked in prisons, and out on the street. I can’t believe all of you think that solitary is cruel and inhumane. I can’t understand why you would say nobody deserves this treatment. Tell that to these inmates victims. Solitary inmates are there for a reason like murder, rape, assault. Not writing a bad check or speeding.
    Joshlyn: I think you need somebody to proof read your writing before posting it on the internet. You act like nobody should be punished no matter what they do. WRONG!!!!
    Andrea: You don’t think a serial rapiest or murderer should be in solitary, actually if they get life yes they should. Personally, I wish our government should punish them like they did to their victims.
    Haven’t you guys been listening to the news about these innocent kids being killed by their parents? What do you think should happen to the murderers?
    Did you ever hear of do unto others as you would have done to you? A murderer should be sentenced to death not life w/o parole.
    I hate to say this but, I have seen some of these victims. I hope nothing bad ever happens to any of you, your family or friends but, you’ll feel different if it does.

  • Silky Wallace

    Just watched the National Geographic show regarding Colorado State Prison. It is very thought provoking. There is no doubt that some inmates can learn from solitary confinement and the six levels of reward; however I’m sure that most would crack under this inhumane treatment and become angrier, harder to control, and susceptible to mental breakdowns. It just doesn’t make sense to keep someone locked up this way for years, often decades.

    I don’t know what is happening to America. The economic situation seems dire for the average person, yet billions are spent on war and prisons. I wonder if the average American even realizes the treatment these offenders suffer. To some degree, these prisons are creating monsters. As for safety, would anyone (including prison staff) want to run into one of these released prisoners on the street, particularly if the ex-prisoner had become agitated or unable to cope?

    How is this possible that 80,000 prisoners in the U.S. are kept in solitary confinement – oh, excuse me, administrative segregation? I am simply astonished and don’t know what to say. I am disgusted and saddened – and fearful.

  • Andrea

    I don’t care who you are or what you could have possibly done. This is the most cruel and evil thing you could ever do to someone. The people put in confinement have done nothing compared to those who keep them their. What a inhumane treatment, I am beyond words. It is absolutely horrible to torture someone like this. Only God can punish those who are ruining the lives of so many locked up in this cell.
    God forgives everyone, God loves everyone the same, prisoner and priest. No one is better than another. Shame on those who agree with such a horrible act, shame on those who take pleasure in this. These inmates are human beings, they are like me and you. No one deserves such a punishment. May God have mercy on their souls and may God show those the wrath they deserve. Jesus came to the earth preaching redemption and forgiveness, not torture and separation. My heart goes out to all of the inmates who are loosing their minds, lives, and humanity. My prayers are with them. We must stop such horrible treatments, we must change these institutions. The real animals are not the inmates, we are!

  • Joshlyn

    one more thing CO ste dont fell to bad lol after jesus love you but everyone els hates you or at least i do right now oh ya and god gave you a brain use it if your wanting room for mentaly ill i understand after all your right you do need to be locked up if you thingk soitary is a good thing after all who ever build this thing is mentaly ill in a bad way so plese go lock your self in your supermax keep the state safer with you gone lol to bluid your home you must love your state a lot to put your self a way lol anyone who suports soiltary never ben thow it them selfs and needs to go jump off a brige or in to a supermax for a long time hay maby the doc can fix you lol

  • Joshlyn

    yeserday was the 1st it was a day of darknes a day to morn a day that in coreshions may be the 911 of this state why thingk of it i dident know thares more to this then 300 cells but 948 cells supermax is more inportent then your kids lerning thats is a dark time a dark day i mean over kill by a lot and why would you not convert a unit for mentaly ill what part of grassians speech do you not get CO mentaly ill and solitary do not do get a long well at all not sher if you know the country song pray for you but look it up CO state docs cos i pray for yo lol anyone wonterding lets just say i pray your flowerpot falls from a window sill and knocks you in the head LIKE I LIKE TO!! yes CO thats what i saying commenses plese use it go jump in your new supermax for a year get ack to me on solitary and how grate it is lol you be thinken lot difrently after you go thow it yourselfs end it now you will hear from me one day may thare be light in the darknes of justice

  • Veterans Village No. 93
    7651 W 41st Avenue
    Wheat Ridge, Colorado 80033-4559
    303 238 1456
    http://www.veteranschamberofcommerce.org

    Please help us engage our Wounded Warriors Incarcerated to change the entire prison system.
    The War Widows
    mmurphy@veteranschamberofcommerce.org

Leave a Reply

Discover more from Solitary Watch

Subscribe now to keep reading and get access to the full archive.

Continue reading