David “Joey” Pedersen was arrested in 1997 for armed robbery. He was 16 years old, had been taking the antidepressant Zoloft for years (which he continued to take throughout his incarceration), and was determined to have a “slight” potential for violence. Due to Oregon’s Measure 11, he was charged as an adult. Pedersen joined prison gangs and received dozens of disciplinary write-ups. As a consequence, he would spend 11 of the next 14 years in solitary confinement. Much of that time was spent in Oregon’s Intensive Management Units (IMUs).
Pedersen was paroled in May 2011. Months later, he and a girlfriend would go on a murder spree, killing four people.
“I knew Pedersen personally. I know all too well the horrors he went through in prison as a juvenile up until his release and how isolation in ‘supermax’ slowly changed him until there was so much pent up inside he turned into a person who would kill four innocent people within months of release from Oregon’s IMU,” writes M.O., an Oregon inmate who has spent over 18 years in prison, over 16 of which have been spend in solitary confinement.
“Corrections officials,” M.O. writes, “are unwilling to consider other alternatives to meet their legitimate concerns. In the case of Pedersen, ‘supermax’ produced exactly what it has been designed to create.’”
Oregon has a prison population of 14,109 as of June 1, 2012. Of them, approximately 390 are classified as Security Level 5. Inmates in Security Level 5 are held in one of several solitary confinement units in the Oregon prison system. The units have a variety of names: Intensive Management Units, Administrative Segregation, and Behavioral Health Units for inmates with mental health issues. There are also Disciplinary Segregation Units, which are generally used for shorter terms in solitary.
According to Oregon Department of Corrections Spokeswoman Elizabeth Craig, “We… recognize that it is not a long-term solution for behavioral problems. Given that, we have made changes over the years that focus on helping inmates improve behavior so they can return to general population.”
Inmates in solitary confinement can expect to spend up to 24 hours a day in a 7×12 cell. Dr. Stuart Grassian, who has worked with hundreds of inmates in solitary confinement, has reported that such conditions can produce feelings of paranoia, hallucinations, obsessive thoughts, and increased impulsivity. Such prolonged terms in isolation have been linked, by the bipartisan Commission on Safety and Abuse in America’s Prisons, to higher recidivism rates.
A large percentage of inmates in Oregon’s prison system will end up in isolation at some point. In 2010, approximately 4,704 inmates were sent to one of Oregon’s Disciplinary Segregation Units at least once. In 2011, the number fell slightly to 4,498. On average, an inmate sent to disciplinary segregation will spend 20.83 days in the DSU. The housing records of one inmate show DSU terms ranging from five days to over a month.
M.O. described the DSU this way: “Its lights are sunk deep in the wall and the cells are dark and you have nothing but a bunk, toilet, and sink. There are no conversations with other prisoners as you’re in a cell inside a cell. There were no books, no reading materials at all. It is, and was, a sensory deprivation chamber. It was my first experience of total isolation.”
For inmates who are deemed to consistently pose a security risk, there are the Intensive Management Units. Each of the four inmates in this article have records involving assaults on correctional officers and/or fellow inmates; some of these incidents go back over 10 years.
Approximately 210 inmates are currently housed in IMUs, primarily in Snake River Correctional Institution in Ontario, Oregon. According to the Department of Corrections, it is policy to “assign maximum custody inmates to special security housing and programs in a designated intensive management unit or cells separate from general population housing in Department of Corrections facilities to provide the maximum level of inmate security, control and supervision.”
IMU programming is based on four levels, with increasing privileges. IMU-status inmates start at Level Two; promotion and demotion is based on behavior, with more than one minor disciplinary infraction preventing promotion to a higher level. Inmates in Level 1 cannot receive visitation and are only allowed out of their cell three days a week for showering. Those in Level 2 are allowed recreation time five days a week for forty minutes, as well as two one-hour visitations a month. There is a classification review every 30 days to determine whether IMU placement is justified. Participation in programming is considered an important factor.
B., who has spent the majority of the last 14 years in solitary confinement comments on the programming in the IMU: “The programming was and is a joke. They give you packets like ‘anger management’ but nobody goes through them with you or anything. As long as you circle answers, they don’t care.”
The Intensive Management Units began in 1991 at Oregon State Penitentiary in Salem, Oregon; the first Oregon supermax unit. “OSP’s IMU was a dark dank place, poor lighting. It really messed with your mind,” writes B., “OSP’s units were infested with mice. It was dirty, loud. The worst pieces of crap were there in the IMU, masturbating to every staff that walked by, playing with or throwing poop on the tiers.
Violence was also common. “Back in the day at OSP IMU we would bust the sprinklers and flood out when the cops fucked with us,” writes M.O., “I got beat bad back in 2001 so bad in the OSP IMU I was taken to the ER in Salem. They broke my nose and split my head open. I had to get the back of my head stapled up…After they beat me they stripped me naked and dragged me to the IMU ‘infirmary.’”
“For those inmates who are determined to be in need of this maximum custody program unit (through a review process), they are placed in IMU after the inmate completes his/her DSU sanction. The program targets inmate behavior and focuses on getting them stabilized so they can transition back to general population,” says the DOC.
The IMU was relocated to Snake River Correctional Institution in Ontario, Oregon in 2009.
According to the Oregon Department of Corrections, in 2008, a total of 784 inmates were assigned an IMU status. They were there an average of 112.5 days. Of the 784, approximately 145 spent more than six months in the IMU. Over the next three years, approximately 47.2% would return to the IMU, sometimes within a month of release from the IMU to general population.
B., like M.O. and Gary, are among the many Level 5 inmates sent out of state, where they remain housed in solitary confinement. Since 2007, over 20 Level 5 inmates were sent out of state through the Interstate Corrections Compact; currently, there are 11 Level 5 inmates out of state.
Gary, who has been incarcerated since he was 14, writes that between 1998 and 2005, he did time “by and large in IMU and the hole (DSU)…. I did two short stints [in general population], first at Snake River during the summer of 1999 and last at Two Rivers from late 2002-early 2003…the two short stints combined for perhaps six months, and were my only reprieves from the IMUs.”
He reports receiving very little in terms of rehabilitative programming: “Back when I first started out in the IMU I was 16 years old, so they were required by law at the time to offer me more educational programming…I got my GED in 1999 there at OSP-IMU. But after that, and generally speaking, it’s really a joke.”
Like all the other inmates who have corresponded for this article, Gary has reported feelings of anger and rage rather than reform. ”However mentally tough you may be, years of sensory deprivation, total isolation, lack of mental/physical stimuli, and otherwise enduring the struggle that is a part of it all, takes a tremendous toll. Nearly without fail it instills a bitterness and hatred in you. After a number of years it often becomes difficult to do any other type of time; being around people in typical or normal environments becomes uncomfortable and even unbearable,” he writes.
This is a sentiment echoed by W., currently in Administrative Segregation at Snake River Correctional Institution, who reports that he has felt himself “becoming more anti-social and misanthropic.”
“I’ve been in prison for 16 years, and ten of them have been in solitary,” W. writes, “my first stretch was when I was 14 (in a juvenile hall) in which I did about six months where I wasn’t allowed to talk to anyone except staff a couple times a day. I think that really messed with my head at the time. By the time I came to prison when I was 16 I was used to solitary confinement. It doesn’t really bother me anymore. It’s all I know. I’ve seen other people have their will broken or begin to lose their minds.”
Administrative Segregation (Ad-Seg) currently holds 70 inmates, who can expect to spend an average of 185 days in single cell units. It is slightly less restrictive than the IMU. “We get 60 minutes of recreation, 7 days a week, and a shower. We’re allowed to go to recreation with one other person. Out in the rec area are some weights, pull up and dip bars. We are still handcuffed every time we leave our cells, just like in IMU or DSU,” writes W.
W. has been in Ad-Seg for over four years, following a two year long IMU term. “I’ve had 10 hearings thus far, and in each of them the same thing is said and no matter what I do I’m always given six more months. They haven’t even said what I could do to get out…They claim this is not a permanent thing, but every time they say I may get out to general population they change their minds,” he writes, “The idea that lock own units ‘correct’ anything is absurd. Everyone that is honest with themselves has to admit that.”
The negative psychological effects of isolation are well documented. Between 1998 and 2007, 14 of Oregon’s 25 prison suicides took place in the DSU or IMU. The strict conditions of the isolation units create hostile environments that aggravate problems.
According to documentation sent to me, M.O. was placed on food restrictions for two weeks (amounting to receiving only 1/3 of meals), for refusing “staff directives about [being] properly dressed at door to receive meal.” M.O. has written about his subsequent diagnosis of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder related to his experiences while incarcerated; he reports frequent nightmares and being easily startled by sudden noises.
B. says that years in isolation have harmed his psychological well-being: “I’ve spent so many years isolated that I can’t function right around people. I have anxiety attacks, I get paranoid…I’ve stood at my cell door looking out into the tier for hours not knowing what I was doing before snapping out of it.”
According to the Managing Mental Illness in Prison Task Force report in 2004: “Thirty to forty-five percent (30-45%) of the more severe mentally ill population in DOC is housed in the most restrictive security units, Intensive Management Unit (IMU) and Disciplinary Segregation Unit (DSU).”
With more than 1 in 3 Oregon inmates diagnosed with a mental illness, Oregon took the step of expanding mental health services, including turning the OSP IMU into a mental health unit.
“Recognizing that mental health can play a factor in behavioral issues, we also recently revised our hearings process so that mental health case managers can weigh in on misconduct hearings for inmates who have serious mental health issues,” according to the DOC. Included at OSP is the Behavioral Health Unit, in which Level 5 inmates with a psychiatric diagnosis receive services. “I spent a year in the BHU unit,” B. writes, “I wasn’t in the program but for the most part I did everything they did and got most of the privileges. It’s a new thing and probably evolved. They change OSP’s IMU to it. More privileges, more time out of the cell, with up to two others. The mental health case managers see people all through the week on an individual basis. The overall feeling of the place greatly improved.”
However, the mental health unit at OSP hasn’t been without criticism, particularly due to the reality that the unit remains structurally the same as when it served as the supermax unit. B. also notes that “there’s still a lot of problems with staff treating people like it’s still IMU, playing head games , messing with mail, etc.”
There is a growing movement to limit the use of solitary confinement. On June 19th, the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, Human Rights and Civil Rights held a hearing on the matter. “We also must have a clear eyed view of the impact of isolation on the vast majority of prisoners who will one day be released,” said Illinois Senator Richard Durbin.
It remains to be seen whether Oregon will follow the growing trend against solitary confinement and place tighter limits on its use of solitary. The Ecumenical Ministries of Oregon is reportedly in talks with the Oregon DOC officials, who claim that they are conducting an internal review of their segregation policies with the potential goal of reducing the current use of solitary confinement. No further clarification was provided by the ODOC at the time of this writing.
ELY STATE PRISON in Nevada is just as bad if not worse. Inmates are found dead in their cell, and they often are young, and the ruling is always died from Natural Causes.
I am familiar with this case because Pedersen killed a black man from my community. He killed a man who was kind and gentle. I am a strong advocate for eliminating Solitary wherever it exists. But nowhere in the local reporting was the back story of Pedersen, which really is the front story. We could have much different outcomes if we had an ounce of compassion and half a brain to help people with mental health problems. Where is Heraldo Rivera now?
adding whats up with politics on the subject from from Common dreams and The crime report “The Republican Party platform adopted this week at the party’s convention in Tampa backs mandatory prison terms for gang crimes, violent or sexual offenses against children, repeat drug dealers, rapists, robbers, and murderers, declaring that, “liberals do not understand this simple axiom: criminals behind bars cannot harm the general public.”
So the GOP is on board. To stop the insanity. Thank God! GOP
the entire article can be read here http://www.thecrimereport.org/news/inside-criminal-justice/2012-08-gop-platform
What kind of shit did this guy encounter in prison to make him into this monster? What made him a criminal in the first place: Sista comment made me wonder. Let me say this up front I in no way believe what he did can ever be justified only that we need to ask how someone can become so messed up. Here are a few answers.
http://abcnews.go.com/US/west-coast-white-supremacist-couple-tied-fourth-murder/story?id=14706262#.UE-M_41lT_k
“…a spree that police now say may have been sparked by anger over alleged sexual assaults by the father of the male suspect.
The tattoo around his neck is common on members of a prison-based white supremacist gang, the Nazi Low Riders, according to the Anti-Defamation League, which monitors the group.”
The Southern Poverty Law Center writes:
“…..a youthful and remarkably violent neo-Nazi gang, the Nazi Low Riders, or NLR, began to emerge behind the prison walls of the California Youth Authority.
In recent years, the NLR has spread from the California Youth Authority into the adult prison populations of California and several other states.”
1970 was actually the year the NLR was formed at the CYA facility of Preston School of Industry shortly after my release in July of 1969.
Edward Bunker wrote this article in Harper’s Magazine Feb. 1972
“War Behind Walls”
Page 4, a religious doctrine of hate:
…what increases racial polarization in prison beyond conciliation is the mutative leap in black militant rhetoric. This rhetoric is heard within prison walls by unsophisticated minds and gives those blacks that already hate whites a rational for murder. …
Everyone understands that blacks have been brutalized by generations of institutional racism, and recently by inertia and indifference. What the sympathetic fail to grasp is that sometimes the psychological truncation is so great that it cannot be repaired. Nothing is left but hate. They have no desire—no motivation—for anything but revenge and a license for what they desire. Additionally they have decided that they are political prisoners. The black realizes that he has committed a crime, or has acted against the statures. However, the claim of “political prisoner” comes from the argument that he was formed by a corrupt system, that his acts are a result thereof, and therefore he cannot be held responsible. Secondarily, he feels he has never been a part of this system, but is still in slavery, and consequently the white laws do not apply to him. Such personalities are often found in prison, where the flower of black racism is blossoming, virulent and paranoid. Many white convicts are equally dangerous and intractable, but they at least intellectually accept their acts are wrong. And even white racist recognize their attitudes are no longer approved, to be shouted, whereas blacks are open in their racism.”
Just last year the following article was written by Jorge Antonio Renaud, a graduate student in the School of Social Work at UT Austin, he has spent 27 years in Texas prisons. This post is part of a Know series on the Texas prison system. Excerpt:
“Relieved of the certainty that random violence might result in deadly retaliation, incoming gang bangers — overwhelmingly black and Hispanic — brought their street codes into prison: the drive-by mentality took hold, and it was visited against Anglos. These cons didn’t limit their violence to enemies — they adopted the attitude that any “white boy” was fair game, and that he could and should be broken by continual, unexpected gang beatings administered regardless of whether he fought back, or whether he showed “heart.” The unwilling joined white supremacy gangs for protection, while those men weary of constant beatings became sex slaves and cash cows.
This aspect of Texas prisons results in thousands of men leaving the system with a predator mentality or a raging racism buried so deep it might never be eradicated. Reducing barriers to reentry is one thing — understanding and relieving the trauma this unceasing violence leaves on the thousands of Texans returning to our streets is another.”
Still not convinced:
Justice Justice of Texas wrote in 1999 in the Texas Observer “Cruel and Unusual Still”
“Texas prison inmates continue to live in fear – a fear that is incomprehensible to most of the state’s free world citizens. More vulnerable inmates are raped, beaten, owned, and sold by more powerful ones. Despite their pleas to prison officials, they are often refused protection. Instead, they pay for protection, in money, services, or sex. Correctional officers continue to rely on the physical control of excessive force to enforce order. Those inmates locked away in administrative segregation, especially those with mental illnesses, are subjected to extreme deprivations and daily psychological harm. Such practices and conditions cannot stand in our society, under our Constitution.”
Here is a quote from the Supreme Court?
U.S. Supreme Court Justice Harry A. Blackmun, Farmer v. Brennan:
“The horrors experienced by many young inmates, particularly those who are convicted of nonviolent offenses, border on the unimaginable. Prison rape not only threatens the lives of those who fall prey to their aggressors, but it is potentially devastating to the human spirit. Shame, depression, and a shattering loss of self-esteem accompany the perpetual terror the victim thereafter must endure.”
Reflecting more generally on this imbalance, Knowles (1999: 268) remarked that: ‘This racial inequality may be the largest in any violent crime committed in the United States.’ As he saw it the question to be answered was: ‘What are the social forces that drive blacks to repeatedly and exclusively rape whites?’
Human Rights Watch published a report about this: “No Escape: Male Rape in US Prisons”
“Inter-racial sexual abuse is common only to the extent that it involves white non-Hispanic prisoners being abused by African Americans or Hispanics. In contrast, African American and Hispanic inmates are much less frequently abused by members of other racial or ethnic groups; instead, sexual abuse tends to occur only within these groups.
Past studies have documented the prevalence of black on white sexual aggression in prison. These findings are further confirmed by Human Rights Watch’s own research.
Overall, our correspondence and interviews with white, black, and Hispanic inmates convince us that white inmates are disproportionately targeted for abuse.”
So a 16 year old previously sexually abused white boy goes to prison where_____.
From what you just read fill in the blank.
@Alan, the speculation you provided is based on a misreading of the (horribly written) ABC article. Pedersen murdered his father because he claims his fathered molested his sister. At no time have I ever read anything to suggest that Pedersen was ever molested as a child. Pedersen joined skinhead gangs very early in his time in prison and was a known violent inmate who explicitly told prison officials that he would murder people if he got out of prison (as told to me by various inmates who knew him as far back as his teens).
@Sal Yeah. Thanks I caught that afterward. Not surprising he started young the stats are not good for a 16 year old in prison as all those studies and comments I posted show. I do not believe people are “born this way” as lady Gaga sings but are created.
If you read my Voices from Solitary story I too was forced to fight to maintain my manhood and I was only 10 years old. They also labeled me a violent inmate and much later on placed me in the unit for the most violent held in Preston. My crime was disturbing the peace, a parole violation, while my best friend and so many of my enemies were convicted murders.
The choices while incarcerated are fornicate, fight, or flee.
I chose to fight.
However I never joined a gang but stood my ground alone.
People need to know how these damaged people are created.
Rape or the fear of it forces people into alliances in a vicious circle of violence.
More people in the media need to take up where these studies left off to prevent more nut cases like this guy from being created.
Please read the facts in those articles and come to your own conclusions.
,
oh dear…., was Pedersen “born that way”? I say no. He was shaped by everything that happened to him from the time he was born. My heart breaks for all the souls who are born into situations that are fraught with violence, sex abuse drugs , etc. Then, when these people act out and get sent away, they come out worse. Then, we send em back in, this time in Solitary . We throw away the key, the care, and then walla, presto! They do something horrific.
Solitary messes human beings up period. I know many who are in solitary for decades…some can still write cogent letters, others are feeble. Why do we do this?
@sista I agree why is this being done? I think because not enough of us speak out to our elected. I dont want it , you dont want it who is making these descisions and not why but how, how can we stop it. My cousin was 17 first time he went in when he got off the bus at Holman the CO said “boy, your are pretty you gonna needa knife” well wtf is that?
If folks had any real idea of what happens when people go to prison, maybe just maybe they would care some. If you are a black man and you were not ever in a gang, when you arrive at the prison door,you are mandated to claim alligence to a gang. If you are white, the same is true. The courts have ruled this defacto segregation is illegal but it has not changed. So men who go into prison, who on the streets would get along with all people are now forced to allign with a group. Then, there is over crowding, no programs, no counseling, therapy, basically zip..and here is the part that stymies me…How do we expect these men and women who get released to be once they are out? Suddenly all cured? Suddenly made whole? Basically, the under class goes to prison…color does not matter…
Read Michelle Alexzanders book The New Jim Crow”. It explains things ….I just fail to understand why it prevails…
with sista and exacerbate the problems going in with isolation; goes in a person convicted of a crime comes out of isolation to the street as sista says w/ no “correction”, a crazy person having committed a crime degraded and treated like an animal. Think they will act like an animal…
As Jorge Antonio Renaud, wrote “…thousands of men leaving the system with a predator mentality or a raging racism buried so deep it might never be eradicated. Reducing barriers to reentry is one thing — understanding and relieving the trauma this unceasing violence leaves on the thousands of Texans returning to our streets is another.”
Aggravated by solitary and mental illness,
Tens of thousands across the nation,
Sometimes it is just as bad to be in the room with people who see you as the devil and be unable to escape. Sometimes “Hell is other people.” quote from Jean-Paul Sartre’s play “No Exit”.
I was lucky to have served my time when these gangs were just being established and even then I was marked for death. I reached the exit first.
I might have ended dead or like up like Tom or this guy if I was forced to stay.
I bet there is early history we may never know about here.
“Hell is other people.” quote from Jean-Paul Sartre’s great quote and I will add insticts even an animal will fight if there is no flight. Take other dynamics into consideration T had said in the interview you can’t blow off any steam of any kind you can’t have a beer, pet the dog, make love;I think if trapped then if you are threatened or your pals are threatened if u do nothing you become the victim, there will always be a victim in these situations. The biggest thing with smu/rhu/seg/whatever is so many dont get due process and are locked down for what they might do. And it is an indefinite amount of time…so it’s torture.
For sure forced solitude is torture. It is also torture when you sleep in a dorm with people who want to kill or abuse you. In the end I was happy I was placed in Sequoia Lodge for the most violent wards at Preston because I had my own room (they wanted to limit the time we had to kill each other).
Of course other than the times I spent in solitary for fighting the door was opened in the morning.
I found it hard to sleep when listening to someone being raped two bunks down (first time I heard this I was 9 years old). Or in Baton Rouge where we slept four to a room the size of many isolation cells listed on here where I not only heard but felt the rape taking place on the other side of the sheet metal wall that our bunks were wielded to. Kind of like a 3D movie.
Hell can be other people if those people are out to harm you.
I guess fear of rape is not a good enough excuse to defend yourself, or a death threat from another prisoner its all such bullsh*t, When I speak to people (the straights) they say “dont break the law and you wont go to jail” omg geniuses problem solved.
Thank you for doing all you do to bring this issue into the light.
If you do the crime, you will do the time. If you stick a gun in someone’s face, you are a big disgrace. Just say, “No” to drugs and violence. Birds of a feather flock together. As a man thinks so he becomes.
If the inmates were not dangerous to other inmates and staff, then solitary confinement would not be needed. Dangerous inmates should be locked up. Even other inmates want the nutjobs locked up.
Prisons are some of the most violent places in our society. What would happen if solitary confinement did not exist? The prisons would be even more violent and out of control. Inmate control, safety and security should be the dominant attitude.
A finite amount of time for correction but indefinite isolation for decades is cruel.
John,
Your point that solitary confinement might be necessary for controlling dangerous inmates is a sensible one. It is a position well argued in a recent Corrections One article: http://www.correctionsone.com/products/corrections/articles/6176725-Segregation-A-necessary-evil/
However, there are a few points in which the reasoning you’ve provided doesn’t match reality.
Is long-term segregation a necessary component of maintaining security in a corrections system? The reduction of segregation in Mississippi would suggest otherwise: http://prisonerhungerstrikesolidarity.files.wordpress.com/2011/06/beyond-supermax-1.pdf
Other states such as Maine and Colorado have made critical assessments of their use of segregation and have been reducing their reliance on it, while reserving it for particularly disruptive inmates.
That said, you might very well be right that segregation might be the only tool for managing some inmates. But for how long? Should they be denied constructive outlets?
If a parent made a child go to their room or stand in the corner for say, one entire week and deny them human contact as punishment, what would happen?
I am against solitary period. I fully understand how some people can be very very difficult to contain. But i believe that there are so many ways to reach people. If someone is out of control, find out why. Our humanity matters or we are all to suffer.
I agree with Inquistive child and will add There used to be something called positive reinforcement, gaining priviledges for staying out of trouble. Being able to work make money go to school visit family and friends; isolation is counterproductive, breeds insanity, is torture, is cruel, nothing good comes from it. Prison is the punishment, that makes isolation… torture!