Seven Days in Solitary [5/13/13]

May 12, 2013 By Leave a Comment

solitaryThe following roundup features noteworthy news, reports and opinions on solitary confinement from the past week that have not been covered in other Solitary Watch posts.

•  Media coverage on the urgency of closing Guantanamo was heavy throughout the past week, with an estimated 100  of the 166 detainees hunger striking. Most recently, Al Jazeera publishes a Guantanamo prison military document exposing the brutality of the force-feeding. According to the story, detainees “undergo a brutal and dehumanising medical procedure that requires them to wear masks over their mouths while they sit shackled in a restraint chair for as long as two hours…”

•  The New York Times reports that New York City is planning to change the way it disciplines incarcerated people with mental illness, creating alternatives to the use of solitary confinement. “[T]he city Correction Department will transfer severely mentally ill inmates to an internal clinic where psychiatrists will administer treatment and medicine, and the less seriously mentally ill will go to counseling programs designed to help them change their future behavior.”

•  The Los Angeles Times publishes an editorial on the harm inflicted on kids who are subjected to isolation, stating “[s]olitary confinement is ultimately a mental health issue for anyone who goes through it, and the practice, if it is to continue, should at the very least be documented for public review and monitored by mental health professionals.”

•  The Seattle Times reports on a new program at Washington State Penitentiary seeking to to ease violence in some of the most dangerous units inside the prison, minimizing the liklihood of reoffending. “Rival gang members — Norteños and Sureños, Bloods and Crips, white supremacists — all brought together to discuss ways to stay out of trouble, both in prison and when they get out.”

•  Angola 3 News reports on a federal lawsuit filed by Russell Maroon Shoatz’s lawyers protesting his 22 consecutive years in solitary confinement. The story also features a recent interview with activist Bret Grote and Shoatz’ lawyer, Dan Kovalik, taking a closer look at the lawsuit and confronting human rights abuses in U.S. prisons.

•  Momentum builds to end the solitary confinement of youth, with The Nation calling for support in urging U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder to ban the use of solitary confinement on youth. The post links to an open letter “in support of a call by the National Religious Campaign Against Torture and the ACLU imploring [Holder] to ban the practice of holding young people in federal custody in solitary confinement.”

•  The Republic reports on a federal lawsuit alleging that correctional officers at North Carolina’s Central Prison brutally beat prisoners held at the facility, using “blind spots” to avoid being seen by security cameras. “An amended complaint filed last week in U.S. District Court by lawyers at North Carolina Prisoner Legal Services says the beatings occurred in Unit One, a cell block known as “The Hole” where inmates are kept in solitary confinement for disciplinary reasons.”

•  NDTV reports on the solitary confinement of Boston marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev at a high-security housing unit at a federal medical detention center in Massachusetts. “The only time Tsarnaev gets out of his tiny cell, that contains a sink, toilet, shower and a bed bolted to the floor, is for an hour of recreation every day.”

•  The Colorado Independent reports that Colorado’s El Pueblo Boys and Girls Ranch held Kiondre Davison, a 14-year old with an array of developmental disabilities, in solitary confinement for 25 days. “Of particular concern is imposing isolation on developmentally delayed kids. Kiondre is typical of such cases. He struggled to understand what was happening to him and so only loosely tied his actions at El Pueblo to the consequences they brought.”

•  Alan Prendergast reports that the legal team of Troy Anderson, who is currently incarcerated at Colorado’s supermax prison, has filed court papers contending that Department of Corrections officials have failed to comply with a previous ruling by a federal judge that Anderson is entitled to three hours a week of outdoor activity. Anderson’s attorneys assert that “their client is worse off than before, with less effective mental health treatment, following a transfer from the supermax to solitary confinement at the Sterling Correctional Facility.”

•  In an op-ed published on Times Union, Donn Rowe, President of New York State Correctional Officers & Police Benevolent Association, responds to a recent story on the harm inflicted on mentally ill people who are subjected to solitary confinement.   According to Rowe, “Special Housing Units are for inmates who are a danger to others and themselves.”

•  SFGate reports that Colorado has banned a youth treatment center in El Pueblo from placing teens in solitary confinement. The state found three violations of Colorado regulations in its investigation, which followed complaints by the ACLU that the program was violating the constitutional rights of youth.

•  Black Agenda Report reports that people held in isolation at California’s Pelican Bay may once again go on hunger strike, stating that “more than 200 inmates at the [facility] have been in solitary confinement for between five and ten years and nearly 100 have been shut off from most human contact for 20 years or more.” The story also calls for outside support, emphasizing the importance of having support networks in place beforehand.

•  New York City Councilmember Daniel Dromm denounces solitary confinement as “cruel and unusual” in a recent editorial, stating “[a]s a matter of fundamental human rights, how the DOC uses solitary confinement must radically change.”

•  The Boston Globe reports that the use of segregation units has come under increased scrutiny in Massachusetts, where approximately 500 of the state’s 11,000 prisoners are held in isolation on any given day. According to the story, “Prisoner-rights advocates, legislators, and even corrections commissioners in other states are increasingly denouncing the use of solitary confinement, while others defend the practice as an essential part of prison management.”

Filed Under: civil liberties/civil rights, human rights, lawsuits/litigation, mental illness, psychological effects, solitary confinement, supermax prisons, torture Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

“Systemic Failures Persist” in California Prison Mental Health Care, Judge Rules

April 8, 2013 By 4 Comments
California Security Housing Unit Cell

California Security Housing Unit Cell

California Governor Jerry Brown’s bid to end federal control over the state prison system’s mental health system was denied in federal court on Friday, April 5, in a sharply worded ruling by U.S. District Judge Lawrence K. Karlton. In the 68-page ruling, Judge Karlton determined that “systemic failures persist in the form of inadequate suicide prevention measures, excessive administrative segregation of the mentally ill, lack of timely access to adequate care, insufficient treatment space and access to beds, and unmet staffing needs.”

The ruling comes following months of campaigning and litigating by Governor Brown and the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) to end federal oversight of the California prison system. Friday’s ruling is the latest enforcement of the 1995 case Coleman v. Wilson, a federal class action suit filed against then-California Governor Pete Wilson, which resulted in  federal oversight over CDCR’s mental health and medical treatment that continues under the jurisdiction of Judge Karlton.

An additional federal class action lawsuit, Plata v. Schwarzenegger was merged with the Coleman lawsuit and in 2009, California was ordered to reduce it’s prison population to 137% capacity, as it was determined that Constitutionally acceptable medical and mental health delivery was hindered by the beyond-capacity prison population, which was deemed an 8th Amendment violation. California in turn appealed the order to reduce it’s prison population and in 2011, in Brown v. Plata, the US Supreme Court ordered California to reduce it’s prison population by 30,000 inmates. Governor Brown has an additional appeal of this order before U.S. District Judge Thelton E. Henderson.

Governor Jerry Brown has gone on the record to claim that California  has “one of the finest prison systems in the United States,” and no longer requires federal oversight. In a January 2013 press release, Governor Brown stated: “After decades of judicial intervention in our correctional system and the expenditure of billions of taxpayer dollars, the time has come to restore California’s rightful control of its prison system.” In February, CDCR announced the completion of a new mental health treatment building at the California Medical Facility, and declared that the facility “reinforces CDCR’s ongoing commitment to provide a constitutional level of mental health treatment in California’s prisons.”

Judge Karlton’s ruling, however, strongly rebukes these claims by Brown and CDCR, saying “based on defendants’ conduct to date, the court cannot rely on their averments of good faith as a basis for granting termination. There is overwhelming evidence in the record that much of defendants’ progress to date is due to the pressure of this and other litigation.”

A major factor in Judge Karlton’s ruling was the significant rate of suicides in the California prison system, which has previously been reported to be well above the national prison average.

“In summary, for over a decade a disproportionately high number of inmates have committed suicide in California’s prison system describable inadequacies in suicide prevention in the CDCR,” Judge Karlton writes,”Defendants have a constitutional obligation to take and adequately implement all reasonable steps to remedy those inadequacies. The evidence shows they have not yet done so. In addition, while defendants represent that they have fully implemented their suicide prevention program, they have not. An ongoing constitutional violation therefore remains.”

Judge Karlton cited the overuse of solitary confinement, particularly among individuals with severe mental health problems, as a continuing problem in the California prison system. The ruling states that such individuals “face substantial risk of serious harm, including exacerbation of mental illness and potential increase in suicide risk.”

[Read more...]

Filed Under: California, Constitution, Eighth Amendment, lawsuits/litigation, mental illness, solitary confinement, suicide, supermax prisons Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

Voices from Solitary: Parts of My Mind Did Not Survive

April 3, 2013 By 6 Comments

CorcoranPrisonThe following was written by Chris Yingling, reflecting upon the  three years he spent in California State Prison, Corcoran’s Security Housing unit from 1994 to 1996. He was subsequently transferred to Pelican Bay State Prison “when the Feds set up shop at Corcoran because of the gladiator fights.” The “gladiator fights” were the subject of federal investigation following widespread reports of prison guards setting up fights between rival prisoners, fights that Yingling reports he was a part of. He reports lingering psychological difficulties resulting from his time in the California prison system. “I suffer depression, and harbor some serious resentments toward our corrections system. I have rage. Every once in awhile ill come to tears over the way humans treat each other,” he says. 

Yingling contacted Solitary Watch after reading an article about the 2011 suicide of Pelican Bay administrative segregation inmate Alex Machado. Yingling and Machado had met each other in the California Youth Authority in the late 1980s. He told Solitary Watch, “I read this article just prior to reading my kids a bedtime story and it brought it all back. I know more stuff about Alex that I saw that no human should have to endure much less a 15 year old kid. He did not have an easy life. May god rest his soul. I will remember Alex. I am no longer in chains.” –Sal Rodriguez

Corcoran

In white jumpsuits chained in groups of four

they pulled our bus onto the yard

made to face a concrete wall

two gunners and many a guard

 

10 toes, your chin and chest

keep upon that wall

unlock your knees it’s a 105 degrees

if one goes down you all fall

 

welcome to the SHU this is hell

you committed a crime in CDC

don’t fuck around we’ll put a bullet in you

In a very short time you will see.

 

What is your name? Why are you in the shu?

I caused Great bodily injury in a riot.

He slammed my face against the wall

The rest of the line still and quiet.

 

One man was pulled right off the chain

He was surrounded and beaten a long time

Great bodily injury caused by the cops

Apparently isn’t a crime

 

they removed the waist chain choking me with a stick

the cuffs bit into my hand

they pulled my jumpsuit around my knees

“now do you think you’re a man?”

 

What I experienced for the next 3 years

Made me wish I could die

Although physically I left in one piece

Parts of my mind did not survive.

 

Men were shot, men were stabbed

Some guys lost their minds

We had to fight while they shot at us

Hit with baton rounds eleven times.

 

I’m not trying to whine not trying to cry

Because my life is so much different today

I was 21 years old when I stood on that wall

It seems like a lifetime away

 

Not trying to act tough or exaggerate the facts

Just wanna get out what’s inside

I was only a kid trying to get through

They made me hate and hurt my pride

 

There’s a huge system right in societies face

That is just another criminal enterprise

I understand these people did bad things

My own part I now see and realize.

 

These are our brothers and these are our sons

prejudice and mistreatment is not an answer

our society doesn’t just doesn’t have a cold

we got mother fuckin cancer!

 

So I lean toward the left in my political views

Because I saw too damn much of “the right”

Biases interfere with things of this nature

If you think that I’m biased you’re right.

Filed Under: California, politics of punishment, psychological effects, solitary confinement, supermax prisons, Voices from Solitary Tagged With: , , , ,

Voices from Solitary: “Suicide Is Preferable to Long-Term Segregation” in Solitary Confinement

March 21, 2013 By 1 Comment
Monroe Correctional Complex. (Photo: Ambia-Inc.com)

Monroe Correctional Complex. (Photo: Ambia-Inc.com)

The following comes from a man currently incarcerated at Washington State’s Monroe Correctional Complex. The Washington State corrections system has been said by local media to use solitary confinement less than other states, with only 2.7 percent of prisoners (or ~400) in long-term solitary confinement. However, Solitary Watch has noted that the figure is actually twice this, when Administrative Segregation (which may last over a month) is taken into consideration. This prisoner, A.P., has reported that “the State’s Dept. of Corrections is expanding solitary confinement models to general population’s long-term lockdowns.” Incarcerated for a decade, he reports spending most of his prison time in solitary confinement, which he says is partly retaliation for his frequent litigation against the Washing Department of Corrections. He has advocated for accurate descriptions of solitary confinement by noting the types of disturbing behaviors that go on in isolation units, “‘Smearing feces on ones self or eating it’… rather than merely saying ‘Conditions are bad.’” -Sal Rodriguez

Out of the past ten years I’ve been incarcerated on two arson charges for burning two cars. I got 24 years for [it] (no one was hurt) while racking up repeated appeals, most of that has been in solitary confinement. I have a college degree and worked professionally for years before this mess came down. I’m now 53-years old; my family won’t communicate with me and most of all, my two sons won’t communicate despite my still never forgetting their birthdays and holidays with cards and such. Prison mail censorship has frustrated communications so much, most people simply give up trying to keep up.

I’ve seen prisoners in solitary degrade quickly and slowly, depending on their psychological strength and grasp on more in life than rap music no meaningful life experiences. Suicide is preferable to long-term segregation (and long prison sentences). Those who don’t kill themselves learn to compress their hatred that grows like cancer while being forced to suppress their true emotions, in a form of Stockholm Syndrome tactics, to survive. This promotes recidivism and violence. A person, like a dog at a kennel, can only be compressed so much before they either explode or implode. Either way, none is good. Prisoners teach deception to survive and force prisoners to become manipulative of DOC policies and staff because the truth and honesty only leads to negative treatment by D.O.C. staff. For example, to get adequate food, one must feint a medical condition requiring more just to get enough.

One can never be open with staff or even prison psychologists (help that hurts) because it is not confidential; is often interpreted and repeated by untrained staff and it is best to simply internalize and put on a fake (happy) front and never reveal any true feelings, or the prisoner will end up longer in solitary; in a strip cell (where they take away all your clothes, bedding, etc, and put you on a dirty, hands only diet) or some other adverse treatment.

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Filed Under: due process, psychological effects, solitary confinement, supermax prisons, Voices from Solitary, Washington Tagged With: , , ,

Voices from Solitary: “Where Cold, Quiet and Emptiness Come Together”

March 16, 2013 By 5 Comments
Pelican Bay SHU

Pelican Bay SHU

The following entry was submitted by California Prison Focus on behalf of Cesar Francisco Villa, 51, a “gang-validated” prisoner incarcerated in Pelican Bay State Prison’s Security Housing Unit (SHU). For eleven years, he has been held in solitary confinement in the SHU, subject to an indefinite term in solitary because, he says, he isn’t a gang member. “To be considered an inactive gang member (eligible for release), you must turn over gang information.  But if you are not a member, what do you have to turn in? Nothing,” he writes. The gang validation process, in which prison investigators determine whether or not prisoners are members of certain prison gangs and segregate them indefinitely in the SHU, has been criticized at California Assembly hearings in 2011 and 2013 as lacking proper oversight and providing effective due process. Currently, thousands of prisoners in California are serving SHU terms for gang validation, most in solitary confinement.   

“Each morning wakes the potential for disaster.  Each morning starts with anger before the anxiety,” Villa writes of the the frustrating monotony of life in the SHU, where he has since developed arthritis in the spine, hepatitis, a thyroid condition and high blood pressure.  Below is an excerpt from a powerful description of life in the SHU, from a letter he wrote to California Prison Focus. For the full version, in PDF format, click here. –Sal Rodriguez

When we talk of the SHU and the affects the conditions have on the psyche, it’s not a simple construction one can wrap his or her mind around.  Understanding the treatment of Pelican Bay inmates takes some getting used to.  Understanding this sickness that runs rampant in the minds of prison officials leaves knots in the pit of bellies.

Nothing can really prepare you for entering the SHU.  It’s a world unto itself where cold, quiet and emptiness come together seeping into your bones, then eventually the mind.

The first week I told myself:  It isn’t that bad, I could do this.  The second week, I stood outside in my underwear shivering as I was pelted with hail and rain.  By the third week, I found myself squatting in a corner of the yard, filing fingernails down over coarse concrete walls.  My sense of human decency dissipating with each day.  At the end of the first year, my feet and hands began to split open from the cold.  I bled over my clothes, my food, between my sheets.  Band-aids were not allowed, even confiscated when found.

My sense of normalcy began to wane after just 3 years of confinement.  Now I was asking myself, can I do this?  Not sure about anything anymore.

Though I didn’t realize it at the time—looking back now—the unraveling must’ve begun then.  My psyche had changed—I would never be the same.  The ability to hold a single good thought left me, as easily as if it was a simple shift of wind sifting over tired, battered bones.

There’s a definite split in personality when good turns to evil.  The darkness that looms above is thick, heavy and suffocating.  A snap so sharp, the echo is deafening.  A sound so loud you expect to find blood leaking from your ears at the bleakest moment.

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Filed Under: California, physical effects, psychological effects, solitary confinement, supermax prisons, Voices from Solitary Tagged With: , , , , , ,

The “Vicious Cycles” Created by Solitary Confinement

February 24, 2013 By 1 Comment

Intensive Management Unit in Washington State Correctional Center

In 1993, Dr. Stuart Grassian, following extensive interviews with men in California’s Pelican Bay State Prison Security Housing Unit (SHU), reported that extensive periods in solitary confinement lead to what he referred to as a “syndrome” particular to prison isolation units. Anxiety, ruminations, panic attacks, aggression, paranoia, and psychotic symptoms were observed as a consequence of prolonged solitary confinement. Prisoners already presenting problems with impulsivity, aggression, and other problematic mental health and behavioral problems may become far more aggravated in solitary confinement. This contributes to what Dr. Craig Haney has referred to as a vicious cycle in which emotionally troubled individuals placed in solitary become more aggravated and cause more problems, leading to longer or repeated terms in solitary confinement, and thus creates more negative behaviors in the process.

Unsurprisngly, it has also been well-established that inmates in solitary confinement have higher recidivism rates upon release from incarceration. An August 2012 report commissioned by the American Friends Service Committee found that prisoners released from Arizona supermax custody are emotionally and mentally harmed by the experience of solitary. Further, the report found that supermax inmates are  inadequately prepared for release, as they are prohibited from educational and vocational opportunities and are limited in visitation during their incarceration, which contribute to inmates being “deeply traumatized and essentially socially disabled.”

Presented here are profiles of two prisoners, in Washington and Utah, who have written to Solitary Watch about their experiences in isolation.  Both report extended periods in solitary confinement, which they report has had the effect of increasing their hostility against authority and leading to increased feelings of anxiety, respectively. They report receiving no constructive, rehabilitative programming, which they argue only contributes to escalating problems as they neither learn to “become productive” and are left at “rock bottom.”

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Filed Under: psychological effects, solitary confinement, supermax prisons, Utah, Washington Tagged With: , , , , ,

Utah Supermax Prisoners Report Being “Treated Like an Animal”

February 15, 2013 By 2 Comments

uinta1cellPrisoners at Utah State Prison, Draper’s supermax Uinta One facility have reported numerous abuses to Solitary Watch. The Uinta One facility has a design capacity of 96, and is divided into eight sections with twelve cells each, with approximately 90 prisoners currently held in solitary confinement for reasons varying from short-term disciplinary action to protective custody.

Prisoners in Uinta One may receive only 3 hours a week of time out of their cell to shower or exercise alone in a concrete yard. The cells are small, and some are fitted with cameras. The windows on the cell doors are covered by a steel flap that guards routinely peer through. Sand bags line the doors to prevent “fishing,” or communications being passed from cell to cell, and cell flooding.

Reports prisoner Brandon Green, who has spent five years in Uinta One, “Bugs get trapped under these and set up little colonies and infiltrate our cells. Most of these toilets do not flush correctly and most cell toilets stink with green moss inside the bowls. Most air vents are clogged and one can taste the city exhaust smoke as one chews ones carrots.”

One prisoner has called Uinta One a “place of pain and terror,” while another has commented “no wonder there are so many suicides.”

Individuals in Uinta One have written Solitary Watch about the frequent use of strip cells as a disciplinary measure and response to suicidal ideation. A strip cell is a cell without anything beyond a concrete bedding area, toilet, and sink. Prisoners in these conditions wear a smock, a tear-resistant gown. (Solitary Watch has previously reported on the use of strip cells at Utah State Prison.)

L., who spent 33 months in Uinta One in total as of October 2012, told Solitary Watch that  “if someone is gonna kill themselves they take them and out to a strip cell and you sleep on the hard floor and treated like a dog.” A., in protective custody for one year following his decision to leave  gang life, reported that “if I lose control because of something I have no control over, they’ll punish me and put me on strip cell for three days…when a mentally ill inmate feels suicidal, they send us to the infirmary to be on suicide watch…then we get from suicide watch back to Uinta 1 and the staff put us back in the strip cell when we get back to Uinta 1.”

Mental health treatment is reportedly abysmal. “Only medication. And nothing else. It’s all about money with these people. They charge you money only to see a mental health worker for one or two minutes and they’ll walk away and do nothing for you,” reports A.

A. has further written that the use of strip cell is “for punishment purposes. Otherwise, why would they put someone on strip cell? For simply calling the officers names or an inmate who can’t emotionally deal with this place goes on strip cell. When some of us feel suicidal, the officers say ‘Please don’t do anything on my shift. Wait until I leave and you can do whatever you want.’ Their policy states that they must carry themselves in a professional manner, but it’s ok for them to go against policy, but if we do that it’s hell to pay and strip cell to see.”

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Filed Under: mental illness, psychological effects, solitary confinement, supermax prisons, Utah Tagged With: , , , ,

Voices from Solitary: Suffering at the Hands of Other Human Beings

February 4, 2013 By 16 Comments

ELY PrisonThe following comes from Bryan Crawley, a prisoner at Ely State Prison in Ely, Nevada. Incarcerated since 2006 and convicted in 2008 for murder, he has been held in solitary confinement for his own protection since 2009 at the maximum security facility, after three years in a debriefing program. His involvement in the debriefing program, in which he was to provide information against the Aryan Warriors prison gang, became public news in 2009, leading to his transfer to ESP. ESP houses the state’s death row as well as the state of Nevada’s most violent and disruptive inmates, and reportedly a large number of prisoners with severe mental health problems.  Crawley has written elsewhere that he lives in “constant fear and anxiety” and that he must do his “best to never leave my cell” out of fear of assault by fellow prisoners. He writes here about the experience of solitary confinement and challenges the reader to imagine what its like to be in his situation. –Sal Rodriguez

.  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .

My name is Bryan Crawley and I am a life inmate within Nevada and I’m about to scare you, then have you contemplate on my words and on my years of experience here in the state of Nevada justice system, oh I mean the Nevada’s corruption system, the jails and NDOC prison systems.

Now let me first say in all my years within these systems I have seen, heard and experienced some very tragic, horrific, malicious, detestable acts by Nevada authority’s, I must also add this so you get a even clearer picture of who I am as a human being, in all my years within the Nevada’s jails and now prison system, I do not even have one single act of violence on my record while in custody, absolutely zero, no fights – no anything remotely violent but yet the authority’s still place me in isolation, maximum security, lockdown 23½ hours per day, 7 days a week, inside a 6 x 10 little concrete box.

I must listen to all the other HUMAN BEINGS around me who have gone INSANE with delusions, even though I sit here and find myself sentenced to the largest amount of time ever handed down by one of Nevada’s corrupt judges, I am one of the fortunate ones and you may ask why? It is because I come from a world of abuse, neglect and abandonment, you see I was built to take all this torture and torment because throughout my entire life I have enhanced my ability to resist, oppose and withstand all the oppression from these barbaric authority’s who have placed upon me many days of suffering for years and please do not take my words lightly, when I tell you torture that is what I really mean torture!

I must tell you that I have been violated many times by the Nevada authority’s – officers, it has become almost normal for a person known as an inmate to be completely DEGRADED while they are in custody here in Administration Segregation, Isolation in Ely maximum security prison.

I am surrounded by men, inmates, people who have in some form or the other thoroughly lost sight of reality, they are made to suffer day and night in their own torment, screaming, yelling, banging, hallucinating – THEY ARE GONE! COMPLETLY MAD! suffering in a little 6 x 10 cage, all by themselves, 24/7, year after year. It is very sad!  But this is the reality of a human being in custody in isolation in Americas so called Justice System. I must tell you that I see no purpose for this type of treatment of a human being, as inmates are treated worse than any animal I know of, except maybe test lab animals, now I ask you to please contemplate and ask yourself what true purpose could ever come from placing a human being inside a very small walled cage 24/7? Please think about my words because this is my reality today and every other day.

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Filed Under: Nevada, psychological effects, solitary confinement, supermax prisons, Voices from Solitary Tagged With: , , , , ,

As California Implements Some Solitary Confinement Reforms, Prisoners Remain Skeptical

January 25, 2013 By 3 Comments

dsc_0514_jpg_960x10000_q85Earlier this month, the Los Angeles Times reported that the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) had begun the process of implementing reforms the Department has crafted over the past year addressing the long-term solitary confinement of gang members in the California prison system.

California currently holds over 3,000 inmates in segregation units due to being identified by prison officials as being members of “security threat groups,” or, criminal prison gangs. In California, prisoners validated as members of the Aryan Brotherhood, Texas Syndicate, Mexican Mafia, Northern Structure, Nuestra Familia, Black Guerilla Family, or the Nazi Lowriders have until recently been subject to indeterminate terms in segregated housing units. Three prisons in California–Pelican Bay State Prison, Corcoran State Prison, and California Correctional Institution (Tehachapi)–contain Security Housing Units, where validated prison gang members are subject to at least 22 1/2 hours of isolation in their 8×10, often windowless, cells a day. Until the recent reforms are fully implemented, in order to be released from the SHU, inmates must either engage in “snitching” on other gang members and renounce gang activity or serve six years in the SHU without any evidence of gang activity before being considered “inactive” and can be returned to the general population. Inmates in these units have significantly greater chances of committing suicide and the deleterious effects of sensory deprivation and isolation on inmates mental health has been heavily documented.

CDCR argues that these units are critical in maintaining security in prison institutions and preventing criminal activity in the prison system. However, critics of the current system of dealing with gang members, including Amnesty International, have argued that reforms to the system are needed. The National Religious Campaign Against Torture, among others, has argued that prolonged solitary confinement amounts to torture. The conditions of the SHU prompted two large scale hunger strikes in California in 2011, in which thousands of California SHU and general population prisoners refused food for three weeks in July and September/October. The strikes prompted the California Assembly’s Public Safety Committee to hold a hearing on solitary confinement. In February 2012, in a smaller scale hunger strike at Corcoran State Prison, one inmate, Christian Gomez, died.

In March 2012, the California Department of Corrections announced a package of reforms to the Security Housing Unit. Among them was the creation of a Step Down Program, in which SHU inmates could transition out of solitary confinement and back into general population housing within four years, in a system of gradually lessened restrictions and greater incentives (e.g., greater property and out-of-cell time).

The CDCR also indicated that as part of reforms there would be a review of inmates in the SHU as to whether or not continued SHU placement was appropriate. According to the LA Times reporting, 88 inmates thus far have been reviewed as of January 4th. Of them, 51 were to be immediately removed from the SHU and placed in general population. Twenty-five others were to be placed in the Step Down Program, and the remaining dozen inmates were to remain in status-quo segregation.

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Filed Under: California, politics of punishment, psychological effects, solitary confinement, supermax prisons Tagged With: , , , , , ,

As Washington State Prisons Begin Reforms, 800 Remain in Solitary Confinement

January 16, 2013 By 4 Comments
IMU at Stafford Creek Correctional Center, Credit: TONY OVERMAN

IMU at Stafford Creek Correctional Center, Credit: TONY OVERMAN

On January 7th, the Seattle Times reported that “Washington’s prisons are at the forefront of a new approach to solitary confinement, finding that a new focus on rehabilitation may calm some inmates’ behavior in prison and prevent violence once they are back on the street.” The article reports:

[Washingon] began reconsidering solitary after violent clashes in IMU units at Shelton in the mid-1990s. About 400 of the state’s 17,500 inmates are in such units, which also house death-row prisoners and those in protective custody.

University of Washington professor David Lovell studied solitary confinement in the state under a DOC contract, and found the isolated inmates were most often gang members serving long sentences for violent crimes. Up to 45 percent were mentally ill or had traumatic brain injuries.

And once in solitary, they stayed in — for nearly a year, on average — because prison staff were reluctant to send likely violent inmates back into the general population.

Those who were released often returned, after committing new assaults on corrections officers or other inmates.

Most disturbing, Lovell found a quarter of inmates were released to the streets directly from solitary confinement. Unaccustomed to human contact, they were more prone to quickly commit new violence.

Life in the IMU, or Intensive Management Unit, has been described by one man in a letter to Solitary Watch:

You are not allowed meaningful recreation, just an hour of exercise an empty 15 x 12 cell, no church attendance, real library service or educational programming. All of your personal possessions are denied to you. You will remain in your 7×12 cell for 23 of every 24 hours five days a week. Two days a week you will not come out of your cell at all. You will eat all of your meals within a few feet of your toilet. You will be in handcuffs each and every time your cell door is opened for any reason.

The Seattle Times reports that Clallam Bay Corrections Center’s Intensive Transition Program (ITP) is a four-step, nine-month long process with gradually increasing privileges. Inmates participating in the program are allowed time out of their cells for coursework (while chained to desks) and the gym. As of last week, there were thirty participants in the program.

There are, however, some questions and information missing from the story. Using the Seattle Times numbers, Washington DOC holds approximately 400 inmates in solitary confinement out of 17,500 (or, 2.7%). A July 2012 News Tribune article even concluded that this figure indicates that “Isolating prisoners less common in Washington than most places.” This is slightly less than the 3-5% of inmates the average state prison system has in solitary confinement.

However, the 400 figure only counts inmates in Intensive Management Units. According to Chad Lewis from the Washington Department of Corrections: “Today we have approximately 430 offenders on Administrative Segregation Status.  This includes offenders at all custody classification levels.  The reasons for placement/retention include:  Pending investigation, Pre-hearing confinement, Disciplinary Sanctions, Pending transfer.   Administrative Segregation is a short term assessment process, used to identify the appropriate housing assignment for the offender.  Typical length of stay is less than 47 days, exceptions require approval at the Headquarters level.”

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Filed Under: media, solitary confinement, supermax prisons, Washington Tagged With: , , , , ,
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