Are Prisons Driving Prisoners Mad?

[nehemiah]

There's no such thing as a good day for a prisoner at the highest level of security within the Ohio State Penitentiary, a 504-bed supermax prison in Youngstown, Ohio. Every inmate lives alone in a 7-ft. by 14-ft. cell that resembles nothing so much as a large, concrete closet, equipped with a sink, a toilet, a desk and a molded stool and sleep platform covered by a thin mattress. The solid metal door is outfitted with strips around the sides and bottom, muffling conversation with inmates in adjacent cells. Three times a day, a tray of food is delivered and is eaten alone. The prisoner may spend 23 hours a day in lockdown, emerging to exercise once a day. The lights in the cell never go off, although they may be dimmed a bit at night.
...
In December, officials in Texas and California conceded that the suicide rates in their prisons are on the rise, with the majority occurring among inmates in solitary. This prompted an outcry against both systems. Lawyers for accused terrorist facilitator Jose Padilla challenged his fitness last month to stand trial, arguing that his 312 years in solitary lockdown at a South Carolina military brig have rendered him unable to assist in his own defense. Around the same time, convicted bomber Eric Rudolph began corresponding with a reporter for a Colorado newspaper, describing his days in his 7-ft. by 12-ft. cell as a form of confinement "designed to inflict as much misery and pain as constitutionally permissible."

But is it constitutionally permissible? And even if it is, is this the kind of open-ended mental-health experiment the government should be running? "We have to ask ourselves why we're doing this," says psychiatrist Stuart Grassian, a former faculty member at the Harvard Medical School and a consultant in criminal cases. "These aren't a bunch of cold, controlled James Cagneys. We're taking criminals who are already unstable and driving them crazy."
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1582304-1,00.html


is this situation unconstitutional, or no?

[sukie]

No. Not nice perhaps but... NO!

[г]

http://www.coolquiz.com/trivia/names/images/redenbacher.jpg

They provide them with 'sleep platforms' ?

Back in the day, you had to serve your entire sentence standing up...

[nehemiah]

Amendment VIII: Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.

so punishment that drives people insane is not "cruel and unusual"?

[markythebill]

http://www.coolquiz.com/trivia/names/images/redenbacher.jpg

They provide them with 'sleep platforms' ?

Back in the day, you had to serve your entire sentence standing up...

Australian prisons used to make the convicts wear "anti-mastorbatory" gloves. Seriously, I saw a documentary where they went round a museum and showed some of the artifacts from the old prison. How cruel is that? Take away a man's freedom, put him under lock and key, but NEVER refuse him the right to slip one off at bed time. That's just inhumane.

[Gibby]

Absolutely unconstitutional. Punish the ****er and lock him away for life, and if the inmates want to instill justice for a particularly heinous crime, i.e child rape, more power to them. However, the state has no right in giving one a punishment until they drive insane.
This post has been brought to you today by the number 4, the letter Q and Phantom's useless trivia fact of the day.

Phantom's useless trivia fact of the day:
Screw, a slang for prison guard comes from Victorian England where prisoners were punished by having to set a quota of turns on a crank machine. Guards would enter the cell and tighten the screws to make the crank harder to turn.

[Ru]

I think the role of prisons needs to be defined as either rehabilatory or punitive. It really can't be a little of each IMO. Maybe they should separate prisoners into different types of prisons based on the probabilty of rehabilitation. Grouping drug offenders with sex offenders in similar environments and programs makes absolutely no sense to me.

[Gibby]

I think the role of prisons needs to be defined as either rehabilatory or punitive. It really can't be a little of each IMO. Maybe they should separate prisoners into different types of prisons based on the probabilty of rehabilitation. Grouping drug offenders with sex offenders in similar environments and programs makes absolutely no sense to me.

excellent post.

[anEinherjer]

"arguing that his 312 years in solitary lockdown at a South Carolina military brig"

Damn he's old.

I do tend to think endless solitary is cruel and unusual, but then I'm getting soft on crime in my wacky liberty-driven ways. We've already imprisoned them, in some cases forever. What good does it serve to have this kind of thing done to them? At least get some license plates out of 'em... :)

[uppy]

To bad for them....don't do the crime if you can't do the time

[Ru]

No, it's too bad for the rest of society when people are coming out ten times worse than when they went in. And those who weren't violent criminals now are due to the realities of prison life.

[35Pete]

No, it's too bad for the rest of society when people are coming out ten times worse than when they went in. And those who weren't violent criminals now are due to the realities of prison life.

Why are we jailing prostitutes, gamblers, and pot smokers Ru?

Why? Because it is immoral? :barf:

[Mouldsie]

no


but some crimes shouldnt result in it

[uppy]

No, it's too bad for the rest of society when people are coming out ten times worse than when they went in. And those who weren't violent criminals now are due to the realities of prison life.

Sorry Ru...but if you need to be kept in supermax Penitentiary you should

never get out until your body is room temp.

People at these places are Not Pot smokers or some guy that passed off

a bad check at 7-11.They are hard core scum and need to be locked up

for life.

[Stealth01]

I think the role of prisons needs to be defined as either rehabilatory or punitive. It really can't be a little of each IMO. Maybe they should separate prisoners into different types of prisons based on the probabilty of rehabilitation. Grouping drug offenders with sex offenders in similar environments and programs makes absolutely no sense to me.

+1. Excellent.

[westphal]

They don't even give these guys anything at all to pass the time. Nothing.

Deliberately driving a criminal insane is not good business.

[sukie]

25,000 of the how many incarcerated? Small number that deserve it.

[ticatfan3]

I would like to see prisons built around the major cities, that we can force drug addicts off the street and into one of these places that you start off in a section just to get people off the drugs ,move up to the section that is for education puposes, to allow the people to get at least a grade 12, then move on to a job training courses then out into society with I hope a better chance of doing something with their lives . But under the liberal chater of rights we can't force these people off the streets. Since the law says they are better off lying in the middle of the road somewhere, then in a place that actually wants to help them out.

[twosheds]

Australian prisons used to make the convicts wear "anti-mastorbatory" gloves. Seriously, I saw a documentary where they went round a museum and showed some of the artifacts from the old prison. How cruel is that? Take away a man's freedom, put him under lock and key, but NEVER refuse him the right to slip one off at bed time. That's just inhumane.

+1

Although with time you probably become pretty good doing it without hands. Hey, if horses can do it...

[Green Lantern]

To bad for them....don't do the crime if you can't do the time

Wow. I didn't see this post coming.