Is Solitary Confinement Torture?

Not everyone who is locked up did the crime. In the reviews of cases of which people who where found guilty but later where found to be innocent through DNA evidence. 75% of the cases (about 200 or so) the eye witnesses where wrong. So just because they are locked up doesn't mean they actually are the person who committed the crime they where found guilty of. I mean even DNA evidence has been found to be wrong.

Not everyone in solitary has done something in prison. You can come in and be verified as a gangster with just three things. Tattoos, and in some cases two people saying you are a gangster. They can then move you to solitary confinement and try to get you to rat even if you have not broken any rules while in Prison. They use it in some institutions to try and break people. Also if extended stays in Solitary are negatively harming their mental health with a large portion of them having an release date which means they will becoming back to society that could very well lead them from being far from rehabilitated which is the primary goal of our prison system. You can rehabilitate a person who is now mentally ill because of his extended times in solitary confinement. People have developed many disorders from their extended times within solitary confinement. That is the point of the case is that these people will enter solitary and they will go from having good mental health to having mental disorders that surface because the brain has to work and when they are left with pretty much no contact with people it creates it's own people. Also not everyone is allowed to have TV or Books. TVs are something the prisoner has to earn and I have yet to see any prisons where their SHUs have TVs allowed in them because that unit is generally used for people who have done something inside the prison.

IF they are in solitary, they've done something while IN PRISON to deserve the extra punishment. I am aware of the fact that innocent people often get incarcerated. I am also aware that some violent prisoners get treated better than most American law abiding citizes. Our justice system is not perfect. BUT, when everything is being done to ensure their rights are observed, and they are given TVs and books, and access to exercise, when they get fed better than most elderly in nursing homes, or children in school, I find it repugnant that rapists, gang bangers who shoot innocent children, mass murderers, serial murderers are given more consideration than law abiding citizens.

here is the link http://ccrjustice.org/newsroom/press-releases/end-prisons%E2%80%99-brutalizing-use-of-isolation-unconscionable-periods-of-time%2C-lawyers-say Also your article puts it pretty plainly the only option out for a gang member is to rat out his gang which means he could die or in some cases his family could be put in harms way where the his family could get killed. Also the lack of actually seeing the person is a huge thing if you don't see another person for 22-23 hours a day and the only time you see them is in passing while you are being moved from either rec to the showers or some other movement the gaurds aren't talking much and they won't be giving much off in body language. They have found that people who have been in the SHU or the Hole as it is called lose a lot of their ability to pick up on body language because their brains have to recall something that they haven't used for possibly several years. So if they get back to General Population or if they rat they will be moved to a special needs yard where they still aren't safe because Gangs have gotten members to jump over there to carry out a hit or two. Ones that do spend time their but don't rat have come back to General Pop and generally will get into a fight if their stay was there for an extended period of time over about 120 days. Also the people who have been in the SHU for an extended period of time over a year start to develop personality disorders. Some people have gone from being mentally healthy to being mentally insane within there stay within the SHU. So if the person is healthy but then gets released into general population and they aren't mentally stable. There is an issue there.

I don't believe that people who get lengthy prison sentences for violent crime are mentally healthy. And they belong in prison. And if they lose some of their ability to socialize, oh well. Again, they have TVs, they have the ability to communicate with one another and they are dangerous or in danger. If they decide that prisoners can't be in solitary with their televisions without it violating their constitutional right to "socialize" or something, then we'll see the lawsuits from the families of the other prisoners and guards who are killed when these gang members go out into the general population and slaughter them. Maybe these guys are in danger if they rat out the gang, but maybe they made choices and their choices led them to this situation. The fact that they need to separate prisoners to keep gang activity under control seems to indicate that these are pretty dangerous guys. Don't the guards deserve to be safe?

You are correct, our system needs some serious rehab. but you're not going to get any sympathy from me about this. I say, oh well. NOW, if they were truly innocent of a crime, I'd be outraged right along with you. But I have no sympathy for violent offenders- having been the victim will do that to you.

I say, just put the lawyers in the cell with their client for about a week or two and see how he feels about them having 'rights'. In my estimation if you've deliberately harmed another human being, your punishment YES PUNISHMENT should be comparable to what you did to them. Forgiveness is a two way street. I can forgive for the sake of the person that has harmed me, OR for my own sanity. It is more like a turning them over to God for judgment and letting it go. IF they person you 'forgive' does not repent, turn from their 'crime' against you, that is what you have to do. But to blanket forgive and there be no consequences is not what the Bible teaches at all, repentance is a necessary part of forgiveness. And I see very little repentance in violent criminals in prison. Perhaps THAT is why God said to destroy certain groups in the Old Testament? They would not repent or turn from their crime.

They also are used here in the United States to get people to rat on their gang. Which means the person could either be killed by his gang or his family could be killed on the outs. The AB (Aryan Brotherhood) has preformed such hits where they get someone to kill a guys family in this case it was because the guy was going to testify against the AB in a major court hearing.

Great, tell that to middle school kids and maybe some won't JOIN THE GANG?

The prisoners who testified against their gang are generally put here now in jails destined to people sentenced to less than 3 years and they are often changed of jails. It is not a very good solution to mix real criminals with -- relatively -- small offenders, but it is done to avoid them to be killed. Regarding SHUs, I learned that after several years in these units, the reintegration into society of a prisoner was no more possible : I think it is another good reason to close SHUs.

There are a few reasons a person could be placed in Solitary Confinement. They won't snitch on what is going on in General Population. They are gang members who are generally high ranking (they make the orders to kill people or start gang wars within the Prison System either at the local state level or national level). They violated a rule at the prison and where sent to the SHU and then found guilty they generally will serve a period defined in the rule book they are given for the offense that they committed.