Solitary - PowerPoint Presentation

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Solitary Confinement

From Social Death to Collective Resistance

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What is solitary confinement?Slide3
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How many people are held in solitary confinement in the United States today?Slide8

Charles Samuels, Federal Bureau of Prisons Director:

'We do

not practice solitary

confinement.’

Federal

Supermax

Prison, ADX Florence (410 solitary confinement units)

Tommy Silverstein, in solitary confinement since 1983 (33 years)Slide9

Approximately 80,000 people are in some form of “restrictive housing” in the US today

Euphemisms for solitary confinement

Disciplinary

segregation

Administrative segregation

Protective custody

Security

Housing Units

or Special

Housing Units (SHU)

Intensive Management Units (IMU)

Restricted Housing Units (RHU)

Communication Management Units (CMU

)Slide10

Who is most likely to end up in solitary?Slide11

Racial Disparities in the SHU

I

n

the New York City jail

system (2011-13), African Americans were

2.52 times more likely

than whites to be put in

solitary

.

Hispanics were

1.65 times more

likely

.

In 2011,

85%

of the prisoners in

California’s Pelican

Bay SHU were Latino, compared to only 41% of prisoners in the general prison

population. In Washington, D.C. (2014), 97% of men in administrative segregation — one type of solitary confinement — were black.Mental illness and cognitive impairment is more more likely to be interpreted as “bad” or “manipulative” behavior in black and brown prisoners. See, for example, Jonathan

Metzl’s research on race and mental illness (

The Protest Psychosis

).Slide12
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What are the typical effects of solitary confinement?Slide14

SHU Syndrome

Stuart

Grassian

and Craig Haney

A

ffective

disorders such as anxiety, paranoia, uncontrollable rage, and

depression

C

ognitive

disorders such as confusion, inability to focus, oversensitivity to stimuli, obsessive

rumination, and memory loss

Perceptual disorders such as visual and acoustic hallucinations

P

hysical

disorders such as headaches, lethargy, insomnia, digestive problems, heart palpitations, fainting spells, and bodily aches and

pains

I

n

extreme cases, psychotic breakdown, self-mutilation, and suicide Slide15

Five Omar

Mualimm-ak

“After only a short time in solitary, I felt all of my senses begin to diminish. There was nothing to see but gray walls

…

“There was nothing to hear except empty, echoing voices from other parts of the prison. I was so lonely that I hallucinated words coming out of the wind. They sounded like whispers.

“Sometimes

, I smelled the paint on the wall, but more often, I just smelled myself, revolted by my own scent.

“There

was no touch

…

“Even

time had no meaning in the SHU.

The lights were kept on for 24 hours. I often found myself wondering if an event I was recollecting had happened that morning or days before. I talked to myself. I began to get scared that the guards would come in and kill me and leave me hanging in the cell. Who would know if something happened to me? Just as I was invisible, so was the space I inhabited.

“The

very essence of life

, I came to learn during those seemingly endless days,

is human contact,

and the affirmation of existence that comes with it. Losing that contact, you lose your sense of identity. You become nothing

.”

-

The Guardian

,

Oct. 30, 2013Slide16

Robert King

“When

I walked out of Angola, I didn't

realize

how permanently the experience of solitary would mark me. Even now my sight is impaired. I find it very difficult to judge long distances – a result of living in such a small space. Emotionally, too, I've found it hard to move on. I talk about my 29 years in solitary as if it was the past, but the truth is it never leaves you. In some ways I am still there

.”

-

The Guardian

,

A

ug. 27, 2010Slide17

Testimony from the SHU at Valley State Prison for Women

Interviews by Cassandra

Shaylor

, 1998

52 women in

the SHU

at VSPW in

1998

40

% Black, 21% Hispanic/Mexican, 5.9% “Other”

Angela Tucker: “It’s like living in a black hole.”

Yvonne Smith, on routine strip searches in the SHU:

“They don’t do this because of

the ‘safety

and security of the institution

,’

they do it for humiliation. Some of them really like it. There is nothing we can do between our cells and the shower, no way we can pick anything up. They’re with us, watching us the whole time. They are just

tryin

’ to break us

down.”

Claudia Johnson,

on

strip search and forced cell extraction: “It is about humiliation and total loss of dignity, and I don’t care what they call it. I call it

rape

.

” Slide18

Average Length of Time in Solitary in California Prisons:

6.8

Years

Over

1,000 people have been isolated for over 10 years in

California

78

people have been isolated for over 20 yearsSlide19

Social Death and Natal AlienationSlide20

Why do we do this to people?Slide21

Walnut Street Jail: The World’s First Penitentiary (1776-1835)Slide22

Eastern State Penitentiary (1829-1971)Slide23
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Benjamin Rush, “Enquiry into the Effects of Public Punishment” (1787)

“I am so perfectly satisfied of the truth of this opinion that methinks I already hear the inhabitants of our villages and townships counting the years that shall complete the reformation of one of their citizens. I behold them running to meet him on the day of his deliverance.—His friends and family bathe his cheeks with tears of joy; and the universal shout of the

neighbourhood

is, ‘

This our brother was lost and is found—was dead, and is alive

.’”Slide27

Charles Dickens,

American Notes (1842)

“Over the head and face of every prisoner who comes into this melancholy house, a black hood is drawn; and in this dark shroud, an emblem of the curtain dropped between him and the living world, he is led to the cell from which he never again comes forth, until his whole term of imprisonment has

expired...

He is a man buried alive

; to be dug out in the slow round of years; and in the meantime

dead to everything but torturing anxieties and horrible

despair.

” Slide28
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Cold War Sensory Deprivation Research

After 6 days of sensory

deprivation in Donald Hebb’s lab, 1956:

“The whole room is undulating,

swirling

…

The

wall is waving all over the place -- a horrifying sight, as a matter of fact... The

centre

of that curtain over

there—it

just swirls downward, undulates and waves inside... I find it difficult to keep my eyes open for any length of time, the visual field is in such a state of chaos... Everything will settle down for a moment, then it will start to go all over the place.” Slide30

Conference:

The Power to Change Behavior

(

1961)

James V. Bennett, director of the federal Bureau of Prisons from 1937 to 1964:

“[

W]e have a tremendous opportunity here to carry on some of the experimenting to which the various panelists have

alluded

…

[W]e

here in Washington are anxious to have you undertake some of these things. Do things perhaps on your

own—undertake

a little experiment of what you can do with the

Muslims—undertake

a little experiment with what you can do with some of the sociopath

individuals

…

[Y]

ou

are thoughtful people with lots of opportunity to experiment--there’s lots of research to do--do it as individuals, do it as groups, and let us know the results.”Slide31

Birth of the

Supermax

Prison

United States Penitentiary Marion was built in 1963 to replace

Alcatraz

.

The

prison implemented experimental programs such as CARE (Control and Rehabilitation Effort) and

Asklepieion

, based on Cold War research on sensory deprivation and behavior modification.

Politically active prisoners from across the US were relocated to Marion, including Leonard

Peltier of

AIM,

Sekou

Odinga

of the Black Liberation Army,

and

Puerto Rican nationalist

Oscar

Lopez

Rivera.

In 1973, the first Control Units were built at Marion

..

In the words of former warden,

Ralph

Arons

:

“The purpose of the Marion Control Unit is to

control revolutionary attitudes in the prison system and in the society at large.

”

In 1983, the entire prison was locked down in response to the murder of two prison guards. The lockdown remained in effect for 23 years, making Marion the first de facto

supermax

prison.Slide32

There are now at least 57 prisons across the US with

supermax

facilitiesSlide33

How can we end the practice of extreme isolation? Slide34

Madrid v Gomez (1995)

Judge

Thelton

Henderson: “Conditions

in the SHU may well

hover on the edge of what is humanly tolerable

for those with normal resilience, particularly when endured for extended periods of time.

They do not, however, violate exacting Eighth Amendment standards

, except for the specific population subgroups identified in this opinion

.”

(at 1280)

"

Segregated detention is not cruel and unusual punishment

per se

, as long as the conditions of confinement are not foul, inhuman or totally without

penological

justification

" (cited

at

1262).Slide35

California Prison Hunger Strikes

2011, 2013

Over 30,000 prisoners across California launched in the strike action in 2013. This is the largest hunger strike in state history.Slide36

Pelican Bay-SHU Short Corridor Collective

Five Core Demands

to end group punishment for individual rule

violations

t

o reform gang

validation

policies

to

comply with the recommendations of a

national commission

on long-term solitary

confinement

to

provide

adequate and healthy food

to

expand rehabilitation and recreation

programsSlide37
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