10 ms·

Photo Requests from Solitary

138 points by chaosmachine 6y ago

Y_Y 6y ago
"Photo Requests from Solitary (PRFS) is a participatory project that invites men and women held in long-term solitary confinement in U.S. prisons to request a photograph of anything at all, real or imagined, and then finds a volunteer to make the image. The astonishing range of requests, taken together, provide an archive of the hopes, memories, and interests of people who live in extreme isolation."
- sildur 6y ago
  It also provides a fatal error when you try to access to the “saved” section: http://photorequestsfromsolitary.org/saved-requests/ http://photorequestsfromsolitary.org/saved-requests/
Stratoscope 6y ago
Oh my. Some of these make me want to cry. > wild, natural countryside in Donegal, Ireland, where my grandparents are from > Hello- I am writing because I heard about your photo program. I am in Pelican Bay SHU Short Corridor. I’ve been held in isolative conditions for 17 years. The image I would like is of Northern Ireland. Specifically Donegal. Any image of the wild, natural country there in donegal would be cherished. My grandparents and great grandparents are from there. Their stories of the place remain forever entrenched in my imagination and minds eye. I never took the time to seek out images of that far away land but, since being buried in SHU, I have longed to see it. I once had a dream of Donegal in which I was walking, barefoot, across the grass. I could literally feel the cool blades between my toes. As I woke, in my windowless cell, I felt a palpable sense of loss. It felt like I was underwater and drowning. In the waking moment I realized I’d be wading through time for the rest of my life. So, my request to you is for an image or photo of this beautiful land that haunts my dreams. I also want to thank you for your innovation. You’ve given choice to men who have lost the ability to choose. So thank you... With Respect, Patrick http://photorequestsfromsolitary.org/84-2/ http://photorequestsfromsolitary.org/84-2/ (Click "View All" at the top right to see the responses.)
- jibal 6y ago
  SHU = torture
  - rectang 6y ago
    For those not in the know (like me): "SHU" stands for "Security Housing Unit".
  - refurb 6y ago
    Ok. What’s your alternative if an inmate is violent and attacks other prisoners and guards on a regular basis? Doesn’t the govt have a duty to protect other inmates?
    - shoes_for_thee 6y ago
      Worth mentioning that some prisoners wind up in SHU as a measure of protection from the general prison population.
- puzzledobserver 6y ago
  17 years in isolation. It can serve absolutely no punitive or reformatory purpose. It is of zero value as a means to compensation. Whether it is useful as a deterrent is unclear, but also immaterial. The only purpose I can imagine is for the public to witness the misfortune of fellow citizens. A modern day public execution. I am not hopeful that things will get better in the foreseeable future. I can only hope that our children judge us harshly. 17 years in isolation.
  - thomk 6y ago
    Are you sure about that? I had the same reaction but then I starting thinking about all the horrible life-altering things a person could do to earn something like that. The penal system isn't perfect but it's what we have.
    - clawedjird 6y ago
egeozcan 6y ago
I guess they accept anything legal, regardless of its offensiveness (in this case, blatant sexism): http://photorequestsfromsolitary.org/muslim-female-in-a-hijab-praying/ http://photorequestsfromsolitary.org/muslim-female-in-a-hija... I mean, of course, this is a personal wish, and people are free to believe whatever they want. It just felt weird and wanted to mention.
- capableweb 6y ago
  As soon as you dive into what's offensive or not, you'll start discriminating ideologies and religions as well. Denying this request might be denying that persons religion/ideology, while accepting it, is offensive to others who don't belong to the religion/ideology. Don't think you can win here really.
  - luckylion 6y ago
    > As soon as you dive into what's offensive or not, you'll start discriminating ideologies and religions as well. Isn't that super common in 2020, and has always been very common? We've always judged ideologies and religions, think National Socialism, Stalinism or Scientology. Does the person belonging to that group being in solitary confinement change that?
    - egeozcan 6y ago
      Calling something out for being offensive here means that I'd like see other opinions. At the very least, I thought it was. I didn't call to action against this request. I didn't send them a request to take it down, no authorities involved, nothing serious really. I just found it offensive, and thought it would be interesting for others to see, my expectation was to see interesting takes on the subject. Not everyone you see on the internet who says they are offended is part of the so-called "cancel culture". I'm surely not. I'd suggest everyone to relax.
      - capableweb 6y ago
        I agree with you and send kudos your way for raising the conversation. I have no skin in the game really, and earlier comment is just my side of the coin, love to see others as well. And I echo the idea of everyone to relax. Just because someone is flagging something as potentially offensive doesn't mean they want it removed from the surface of the earth. Plenty of things are offensive but should still be visible/readable.
disillusioned 6y ago
Solitary is one of the worst things we do to other human beings. Humans are social creatures, and despite these people's transgressions, how this isn't considered cruel and unusual punishment and unconstitutional is completely baffling to me. I understand the desire to use solitary as a control mechanism and an escalation threat against inmates, but for people to be held in these conditions for _years_ baffles me that anyone could think that's acceptable.
- capableweb 6y ago
  Agree! Quote from another comment here: > I’ve been held in isolative conditions for 17 years How can this be legal, beneficial for anyone or even possible for other humans to execute on? One would think that prisons should at least pretend to try to make people better than just isolating them until they die. And if not that, one would think that prisons would make a cost/benefit analysis and find out that people generally get more twisted from spending long time in isolation. And if neither of those two are applied, one would think that someone along the chain would see "17 years of isolation" and act to fix that or refuse the order of continue to lock them up. The prison world is truly fucked up, and it's not because of the prisoners.
  - sukilot 6y ago
    It's easy to ignore the suffering of others. You and I do it all day every day.
- vyrotek 6y ago
  Saw your comment and then this request. Was sad to see no responses. "volunteers fighting to end solitary confinement, with symbols of freedom" http://photorequestsfromsolitary.org/123-2/ http://photorequestsfromsolitary.org/123-2/
akudha 6y ago
On any given day, at least 80,000 people are held in solitary in the United States prisons and jails, either in supermax or other segregation units. Some will remain for months, years, or even decades in conditions that have been shown to cause deep and lasting psychological and physiological harm. What the fuckity fuck - how is this allowed to happen, in 2020, in a democracy, in a rich/western country? Especially one that loves to preach values of freedom/democracy/equality etc to other countries around the world? This is awful
- praptak 6y ago
  USA is a third world country, with a layer of the first world on top. This layer seems to show cracks too.
  - redwood 6y ago
    If you've spent time in a developing country you'd realize this isn't quite right. But the US has built some massively harmful institutions and a way for folks to hide themselves from much guilt.
  - perfmode 6y ago
    as the saying goes, “America is a third world country with a gucci belt” let us pray we wake up to the conditions we subject our fellow beings. we suffer from historical amnesia. our nation state is predicated on unspeakable catastrophies rendered unto indigenous peoples. there are myriad realities we have yet to face and reconcile.
  - dang 6y ago
    Please keep nationalistic flamewar off this site. Nothing good can come of it and this is the last thing we need here. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
- mywacaday 6y ago
  I had a recent discussion with friends on how difficult prison must be. We had a lockdown in Ireland but you were allowed to go up to 5KM from your home for exercise once a day(not really enforced) and you could watch TV, cook, sleep, do hobbies at your leisure and people found it really tough. Hopefully people might be more sympathetic to the incarcerated and we can focus on rehabilitation and not punishment.
curiousgal 6y ago
This is depressingly characteristic of the US. Like here fill this form to get a picture of anything you want! But no we'll still keep you in solitary confinement for decades :) Akin to all the "happy" stories of people coming together to donate to someone's GoFundMe campaign for medical bills.
- jnetterf 6y ago
  This is activist art. The intended response is anger, not complacency. See http://photorequestsfromsolitary.org/information http://photorequestsfromsolitary.org/information
hnanon1 6y ago
I've seen my share of battles, but this is too brutal to even click on. How this kind of isolation is legal reminds me that criminals rule over us.
9nGQluzmnq3M 6y ago
> I was arrested when I was 17 years old, and I have been in prison for over 30 yrs.; 20 yrs. of that was spent in solitary confinement, 90% of which I did in the windowless cells of Pelican Bay State Prison. This is beyond fucked up. Arrested as a teenager, they've now spent more time alone in a windowless concrete cell than they did growing up. There's no information on what they did to warrant this, but there's a reason even murder sentences are (usually) less than 10 years in most European countries.
- capableweb 6y ago
  Yeah, I can't figure out a single reason this would be OK. Even murders, rapists and other morally shitty people either deserve to get help to improve themselves, as they are obviously damaged in some way, or at least put in a place where they don't get worse. I'm not generally for death sentence, but I'd honestly change my view if the alternative to death sentence is being locked up in solitary for the rest of your life. Death in this case would be kinder. Best would be that none of those options exists.
  - rectang 6y ago
    There is no animal species more savage than humans. Orcas, great cats... nothing comes close to our innovation in torture methods, deliberately hacking evolved pain mechanisms to maximize suffering. Solitary confinement is a particularly ingenious way of inflicting agony.
  - mesa8 6y ago
    I find it hilarious how evil naive this forum is. Read some court documents on torture cases sometime, or even just read crime and deterrence literature.
    - capableweb 6y ago
      Evil naive? How come? I've read plenty of court cases and I'm still of the same opinion. Those people who commit those things are corrupted in some way, and need help. If your point is that they will never get better, the most human thing to do would be to execute them, rather than putting them in solitary. If there is a chance we can "fix" them, then I think we should aim for fixing them.
shipyardsail 6y ago
Which request is offensive?
ChrisMarshallNY 6y ago
This is amazing. I have been interacting with folks like this for a long time, in some of my extracurricular activities. I will say that it's easy for us to be sympathetic, when we see their "human" side, but that sympathy dries up, real quick, when we are victims. I have worked with both perpetrators and victims (often, the same person). It's pretty heart-wrenching. There's no practical solutions on the table. It's pretty difficult to get folks behind efforts to reform things. In the US, a felony rap is a "scarlet letter" that follows people throughout their entire life, destroying any real chance at true reform. Pretty much guaranteed recidivism. Dishonorable military discharges are another one. I have heard that the UK has a system that "shelves" criminal records after a certain number of years, and only employment in certain fields (like law enforcement, childcare, etc.) can view the records.
- Aengeuad 6y ago
  >I have heard that the UK has a system that "shelves" criminal records after a certain number of years, and only employment in certain fields (like law enforcement, childcare, etc.) can view the records. This is true but it depends on how long the sentence was as after a 4 year sentence you always have to tell an employer about the conviction. It's better than nothing as petty crime shouldn't have serious long term employment consequences but it seems like it doesn't do much for the people that might need it most. https://www.gov.uk/exoffenders-and-employment https://www.gov.uk/exoffenders-and-employment
  - ChrisMarshallNY 6y ago
    Thanks for that. It does seem to be more liberal than the US. I suspect that the vast majority of offenders in either nation spend less than 4 years in jail, so that's not a bad thing. I wonder if offenses committed before the rehab period is over are added to previous periods, or if the "clock is reset." In the US, we also have the "3-time loser" sentencing in many states, which can make a third conviction into a life sentence.
737min 6y ago
For all the empathetic discussion here, it’s important to keep some perspective - in many cases, these prisoners are in solitary because they have repeatedly attacked other inmates or guards, maiming or killing them. Of course they are still human and deserving of human consideration, but it’s not like they end up in solitary for not writing enough unit tests or saying the wrong thing on Slack...
- egypturnash 6y ago
  So here are some snippets from the first page of results of typing "reasons to be in solitary" into DuckDuckGo. "There are a range of reasons someone can be placed in solitary confinement, including in response to violence or other serious security threats. However, the Vera Institute’s Segregation Reduction Project found 85 percent of prisoners were sent to disciplinary segregation for minor rule infractions in Illinois. Common violations included being out of place, failing to report to an assignment, and refusing an order." - https://www.prisonfellowship.org/resources/advocacy/conditions/solitary-confinement-2/ https://www.prisonfellowship.org/resources/advocacy/conditio... "Inmates have been sentenced to solitary for infractions such as refusing to cut their hair for religious reasons, or eating an apple incorrectly, which shows how broadly the offenses officially punishable with solitary confinement can be interpreted. The list of such offenses includes: possessing any locking devices, including keys; failure to make the bed in military fashion; adulterating food; demonstrating martial arts; tattooing; circumventing mail monitoring procedures; indecent exposure; misuse of authorized medications; refusing work; failing to perform work as instructed by a supervisor; insolence towards a staff member; unauthorized contact with the public; being untidy; circulating a petition; feigning illness; using abusive or offensive language. Other reported common causes of solitary confinement are: Possession of five dollars or more without authorization; participation in a strike; attempted suicide; failure to obey an order properly; “reckless eyeballing”; failure to return an ashtray; possession of an excess quantity of postage stamps." - https://qz.com/480015/these-are-some-of-the-reasons-us-prisoners-wind-up-in-solitary-confinement/ https://qz.com/480015/these-are-some-of-the-reasons-us-priso... "Contrary to popular belief, solitary confinement is not reserved only for the most dangerous prisoners. Often it is imposed to isolate detainees during the pre-trial stage of investigation, including as part of coercive interrogation. Solitary confinement for pre-trial detainees has, for example, been part of Scandinavian prison practice for many years. It is also used to lock away prisoners with – or who are perceived to have – mental illnesses." -https://www.penalreform.org/issues/prison-conditions/key-facts/solitary-confinement/ https://www.penalreform.org/issues/prison-conditions/key-fac...
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
crb002 6y ago
I was in solitary for 3 months this year. Not even criminal, a contempt charge by a retaliatory judge for reporting him to the Iowa Judicial Qualifications Commission. My ex wife had her assistant go to the jail and talk to a drug dealer ... hours later I was viciously attacked and asked for protective custody. Spent my days monastic reading a lot and working out. Happy to answer questions.
- totony 6y ago
  How did you get a book? I heard it's pretty hard to get one depending on where you're held.
  - novok 6y ago
    I'm guessing there is a difference in asking to be in solitary vs being put into solitary.
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
MarcPereira 6y ago
It should work like a trade, for each picture requested they give a picture showing why they are held in prison.

138 points by chaosmachine 6y ago

Y_Y 6y ago

"Photo Requests from Solitary (PRFS) is a participatory project that invites men and women held in long-term solitary confinement in U.S. prisons to request a photograph of anything at all, real or imagined, and then finds a volunteer to make the image. The astonishing range of requests, taken together, provide an archive of the hopes, memories, and interests of people who live in extreme isolation."

sildur 6y ago
It also provides a fatal error when you try to access to the “saved” section: http://photorequestsfromsolitary.org/saved-requests/ http://photorequestsfromsolitary.org/saved-requests/

Stratoscope 6y ago

Oh my. Some of these make me want to cry. > wild, natural countryside in Donegal, Ireland, where my grandparents are from > Hello- I am writing because I heard about your photo program. I am in Pelican Bay SHU Short Corridor. I’ve been held in isolative conditions for 17 years. The image I would like is of Northern Ireland. Specifically Donegal. Any image of the wild, natural country there in donegal would be cherished. My grandparents and great grandparents are from there. Their stories of the place remain forever entrenched in my imagination and minds eye. I never took the time to seek out images of that far away land but, since being buried in SHU, I have longed to see it. I once had a dream of Donegal in which I was walking, barefoot, across the grass. I could literally feel the cool blades between my toes. As I woke, in my windowless cell, I felt a palpable sense of loss. It felt like I was underwater and drowning. In the waking moment I realized I’d be wading through time for the rest of my life. So, my request to you is for an image or photo of this beautiful land that haunts my dreams. I also want to thank you for your innovation. You’ve given choice to men who have lost the ability to choose. So thank you... With Respect, Patrick http://photorequestsfromsolitary.org/84-2/ http://photorequestsfromsolitary.org/84-2/ (Click "View All" at the top right to see the responses.)

jibal 6y ago
SHU = torture
- rectang 6y ago
  For those not in the know (like me): "SHU" stands for "Security Housing Unit".
- refurb 6y ago
  Ok. What’s your alternative if an inmate is violent and attacks other prisoners and guards on a regular basis? Doesn’t the govt have a duty to protect other inmates?
  - shoes_for_thee 6y ago
    Worth mentioning that some prisoners wind up in SHU as a measure of protection from the general prison population.
puzzledobserver 6y ago
17 years in isolation. It can serve absolutely no punitive or reformatory purpose. It is of zero value as a means to compensation. Whether it is useful as a deterrent is unclear, but also immaterial. The only purpose I can imagine is for the public to witness the misfortune of fellow citizens. A modern day public execution. I am not hopeful that things will get better in the foreseeable future. I can only hope that our children judge us harshly. 17 years in isolation.
- thomk 6y ago
  Are you sure about that? I had the same reaction but then I starting thinking about all the horrible life-altering things a person could do to earn something like that. The penal system isn't perfect but it's what we have.
  - clawedjird 6y ago

egeozcan 6y ago

I guess they accept anything legal, regardless of its offensiveness (in this case, blatant sexism): http://photorequestsfromsolitary.org/muslim-female-in-a-hijab-praying/ http://photorequestsfromsolitary.org/muslim-female-in-a-hija... I mean, of course, this is a personal wish, and people are free to believe whatever they want. It just felt weird and wanted to mention.

capableweb 6y ago
As soon as you dive into what's offensive or not, you'll start discriminating ideologies and religions as well. Denying this request might be denying that persons religion/ideology, while accepting it, is offensive to others who don't belong to the religion/ideology. Don't think you can win here really.
- luckylion 6y ago
  > As soon as you dive into what's offensive or not, you'll start discriminating ideologies and religions as well. Isn't that super common in 2020, and has always been very common? We've always judged ideologies and religions, think National Socialism, Stalinism or Scientology. Does the person belonging to that group being in solitary confinement change that?
  - egeozcan 6y ago
    Calling something out for being offensive here means that I'd like see other opinions. At the very least, I thought it was. I didn't call to action against this request. I didn't send them a request to take it down, no authorities involved, nothing serious really. I just found it offensive, and thought it would be interesting for others to see, my expectation was to see interesting takes on the subject. Not everyone you see on the internet who says they are offended is part of the so-called "cancel culture". I'm surely not. I'd suggest everyone to relax.
    - capableweb 6y ago
      I agree with you and send kudos your way for raising the conversation. I have no skin in the game really, and earlier comment is just my side of the coin, love to see others as well. And I echo the idea of everyone to relax. Just because someone is flagging something as potentially offensive doesn't mean they want it removed from the surface of the earth. Plenty of things are offensive but should still be visible/readable.

disillusioned 6y ago

Solitary is one of the worst things we do to other human beings. Humans are social creatures, and despite these people's transgressions, how this isn't considered cruel and unusual punishment and unconstitutional is completely baffling to me. I understand the desire to use solitary as a control mechanism and an escalation threat against inmates, but for people to be held in these conditions for _years_ baffles me that anyone could think that's acceptable.

capableweb 6y ago
Agree! Quote from another comment here: > I’ve been held in isolative conditions for 17 years How can this be legal, beneficial for anyone or even possible for other humans to execute on? One would think that prisons should at least pretend to try to make people better than just isolating them until they die. And if not that, one would think that prisons would make a cost/benefit analysis and find out that people generally get more twisted from spending long time in isolation. And if neither of those two are applied, one would think that someone along the chain would see "17 years of isolation" and act to fix that or refuse the order of continue to lock them up. The prison world is truly fucked up, and it's not because of the prisoners.
- sukilot 6y ago
  It's easy to ignore the suffering of others. You and I do it all day every day.
vyrotek 6y ago
Saw your comment and then this request. Was sad to see no responses. "volunteers fighting to end solitary confinement, with symbols of freedom" http://photorequestsfromsolitary.org/123-2/ http://photorequestsfromsolitary.org/123-2/

akudha 6y ago

On any given day, at least 80,000 people are held in solitary in the United States prisons and jails, either in supermax or other segregation units. Some will remain for months, years, or even decades in conditions that have been shown to cause deep and lasting psychological and physiological harm. What the fuckity fuck - how is this allowed to happen, in 2020, in a democracy, in a rich/western country? Especially one that loves to preach values of freedom/democracy/equality etc to other countries around the world? This is awful

praptak 6y ago
USA is a third world country, with a layer of the first world on top. This layer seems to show cracks too.
- redwood 6y ago
  If you've spent time in a developing country you'd realize this isn't quite right. But the US has built some massively harmful institutions and a way for folks to hide themselves from much guilt.
- perfmode 6y ago
  as the saying goes, “America is a third world country with a gucci belt” let us pray we wake up to the conditions we subject our fellow beings. we suffer from historical amnesia. our nation state is predicated on unspeakable catastrophies rendered unto indigenous peoples. there are myriad realities we have yet to face and reconcile.
- dang 6y ago
  Please keep nationalistic flamewar off this site. Nothing good can come of it and this is the last thing we need here. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
mywacaday 6y ago
I had a recent discussion with friends on how difficult prison must be. We had a lockdown in Ireland but you were allowed to go up to 5KM from your home for exercise once a day(not really enforced) and you could watch TV, cook, sleep, do hobbies at your leisure and people found it really tough. Hopefully people might be more sympathetic to the incarcerated and we can focus on rehabilitation and not punishment.

curiousgal 6y ago

This is depressingly characteristic of the US. Like here fill this form to get a picture of anything you want! But no we'll still keep you in solitary confinement for decades :) Akin to all the "happy" stories of people coming together to donate to someone's GoFundMe campaign for medical bills.

jnetterf 6y ago
This is activist art. The intended response is anger, not complacency. See http://photorequestsfromsolitary.org/information http://photorequestsfromsolitary.org/information

hnanon1 6y ago

I've seen my share of battles, but this is too brutal to even click on. How this kind of isolation is legal reminds me that criminals rule over us.

9nGQluzmnq3M 6y ago

> I was arrested when I was 17 years old, and I have been in prison for over 30 yrs.; 20 yrs. of that was spent in solitary confinement, 90% of which I did in the windowless cells of Pelican Bay State Prison. This is beyond fucked up. Arrested as a teenager, they've now spent more time alone in a windowless concrete cell than they did growing up. There's no information on what they did to warrant this, but there's a reason even murder sentences are (usually) less than 10 years in most European countries.

capableweb 6y ago
Yeah, I can't figure out a single reason this would be OK. Even murders, rapists and other morally shitty people either deserve to get help to improve themselves, as they are obviously damaged in some way, or at least put in a place where they don't get worse. I'm not generally for death sentence, but I'd honestly change my view if the alternative to death sentence is being locked up in solitary for the rest of your life. Death in this case would be kinder. Best would be that none of those options exists.
- rectang 6y ago
  There is no animal species more savage than humans. Orcas, great cats... nothing comes close to our innovation in torture methods, deliberately hacking evolved pain mechanisms to maximize suffering. Solitary confinement is a particularly ingenious way of inflicting agony.
- mesa8 6y ago
  I find it hilarious how evil naive this forum is. Read some court documents on torture cases sometime, or even just read crime and deterrence literature.
  - capableweb 6y ago
    Evil naive? How come? I've read plenty of court cases and I'm still of the same opinion. Those people who commit those things are corrupted in some way, and need help. If your point is that they will never get better, the most human thing to do would be to execute them, rather than putting them in solitary. If there is a chance we can "fix" them, then I think we should aim for fixing them.

shipyardsail 6y ago

Which request is offensive?

ChrisMarshallNY 6y ago

This is amazing. I have been interacting with folks like this for a long time, in some of my extracurricular activities. I will say that it's easy for us to be sympathetic, when we see their "human" side, but that sympathy dries up, real quick, when we are victims. I have worked with both perpetrators and victims (often, the same person). It's pretty heart-wrenching. There's no practical solutions on the table. It's pretty difficult to get folks behind efforts to reform things. In the US, a felony rap is a "scarlet letter" that follows people throughout their entire life, destroying any real chance at true reform. Pretty much guaranteed recidivism. Dishonorable military discharges are another one. I have heard that the UK has a system that "shelves" criminal records after a certain number of years, and only employment in certain fields (like law enforcement, childcare, etc.) can view the records.

Aengeuad 6y ago
>I have heard that the UK has a system that "shelves" criminal records after a certain number of years, and only employment in certain fields (like law enforcement, childcare, etc.) can view the records. This is true but it depends on how long the sentence was as after a 4 year sentence you always have to tell an employer about the conviction. It's better than nothing as petty crime shouldn't have serious long term employment consequences but it seems like it doesn't do much for the people that might need it most. https://www.gov.uk/exoffenders-and-employment https://www.gov.uk/exoffenders-and-employment
- ChrisMarshallNY 6y ago
  Thanks for that. It does seem to be more liberal than the US. I suspect that the vast majority of offenders in either nation spend less than 4 years in jail, so that's not a bad thing. I wonder if offenses committed before the rehab period is over are added to previous periods, or if the "clock is reset." In the US, we also have the "3-time loser" sentencing in many states, which can make a third conviction into a life sentence.

737min 6y ago

For all the empathetic discussion here, it’s important to keep some perspective - in many cases, these prisoners are in solitary because they have repeatedly attacked other inmates or guards, maiming or killing them. Of course they are still human and deserving of human consideration, but it’s not like they end up in solitary for not writing enough unit tests or saying the wrong thing on Slack...

egypturnash 6y ago
So here are some snippets from the first page of results of typing "reasons to be in solitary" into DuckDuckGo. "There are a range of reasons someone can be placed in solitary confinement, including in response to violence or other serious security threats. However, the Vera Institute’s Segregation Reduction Project found 85 percent of prisoners were sent to disciplinary segregation for minor rule infractions in Illinois. Common violations included being out of place, failing to report to an assignment, and refusing an order." - https://www.prisonfellowship.org/resources/advocacy/conditions/solitary-confinement-2/ https://www.prisonfellowship.org/resources/advocacy/conditio... "Inmates have been sentenced to solitary for infractions such as refusing to cut their hair for religious reasons, or eating an apple incorrectly, which shows how broadly the offenses officially punishable with solitary confinement can be interpreted. The list of such offenses includes: possessing any locking devices, including keys; failure to make the bed in military fashion; adulterating food; demonstrating martial arts; tattooing; circumventing mail monitoring procedures; indecent exposure; misuse of authorized medications; refusing work; failing to perform work as instructed by a supervisor; insolence towards a staff member; unauthorized contact with the public; being untidy; circulating a petition; feigning illness; using abusive or offensive language. Other reported common causes of solitary confinement are: Possession of five dollars or more without authorization; participation in a strike; attempted suicide; failure to obey an order properly; “reckless eyeballing”; failure to return an ashtray; possession of an excess quantity of postage stamps." - https://qz.com/480015/these-are-some-of-the-reasons-us-prisoners-wind-up-in-solitary-confinement/ https://qz.com/480015/these-are-some-of-the-reasons-us-priso... "Contrary to popular belief, solitary confinement is not reserved only for the most dangerous prisoners. Often it is imposed to isolate detainees during the pre-trial stage of investigation, including as part of coercive interrogation. Solitary confinement for pre-trial detainees has, for example, been part of Scandinavian prison practice for many years. It is also used to lock away prisoners with – or who are perceived to have – mental illnesses." -https://www.penalreform.org/issues/prison-conditions/key-facts/solitary-confinement/ https://www.penalreform.org/issues/prison-conditions/key-fac...

deleted 6y ago

[deleted]

crb002 6y ago

I was in solitary for 3 months this year. Not even criminal, a contempt charge by a retaliatory judge for reporting him to the Iowa Judicial Qualifications Commission. My ex wife had her assistant go to the jail and talk to a drug dealer ... hours later I was viciously attacked and asked for protective custody. Spent my days monastic reading a lot and working out. Happy to answer questions.

totony 6y ago
How did you get a book? I heard it's pretty hard to get one depending on where you're held.
- novok 6y ago
  I'm guessing there is a difference in asking to be in solitary vs being put into solitary.
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MarcPereira 6y ago

It should work like a trade, for each picture requested they give a picture showing why they are held in prison.