11 ms·
Sixteen, Alone, 23 Hours a Day, in a Six-by-Eight-Foot Box
- sp332 13y ago“You’re giving all of these young people to us, and we have to determine what’s wrong with them,” he says. “You can’t do it. It’s impossible.” ...Of the teenagers in solitary, almost three-quarters had diagnosed mental health problems. “We don’t have the experience to deal with a person with psychological problems,” Seabrook says. “We’re not doing enough because they shouldn’t be brought to us.”
- a8da6b0c91d 13y agoI wonder how much this has to do with the involuntary commitment legal developments of the 1970s.
- diogenescynic 13y agoOnce the mental institutions were closed incarceration rates increased dramatically. It's fairly safe to conclude we're treating the mentally ill as criminals. It reminds me of The Onion article, '15 Years In Environment Of Constant Fear Somehow Fails To Rehabilitate Prisoner': http://www.theonion.com/articles/15-years-in-environment-of-constant-fear-somehow-f,35434/ http://www.theonion.com/articles/15-years-in-environment-of-...
- skyebook 13y agoOr the process of releasing those in need of treatment during the 80's. Its amazing how we're capable of so much as a society but can't get it together to help those most in need. (Interesting piece from the time on how it came about that the mental hospitals started being emptied: http://www.nytimes.com/1984/10/30/science/how-release-of-mental-patients-began.html http://www.nytimes.com/1984/10/30/science/how-release-of-men...)
- a8da6b0c91d 13y agoWell as I understand it there has been a pendulum swinging problem. Some people were getting locked up in the loony bin merely for being eccentric. Obviously we've gone too far in the other direction and psychotics are roaming the streets homeless.
- adamwong246 13y agoJeez, how much longer until we can codify into law that solitary confinement is cruel and unusual?
- alaskamiller 13y agoYoung and cynical me would say when and if justice is served to the children of the rich and famous. Old and wiser me would say when people stop asking such fake questions and take heart going into careers of law or public administration.
- adamwong246 13y agoWhat is the emoticon for "What you just said made me throw up in my soul?" American justice does serve the rich. American justice does discriminate against all manner of individuals. And I should not have to pursue a career in criminal law to point out that these conditions are useless, wasteful and absolutely barbaric.
- vacri 13y agoYou're misreading alaskamiller, who is saying that change will only happen when the children of the powerful suffer. 'Justice served to the rich' and 'justice serves the rich' have significantly different meanings.
- adamwong246 13y agoOk, I did misread. But having justice served to the rich is an excellent place to start fixing the problems of crime in this country. That's not a cyncial or naive opinion at all- it's downright righteous!
- JonFish85 13y agoDisclaimer: partially just playing devil's advocate here. There are circumstances where you need to keep someone in solitary, whether it's for their own safety or for the safety of others. You can't well put a hated prisoner in with the general population without expecting that they'll be murdered. On the other hand, you have prisoners who have made a living out of murdering prison guards. What do you do with Thomas Silverstein[1]? Terry Nichols? Members of the mafia? Caught spies? They'd likely either kill or be killed. I don't really see a better option than isolating them. These aren't people who are there to be rehabilitated. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Silverstein http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Silverstein
- happyscrappy 13y agoSurely there can be some middle ground between giving people who murder 70+ people their preferred gaming system and putting troublemakers in solitary.
- vacri 13y agoIf you want a middle ground, you can start by not arguing from outliers. Out of the several million people imprisoned in the US, how many of them in total "murdered 70+ people"? How many of them murdered even 10? Why base your argument for moderation around such an extreme outlier?
- happyscrappy 13y agoDo you claim that most juveniles are in solitary in the US?
- fuzzix 13y ago> "How many of them murdered even 10?" Even that is extreme. How many committed acts of violence at all? How many are "three strikes" or prohibition victims?
- jobu 13y ago"Only the U.S., Somalia and South Sudan have declined to ratify the United Nations’ Convention on the Rights of the Child, which prohibits juvenile solitary confinement as a matter of international law." Nice.
- happyscrappy 13y agoNever mind Russia, the US is the real evil.
- cobrausn 13y agoIf you're going to view the world through such a simple-minded lens, I've always preferred hearing us called 'The Great Satan'. At least that acknowledges our greatness. :-D
- xenophanes 13y agohappyscrappy was being sarcastic.
- altero 13y agoHow about both?
- vixen99 13y agoThis is the kind pointless opining we get from too many abysmal contributors to the Guardian comment columns.
- xenophanes 13y agoDid you bother checking what else it says and what the U.S.'s stated reason for not signing is? Or do you prefer to post ignorant sarcastic criticism?
- mcintyre1994 13y agohttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Convention_on_the_Rights_of_the_Child#United_States http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Convention_on_the_Rights_of_the... Does that seem accurate? It reads as if the lack of ratification is basically an old political statement at this point and there's no real policy there they object to now?
- adamwong246 13y agoOk, here's a solution: Private prisons are corporations. To ensure that they act in good faith towards the goal of a better society, instead of motivated by sheer profit, let us make a laws that compensate private prisons, not by the number of bodies they house, but instead on the recidivism rates. We should not be paying these entities to house humans indefinitely. Instead, motivate them to rehabilitate and return these people to society.
- jack-r-abbit 13y agoThe only (well not the only) problem with that is then they would have an incentive to just get people out as quickly as possible to get paid. We would have to set up some sort of standards for what it meant to be "rehabilitated" and that would be pretty difficult.
- adamwong246 13y agoIf the person re-commits a crime, then the prison must re-pay the government back. Perhaps we can do away with mandatory sentencing as well! Let the prison decide when a person has paid their debt to society.
- rblatz 13y agoThen you are going to get a lot of "accidental" prison deaths. Because the prisons won't house an inmate that they don't think they can make money off of.
- adamwong246 13y agoPrisons could choose which inmates they take in. That is, prisons wouldn't be forced to house inmates who they don't believe have rehabilitation potential.
- garrettgrimsley 13y agoYes, I can't see that being abused.
- swombat 13y agoOn a slight tangent, that was an amazingly well-written article, with very professional illustrations, photos, good research, no typos I could see, etc. How come this is on Medium rather than on, say, the NY Times?
- tdees40 13y agoThe New Yorker actually wrote a wonderful article on solitary confinement that's a must-read for anybody who cares about the subject. http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2009/03/30/090330fa_fact_gawande?printable=true¤tPage=all http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2009/03/30/090330fa_fact_...
- gandalfu 13y agoCouldn't agree more, the illustrations alone convey a great deal of isolation and despair.
- listic 13y agoWho runs this Medium site? Does it use its own engine? My Wappalyzer only recognizes Typekit. I've heard of this site only recently and I would like to use a design like that for my writing prompt site.
- ludicast 13y agoI am a lifelong liberal but I did work for a year as a correction officer on Riker's Island (a decade ago, at ARDC which is the jail discussed). The "box" was referred to by everyone as the "bing". This isn't an AMA, but I will say that many like much of law enforcement, there is a discretionary aspect. That is, though inmates can be thrown in the bing for minor offences, almost all were there because of an accumulation of violent activities. In other words, they really were "bad guys" (once again a lot could have changed in a decade). I would say a bigger problem were the "schools" that the inmates went to in the jail - they were among the most violent places on earth. The teachers obviously could not control the classes and there weren't enough COs to help enough either. But for the most part things things self-leveled. Inmates had an assigned classification which tended to bunch them together. Kids who honestly were good kids, would usually wind up in a camp-like environments called the "sprungs". And bad kids would wind up with other bad kids, and wind up doing bad things. Another thing about that jail, was it was about 50% adolescents and 50% adults. The adults were usually sentenced but waiting for a bed available in a state facility.
- daedalus_j 13y agoNot to diminish the content of the article in any way, but I couldn't help but be amused when I read the headline and thought "Oh god, stuck on a two dimensional plane, how horrible!"
- inDigiNeous 13y agoJeez, junior programmers should get better work conditions. Oh ..
- altero 13y agoI find it hilarious that those people are old enough to be locked into box, but can not legally drink or have a sex.
- TempleOSV2 13y agoGod is just. "The heart of the wicked is of little worth." Who you going to believe, a liberal saying the world is unjust, or God? God says... let_me_count_the_ways take_your_pick overflow thats_laughable Okilydokily FBI I_was_sleeping air_head like_like in_a_perfect_world what_part_of_God_do_you_not_understand hippy jealousy overflow dang_it tree_hugger oops pride fight nevada I_didn't_see_that what_do_you_expect caution how_bout_it okay Ivy_league taxes Yawn computers Ghost industrious praise The_good_stuff You_fix_it home what_planet_are_you_from envy what_part_of_God_do_you_not_understand Terry duck_the_shoe poor gross whoop_there_it_is hard_working nut_job hypocrite genius in_a_perfect_world services other economy nevada what_would_Jesus_do ohh_thank_you ehheh_thats_all_folks no_way_dude come_and_get_me I_love_this ehheh_thats_all_folks astronomical sports It's_nice_being_God pride revolution I_love_this do_you_have_a_problem left_field it's_my_world Catastrophic_Success God_is_not_mocked jealousy yep boss how_could_you bye dignity thats_laughable hobnob