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Albert Woodfox's Forty Years in Solitary Confinement

102 points by bhsiao 11y ago

dayyan 11y ago
Fuck that state.
- deleted 11y ago
  [deleted]
- ixtli 11y ago
  I feel like this comment is gonna get crushed, but this is the attitude people need to have. This sort of thing should not be tolerated at all by those paying for it to happen, and the only way it's going to change is if people get mad enough to do something.
  - contingencies 11y ago
    Amen, it's not as if this is the only wrong (or even right) conviction leading to torture at the hands of the state that has occurred recently in the US, either. What is interesting about this one is that it is a frame-up by prison authorities rather than the police, which is far more commonly reported. Regular people walking down the street or sitting in their homes with absolutely no connection to an alleged crime have been frequently improperly given life sentences. In the probably small subset that has been eventually discovered and overturned, no apology or compensation is usually ever received from the state. Just last month there was an exhibition in Paris at the excellent Jeau de Paume gallery featuring a video exploring this phenomenon in the US by artist Taryn Simon, who actually tracked down numerous people who had been falsely imprisoned for her 2003 project The Innocents. More info at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taryn_Simon https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taryn_Simon and https://books.google.com/books?id=RRoiDl9rJtoC&printsec=fron.. https://books.google.com/books?id=RRoiDl9rJtoC&printsec=fron.... I don't know how people can just passively stay in the US these days, wouldn't it be better to leave? First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out— Because I was not a Socialist. Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out— Because I was not a Trade Unionist. Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out— Because I was not a Jew. Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.
    - jonah 11y ago
      That poem by Martin Niemöller always strikes me as such a powerful wakeup call.
fossuser 11y ago
"The vindictiveness of the state is perhaps best illustrated in its treatment of Woodfox’s co-defendant, Herman Wallace. When Wallace’s conviction was also overturned on discrimination grounds in 2013, the judge in his case ordered his release, in view of the fact that Wallace was dying of liver cancer and had only days to live. Wallace was released on a Monday, and died on a Friday. He’d had three and a half days of freedom. Two days before he died, the prosecution reindicted him." I don't understand why people would do this.
- bbcbasic 11y ago
  Perhaps there some kind of incentive such as bonus, promotion, political points for a high conviction rate? So they go for the low hanging fruit.
- a3voices 11y ago
  Well imagine having the mind of a typical prosecutor. I bet the thinking is something like "f* it, I'm not going to live forever, who can I prosecute next".
  - mitchi 11y ago
    This kind of abuse reminds me of Carmen Ortiz.
- rtpg 11y ago
  I'm more and more convinced that this is a cultural problem in the US. The idea of "serving out justice" seems to override any compassion for people. People always talk about throwing bankers in jail for the crisis, but why would you wish all this suffering on anyone? Denying freedom for someone for years. Especially considering the multitude of studies showing that extended incarceration _does not work as a deterrent_. We should be ashamed, a country with this sort of penal system cannot declare itself to be a bastion of civil rights.
  - billforsternz 11y ago
    Agreed. Even the most liberal thinkers routinely call for people they don't approve of to be thrown in jail. I think it's important to challenge this type of thinking. Reserve jail for those times when there is no other way to protect innocents from violent offenders.
ahmetmsft 11y ago
<off-topic> Can we have a HN rule stopping people from posting paywalled content? This is getting really annoying apparently I ran out of my quota for visiting newyorker.com pages this month. I know how to overcome it, but that's a website I normally wouldn't visit from some other website than HN and this feels annoying. This is like the new DRM.
- DanBC 11y ago
  Most paywalls are trivially easy to bypass. You've run out of your free quote, but other people have not (or they have paid for the content) so why should they be denied content? Good content needs to be paid for somehow.
EGreg 11y ago
Reminds me of this: http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2014/10/06/before-the-law http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2014/10/06/before-the-law What a stupid loophole in the law
spacko 11y ago
This report is characteristic especially when considered in contrast to the (overly?) thoughtful justification of the sentence given by a German court in the recent case around the killing of a Turkish girl named Tugce. This report is also characteristic when considered in context of the killing spree in Charleston. USA is a country of institutionalized hatred. Hatred seems to have become a central aspect of the national identity and culture.
- cactusface 11y ago
  > USA is a country of institutionalized hatred. Maybe, but which countries are not?
  - spacko 11y ago
    Germany for example
  - pierre 11y ago
    Most of europe? Don't get me wrong there still is institutionalized hatred here but at a scale 2-3 order of magnitude under the US.
Lorento 11y ago
Instead of focussing on the abstract "state", why not recognize that almost every eligible voter in America decided what the state should do by voting either democrat, republican or nothing.

102 points by bhsiao 11y ago

dayyan 11y ago

Fuck that state.

deleted 11y ago
[deleted]
ixtli 11y ago
I feel like this comment is gonna get crushed, but this is the attitude people need to have. This sort of thing should not be tolerated at all by those paying for it to happen, and the only way it's going to change is if people get mad enough to do something.
- contingencies 11y ago
  Amen, it's not as if this is the only wrong (or even right) conviction leading to torture at the hands of the state that has occurred recently in the US, either. What is interesting about this one is that it is a frame-up by prison authorities rather than the police, which is far more commonly reported. Regular people walking down the street or sitting in their homes with absolutely no connection to an alleged crime have been frequently improperly given life sentences. In the probably small subset that has been eventually discovered and overturned, no apology or compensation is usually ever received from the state. Just last month there was an exhibition in Paris at the excellent Jeau de Paume gallery featuring a video exploring this phenomenon in the US by artist Taryn Simon, who actually tracked down numerous people who had been falsely imprisoned for her 2003 project The Innocents. More info at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taryn_Simon https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taryn_Simon and https://books.google.com/books?id=RRoiDl9rJtoC&printsec=fron.. https://books.google.com/books?id=RRoiDl9rJtoC&printsec=fron.... I don't know how people can just passively stay in the US these days, wouldn't it be better to leave? First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out— Because I was not a Socialist. Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out— Because I was not a Trade Unionist. Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out— Because I was not a Jew. Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.
  - jonah 11y ago
    That poem by Martin Niemöller always strikes me as such a powerful wakeup call.

fossuser 11y ago

"The vindictiveness of the state is perhaps best illustrated in its treatment of Woodfox’s co-defendant, Herman Wallace. When Wallace’s conviction was also overturned on discrimination grounds in 2013, the judge in his case ordered his release, in view of the fact that Wallace was dying of liver cancer and had only days to live. Wallace was released on a Monday, and died on a Friday. He’d had three and a half days of freedom. Two days before he died, the prosecution reindicted him." I don't understand why people would do this.

bbcbasic 11y ago
Perhaps there some kind of incentive such as bonus, promotion, political points for a high conviction rate? So they go for the low hanging fruit.
a3voices 11y ago
Well imagine having the mind of a typical prosecutor. I bet the thinking is something like "f* it, I'm not going to live forever, who can I prosecute next".
- mitchi 11y ago
  This kind of abuse reminds me of Carmen Ortiz.
rtpg 11y ago
I'm more and more convinced that this is a cultural problem in the US. The idea of "serving out justice" seems to override any compassion for people. People always talk about throwing bankers in jail for the crisis, but why would you wish all this suffering on anyone? Denying freedom for someone for years. Especially considering the multitude of studies showing that extended incarceration _does not work as a deterrent_. We should be ashamed, a country with this sort of penal system cannot declare itself to be a bastion of civil rights.
- billforsternz 11y ago
  Agreed. Even the most liberal thinkers routinely call for people they don't approve of to be thrown in jail. I think it's important to challenge this type of thinking. Reserve jail for those times when there is no other way to protect innocents from violent offenders.

ahmetmsft 11y ago

<off-topic> Can we have a HN rule stopping people from posting paywalled content? This is getting really annoying apparently I ran out of my quota for visiting newyorker.com pages this month. I know how to overcome it, but that's a website I normally wouldn't visit from some other website than HN and this feels annoying. This is like the new DRM.

DanBC 11y ago
Most paywalls are trivially easy to bypass. You've run out of your free quote, but other people have not (or they have paid for the content) so why should they be denied content? Good content needs to be paid for somehow.

EGreg 11y ago

Reminds me of this: http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2014/10/06/before-the-law http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2014/10/06/before-the-law What a stupid loophole in the law

spacko 11y ago

This report is characteristic especially when considered in contrast to the (overly?) thoughtful justification of the sentence given by a German court in the recent case around the killing of a Turkish girl named Tugce. This report is also characteristic when considered in context of the killing spree in Charleston. USA is a country of institutionalized hatred. Hatred seems to have become a central aspect of the national identity and culture.

cactusface 11y ago
> USA is a country of institutionalized hatred. Maybe, but which countries are not?
- spacko 11y ago
  Germany for example
- pierre 11y ago
  Most of europe? Don't get me wrong there still is institutionalized hatred here but at a scale 2-3 order of magnitude under the US.

Lorento 11y ago

Instead of focussing on the abstract "state", why not recognize that almost every eligible voter in America decided what the state should do by voting either democrat, republican or nothing.