Supermax prisons isolate inmates from social contact.

For a reason. Those types are already gone around the bend. You can't make a psychopath more of a psychopath than they already are.

But I guess it is better that we put the worst-of-the-worst in with the general population, so that the GP can be terrorized and murdered.

So sorry about your son's 5-10 for car theft being turned into an execution by a guy who's in for life, and now will be in for another life sentence. It's over, and can't be helped, and that's one consolation, as they always say in Turkey, when they cut the wrong man's head off.

Yeah, what IRA said, aren't most of them in solitary so they don't kill each other?

Could they be isolated but still see each other? Like, in their own space, but have bars on their doors so they can see the guy across the hall and chat with him, but not actually get at him and kill him? How does it work?

I wouldn't be against severely limiting isolated cells, making sure it really is only for people who are likely to kill other prisoners. If the people are that psychotic, they also probably shouldn't have any chance of parole.

Boo? Uh, boo hoo hoo? Don't cry for them; what about the crime they committed to the other person/persons that landed them in jail in the first damn place?

Egad. Bleeding heart pansy-assed... ah don't get me started.

Criminal guilt doesn't authorize the state to drive people insane.

Criminal guilt doesn't authorize the state to drive people insane.

Minimal punishment doesn't absolve psychopaths of their guilt.

Criminal guilt doesn't authorize the state to drive people insane.

We have the tax code for that.

Actually some are in solitary for their own safety. For example if they were informant on other prisoners/ the mob, and currently fear retribution, while finishing their time.
So their reward for "doing the right thing" is torture.

They shouldn't have been involved with the prisoners/mob/gang/whatever in the first place. Their reward for "doing the right thing" should be witness protection. If they're in jail, they did something else that put them there.

I knew of a 20-year-old girl doing time in a big county jail for VUCSA (Violation of the Uniform Controlled Substance Act - i.e. possessing pain pills without a prescription). While in jail she was punished with 30 days in AdSeg for posturing aggressively toward other inmates while popping zits. They had been bullying her and her method of defending herself was to be so utterly repulsive that they would stay away from her.

Another young woman I know of, in jail for having sex with an underage male, spent 11 months straight in AdSeg - confined to a 6X12 cell 23 hours a day. She had a somewhat manageable mental illness when she went to jail. She was much worse when they let her out.

(When I was an underage male a 20-something woman had sex with me and I was happy about it. People said she was a slut, but I really liked sluts. I don't remember anyone suggesting she spend time in jail, let alone solitary)

Prisoners can be in solitary to protect other inmates from them, to protect them from other inmates, or for violating rules.

Kind of off topic, but interesting and I think relevant:

http://campbelllawobserver.com/2012/10/hot-for-teacher-gender-bias-in-sentencing-of-teachers-that-have-sex-with-their-students/

It seems so much more prevelant nowdays for female teachers to be having sex with their students than male teachers, but I can't find any hard statistics to make that claim.

As is often the case with prison news, there is a lot of ignorance about what kind of people end up in solitary. In California, the overwhelming number of people in the Security Housing Units (designed as solitary confinement units) are there for gang affiliations regardless of whether or not they've ever been found guilty of illegal activities within the prisons. For black inmate deemed to be members of Black Guerilla Family, they can be kept in solitary confinement for possession of reading materials by or about George Jackson, Machiavelli, and left-wing literature.

In cases I've seen, people can be held in solitary confinement for drug use, for possessing too many stamps, for possessing tattoo equipment, for having more than $5 cash, and in the case of many Rastafarians, not cutting their hair.

One thing is for sure: American prisons and jails use isolation far more than any other country. Great Britain and Canada, for example, use it minimally and generally for shorter periods of time than in the United States. Some states, such as Colorado and Mississippi, have been reducing their use of solitary confinement and at least as has been determined in Mississippi, violence and disruptive incidents have gone DOWN.

When I worked in health services in a big jail I thought it would be a good idea, increase safety, and save a lot of money if they put a big Xanax salt lick in the middle of every housing unit. The inmates would love it. Once they were addicted to it the threat of taking it away would be enough to turn even the most defiant inmate into a groveling dog. There would be no need for AdSeg, or even guards for that matter.

I was told that using drugs to control inmates was inhumane. Instead they use more humane methods like beating them, chaining them up, spraying them with pepper spray, tazing them and locking them in solitary confinement.

As I contemplate Papillon, I smile.

I like the American approach. Courts give light sentences or harsh sentences depending on the sentencing restrictions or the judge's hangover, police arrest people or let them go based on police whim or blowjob payoff, and the prisons set the violent offenders loose to rape and brutalize the nonviolent until they too are fully schooled as homicidal sociopaths and turned back out into society without a job.

This approach keeps the politicians harrumphing, the mothers wailing, the cops on high-dollar overtime, the lawyers busy, the private prisons overcrowded, and money flowing from the taxpayers to the system players.

As for the victims: screw those losers.

Solitary confinement? Sounds like the only way to do a prison sentence to me.

If I were to be incarcerated, I would do anything I could to be sent to solitary.

I am rather fond of my ass in its current, non hamburger like, condition.

Solitary-as long as there are books-seems the way to go for me. I don't give a fig about "cruel and unusual"-the word is like racist. It's been used so much for so many things it's lost all meaning. And I rather doubt these people went into solitary perfectly normal in the brain, so how does one emasure the harm it caused?

Quite frankly, give me a stack of books and solitary, I can live for a while.

I have had the unfortunate experience of spending a few days in a county and a city jail for separate minor offenses (DUI) in the past.

The population generally split into two groups. There were the guys that were somewhere in the level of a fast food burger cook, or C-Store clerk that were picked up for not paying $X amount or minor criminal stuff (pot, coke, etc.) Then there were the graduate students. If you were aware, you realized that they were headed for a longtime post-graduate degree in a felony conviction.

The point is that there should probably be a tier system in the prison system that see if they can de/re-program the felons.

What a wonderful call for the prison industry to get more tax dollars.

Make the connection: if you don't like the law that puts people in jail, change the law. It's amazing how many ridiculous problems are caused by people not understanding the basic relationship between cause and effect.

And if you're thinking, "Who cares about prisoners' rights"? Consider this:
Solitary confinement costs, on average, three times as much per inmate as in normal prisons

Who cares?

So it costs more? So ergo, it's bad?

You've never been in a prison, have you? You've never even seen "Lockup", have you? (Lockup will teach you a lot. Not as much as being in a prison.)

See, General Population are Bad Dudes. (Or Dudettes).

The people in solitary are *so bad*, they can't be around the Bad Dudes.

What would you have it replaced with? (unless it's "shooting people" it's unworkable, just so you know.)

Not worried about what happens, just so you can mandate that solitary isn't allowed?

This is an atrocious point and post, where you're supporting somebody who has no clue what he's talking about, advocating something completely stupidly dangerous, and under the rubric of "rights" and "cost".

Anybody who advocates massive prison/correctional reform must IMO have years of experience inside the prison system. (On either side of the bars.)

And I say this with only a slight, tangential exposure to the correctional system - when I realized that my blithe comments were profoundly stupid.

(There was a measure I supported once that would have removed all exercise equipment and weight sets from prisons. I supported it, until a correctional officer pointed out that without things to take away from inmates, there was no ability to reward good behavior, and punish bad - and things would get ugly. Quickly.

Oh, said I. I hadn't thought of that.)

Like this guy should be in public?

DAYTON, Ohio (WDTN) - Police were called to the 2500 block of Home Avenue in Dayton Sunday afternoon on reports of a shooting.

Police said Dameon Wesley, 39, shot two people inside the home, killing one and severely injuring another.

Wesley was recently released from prison after serving 20 years for murder. He is on parole.

Police had not released any information about the victims at 6 PM Sunday night.

Wesley is considered to be armed and dangerous. Police described him as 6'3" and 550 lbs. He was last seen driving a tan, 1994 Chevrolet Suburban with temporary tags.

He's 6'3" and 550 lbs. Yes -- he was abused while locked up.

American prisoners should be glad they don't live up here....

http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2012/02/07/clayton-willey-rcmp-lawsuit_n_1261380.html

Or here...

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/story/2012/02/23/toronto-police.html

Or here....

And this guy gave the force a black eye the likes of which I've never seen....

http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2013/02/15/ottawa-child-abuse-handcuffs-rcmp-officer-charged_n_2692373.html

Proof positive that more than a few cops should be switching places with the felons.....