There's a video on YouTube of a prison warden who went into solitary for 48 hours. He said it was painful - but that, considering how violent some of the prisoners he had to hold were, he would still not rule out its use. It's not an ideal option in any way, but sometimes it's just the least-bad option. In my opinion, we should focus on overuse and abuse of solitary confinement, but elimination is not possible for so…
Solitary obviously seems very bad. Being locked in a congregate living setting with someone aggressive, brutal, much stronger than you, with all the time in the world and no better entertainment option than you, also seems very bad. What will you do with someone who has beaten the shit out of another inmate?
I suppose they could be housed in individual cells that are open, so they can interact with other prisoners without physical interaction.
In the Feds, stamps are the unit of money. On our yard a book of 'compound' stamps was worth $8 of 'value' but it took a lot of work to keep them at that price. For a book you could get one dip of chew. I think is was two books for a 'square' of spice, a tiny sliver of paper enough to get you high. You would also need to include the price of an AA battery to use as your lighter to get high. Don't do drugs, but especially don't do spice, I saw it make guys crazy and guys just dropped dead from it. A jalepeno pepper was 3 stamps if things were good. A five pound bag of cheese was 2 books to the store guy. The price fluctuated daily depending on how many people were getting them out of the kitchen. Dirty pictures were 3 stamps(no porn allowed in the Feds). Decent tattoes were three books. A haircut at the free prison barber shop was 5 stamps, or free if you wanted a poorly done buzz. For a book a month someone would clean your cell for you every day. Or someone would drop off and pick up your laundry. For 10% of your commissary bill you could get bumped to the front of the commissary line. A brand new uniform from laundry for visiting (you were issues used clothes) was a book, but then you needed to pay to have it tailored and pay to get inmate tags printed and sown on. New prison issue boots were a book to the laundry guys. A prison cheese cake (made from coffee creamer and lemon juice) was a book, or four stamps a slice. Minimum bet on a sports gambling ticket was 3 stamps. A book a month to the kitchen to get extra portions on your tray (say 2 slices of roast beef on roast beef day). I don't know alcohol prices but it was a lot and normally all sold before it was made, and if it got busted I think you were just out. Every section had a couple of store guys. You could the things from the commisary for their price + 1 stamp if you replaced them next time you shopped, or a couple stamp premium if paying in just stamps. A cold soda was 2 stamps. A candy bar 3 stamps. Home made taffy made from coffee creamer was 2 for a stamp.
I was on computers a lot as a kid and sort of taught myself programming (very poorly) in my early years. When I caught this charge, I had just turned 18. It really ruined my life. Currently, I work in tech. For a very long time I was barely making ends meet, working in a fast food restaurant for minimum wage while trying to interview to get a developer job. I went through 8 interview processes, and received offers fr…
I never understood the whole felon thing, if that is allowed discrimination outside certain roles how can those people ever be expected back to society? Ofc, they are going to do more crime if it is their only realistic option for reasonable income.
Don't forget the thin blue line. The pressure to not snitch among them is huge, and comes from the top. During my time in I watched all of the decent COs become alcoholics/drug addicts and ultimately quit. We had one decent 'counselor' out of 5, and she was forced out for unauthorized use of government resources because she printed out a compassionate release request during COVID because inmates we illegally denied a…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diesel_therapy
It is way worse than that makes it out. Transfer times are designed to maximize prevention of sleep. You will be placed in very unsafe situations. You will go from small town jail to transfer station to detention center to small town jail via the longest route possible. You will be strip searched, a very invasive event, every time any movement is made. Your movement will happen to be right before/after meals are served, so you will "accidentally" be denied food. You will "accidentally" be placed with the opposite gang, the wrong custody classification, etc. so you will be in constant fear of your safety. You will be put in a single man cell with a big threaning guy, and they will kick him out of his bed and give in to you, and put him in a boat. Good luck not getting your getting you ass beat. You will be given no opportunity to use restrooms during movement. On conair you are shackled, hands in front, even when you use the bathroom. So no hygiene to clean up around back after going. Just a bit of the process.
I spent 3 years in US prisons for drug charges picked up when I was an addict and did a 90-day stint in solitary for breaking up a fight between two acquaintances. AMA. I'll start with: Yes, "fishing" is one of the first things you learn. It's not just for solitary, you use it to get stuff under other people doors when you're not out of your cells on a regular unit too, or when you don't want guards to suspect someth…
Holy shit I didn't know that. Those guards belong in jail themselves, what they did is torture. Prison exists to remove from society people who are incompatible with it, nothing more and even that must be constantly questioned and re-evaluated. Nobody deserves to have their dignity stripped away like that.
You're assuming the accounting in the article is correct. Maybe it isn't:
> “Nobody can condone someone being thrown into a hot shower and killed,” Rundle said. “We read the same thing everyone else did, but it wasn't until we really investigated that we learned that is not what happened.”
I did three stints in solitary. First for writing to my wife and explaining how I traded coffee for stamped envelopes, which got me an extortion charge. On the last day of my "sentence" in solitary I had my trial and was found "not guilty" of the charge. Of course, it was like Alice in Wonderland, I did my time then got my trial. (during this time in solitary though they went through all my property and figured out I…
> jailhouse lawyers What does this mean? Were you a regular lawyer before becoming a jailhouse lawyer? Are you a regular lawyer after being a jailhouse lawyer?
Jailhouse lawyers are normally self taught in prison and will help others out for a fee as their hustle. They help with things like stopping child support payments, filing for divorce, clearing up any outstanding tickets and detainers so guys can go to halfway house, all the way to challenging people's convictions.
Three things occur to me as I read this article: 1) Toilet paper seems like a necessity. 2) In America, we treat our prisoners horribly. We are going to look back on this in a 100 years with the same disdain we look back on slavery. 3) Though I have a hard day a head of me, my life could be far, far worse.
There's a video on YouTube of a prison warden who went into solitary for 48 hours. He said it was painful - but that, considering how violent some of the prisoners he had to hold were, he would still not rule out its use. It's not an ideal option in any way, but sometimes it's just the least-bad option. In my opinion, we should focus on overuse and abuse of solitary confinement, but elimination is not possible for so…
Solitary obviously seems very bad. Being locked in a congregate living setting with someone aggressive, brutal, much stronger than you, with all the time in the world and no better entertainment option than you, also seems very bad. What will you do with someone who has beaten the shit out of another inmate?
The guys that can't stop getting picked on have to 'check in' which means they are the ones who have to voluntarily go to the SHU (segregated housing unit or solitary) and do their entire sentence their until Obama passed a law limiting how long someone could be kept in the SHU, so now they get sent back to general population :( yay for good intentions.
The US prison system is so brutal and things like solitary confinement, which is torture, totally normalised. We need to call attention to these things.
It sure is. And court sanctioned at that. My favorite is still the Court finding that continuous lighting preventing sleep is torture, but somehow stops being torture if it is 'needed' (as designated by the keepers) for security. Sure still felt like torture to me.