Social Workers and Solitary Confinement

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Are Social Workers Helping Inmates Rot in Solitary Confinement?

Posted: 10/22/2014 8:29

 

 

As I wrote in a blog post several weeks ago, there are about 25,000 people held in solitary confinement in supermax prison units called SHUs—security housing units—and another 80,000 inmates housed in isolation cells in regular prisons and jails.  Many of these individuals are mentally ill.  Some are juveniles and/or pretrial detainees.  No question they are being subjected to cruel and unusual punishment regardless what different courts may decide.  The purpose of solitary confinement—if it should be used at all—is to segregate the most dangerous criminals.  But even dangerous criminals should not be isolated for extended periods and never indefinitely.  Social workers and other mental health practitioners are assigned to these units to provide care for the inmates.  Often they wind up feeding them medication and sleeping pills so they will not totally lose their minds.  In a warped sense, they are helping them rot in their cells.

This ethical nightmare was brought to my attention recently by Moya Atkinson, a dynamic social worker who is very passionate about this issue.  Nearing 80 years old, you would think she would leave this fight to younger advocates.  She has organized a task force of social workers committed to significantly restricting the use of solitary confinement and eliminating its use for vulnerable populations such as the mentally ill, juveniles, pregnant women, people with disabilities and pretrial detainees.  After she read my blog we met to discuss the issue and I agreed to join the task force.  While my focus was on the cruel and unusual punishment individuals incur because of extended, indefinite and indiscriminate use of solitary confinement, she was equally concerned about ethical dilemmas faced by social workers and other mental health professionals charged with providing care for individuals in solitary confinement.

Ethical dilemmas are familiar to social workers who often find themselves in environments and situations that challenge their code of ethics.  But working in solitary confinement is a level of horror that few encounter.  Social work in correctional facilities which falls under the umbrella of forensic social work is ripe with these challenges.  What should social workers do when they believe mentally ill inmates are being mistreated in jails or prisons?  Who does she or he complain to?  Often locked in an environment with violent individuals who are both inmates and guards, how do social workers look out for their personal safety concerns while seeking just treatment for inmates?  These are tough questions with no easy answers that the task force will wrestle with.

Task force member Mary E. Buser, whose op-ed piece in the Washington Post about her work with mentally ill inmates in solitary confinement at New York City’s Rikers Island jail provided the impetus that spurred Moya into organizing the task force, wrote about “doling out antidepressants, antipsychotics, and mountains of sleeping pills,” in an effort to keep the psyches of people in solitary from unraveling.  Her job was to determine if those in solitary confinement might reach the point where they would kill themselves.  How do you do that as a social worker or mental health practitioner?  Her brief time as acting chief of mental health took her into the segregation unit on Rikers Island known as the Bing.  It was an experience she will never forget.  Yet social workers must provide services to people in solitary confinement unless the practice is discontinued.

National social work organizations are involved in this effort.  Task force member Mel Wilson, manager of the Department of Social Justice and Human Rights for the National Association of Social Workers (NASW) has been active on this issue for years.  He provided testimony during a hearing of the Senate Judiciary’s Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Human Rights on the use of solitary confinement.  Dr. Michel Coconis, chair of the Association for Community Organizing and Social Administration (ACOSA) and a long-time activist against the death penalty, also joined the task force which held its kickoff meeting Wednesday at Columbia University School of Social Work.

Confronting the misuse of solitary confinement will be a challenge as many in the “tough on crime” crowd see solitary confinement as necessary and useful.  However, there is mounting opposition to the growing use of solitary confinement in our nation’s jails and prisons.  Conservative columnist George Will has equated solitary confinement with torture.  The New York City Department of Corrections recently ended solitary confinement for 16 and 17 year olds.  Illinois Sen. Richard Durbin, chair of the Judiciary Committee has held two subcommittee hearings on solitary confinement.  Two bills have been introduced in the House—H.R. 4618 sponsored by Rep. Cedric Richmond (D-LA2) would create a commission to study its use, and H.R. 4124 sponsored by Rep. Tony Cardenas (D-CA29) would eliminate the use of solitary confinement in federal juvenile facilities.

The post Are Social Workers Helping Inmates Rot in Solitary Confinement? appeared first on Congressional Research Institute for Social Work and Policy.

Written By Charles E. Lewis Jr., Ph.D

Are Social Workers Helping Inmates Rot in Solitary Confinement? was originally published @ Congressional Research Institute for Social Work and Policy » Charles Lewis and has been syndicated with permission.

Amy Goodman: Solitary is torture. Time for it to end.

Solitary Confinement Is Not the Answer

http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/solitary_confinement_is_not_the_answer_20140507/

Posted on May 7, 2014 TRUTHDIG

By Amy Goodman

There has been much attention, and rightly so, on the CIA’s extensive use of torture, which the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence is said to have documented in its still-classified 6,000-page report. The use of torture is not limited to the CIA, however. It is all too common across the United States. Solitary confinement is torture, and it is used routinely in jails, prisons and immigration detention facilities here at home. Grass-roots movements that have been pressuring for change are beginning to yield significant results. The coalitions include prisoners, their families, a broad swath of legal and social-justice groups and, increasingly, prison guards and officials themselves.

One official who worked to reduce the use of solitary confinement was Tom Clements. The executive director of Colorado’s Department of Corrections, Clements was at home on March 19, 2013, when his doorbell rang. As he opened the door, he was gunned down, murdered by Evan Ebel, who had been released from solitary confinement directly to the street less than two months earlier. The small, nonprofit Colorado Independent was the only outlet to link the murder to the psychological damage that Ebel suffered in solitary confinement. Another ex-prisoner who corresponded with Ebel disclosed text messages with him, shortly before Ebel killed Clements. One text read, “im just feeling peculiar & the only way i know i know to remedy that is via use of ‘violence.’”

Ironically, Clements was trying, successfully, to reform Colorado’s solitary-confinement policies, referred to there as “administrative segregation.” A year before his murder, Clements told The Colorado Independent’s Susan Greene, “There’s a lot of research around solitary and isolation in recent years, some tied to POWs and some to corrections ... long periods of isolation can be counter-productive to stable behavior and long-term rehabilitation goals.” He was concerned with the direct release of prisoners from solitary back into the community, a practice that likely contributed to his murder. His successor, Rick Raemisch, continues to pursue the reforms started by Tom Clements. Raemisch subjected himself to over 20 hours in solitary, and emerged even more committed to changing the system.

Juan Mendez, the United Nations special rapporteur on torture, issued a special report on solitary confinement in 2011, concluding “Segregation, isolation, separation, cellular, lockdown, Supermax, the hole, Secure Housing Unit (SHU) ... whatever the name, solitary confinement should be banned by states as a punishment or extortion technique.” His latest full report on global torture includes several noted alleged excesses by the United States, including abusive solitary confinement practiced from Afghanistan to Guantanamo Bay to New York state, Louisiana and California.

In California, prisoners went on hunger strike for months last year, protesting solitary confinement, gaining widespread public support and achieving some of their demands. In Louisiana, Albert Woodfox has been in solitary confinement for more than 42 years, found guilty of murdering a prison guard, despite the lack of any physical evidence linking him to the crime and eyewitnesses placing him elsewhere at the time.  Courts have ordered his release three times, the most recent of which was appealed by the state of Louisiana. A federal appeals court is expected to decide on his case soon.

Studies have found that irreversible psychological damage can occur after just 15 days in solitary confinement. The UN’s Mendez alleges that New York state’s prison system is excessively harsh in its use of solitary. The New York Campaign for Alternatives to Isolated Confinement is pushing a bill, the Humane Alternatives to Long-Term (HALT) Solitary Confinement Act. The bill would limit such confinement to 15 days, and create special treatment facilities for prisoners suffering from mental illness, and grant more time outside the cell, including contact with others.

Even prison guards are weighing in against solitary. In Texas, Lance Lowry, president of AFSCME Local 3807 of the Texas Correctional Employees, wrote an open letter to Texas prison officials that called on them to reduce the use of solitary confinement, including on the state’s death row. He told me on the “Democracy Now!” news hour, “What we found is the overall use of solitary confinement in Texas was not serving its intended purposes. We went from a couple hundred lock-up cells to over 8,000 at one point.” Recidivism, violence and the overall financial costs of incarceration are all increased by the use of solitary confinement.

Most importantly, it’s torture. It’s time to put an end to solitary confinement.

Denis Moynihan contributed research to this column.

Amy Goodman is the host of “Democracy Now!,” a daily international TV/radio news hour airing on more than 1,200 stations in North America. She is the co-author of “The Silenced Majority,” a New York Times best-seller.
© 2014 Amy Goodman

Nader calling solitary what it is: Torture.

 

 America's Invisible and Costly Human Rights Crisis

Ralph Nader
Posted: 01/21/2014 2:28 pm

When the news broke years ago that U.S. forces were using torture on prisoners at Guantanamo Bay detention camp, many politicians and the public expressed appropriate horror. There was shock and disappointment that our country would resort to such inhumane, abusive actions against our fellow human beings, most of whom then were innocent victims of bounty hunters in Afghanistan.

With this frame of reverence in mind, it is unfortunate that many Americans do not contemplate -- or are simply unaware of -- blatant torture occurring in prisons every day right here in the United States. This form of physical and psychological violence is called many things: "isolation", "administrative segregation", "control units", "secure housing" and by its most well-known designation, solitary confinement. This practice of imprisonment is widely used across our nation with disturbingly little oversight and restriction. The full extent of the use of solitary confinement is truly alarming -- it is most certainly a human rights abuse and a blight on our national character.

Imagine yourself being locked in a small windowless room for days, weeks, or years... perhaps even for the majority of your life. You receive food and water through a small slot and have little-to-no human contact -- you might go days or weeks without speaking to another person. You are allowed out for perhaps an hour a day for some exercise. This is the living reality for tens of thousands of Americans in our prison system. Self-mutilation and suicide attempts among those in solitary confinement are far too common. Not surprisingly, studies have shown that the majority of prison suicides are inmates who were being held in solitary.

Many more studies have shown that solitary confinement has a severe psychologically damaging effect on human beings. For prisoners already suffering from mental illness, it exacerbates their problems. Senator John McCain wrote of his experience in solitary confinement as a P.O.W. in Vietnam: "It crushes your spirit and weakens your resistance more effectively than any other form of mistreatment."

Many might dismiss and even justify punishment by solitary confinement by convincing themselves that those subjected to it are "bad people." But this is a gross misunderstanding of its common use in our prisons. Many prisoners held in solitary are mentally ill, mentally handicapped, or illiterate. Some are placed in solitary purportedly for their "safety" to protect them from themselves or from other prisoners.

Some put in solitary are children as young as 14 or 15. What type of prison infraction would result in a 15 year old being locked up in solitary? -- "15 days for not making the bed; 15 days for not keeping the cell door open; 20 or 25 days for being in someone else's cell" are some, according to a report on the issue by Human Rights Watch.

Journalist James Ridgeway calls the use of solitary confinement "a second sentence." The first sentence is, of course, being sent to prison. The second sentence is totally decided by the warden and guards without appealable criteria. As such, the act of disobeying instructions or vaguely interpreted prison rules or the whim of the warden can warrant a lengthy stay in solitary. The lack of accountability in this area is notorious and critical. For many prisoners, a stay in solitary is a death sentence.

Ridgeway, along with Jean Cassella, founded Solitary Watch (solitarywatch.com) in 2009. Their goal is to bring attention to what really goes on in America's prisons, which are subjected to so little public exposure of their daily operations.

The United States is the world leader in locking people up. There are currently about 2.3 million imprisoned people in the United States. About 25 percent of them are there for nonviolent drug offenses, victims of the insatiable "prison-industrial complex" which costs taxpayers billions of dollars every year. Of these millions of inmates, it is estimated that as many as 80,000 are being held in solitary confinement according to Solitary Watch. Prisons are not required to provide data on how and when they use this highly questionable method of incarceration. Over 40 prisons are considered "supermax" facilities where the majority of cells are solitary units. These prisons alone account for about 30,000 people.

For-profit corporate-owned prisons like solitary confinement because it extends a prisoners' sentence. It is also far more expensive to keep prisoners in solitary confinement -- one study estimates that the average cost of housing an inmate in a supermax prison is $75,000, as opposed to $25,000 per cell in a regular state prison. This cost is passed along to taxpayers.

Imagine how things might change if more ordinary Americans had access to inspect the prisons their tax dollars pay for. A precedent for this exists. In Great Britain, "Independent Monitoring Boards" offer a unique civic perspective on regulating what happens inside prison walls. Ordinary citizens are able to volunteer to be these independent monitors. Volunteers are allowed unannounced access to prison facilities anytime, day or night. The volunteers are free to tour the prison, speak with the inmates, sample the food, and inspect the clothing and the state of medical care.

(Read Solitary Watch's article on British Prisons here.)

Such an idea of citizen responsibility might seem highly unusual to most Americans to whom prisons are largely out of sight and out of mind. The first step in addressing this crisis of abuse is raising awareness.
Reporters are rarely given full access to prisons so they can report on what is going on inside. Let the press in! The best source of information about the state of our prisons is the prisoners themselves -- but press access to them is restricted and the Department of Justice is not listening to their appeals. With this barrier in place, prisons are virtually shut off from any accountability or independent oversight. Wardens and guards are the only ones making decisions about the treatment of many prisoners.

And where are the judges? All judges -- federal, state, and local should have firsthand knowledge of the conditions in prisons so that they can make better informed decisions when sentencing those who come before them.

Here's a bold suggestion that might move the needle. All nine members of the United States Supreme Court should spend 48 hours in solitary confinement. Imagine how quickly the treatment of our incarcerated population would change if those at forefront of our judicial system had a small taste of what it is like to be locked in a tiny cell, alone, with no human contact for such an amount of time. Just 48 hours! There is precedent for some state judges actually spending time in prison years ago.

Some prisoners, such as Herman Wallace, have spent the majority of their lives suffering under these conditions. Wallace spent 41 years in solitary confinement while maintaining his innocence. The warden of the Louisiana prison where he was held ascribed his "Black Pantherism" as the reason. Wallace was released in October of last year and died three days later at the age of 71. These acts of astonishing cruelty should not happen in a country governed by the rule of law.

Too many people overlook the plight of prisoners, deeming them criminals and not concerning themselves with the plights of people they feel have no place or say in our society. There is little recognition of wrongful convictions and the role of rehabilitation that has worked in other western countries with far less recidivist rates then in the U.S. This mindset is a major obstacle in drawing attention to the inhumane treatment inmates often receive in our justice system.

The legendary investigator Jim Ridgeway says of the Solitary Watch project: "We're not trying to let criminals out. We're just trying to let people know what is going on."

For those who want to do something now, consider donating to Solitary Watch's campaign "Lifeline to Solitary." This lean and efficient campaign means to establish contact with prisoners held in long-term solitary. This connection serves two purposes -- it allows Solitary Watch to correspond with prisoners and report on their conditions. Secondly, it provides those in isolation a key connection to the outside world and a reminder that they do matter. Visit the Lifeline to Solitary fundraising page here.

Prisons are a grim and unpleasant part of our system of justice. That said, we can do much, much better about how to humanely treat people who are serving their time often under grotesquely long sentences for non-violent crimes.

ToersBijns: Burying us alive - Mentally Ill in Supermax

photo credit: The Daily Censored

Another excellent post from former ASPC-Eyman (SMU) Deputy Warden Carl ToersBijns painfully detailing the experience of prisoners in solitary confinement and supermax settings, too many of whom are there because of the symptoms of their mental illnesses, not their criminality. His analysis of the dysfunctional management techniques used by corrections officers and administrators validates my own suspicions and observations; Carl knows of what he speaks.

Here is also the troubling 2007 report on solitary confinement in Arizona done by the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC), "Buried Alive". We have yet to make any headway in ending the practice here.

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The Truth About Solitaire, Isolation, Deprivation, (SID) Prisoners
Mentally Ill Inside Max Custody

By Carl ToersBijns

Prisons designed for maximum security are instant isolation units merely by their design. The fact that maximum custody is designated to hold the "Worst of the Worst" is most misleading if anyone who worked in such an environment will testify to under oath. Following the road to this endless road to nowhere, you must first understand the dynamics involved to create this horde of thousands of human beings that are confined inside these cracker boxes designed for no human being to escape from.

Excluding those on death row, and crimes that are hideous and forever unforgivable, there are many locked up for the sake of being locked up. For the matter of providing the ultimate safety for its citizens or staff, such places as the special management units are designed, staffed and operated in such a manner every tiny little element of the environment is controlled. Much more restricted than any other place inside a prison, one would tremble with pure fear is ever left alone inside one of these boxes of concrete and steel designed to drive someone crazy through the use of the SID methods readily available to anyone who chooses to use them.

None of the pods are soundproof thus every whimper, every cry and every shout can be heard by all those that live inside. Every sound triggers a response from someone down the tier and whether friend or foe, the result is a mixture of shouts and chants that compete to be heard by its intended receiver. The officers, charged with the duty to maintain order, ignore these chants as they conduct their walks and exit the pods as quickly as they entered thus unable to distinguish a cry for help from a cry of disgust. None, even the best of the best, choose to remain inside one of these boxes any longer than they have to because of the steady pandemonium that exists within cell to cell and inmate to inmate.

The heat in the summer is unbearable as the swamp coolers are insufficient and barely is the air flow is noticable or felt. The lack of direct sunlight creates a shadow on every wall and with no hope to see the sun unless fortunate enough to be allowed to exit the cell for the designated recreation time outside the cell but to another concrete box. Many have electricity but often, if the inmate is problematic in sorts, the breaker is turned off for a designated amount of time undocumented anywhere. The water is controlled and can be turned off anytime staff chose to do so as well as adjusting the timers on the showers to shorten their use of water. The grey walls are scratched with graffiti and the front of the cell where the food port is situated is filthy with residue of spoiled food or in some cases, fecal material smeared by someone to get the attention needed to have someone talk to them.

The staff, all wearing protective gloves and in some cases, shields to protect them from foreign objects hurled at them from both the top and the bottom of the tiers work hard just to keep up with the most elementary chores to keep it going. Day in and day out, working short handed and against time to complete their required duties, the attitude that prevails is "us versus them" as many inmates choose to duel or engage in combat with the officers just to prove to others he is not a "bitch" for someone.

The presence of SID is abundant and it impacts the quality of life for the inmates to the extent of creating a deep abyss of hopelessness and an alien form of prison reality. Filthy, brutal, ignored and often perceived to be a form of "torture" for many, these inmates are kept away from the eyes of the public and anyone requesting to visit these dungeons. Whenever a legislator, the attorney general, a lawyer or foreign consulate comes to visit the place sufficient warning is given to "clean the place up" and design the approved route for the tour or visit.

Never seen in its real condition, not even by the agency director, it is repugnant that such a place exists in the first place. Toilets that are back up are left that way for weeks forcing some to crap on the floor. Lights stay on day and night and are eventually covered with paper to give them darkness to sleep in. Difficulties in sleeping at night as the screaming never ends, many choose to sleep during the day. The problem with covering up the lights during the night is it makes it impossible for the officer to see inside the cell without a flashlight and when maximum custody inmates are double bunked, there are dangers that an assault might have taken place but the officer's view is obstructed by the darkness and the willingness to have the inmate remove the cover is reluctantly and rarely done as it interrupts their hasty exit out of the box.

Mentally ill inmates are especially susceptible to the SID treatment. In fact, it is fair to say that because of their individual disorders, many suffer needlessly from sanctions imposed by those who may be unaware of their disabilities or dysfunctional capacities. This is the main reason mentally ill inmates should not be housed with behavioral problematic inmates. This influences administrative decisions when it should rather be a mental health decision to make with those parameters that are clinically sound and treatment effective. These inmates, often responding without malice, are given disciplinary for such conduct as covering their lights as they copy what others do or say while not understanding what they did wrong to get the punishment.

Many support staff, contract, medical and maintenance personnel refuse to enter cell areas because of the potential dangers in dealing with the mentally ill. This is largely due to misunderstandings of managing a mentally ill inmate and lack of training of such behaviors and because the cellie next door may be a sociopath and destructive or assaultive in nature. As a result, the response time to a work order or a medical need is sufficiently delayed. Sometimes it is due to fear but other times it is impose a behavioral modification that if you are going to bother them, they will come and see you on their time and not theirs.

The same applies to delayed letter deliveries, torn books, food thrown on the floor as a message that the inmate "needs to clean up his act" and other SID methods of satisfying the boundaries of control and who is actually in control of the box. There are cases where those inmates who have thrown their food tray back at the officer were provided sack meals for years to avoid the clean up of such waste on the cement floors. Never getting a hot meal or balanced diet, they live like that forever until someone questions why this inmate is not getting a regular meal.

Often called administrative segregation or lockup by many, the road to such a place is well designed and intentionally vague. Any inmate, whether serving life or serving two years of time can be directed to follow the course to solitary confinement through careful design of a set of management tools that can effectively erase someone's existence off the face of this earth for years. This toolbox of lockup tools consists of instruments that have for decades facilitated the route to lockup in a most legitimate manner but with the wrong spirit or design for use of such places. Let us examine these tools up close and decide whether or not they are legitimately or appropriately used to serve the purpose of administrative segregation for those who need such management controls.

Designated SID inmates are the focus of management efforts to remove them from the open yards or general population and cast them out of sight and out of mind through various means.

Tools designed to accommodate such a purpose are:

1. misconduct reports
2. Alleged threats to security or security staff
3. Alleged threat of harming themselves
4. Suicide ideations or expression of such
5. Attempted suicide
5. Assaultive behaviors
6. Gang activity or validation
7. Possession of weapons
8. Predatory conduct or behaviors.

Paying attention to these tools in the hands of a sound and ethical practicing corrections administrator creates no harm in the process. However, this would be the exception to the rule as each and every one of these tools provided, allows an administrator to remove an inmate to the most restrictive custody level without absolute proof of such conduct or behavior as it may only be inferred, speculated, documented as a possibility or with thin evidence that these tools can and do provide the catalyst to clear the administrator of any legal burdens for moving a inmate to a higher custody level without just cause. Even an inmate who repetitively writes grievances can end up in max custody.

Sometimes, when a high ranking administrator wants to issue retribution or retaliation to a SID designated inmate for doing something negative on their "domain" they will enter a comment into the computerized management system that will override any custody score or any other trigger than would have allowed that person to be reduced when eligible to do so upon review.

Thus an abuse of such a administrative '˜flag" could result in an extended stay in the higher custody level until such time the inmate is considered "taught a lesson" and reviewed for consideration to be lowered. Herein lays the biggest problem as mentally ill inmates are included in these behavioral difficult inmates as no distinction is being made at the time of placement. Nobody speaks up and nobody challenges the move and when the inmate grieves the process, the system has already been updated to show just cause for the placement or that the person is a systems abuser. The tricks of the trade allows that to be done since anyone can enter into the computerized management file and insert whatever critical comment needs to be made to justify the need. This is regardless whether disciplinary was upheld or not. It has no bearing.

Once the inmate is housed inside a maximum custody unit he or she is subject to a review and medical / mental health assessment. These screens are pencil whipped by many [not all] and reveal only two things for sure. Cooperative or uncooperative attitudes towards those who interviewed them which rarely results in any productive dialogue. There is no value in these screening processes as the inmate rarely talks about anything in fear of being targeted for more retribution or retaliation by staff through the administration. The routine inside is both mundane and often out of compliance with mandated living conditions.

The frequency and the amount of time allotted for each inmate to have recreation and showers are often curtailed or in many cases skipped due to lack of staffing to facilitate such a task. This builds animosity between staff and inmates and often results in frequent force being used during those periods where the inmate is escorted out of his or her cell to go to the recreation pen.

Visitation is only as good as the inmate's ability to recognize what day of the week it is and the ability to schedule such an activity with the case manager or visitation officer. Mentally ill inmates do not participate as they are either drugged through chemical restraints or unaware of their visitation privileges or they show no interest in seeing family as solitary confinement breeds hopelessness and depression. Calls are good for those functional but not a means to talk to family by the mentally ill. Competing with behavioral inmates for the telephone means somebody has to lose his or her turn and therefore gives up the opportunity to call home. Personal property is limited especially if designed a suicide problem or behavioral troublemaker. Kick starters are those who ramp up others into creating chaos inside the concrete boxes and as a result, the entire day is spent on lockdown status with no showers and recreation.

Mentally ill inmates are often intimidated, manipulated or otherwise convinced to hand over their personal property e.g. television, walkman, or anything else that can serve someone else in an entertainment mode or item for barter with others as officers rarely search the cells for contraband and items switched, traded or stolen. One can only imagine that mentally ill inmates are often stripped of anything worth value by those who do it because they can.

A review of suicides, self mutilations and other bizarre conduct within these isolated grey walls are horrendously revealing of a bigger problem. Being forced to live in isolation for years at a time creates intense feelings that can break a person's will to live or maintain a level of remaining rational under so much distress. It is not unusual for behavioral inmates to cut themselves just to get the attention from staff so they can socialize for just a few minutes with the nurse or staff member. Unfortunately, for the mentally ill, this could result in death as they have no idea where the boundaries are when they self harm themselves and may incur a more severe or serious wound that could be fatal due to emotional and mental deterioration inside this box.

SID can be used by staff, employees or even other inmates. This method of controlling behaviors inside a maximum custody unit have been effective for years and is often not questioned and rather, approved through tacit approval of those who choose to look the other way or not make changes in the routine of the unit affected. SID is destructive and responsible for homicides, suicides, serious assaults on both staff and inmates and is rarely identified as the cause or catalyst for such disruptive conduct. The inmate has to tow the line and accept responsibility for all he or she does without any reprieve or relief through grievances that are totally ignored or processed unless the right person gets a hold of such a document. Staff is rarely punished for excessive force or unprofessional conduct unless such conduct was viewed on a surveillance camera, a taped recording of the incident or word of mouth by other participants who are willing to speak out loud and tell the truth. Such conduct is considered to be a blatant violation of the code of silence and offers repercussions that could result in future disciplinary by designation (ironically the same method used to elevate the inmate's existence into max custody through paperwork) , banished or removed from the work setting, passed over for promotions. It can be accurately said that for both staff and inmate, only the strong survive.

The early warning signs for SID inmates are normally well structured and very transparent if someone is looking for them. The reason they are so transparent is because nobody has ever bothered to conduct an audit of these placements in maximum custody thus giving the administration free will and room to maneuver. If assigned to a human rights fact finding team it would be most expeditious for any member to pull out their records on all maximum custody inmates and glean their housing record, their mental health, medical scores, their disciplinary for frequency, severity and locations and most of all their use of force records, activity pod sheets showing participation in those mandated living conditions considered constitutional issues and comments by staff.

The disciplinary report, frequent and stacked by offenses indicates the severity of consideration provided. The signature of a lieutenant and above indicates ownership in the problem and the review by the deputy warden or designees shows the will to get rid of this SID inmate. A finding for a positive drug test when there are no other indicators of previous drug use may be a clue but not for certain. The finding of a shank or prison made knife can be planted and accomplish the goal to get rid of the SID inmate. Then when the inmate gets to the destination you must see if the person picks up more reports and gleans whether they were written by one person all the time or multiple persons including medical staff and administrative staff. This is important as it may indicate a targeted effort to keep this inmate at this most restrictive level. Statements supporting bizarre or unusual behavior can often support the placement into a temporary security watch or suicide watch depending on the space availability inside the max custody unit.

Follow up indicators should reveal the existence of a long term threat as the short term threat has now been assessed as needing more time in max custody. Max custody overrides are common tools to keep a SID inmate in max custody. Scoring lower levels but being overridden to remain in isolation and in a high secure setting is a powerful tool to break the spirit. One should read their classification forms and see what rationale was given to keep them in max custody. The filing of grievances is a poor indicator of staff abuse or harassment as it is taught in "max custody 101" to file a grievance whenever you arrive. The key to such instruments are the topics of concerns e.g. medical care, food, property and staff harassment and then follow the trail to names, frequency and history of prior institutional placements to see if the problem was pre-existing.

The most obvious means for family to be concerned with is the sudden interruption of regular phone calls or letter since both are controlled by the staff or administrations. Any inquiries by family members may prompt further SID treatment and create additional stress between the administration and the inmate. This elevation to a "high profile" inmate is not a popular event inside the box as it draws more heat on the living area with more cops being present to interrupt the inmate's games and schemes. This SID inmate will soon have to be moved due to threats made on his safety by other inmates. Attempted suicides when there is no history of previous suicides is a cry for a "come look at me please' for I have problems. It could also be an indicator they have reached the end of their ability to manage their behaviors where they are assigned and asking for a "room change" not otherwise considered. Excessive uses of forces are indicators of agitation and confrontation by staff who like to abuse their authority on others. SID inmates are often exposed to such an individual and are regularly abused by being played one against the other being blamed for things that happen inside the box when in fact, the officer created the problem.

Thankfully, there are only a few staff members that engage in such abusive practices of "kick starting" a SID inmate but as others may look the other way, the abuse continues. This blind eye is driving those who are mentally ill beyond the parameters of coping with their lives. It is with deep regret that I feel so compelled to write such a document when in fact, there are many great and dedicated staff that work inside these units who perform with diligence and energy unmatched by many who chose to be a correctional officer or administrator.

The truth, revealed only shows our weaknesses in management prisons designed for solitary confinement, isolation from the world and other human beings and deprivation of those basic rights to live under the most reasonable correctional practices allowed by law and policies. Human rights are valuable possessions no matter where they are located and should be respected as the rules are clear and compliance is an expectation. Unless the culture inside these prisons change, there will always be abused inmates and abusive staff.

Mental health inmates have no business being housed in isolation or solitary confinement as it only adds harm to the condition(s). The personality disorders, the psychopathic killers, the death row maniacs and the incorrigible gangsters who have no regard for human life or decency should be locked down per correctional best practices. The rules for mentally ill inmates must be different. Their disabilities and disorders, legitimately covered under the American Disabilities Act must be preserved and paid attention to by all who are responsible for the operation of such units. The rules are vague and it's easier "to do as I say rather than what is written." The oversight is nonexistent and the care or interest in such a place is apathetic and lackadaisical to say the least.

Brutality of Ad Seg / Solitary Confinement

The Democracy now piece referenced below is worth a visit - skip to the point he sends you to for the piece on solitary. It's nothing new, and remains deeply troubling. Check out this network this came from, by the way - I find good stuff there sometimes.

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Denied Human Contact
CriminalJustice.change.org
by Matt Kelley

Published January 06, 2010 @ 05:17AM PT

Long-term solitary confinement is torture. More than 50,000 American prisoners are currently held in some form of longterm isolation, most of them leaving their cell for an hour, or less, each day.

Dr. Atul Gawande, who got the world talking about solitary back in March with his excellent New Yorker story on the topic, spoke about the issue on Democracy Now! yesterday, and he didn't mince words. (Skip to 51:30 in the video to watch the piece on solitary, but his stuff on health care earlier the episode is worth watching, too)

"We have found ourselves crowding prisons larger and larger," Gawande said. "Of course that breeds more violence. And then that leads us to say, well, we should then put folks in solitary confinement. And we’ve caught ourselves in a vicious circle, to the point that prison commissioners I talked to would only speak to me anonymously about this, because they would get fired for saying it. But they thought solitary confinement should end."

Alex DiBranco wrote recently about the case of Tommy Silverstein, who is suing the federal prison system for violating his rights under the Eighth Amendment by holding him under a "no contact" order for more than two decades. Silverstein admits that he killed two fellow prisoners and a guard since his incarceration for armed robbery and takes responsibility. He argues, however, that his confinement played a role in leading him to violence and that isolation is cruel and unusual punishment.

He's right, and we should take serious steps to curtail the use of long term solitary confinement in our prisons.

Take action here through the American Friends Service Committee's StopMax campaign.