Deaths in isolation as prison segregation increases
01 Mar 2005 11:14 GMT
The use of segregation of prisoners as punishment has been increasing recently in Australia, the US, and the UK. Segregation can be used for protection or punishment, but in both cases it results in extreme psychological stress. An indication that segregation is being over-used is the appearance of deaths in custody from suicide of those placed in segregation.
From New York: A Death in the Box. A mentally ill young woman died in the most stressful and isolating place in the New York state prison system. Jessica Roger, 21, killed herself in the "box" and many thought she didn't belong there.
From the UK: Put in the way of self-harm in a place intended to protect others. Sarah Campbell, 18, spent the last hours of her life in the segregation unit of Styal prison, Cheshire.
Out of sight but in our minds. In recent years conditions in high security segregation units have deteriorated, and the use of long-term segregation as a control mechanism has increased. Fight Racism Fight Imperialism (FRFI) asked some of our readers in gaol to send us their views and experiences.From Australia: Sisters Inside, a Queensland abolitionist group likens Australian prisons to Abu Ghraib.
Harm-U Human rights group Justice Action is calling for an independent inspection of the isolation unit at Goulburn known as the High Risk Management Unit due to conditions which violate UN Standards.
A Total Abuse of Power
When the Norm is Not the Norm
Deaths in isolation as prison segregation increases
Charity likens Australian prisons to Abu Ghraib
AUS:"When you look at the photographs that are coming out of Abu Ghraib and the stories, they're the same stories we hear on a daily basis in our prisons," said Debbie Kilroy of Queensland abolitionist group More
Isolation, psychiatric treatment and prisoner control
Prisoners can, and have died as a result of injectable anti-psychotics, and that this is a worry regarding Deaths in Custody, as well as being an extremely harrowing experience to undergo if it doesn't kill you.
More
A Death in the Box
US: A mentally ill young woman died in the most stressful and isolating place in the New York state prison system. Jessica Roger, 21, killed herself in the "box" and many thought she didn't belong there. The box is the most severe punishment in prison: the final threat, the ultimate time out. It is a small barren chamber set apart from the general population with a concrete floor, a steel door and no clock to mark the time.
More
Put in the way of self-harm in a place intended to protect others
UK: Sarah Campbell, 18, spent the last hours of her life in the segregation unit of Styal prison, Cheshire. "The seg", as those places are referred to, used to be known as "the block", short for punishment block. They are, by design, bleak, soulless places, prisons within prisons, where those who have offended against the "good order and discipline" of the establishment are meant to dwell and reflect upon the error of their ways.
More
Out of sight but in our minds
UK: In recent years conditions in high security segregation units have deteriorated, and the use of long-term segregation as a control mechanism has increased. Fight Racism Fight Imperialism (FRFI) asked some of our readers in gaol to send us their views and experiences.
More
WTF?
made up 01.Mar.2005 21:22
What does this article want to tell us? There is a hole which makes it possible to put arbitrary articles on the front page or what?
What the article is telling you
stacy 01.Mar.2005 23:53
"The use of segregation of prisoners as punishment has been increasing recently in Australia, the US, and the UK. Segregation can be used for protection or punishment, but in both cases it results in extreme psychological stress. An indication that segregation is being over-used is the appearance of deaths in custody from suicide of those placed in segregation."
There's nothing random about the articles. They all point to serious problems with the running of prisons around the world.
janjaweed persecutions in u.s.
irrelevant 02.Mar.2005 04:29
segregation connotation when it should say isolation solitary .noise pollution walls guards passing by slamming keys as they laugh sadisticly at your please.many times no natural sunlight no visitors no phone no library cart when food is delivered guards deliberately slam metal on metal to take own self hate in thier failed life out on your janjaweed economic persecution.no one is coming to save and the light stays on all the time and in some places in never comes on.at shift change guards in a bar seeing how far he she can take another into inebriation so to celebrate in your decimation.no one is coming and shift change does what computer says while your words only bounce back into the very existance of a modern gulag taking place throughout country while the high salaried judge is whiskey thinking his high salary persecutions of those below the empoverished income pole.no ones comin and the guards are laughing hard at the television while the exploited dominoes is late making money for shareholder welfare.no books no fresh air only screams from another down the cell been there 45 days and counting what day is it ?lawyer? your poor plenty more to abuse money is made off your incarceration and indy media is wanting to be popular with latest fashion. staring at your toilet someone is banging on wall .the most unnatural mechanism representing where the slavholders cage is in the modern day.who are the judges prosecutors politicking racial favors and mass population intimidation right now they golfing your treatment is less than human being nature. where do these guards live.what soul possessed allowing a pay check collection off same economic persecution consolidation causes could drink and drug and be in everyday society while getting paid to inflict deprivity. who are the players stealing souls behind bars while the sit with a gavel wanting promotion as they are why civilization unravels.may the false drunk judges be found hanging from their own lie.
G.J.70 IF FEDS READING LIE NOT TO YOUR SELF THE MONIED CORRUPTION INFLUENCED BY WHISKEY AND PILLS HAS FORGOTTON WHAT JUSTICE IS.IF YOUR SAVIOR IS JESUS AND YOU SUPPORT THIS JUDICIAL DEGRADATION JESUS WITHDRAWS ALL YOUR PRAYERS AND IF YOU BELIEVE YOU MUST INCARCERATE JUDGES PROSECUTORS AND POLICE AND JAIL HOUSE GUARDS TO SAVE THE LOVE OF YOUR OWN GRAND KIDS AND IF YOU CANT SEE THAT .THEN GO TO HELL FOR ETERNITY!
FREE MAMA EARTH MOTHER FUCKERS. SANDIEGO SUCKS.
Inhumane Punishment
D. Murrell 18.Mar.2005 17:58
I was appalled by “ A death in the box”, by Mary Beth Pfeiffer. The fact that our justice system could sentence a mentally ill woman not only to prison time but to solitary confinement is disturbing. Being that the prison facility was well aware of Jessica Roger’s illness there is no excuse for this treatment which is known to be psychologically damaging as demonstrated by the infamous Jack Abbott who also hung himself with a bed sheet after being subjected to “the box” several times. The prison system does no seek to rehabilitate prisoners, only to punish them, and even though there was mental health staff on duty to care for Roger’s the ball was dropped. So, how could one see fit for a mentally ill patient to be placed under these conditions? Why did prison personnel continue to use this form of punishment against Roger’s when she had already attempted suicide? According to the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction “comprehensive mental health care for offenders yields positive results and offenders are better able to cope with and survive the harsh conditions of “the box”. It is clear that the prison system has failed in regards to caring for mentally ill inmates and reform is greatly needed. I am glad Pfeiffer has brought this issue to the forefront and hopefully this will raise awareness about the treatment of mentally ill inmates in prisons.