Black Hole

BLACK HOLE International groups have recommended that the practice be abolished for juvenile prisoners and abolished or greatly curtailed for all inmates, but thousands of Americans are placed in solitary confinement every year – and many stay there for decades. WHAT IS SOLITARY CONFINEMENT? Solitary confinement is the practice of keeping prisoners in small, individual cells for most, if not all, of the hours in a day. Prisoners held in such cells are not permitted to have jobs or any human contact, and they can be held there for days, weeks, months - even years. 22-24 HOURS Number of hours per day prisoners in solitary confinement are in their cells LITTLE TO NO ACCESS TO: Recreation Vocational activities Education Magazines or books Personal possessions In most systems, solitary confinement goes by other names, like administrative segregation. Here's a look at some of the other names for solitary: WHAT IT'S CALLED STATES UNITED RESERVE California New York Oregon Pennsylvania Federal system Security housing units Special housing units Intensive Restricted Communication management housing units management units units HOW MANY PRISONERS? Few states publish data about how many prisoners are held in solitary confinement, so the numbers are notoriously difficult to pin down. 81,000+ Estimated number of inmates held in = 1,000 "restricted housing" in a 2005 study RRRRRRRRaaaRRRRRaaaa RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR ARRARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR That's more than the entire prison population in England, Japan and Turkey. 1 IN 3 Low side of estimate on inmates held in isolation with some mental illness A BRIEF HISTORY OF SOLİTARY Whatever the name, the practice of solitary confinement has been around for centuries in the U.S. 1829 Eastern State Penitentiary in Philadelphia experiments with placing inmates in solitary confinement. Many of the inmates commit suicide or become unable to function in Alcatraz Prison in the San Francisco Bay begins housing the nation's worst criminals. A few dozen inmates are kept in "D Block," a solitary-confinement area. One particular cell becomes infamous: "The Hole," a room of bare concrete with a small hole in the door. It has no light and inmates are kept naked; bread and water is shoved through a hole in the door. The Hole's most famous 1934 society. The practice is abandoned during the subsequent decades. e concre resident is Robert Stroud, known as "The Birdman of Alçatraz." 1983 Two corrections officers are killed in separate incidents on the same day at a prison in Marion, Illinois. The warden places the prison in what he terms "permanent lockdown" and the facility becomes the first in the country to adopt a 23-hour-a- day cell isolation with no communal time for all inmates. Within a few years, several other states move to permanent lockdown at select facilities, 1989 California's Pelican Bay prison is built solely to house isolation inmates; most believe it's the first Supermax prison in the country, though it will be far from the last. Inmates spend 22 1/2 hours a day in their cells, and the prison lacks a yard, cafeteria, classrooms and shops. The facility has since been opened to non-solitary inmates. 1990s More than a dozen states build new Supermax or control-unit prisons. 1995 A federal judge finds conditions at California's Pelican Bay "may well hover on edge but says the constitution doesn't require the prison to be shut down. what is humanly tolerable" A federal report finds more than 30 states operate control-unit prisons where between 0.5% 1999 A nationwide study finds more than 40 states now operating control-unit facilities, housing more than and 20% of total prison populations are housed. 25,000 prisoners collectively. 2005 THE EFFECTS OF ISOLATION As anybody who's spent a few too many days alone can attest, going without regular human contact can be unsettling and disorienting. Imagine doing that while all of your other freedoms were restricted. PSYCHOLOGICAL ASSESSMENTS OF ISOLATION PRISONERS AT CALIFORNIA'S PELICAN BAY REVEALED: NERVOUSNESS ANXIETY NIGHTMARES DIZZINESS OBSESSIVE INTROSPECTION SWEATY HANDS HEIGHTENED ANGER HEART PALPITATIONS VIOLENT INSOMNIA THOUGHTS Studies in New York, California and Texas have found that suicide rates among isolation inmates are significantly higher than for other prisoners. WHAT'S IT COST AND DOES IT WORK? HOW MUCH DOES SOLITARY CONFINEMENT COST? And what do we have to show for it? Nothing much, really. ANNUAL COST PER INMATE AT PELICAN BAY STATE PRISON IN CALIFORNIA ONE-YEAR RECIDIVISM RATE IN CALIFORNIA DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS FACILITIES $70,641 $58,324 52.2% 47.6% SHU General population SHU General population SOURCES http://solitarywatch.com http://news.bbc.co.uk http://www.hrw.org http://www.npr.org INFO GRAPHIC WORLD DESIGNED BY www.lnfographicWorld.com SYSTEM ISAS - FEDER