Over the objections of its three liberal justices, the Supreme Court on Monday denied a petition from a prisoner confined for years without the chance to exercise outside his cell.

  • Encode1307
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    1 year ago

    I don’t know anything about this guy, but I’m not sure what alternatives there are to solitary in some cases. When an inmate is so violent that they can’t be around other people without hurting them, what do you do? I’ve encountered a handful of inmates like that.

    • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Isolating a prisoner and putting them in solitary are two entirely different things. In solitary, you are given absolutely no stimulation. Often not even a bed to sleep on. The lights never turn off. Prisoners scream through vents at each other just to hear another human voice. It’s absolutely torture.

      • Encode1307
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        1 year ago

        I’ve been in a lot of prison segregation units around the US and that’s not what I’ve seen. They have beds and they can talk to people in adjacent cells. They have beds unless they’re disassembling them to hurt themselves or others. The only times I’ve seen people truly isolated, it’s because they’re the ones screaming and aggravating the other inmates on the unit, and sometimes throwing shit and piss at them. They absolutely have lights turned off unless they’re on suicide watch and can’t be left in the dark without harming themselves.

        I’m not defending it, I just don’t know what the solution is. Whenever I hear people proposing eliminating solitary confinement, I’m like “ok what then?”. The ones who are seriously mentally ill should be in hospitals, but they’d be segregated there too. The ones who aren’t, I have no idea.

        Edit: I should add, I haven’t seen people put in those conditions just for punishment, but that probably wouldn’t be a part of a regular tour. If that happens, it definitely needs to stop.

        • Maggoty@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          Yeah it’s not part of the tour. It’s what’s reported by prisoners who have been in solitary.

        • Shalakushka@kbin.social
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          1 year ago

          Holy shit you didn’t literally see them abusing prisoners on a tour, I guess they don’t abuse prisoners, case closed lol

          • Encode1307
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            1 year ago

            I’ve toured prisons in many states and spent years in my state’s prisons genius. I’ve sat in disciplinary hearings in other states too, so I’ve seen the reasons why people were sent to seg. How much time have you spent in prisons?

    • Maggoty@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Leaving someone in solitary for a few months tends to do that to people.

      But the answer is as it always was. 100 foot by 100 foot cage to exercise in and talk to other inmates through the fence.

    • treefrog
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      1 year ago

      according to the headline this person was refused exercise as well