Solitary Confinement . . .
By George Swanson

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Solitary Confinement . . .

Is it torture?
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Torture
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. . . any act by which severe pain
or suffering, whether physical or

mental, is intentionally inflicted on
a person . . . .
– U.N. Convention Against Torture, Article 1.1

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physical

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physical

and

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physical

and
mental
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Some Physical Torture

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Some Physical Torture
A swat team cuts
the orange jump
suit off an inmate in
handcuffs and leg
irons. He keeps
screaming as they
carry him naked
through the Maine
supermax.

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Some Physical Torture

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Some Physical Torture
Black helmeted
officers strap the
inmate in a
restraint chair. He
continues to
scream as one
officer holds his
head and Maces
him in the face.
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Some Physical Torture

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Some Physical Torture
Charles Graner
cocks his fist
above Iraqi
prisoners in
Abu Ghraib

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Some Physical Torture
He may have
learned torture
working in a
Pennsylvania
supermax.

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Some Physical Torture
We sentenced
him to 10 years
in Leavenworth
for doing what
we trained him
to do.

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Mostly Mental Torture

Isolation is the worst thing we do
to people.
̶ Washington State Prison Official

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Mostly Mental Torture
Solitary confinement left prisoners
in a semi-fatuous condition.
̶ U.S. Supreme Court, 1890

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Mostly Mental Torture
16 to 19 year olds became like
Zombies.
̶ N.Y. State Supermax Chaplain

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Mostly Mental Torture
Solitary confinement is
dehumanizing.
̶ Lorna Rhodes, Anthropologist

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Eastern State Prison, Philadelphia, 1822
Solitary Confinement
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Charles Dickens saw it and wrote:
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I hold this slow and daily tampering
with the mysteries of the brain, to be
immeasurably worse than any torture
of the body.

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And because its ghastly signs and
tokens are not so palpable to the
eye and sense of touch as scars
upon the flesh . . .

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. . . because its wounds are not
upon the surface, and it extorts few
cries that human ears can hear . . .

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. . . therefore I the more denounce
it, as a secret punishment which
slumbering humanity is not
roused up to stay.

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Solitary Confinement
23 Hours a Day

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An inmate looks at the photographer through the slot
where he gets his food and where he is handcuffed.

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Solitary Confinement
de Tocqueville visited American prisons in 1833

He wrote:

• We saw the evil effect of solitude.
• This system, fatal to the health of the
criminals, was likewise inefficient in
producing their reform.

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A Solitary Confinement Cell

1.

7 feet by 12 feet with small slit window opening on sky and
prison wall. No grass or trees in sight.

2.

Shower works on timer.

3.

Small B/W TV for educational programs, some prisoners
only.

BBC web Site Drawing

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A Solitary Confinement Cell

4. Heavy steel door or grate with small slot for handcuffing or
5.
6.
7.
8.

food. Slot may be coated with dried blood, feces and urine.
Writing desk.
Toilet which shuts off if blocked.
Sink.
Steel mirror, not smashable glass.

BBC web site drawing

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U.S. Supreme Court
1890

• Solitary confinement left prisoners in a semifatuous condition.
• The justices saw it as a form of what some
people now call no-touch torture.

̶ History Professor Alfred W. McCoy
University of Wisconsin at Madison

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A Typical Cell
In the federal supermax prison in Florence, Colorado

A solitary confinement prison is called a “supermax.”
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California’s Pelican Bay Supermax

The X-shaped prison holds 1,300 inmates in solitary.
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California’s Pelican Bay Supermax

A naked inmate spreads his toes & buttocks. He is handcuffed
through the cuff and food slot before leaving his cell.
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Solitary Confinement
Belongs with
– The rack
– The thumbscrew
– The wheel
– Protracted questioning & cross questioning
– And other ingenious forms of entrapment
̶ U.S. Supreme Court 1940

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Solitary disrupts profoundly
the sense of the personality.
̶ The U.S. Senate 1994

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The Federal Supermax
400 prisoners in solitary confinement

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Internationally honored
criminologist Hans Toch
says . . .
A supermax . . .

Impairs the mental health of
prisoners.

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Hans Toch
World Acclaimed Criminologist Says,

A supermax . . .

Is a gulag.

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Hans Toch
World Acclaimed Criminologist Says,

A supermax . . .

Is reminiscent of traditional
inquisitory tribunals.

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Hans Toch
World Acclaimed Criminologist Says,

In a supermax . . .

Officers and prisoners are
situationally dehumanized.

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Hans Toch
World Acclaimed Criminologist Says,

In a supermax . . .

Youthful prisoners regressed into
something less than human.

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Father Joseph Romano
NY State supermax chaplain

He saw 16-to-19-year-old inmates.

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Father Joseph Romano
NY State Supermax Chaplain

He says,

The light went out in their eyes.

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Father Joseph Romano
NY State Supermax Chaplain

He says,

They became like zombies.

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Father Joseph Romano
NY State Supermax Chaplain

He says,

I’d talk to them
through the food slot,
and all I got back
was a blank stare.
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Father Joseph Romano
NY State Supermax Chaplain

He says,

I spent a lot of time trying to
console scared kids
who cried and cried.

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Father Joseph Romano
NY State Supermax Chaplain

He says,
The supermax is only about punishment
and breaking down these guys.

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Solitary Confinement

Maine keeps 100 prisoners in solitary confinement.
That’s more than in the whole country of England
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Lance Tapley
Journalist in Augusta writes about Maine’s supermax . . .

It is torture.

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Lance Tapley
Journalist in Augusta writes about Maine’s supermax . . .

It is isolation – sometimes for years.

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Lance Tapley
Journalist in Augusta writes about Maine’s supermax . . .

23 hours a day in a tiny cell.

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Lance Tapley
Journalist in Augusta writes about Maine’s supermax . . .

It is sensory deprivation.

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Lance Tapley
Journalist in Augusta writes about Maine’s supermax . . .

Some prisoners howl in constant
agony.

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Lance Tapley
Journalist in Augusta writes about Maine’s supermax . . .

Inadequate food is shoved through
an unsanitary slot in the door.

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Anthropologist
Lorna Rhodes had
free access to the
Washington State
supermax for ten
years.

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“A

truly remarkable
book. The inside
look at supermax
confinement alone
is worth the price
of admission.
This is meticulous
scholarship.”
̶ Hans Toch, criminologist

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As a result of
this book
Washington
State is
considering
changes to its
whole prison
system.
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Rhodes writes:

Solitary confinement is dehumanizing.

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Rhodes writes:
Disturbed mental states are addressed
by imposing conditions that further
disturb the mind.

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Rhodes writes:
One officer opens the cuffport and
stands carefully to one side while the
other, who is dressed in a waterproof
jumpsuit, quickly pushes in the food
tray. Sometimes inmates stab them
through the opening or hurl feces or
urine at them.

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Rhodes listened:
It builds you into a monster because it
hardens your feelings. ̶ Inmate

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Rhodes listened:
On the third day I started going wall to
wall, banging myself. ̶ Inmate

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Rhodes listened:
I’m like Cerberus at the gates of hell.

̶

Psychiatrist who screens new inmates

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Rhodes listened:
I just went off, spitting, urinating….
If they feel like I’m gonna be a badass,
why not?
̶ Inmate

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Rhodes listened:
Isolation is the worst thing we do to people.
̶ Washington State Prison Official

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• Alcatraz prison was closed in 1963
250 inmates

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• Alcatraz prison was closed in 1963
250 inmates

• Marion Illinois supermax took its place
500 inmates

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• Alcatraz prison was closed in 1963
250 inmates

• Marion Illinois supermax took its place
500 inmates

• We’re building more supermaxes
50,000 inmates in solitary and growing
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Alcatraz – you could talk to somebody

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Supermax – you’re all by yourself

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Supermax Prisons
Time Magazine, January 2007

Cell resembles nothing so much as a
large, concrete closet.

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Supermax Prisons
Time Magazine, January 2007

Majority of Texas and California inmate
suicides occur in solitary.

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Supermax Prisons
Time Magazine, January 2007

Prisoners' brain waves shift toward a
pattern characteristic of stupor and
delirium.

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Supermax Prisons
Time Magazine, January 2007

Within 48 hours the breakdown is
even worse when sensory deprivation
is added.

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Supermax Prisons
Time Magazine, January 2007

Demolish their psyches while they're
in prison, and nobody's safer when
they get out.

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Time Quotes Harvard Psychiatrist
Stuart Grassian

We have to ask ourselves why we're
doing this.

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Time Quotes Harvard Psychiatrist
Stuart Grassian

These aren't a bunch of cold, controlled
James Cagneys.

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Time Quotes Harvard Psychiatrist
Stuart Grassian

We're taking criminals who are already
unstable and driving them crazy.

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Dr. George Hunsinger
Professor, Princeton Theological Seminary

Solitary traumatizes people for life.

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Torture
. . . any act by which severe pain
or suffering, whether physical or
mental, is intentionally inflicted on
a person . . . .
– U.N. Convention Against Torture, Article 1.1

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The jury votes:

Is solitary confinement torture?

• “Yes! Fatal to health”
– de Tocqueville

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The jury votes:

Is solitary confinement torture?

• “Yes! Shatters the mind”
– U.S. Supreme Court

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The jury votes:

Is solitary confinement torture?

• “Yes! It is a gulag.”
– Hans Toch

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The jury votes:

Is solitary confinement torture?

• “Yes! Dehumanizing.”
– Lorna Rhodes

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The jury votes:

Is solitary confinement torture?

• “Yes! We’re driving
them crazy.”
– Stuart Grassian

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The jury votes:

Is solitary confinement torture?

• “Yes! Kids become
zombies.”
– Father Joseph Romano

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The jury votes:

Is solitary confinement torture?

• “Yes! Some howl in
constant agony.”
– Lance Tapley

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The jury votes:

Is solitary confinement torture?

• “Yes! It disrupts
personality.”
– U.S. Senate

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The jury votes:

Is solitary confinement torture?

• The foreman asks us.

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How do you vote?

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Is solitary
confinement
torture?

If it is . . .
• Write President
Obama that we
should not torture
prisoners in
American prisons.
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If it is . . .
• Write the National
Institute of Corrections
to prohibit torture in
corrections.

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If it is . . .
• Ask the governor to
close the state
supermax.

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If it is . . .
• Send a copy of
your letter to
the newspapers.

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If it is . . .
• Schedule a program
on prisons for your
library,
school,
church,
whatever.
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If it is . . .
• Ask our state & federal
representatives not to
spend our taxes on
supermax torture.
• Send a copy to the
newspapers.
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If it is . . .

Decide how
you’ll. . .
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Speak
your
mind.
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