Blog 5: California Hospitality

For this week’s article, Amnesty International found that the treatment of prisoners in solitary confinement at the California Pelican Bay State Prison was a violation of international human rights laws. There are similar claims as to the treatment of prisoners at the Corcoran State prison. Prisons in California are already 50% over capacity. Under these conditions, over 3,000 prisoners are in extreme solitary confinement enduring the effects of the lack of sunlight, fresh air, and direct human contact. Amnesty International interviewed some of the inmates that have been held in isolation and the results were disturbing to me. Inmates talked of the lack of human contact as the worse part of the long-term confinement. One spoke of the weird and pitiful things he would have to do to pass the time.

The conditions that the inmates endure in Californian prisons have the potential to cause long-term psychological effects. Confinement to this degree should constitute as torture for its negative behavioral effects. It’s hard to believe that treatment such as this is happening in my home state and on U.S. soil let alone conditions in other countries such as Syria. Lots of changes must be made to draw the line between justified imprisonment and cruel, dehumanizing confinement. There are supposed to be programs of rehabilitation and heath aid for these prisoners, but those who are in confinement aren’t allowed to participate in such events. Prisons are worried about the excess capacity of prisons, but the cause is right in front of them. Some prisons may not release prisoners who are not mentally stable to live out their lives or just send them off to a medical institution. By keeping them in isolation they are in a way forcing the inmates to remain ineligible for release. This is a major factor in the over capacity of prisons. What would be worse than that is if the same event that happened in California last year were to occur? In 2011, over 32,000 inmates were released to lower capacity and suicide rates. Some of these inmates may have come from mental treatment programs.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/09/27/us-usa-california-prisons-idUSBRE88Q0A920120927