This is an “account of life in Special Management Unit at SCI-Fayette in Pennsylvania [which] comes to us via the Human Rights Coalition”. A juvenile lifer (the unbelievable stupidity of putting kids behind bars for life) talks about his experiences.
I have been on Phase 4 for a month now and during that time I have witnessed several mentally ill RHU prisoners threaten to commit suicide. I have observed how RHU prison officials eagerly geared up in black Star-Wars helmet, body pads, shields, pepper spray and stun guns and were just itch’n to use their new toys against mentally ill RHU prisoners during cell extractions. I have witnessed the SMU/RHU counselor and unit manager come on the pod and leave just as quick as they came, without even as much interviewing and evaluating the psyche of the prisoners, let alone addressing their concerns. The Psychologist does the exact same thing. What occurs is that the mentally ill RHU prisoners’ minds deteriorate even worse to the point of insanity from the years of total isolation in solitary, forced cell extractions, beatings, restraint chairs, stripped cells, semi-starvation on food loafs, constant harassment by guards, and psychotic drugs.
For a juvenile offender, he writes extremely well. Not the usual uneducated teenager from an underprivileged background!Makes me wonder why he is behind bars…
Given the well-nigh indiscriminate runaway jailing rates in the US, you can’t apply logic to this. I mean look at the prisoner/population rate: http://defendingthepublicgood.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/Prisoners-per-10000-4.png.
This is a disgrace, just as the amount of kids jailed for life or on deathrow.
Not good.
Depends on what they have done. Am against the death penalty anyway -for kids or adults.
Not sure if I agree when a 16 year old goes on the rampage and murders a whole family just for kicks, as oftem seems to be the case in the US. However, they are usually from underprivileged, uneducated families with a history of violence within the family/community.
Hence my remark on the quality of the writing in your posting.
Topical. On he BBC Website today:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-13457576
Not just the kids. The American penal system belongs to the Middle Ages… Unbelievable. What must the truth about Guantanomo be?