Sincere, not rhetorical, question.
Why dd Daniel's penitentiary cell have no windows, and the lights on all the time.
At the federal penitentiary in Colorado, where a lot of terrorists are being held for life, there are windows. Outside the windows are beautiful mountains. But the inmate can't see the beautiful mountains; they can see the beautiful sky.
Also - Why was Daniel hogtied when they took his books? And why did they take his books?
Solitary cells are often windowless, but not always. Some have a strip window; the one's I've read about look onto to sky.
Why they would have no windows would be consistent with the idea behind solitary confinement. As torture.
That, I assume is the reason they took away Daniel's books. "Over the limit" was the justification. But really it's just arbitrary cruelty.
Why was he hogtied? Reading about Albert Woodfox, the longest serving prisoner in solitary confinement - 43 years - who was released this year:
"Every day, corrections officers strip and search Mr. Woodfox and the other prisoners held in solitary confinement. He is searched despite the fact that he is shackled in wrist, ankle and waist chains when outside of his cell."And:
"Since March, the Louisiana corrections department has compounded this nightmare by subjecting Mr. Woodfox to invasive strip and cavity searches every time he leaves his cell - when he goes to see the doctor, gets a haircut or uses the phone to call his lawyers.http://www.nola.com/opinions/index.ssf/2013/11/albert_woodfox_is_being_stripp.html (Editorial by Jasmine Heiss, on behalf of Amnesty International USA.)
These searches are not only degrading, they're illegal - and in a strange twist of irony, it was Mr. Woodfox's previous lawsuit against the state that set this precedent.
In 1978, he sued the state and successfully put an end to the humiliating strip searches that he was forced to endure in the mid-1970s. Judge Daniel W. LeBlanc's ruling established a precedent that holds these searches to be illegal, unconstitutional and against internal prison policy. According to Judge LeBlanc's ruling, the prison 'must curtail, and in certain instances cease, the routine requirement of anal examinations.'...
"That precedent, which lasted more than 30 years, came to an abrupt end when Judge LeBlanc died in March, and the strip and cavity searches quickly resumed both for Mr. Woodfox and others housed on his tier at David Wade Correctional Center. Mr. Woodfox endures strip searches as often as six times a day. He and his attorneys tried to resolve this without litigation for months to no avail. Now they have turned to the court to step in.
In most states, the law lives longer than the judge, but in this case, his lawyers are requesting a restraining order against the Louisiana Department of Public Safety and Corrections...
"Even when he is left to exercise alone in a fenced-in yard - essentially a closed cage - Mr. Woodfox is invasively searched before returning to his cell. The prison continues this practice despite knowing these strip searches are unlawful. Unable to explain the safety or security threats they are addressing when they search Mr. Woodfox, they arbitrarily force him to strip until he is naked, bend at the waist, lift his genitals and spread his buttocks so that officers may inspect him."
Just terrible.
Thanks for all that.
sign_in - We call it a corrections system for a good reason. But often it's not.
Solitary is to drive people insane. How can they reflect on the enormity of their crime if their minds are gone?
Mother Jones had an interesting article by a man who was put in solitary in Iran on suspicion of being a spy, who later visited California's Pelican Bay State Prison. In some ways he had better conditions in Iran, including windows.
Solitary is a little different from the row,
solitary is a punishment, take away everything you can
depending what row you are on, you won't have windows, because usually row criminals are considered more dangerous and their wing is higher security,
not saying it is right
i assume the lights go off at 5pm and come back on at 5am,
just gotta
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