
What it’s like to spend four and a half years in solitary confinement (2015) - sturza
https://fusion.tv/story/216609/shaka-senghor-solitary-confinement/
======
johnpowell
I generally like being alone in my room. My desk, tv, and bed are within 10
feet of each other. And I have never really put anything on my walls. Just
white walls, desk, bed, and tv. I have been in a basement for the last 18
months and I have been upstairs for about 5 minutes today. I have a bathroom
and fridge and microwave down here.

But I have a feeding tube. That is how I ended up down here. We thought it
would be the safest place to be while I was going through chemo. For six
months while my immune system was garbage I just stayed down here and would
only go up to get groceries or go to chemo/radiation. So I always joked that I
think I could deal with solitary. I prefer being alone.

All that changed about a month ago.

The balloon on my PEG tube (DDG it) had deflated. And one night I went to
change the gauze and while I pulled the gauze out it just started pouring out
blood. In a matter of seconds my boxers had blood all over them. I was
terrified. This much blood on the outside, how much blood is going into my
stomach? Am I going to bleed to death? On the ride to the ER I was feeling
faint..

I am getting to the solitary part.

But I saw a nurse right after checking in. And she determined I wasn't
bleeding to death. I was going to have a bit of a wait to see a doctor. 4
hours to be exact. But they wanted me out of the ER waiting room due to being
on pembro and there had just been a case of C-19 8 hours away.

So I was being walked to a room and she said they were low on places to put
me. I was going to be in a "mental health" room. But they got a bed in there
for me. White walls, a bed, no problem..

Huge problem!

It is so hard to describe. It was basically a cinder block box and a massive
metal door. Everything tucked away so you couldn't kill yourself. And it was
so loud since the air had to be pumped in. And I had a bed they wheeled in for
me. And the door was open so I could go to the bathroom when I wanted. If that
door was closed and I couldn't get out I would have lost my shit. And I nearly
lost it anyway. Something about that room was just unlike anything you can
imagine. It was like being buried alive.

I would imagine solitary is about a million times worse. I would classify it
as torture.

And my feeding tube had slipped between my stomach and the "outside skin"
tearing up everything making it bleed. Just shoved it back in and loaded up
the balloon with more saline and went home. And then had the tube replaced the
next day during normal hours.

~~~
WaxProlix
Thanks for the story, and the perspective. I appreciate it.

Obviously it means nothing over the internet but I'm sitting here hoping the
best for you. Good luck, man.

------
cl0rkster
It's absolutely cruel and unusual punishment. The American Constitution
forbids this. I've only spent three days straight in a county solitary cell
for a silly threat to a judge. In that scenario, it was a glass walled cell in
the high security block. Every surface is cement, and your only clothes are a
Velcro tunic/blanket. Surveillance is continuous. There, the non-compliant
were beaten and strapped to a wheelchair for days and not their bed. They also
open your cell to let a violent offender "clean your cell for you" on a
regular basis. It was awful in a way entirely unto itself in my memory. I
can't even begin to imagine the conditions and lengths of time in this
article.

~~~
kortilla
You were in solitary confinement but had another offender come in there daily
to clean the cell while you were there? I was under the impression that
solitary confinement didn’t allow interaction with others.

~~~
p410n3
No cleaning. Beating.

------
Danieru
Why no comments discussing the root cause has the writer reported it: men who
should be receiving non-voluntary mental treatment being forced into the
prison system due to non-existence of mental facilities.

Historically said mental facilities (mental asylums) were themselves inhuman
and barbaric. The out cry against them lead to their closure. Yet if that just
drove the prison system to new levels of inhuman and barbarism then that
itself a regression.

Do other countries have more successful mental services? I know Japan did not
close down their asylums during the same era America did. Are those facilities
acceptable?

~~~
praptak
What lead to their closure in US was Reagan's defunding:
[https://www.salon.com/2013/09/29/ronald_reagans_shameful_leg...](https://www.salon.com/2013/09/29/ronald_reagans_shameful_legacy_violence_the_homeless_mental_illness/amp)

~~~
forkexec
It's bigger than Ronny Raygun. The first problem was JFK died before the
community-based treatment centers could be funded and realized. Subsequent
presidents scaled them back because they didn't understand or couldn't relate
to their need. And so, Cook County (encompassing Chicago) jail run one of the
largest mental healthcare systems because state, local and federal government
has failed to do so.

EDIT: forgot the word "jail"

~~~
praptak
Agreed. There was an article on HN about the demise of psychiatric care in US
written from the inside by a psychiatrist. I can't find it though.

It was about defunding and kicking the problem between the federal level and
the states.

~~~
forkexec
The ol' finger-pointing, can hacky sack-routine rather than helping the people
who can't adequately grasp reality or hold jobs are left to live in tents in
the weeds of highway embankments or under bridges. TBH, this seems like
something some social-work lawyers should take on to push federally through
the courts or with legislation. Worrying about initial sticker-price shouldn't
be the focus because of the numerous ancillary costs that are far more
expensive than doing the right thing (which is why Cook County jail does what
it does).

------
DEADBEEFC0FFEE
Unfortunately the US (no doubt others too) prison is the business of
punishment. If you are poor you will get a harsher punishment. If nobody is
looking you will get a harsher cheaper punishment. Working at a prison
requires a certain mindset. Empathy is soon weeded out. What's left is
brutality. That's the deal society has made, to hide away the hard problem of
solving crime at root cause.

------
bvandewalle
The issue is that we still treat prisons as a medieval revenge tool instead of
a reinsertion phase for the prisoners.

American prisons are a shame and there is absolutely no way that convicts come
out of it ready to participate to society.

This youtube channel gives a good perspective on how inhumane life is in
American prisons:
[https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCzmkeda2XiYpETOP5MjotrQ](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCzmkeda2XiYpETOP5MjotrQ)

~~~
thinkingemote
Its not just prison, it's the entire perception of crime and punishment in the
US.

Its why convicts cannot vote in elections even when they get released.

Its why they still have the death penalty. And why victims families can watch
them being executed. Its eye for an eye, punishment and not forgiveness and
rehabilitation. Its much deeper than the quality of life behind bars.

~~~
nkrisc
> Its why convicts cannot vote in elections even when they get released.

Just felons, not anybody who's been convicted of a crime. Not justifying it,
just making the distinction. I still believe it's wrong.

~~~
tssva
Felons not being able to vote is not universal. It is up to each state to
determine whether to allow felons to vote. In recent years restoration of
voting rights to felons has been on the rise.

~~~
nkrisc
An important clarification, which furthers my point that "convicts can't vote"
is pretty inaccurate.

------
sturza
Also, here's his book: [https://www.amazon.com/Writing-My-Wrongs-Redemption-
American...](https://www.amazon.com/Writing-My-Wrongs-Redemption-
American/dp/1101907312)

------
rasengan0
Big money from few players

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GEO_Group](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GEO_Group)

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CoreCivic](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CoreCivic)

~~~
anigbrowl
Would be no shame if some of those people ended up in the places they operated
for profit.

------
sybarita
It's obviously torture. If you've ever spent one night in a holding
cell/mental health hospital situation you know it's absolutely 100% inhumane.
It's only nazis who've never been in that situation who think like "oh well we
have to do something with people like that you know". We have to help them,
not lock them in a fucking box. It's a heinous crime committed every single
day by the state and complicit officials. Should be abolished today.

------
somberi
Eva Zeisel is an important American designer. She also happened to be my next
door neighbor. Over dinner, she recounted her 12-months in solitary
confinement in Siberia, for having protested against Stalin's regime. She has
written a bit about this experience.

She was 97 when I knew of her and even though she was ageing, her faculties
were sharp (Extra Pepperoni is the only way to have a Slice, she said).

I asked her what lessons from the Solitary confinement stayed with her. She
said "The value of knowing that there was no yesterday and probably there will
be no tomorrow. And somehow I need to resist the urge to use, the
intentionally left behind blunt knife to cut my veins. And the value of
dressing warm".

I cannot even imagine what it must have been. She was some human.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eva_Zeisel](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eva_Zeisel)

------
CheesecakeFred
You can measure the health of a society in how they treat the weak and
helpless (helpless in this case in regards to prisoners who are at the whim of
the prison).

In this regard, America is profoundly sick and defective.

It is of course true, instead of rehabilitating, they are breeding criminals
in prison. It's an abomination.

------
miked85
> I began to carry a gun every day, dealing with the PTSD issues, and fourteen
> months later I shot a man and unfortunately caused his death.

He doesn't really seem to want to take responsibility for killing someone. I
am sure solitary is terrible, but so is being killed by someone like him.

~~~
tda
That is really besides the point, because this article is about the third
world, or should I say medieval prison system in the USA. That system is a
crime against humanity in far too many ways. It is just one of the things many
Europeans just don't get why you think it's acceptible. The prison system in
the USA is a major cause of crime, not a solution. No civilized country has
jailed up anywhere near the percentage of the population as the USA

~~~
manigandham
How is it a cause of crime?

~~~
Proziam
Several factors.

1\. If you go to prison, innocent or otherwise, you're not getting hired
afterward. This leads to desperation, desperation leads to...

2\. In prison, you become socially reliant on criminals to simply get by. This
results in cultural transference. Someone getting in trouble for shoplifting
learns about the joys of [insert more lucrative criminal activity here].
Combine this with point 1 and you get repeat offenders who become 'hardened'
criminals. Basically, they get better at crime, because crime involves skills
just like everything else in life.

3\. Poor prison conditions result in psychological trauma. This, in turn,
leads to anti-social behavior.

In short, we pay a lot of money to create better criminals who are highly
motivated to commit more crimes.

------
vekker
Sounds like hell, the way he describes it.

However, if you'd take those hellish elements away & ensure silence, I think
long solitary confinement might work if you teach people how to meditate.
That's just not being done enough in prisons right now. See "Doing Time, Doing
Vipassana"
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WkxSyv5R1sg](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WkxSyv5R1sg)

EDIT: I know this is probably a controversial opinion to non-meditators, but
if you're going to downvote, at least provide an argument for why you don't
agree.

~~~
0xBA5ED
>I know this is probably a controversial opinion to non-meditators, but if
you're going to downvote, at least provide an argument for why you don't
agree.

I'm guessing it's the pretense that you can simply teach anyone to meditate
whether or not they want to learn. Also, it suggests a system where a form of
torture is potentially justified because you shift responsibility to the
person being tortured. "They took the class on meditation and signed on the
line that they understand how to endure solitary, so their suffering is their
own fault!"

~~~
brigandish
> I'm guessing it's the pretense that you can simply teach anyone to meditate
> whether or not they want to learn

Meditation _techniques_ aren't hard to learn, they're comparable to any form
of exercise. The hard bit is in doing them _sincerely_ , just like any form of
exercise.

Can you teach someone press-ups? Then you can teach them meditation. You just
can't make them do it, or effectively.

As to signing up for solitary for an extended period, I wish I could, but
_only if it was humane_ (e.g. no violence, feces flung at me etc), which I'm
willing to bet (and the article seems to back up my suspicion) _prison_
solitary isn't.

~~~
dgellow
What you're describing is __forcing __people to meditate.

The way I understand what you describe: "We will torture you, you can either
have it better by doing this meditation thing _we teach you_ or you can
suffer"

The issue here is the torture itself, not the fact that the torture is
difficult to deal with.

~~~
brigandish
> What you're describing is forcing people to meditate.

In no way have I done that.

Addendum: If I describe that a _technique_ is easy to teach or simple to
learn, why does that imply _forcing_ someone to do it?

What a bizarre inference to take.

------
holler
I wonder what the physiological effects on the body are from years of no
sunlight, no physical exertion, and constant stress? Must have atrophied like
crazy.

------
dchyrdvh
It's another time someone mentions the Plato's Cave. The reason this allegory
often makes deep impression is that Plato was initiated, not just a
philosopher, and thus actually knew what he was talking about and that
allegory is a carefully worded model of reality, as accurate as it could be
told at that time.

~~~
popup21
I'm aware of Plato's cave, however, I don't get your reference to him being
initiated. Could you go a bit deeper?

------
pell
Torture. It should be abolished.

------
pishpash
Post right in time for quarantine.

------
lisper
TL;DR: It's torture.

