This is amazing. I have been interacting with folks like this for a long time, in some of my extracurricular activities.
I will say that it's easy for us to be sympathetic, when we see their "human" side, but that sympathy dries up, real quick, when we are victims.
I have worked with both perpetrators and victims (often, the same person).
It's pretty heart-wrenching. There's no practical solutions on the table. It's pretty difficult to get folks behind efforts to reform things.
In the US, a felony rap is a "scarlet letter" that follows people throughout their entire life, destroying any real chance at true reform. Pretty much guaranteed recidivism. Dishonorable military discharges are another one.
I have heard that the UK has a system that "shelves" criminal records after a certain number of years, and only employment in certain fields (like law enforcement, childcare, etc.) can view the records.
Solitary is one of the worst things we do to other human beings. Humans are social creatures, and despite these people's transgressions, how this isn't considered cruel and unusual punishment and unconstitutional is completely baffling to me. I understand the desire to use solitary as a control mechanism and an escalation threat against inmates, but for people to be held in these conditions for _years_ baffles me that anyone could think that's acceptable.
"Photo Requests from Solitary (PRFS) is a participatory project that invites men and women held in long-term solitary confinement in U.S. prisons to request a photograph of anything at all, real or imagined, and then finds a volunteer to make the image. The astonishing range of requests, taken together, provide an archive of the hopes, memories, and interests of people who live in extreme isolation."
This is depressingly characteristic of the US. Like here fill this form to get a picture of anything you want! But no we'll still keep you in solitary confinement for decades :)
Akin to all the "happy" stories of people coming together to donate to someone's GoFundMe campaign for medical bills.
> I was arrested when I was 17 years old, and I have been in prison for over 30 yrs.; 20 yrs. of that was spent in solitary confinement, 90% of which I did in the windowless cells of Pelican Bay State Prison.
This is beyond fucked up. Arrested as a teenager, they've now spent more time alone in a windowless concrete cell than they did growing up. There's no information on what they did to warrant this, but there's a reason even murder sentences are (usually) less than 10 years in most European countries.
I've seen my share of battles, but this is too brutal to even click on. How this kind of isolation is legal reminds me that criminals rule over us.
For all the empathetic discussion here, it’s important to keep some perspective - in many cases, these prisoners are in solitary because they have repeatedly attacked other inmates or guards, maiming or killing them. Of course they are still human and deserving of human consideration, but it’s not like they end up in solitary for not writing enough unit tests or saying the wrong thing on Slack...
I was in solitary for 3 months this year. Not even criminal, a contempt charge by a retaliatory judge for reporting him to the Iowa Judicial Qualifications Commission. My ex wife had her assistant go to the jail and talk to a drug dealer ... hours later I was viciously attacked and asked for protective custody. Spent my days monastic reading a lot and working out. Happy to answer questions.
It should work like a trade, for each picture requested they give a picture showing why they are held in prison.
On any given day, at least 80,000 people are held in solitary in the United States prisons and jails, either in supermax or other segregation units. Some will remain for months, years, or even decades in conditions that have been shown to cause deep and lasting psychological and physiological harm.
What the fuckity fuck - how is this allowed to happen, in 2020, in a democracy, in a rich/western country? Especially one that loves to preach values of freedom/democracy/equality etc to other countries around the world? This is awful
I guess they accept anything legal, regardless of its offensiveness (in this case, blatant sexism): http://photorequestsfromsolitary.org/muslim-female-in-a-hija...
I mean, of course, this is a personal wish, and people are free to believe whatever they want. It just felt weird and wanted to mention.
Which request is offensive?
Oh my. Some of these make me want to cry.
> wild, natural countryside in Donegal, Ireland, where my grandparents are from
> Hello- I am writing because I heard about your photo program. I am in Pelican Bay SHU Short Corridor. I’ve been held in isolative conditions for 17 years. The image I would like is of Northern Ireland. Specifically Donegal. Any image of the wild, natural country there in donegal would be cherished. My grandparents and great grandparents are from there. Their stories of the place remain forever entrenched in my imagination and minds eye. I never took the time to seek out images of that far away land but, since being buried in SHU, I have longed to see it. I once had a dream of Donegal in which I was walking, barefoot, across the grass. I could literally feel the cool blades between my toes. As I woke, in my windowless cell, I felt a palpable sense of loss. It felt like I was underwater and drowning. In the waking moment I realized I’d be wading through time for the rest of my life. So, my request to you is for an image or photo of this beautiful land that haunts my dreams. I also want to thank you for your innovation. You’ve given choice to men who have lost the ability to choose. So thank you... With Respect, Patrick
http://photorequestsfromsolitary.org/84-2/
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