Solitary in Iran nearly broke me. Then I went inside America's prisons.

[Os Cangaceiros]

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2012/10/solitary-confinement-shane-bauer

Pretty messed up article about solitary confinement.

[GPDP]

What disturbs me the most about the American prison system is how open they are about how terrible it is. And no one seems to bat an eyelid at it. For most Americans, prisons being terrible is not even something to be thought about or reconsidered - it's a natural fact of life. Thus, prisons do nothing to hide how brutal they are, not even the fact that criminals often go in and pick up tips on how to be even more efficient criminals once they get out. Seriously, just watch any of the myriad "documentaries" and reports on prison life they're always showing on MSNBC or other channels, which by the way are never meant to indict or expose the injustice of the prison system, but instead are meant to "inform" or even entertain. It blows my mind. I don't know how people can watch those shows and not come out enraged.

[Os Cangaceiros]

Those shows about prison on TV are so sick and exploitative, I can't even watch that disgusting shit.

And yeah, the casual barbarism of prison is something that is routinely laughed at and joked about by popular culture in the USA.

[LordAcheron]

it's rooted in our purely idiotic idea that we should punish people rather than rehabilitate them, despite all evidence pointing to the effectiveness of the latter over the former. Americans are fucking morons. Even progressives tend to think like that.

[Rugged Collectivist]

Those shows about prison on TV are so sick and exploitative, I can't even watch that disgusting shit.

And yeah, the casual barbarism of prison is something that is routinely laughed at and joked about by popular culture in the USA.

I hate how the reporters are so condescending and smug. I will watch them though so I can get a better view of what these people actually have to go through. You have to be careful though because the reporters will sugarcoat it.


One has been in solitary for 42 years

Monsters. Thanks for posting this article.

[Luc]

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2012/10/solitary-confinement-shane-bauer

Pretty messed up article about solitary confinement.

interesting article and theres lots of links and extra stuff (i hadn't heard of the Black Guerilla Family before) that im now gunna look into so, ty for that! :)

smash down the walls of all prison but leave one up for the guards ;)

[Jimmie Higgins]

it's rooted in our purely idiotic idea that we should punish people rather than rehabilitate them, despite all evidence pointing to the effectiveness of the latter over the former. Americans are fucking morons. Even progressives tend to think like that.Well it's always been more than idiocy and has never really been about rehabilitation - although the original concept was a place where you were supposed to pray yourself into moral behavior.

The modern prison system and "tough on crime" ideology happened before there was a spike in violent crime and was intitially linked to restoring order after the urban riots of the 1960s and other "public disorder" such as protesting. So it's a system of control - and now it's a system of controlling and maintaining a surplus labor force on the one hand and a re-invention of the mainstream concept of what public purpose the government is supposed to serve. The "war on crime" has always been made a point of opposition to spending on education or employment or housing - we'd fund these things if only we didn't have these millions of sociopaths we have no choice but to lock up for life because they are just bad people.

And of course the whole system is built from and for sustaining inequality.

Nothing shows the purpose of prisons as basically human dumping grounds built to strore and control people than the SHUs. SOme industries and companies would like to make money from prison labor, but the existance of the SHU system shows that this is a secondary "cherry-on-top" for the ruling class - they want fear and obedience and scapegoats and that's why the prison system has boomed over the course of increasing economic inequality and repression against poor blacks and latinos.

[Prometeo liberado]

Warehousing seems to be a particularly American phenomena. We warehouse our debt, sexuality, drug addicts, the poor and anything else that we are unable to collectively deal with. A nation of extreme hoarders. Only not nearly as funny and with consequences that will surely bite us in the collective ass.

[Jimmie Higgins]

the prison system has boomed over the course of increasing economic inequality and repression against poor blacks and latinos.

Just to highlight this point:

US inequality:
http://www.shareable.net/fckuploads/image/Inequality/inequality-policy-graph.bmp (http://www.shareable.net/fckuploads/image/Inequality/inequality-policy-graph.bmp)
US incarcerations:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c4/US_incarceration_timeline.gif (http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c4/US_incarceration_timeline.gif)
You can't have that level of wealth being transferred to the top without A) increased crime and anger in society B) breaking some of the population in order to ensure obedience during this expropriation.

So while the working class was being robbed blind by the rich, the rich (through the politicians and the media) had people focus on street-level dime-bag sales as the source of urban decay, neglect and instability in working class lives.

[Ocean Seal]

If you are not disgusted at the prison system, then you have all but lost your humanity.