*Jam-packed or alone* Overcrowding and solitary confinement, in California and beyond Aug 17th 2013 | LOS ANGELES |From the print edition<http://www.economist.com/printedition/2013-08-17>
Its cramped in here JEFFREY BEARD, Californias prisons chief, boasts that the number of inmates in the states prisons has fallen by 43,000 since 2006. But unlike other states that have seen big drops, Californias hand was forced: in 2009 federal judges were so concerned by overcrowding that they ordered the state to cut prison occupancy to 137.5% of design capacity (at one point it exceeded 200%). The ruling has been upheld over the laments of officials, most recently by the Supreme Court on August 2nd. An appeal is pending. California has not reduced numbers simply by setting people free. Rather, it has sent lots of non-serious offenders to county jails instead of state prisons (a policy called realignment). To meet the court-decreed target by the end of the year, the state must find another 7,000 or so prisoners to offload, says Mr Beard. His department hopes to do this mainly through *capacity options, such as dispatching prisoners to costly private lock-ups in other states.* Officials worry that further releases may cut into muscle rather than fat, says Joan Petersilia of Stanford Law School. Crime has crept up in parts of California since realignment began in 2011 (although the causal link isnt clear). Still, Ms Petersilia thinks the state could release some elderly and frail inmates. Mr Beard is also contending with a month-long hunger strike by 300-odd prisoners opposing conditions in Security Housing Units (SHUs), often (and incorrectly, say officials) described as solitary confinement. *SHUs were created in the 1980s to isolate gang members; some of the 3,500 prisoners they house have been there for over two decades.* Last year the states department of corrections softened policy on the use of SHUs after two earlier hunger strikes; gang members must no longer turn informant to be released, for example. Mr Beard says todays strike is orchestrated by gang leaders. Solitary confinement is a touchy topic nationwide. How many Americans are subjected to it is hard to say. As of 2005 roughly* 25,000 were held in supermax prisons, in which the most dangerous prisoners are locked in a single cell for up to 23 hours a day. When they are let out to exercise, they do so alone, watched over by guards in riot gear*. Meals come through slots in a door. Some cells have no windows. T*ens of thousands of inmates in normal prisons are also sent to solitary, usually for breaking rules. Some stay there indefinitely.* In 2011 Juan Mendez, the UN special rapporteur on torture, called for an end to solitary confinement of periods longer than 15 days. Terry Kupers, a psychiatrist, says roughly half of all prison suicides occur among the small fraction of prisoners kept in isolation. Some prisoners need to be kept apart from other inmates for their own safety. Brian Nelson, who spent 23 years in solitary and says he remains scarred, acknowledges that when someone becomes [uncontrollably] psychotic or homicidal you need to put them in there for cooling off. But that should not take decades. *Correction:* California's SHUs hold 3,500 prisoners, not 4,500 as we originally stated. This was corrected on August 16th 2013 >From the print edition: United States<http://www.economist.com/printedition/2013-08-17> -- JAI RAC-LA [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] ------------------------------------ --------------------------------------------------------------------------- LAAMN: Los Angeles Alternative Media Network --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Unsubscribe: <mailto:laamn-unsubscr...@egroups.com> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Subscribe: <mailto:laamn-subscr...@egroups.com> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Digest: <mailto:laamn-dig...@egroups.com> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Help: <mailto:laamn-ow...@egroups.com?subject=laamn> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Post: <mailto:la...@egroups.com> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Archive1: <http://www.egroups.com/messages/laamn> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Archive2: <http://www.mail-archive.com/laamn@egroups.com> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/laamn/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/laamn/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: laamn-dig...@yahoogroups.com laamn-fullfeatu...@yahoogroups.com <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: laamn-unsubscr...@yahoogroups.com <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
