In an article about Jacob Ind, a juvenile charged to life for the murder of his parents, Mary Ellen Johnson describes the life of a juvenile detainee in the Colorado State Penitentiary. Ind is only allowed out of his cell for two hours a day to exercise under close supervision and is fed through holes in the door of his cell which is completely boxed in by concrete walls. He is allowed to write letters and with good behavior he’s afforded few visitation rights (Jacobs letter). Detainees in the Guantanamo Prison are given no natural light or fresh air, their two hours a day outside of their cells are still spent in isolation to keep them from contact with other prisoners. They get no visitation but are allowed the privilege of a book or Koran, etc. Many of the prisoners are war criminals against the US and aren’t even afforded trial for their crimes (Guantanamo). An article about the Pelican Bay Prison states that its solitary prisoners are not placed there by sentence but due to behavior inside of the prison. They use the prison for mentally ill prisoners and to break up gangs. However, sentences aren’t normally life long, they end after years of good behavior or after telling guards all that is known about a gang one is associated with (Pelican Bay).
It is in my belief that if the prisoners were sentenced to life in a Supermax Prison, with no chances of reintroduction to the outside world, a more humane punishment would be the death penalty. Complete isolation with no hopes of reintegration is a violation of the 8th Amendment. It’s like telling them they can live, but that their lives or hopeless, just a viscous cycle of survival taking up space that does no good for the outside world. If a prisoner will eventually be allowed out of the prison, then temporarily detaining them in solitary confinement may be the only solution guards have to containing order inside the prison and it makes sense. At least allow life sentences in Supermax to engage in medical research trials, or something of value to the outside world so that the price of running the prison isn’t wasted on the satisfaction of anti capital punishment agendas and prisoners can feel like they accomplished something before they die, or allow the prisoners to write and publish books to teach others of the fallacy’s of their crimes.
References:
Johnson, Mary Ellen. “What I learned in Supermax; a Guest Post From Mary Ellen Johnson”. Compassion in Juvenile Sentencing, March 20, 2008. http://compassioninjuvenilesentencing.wordpress.com/2008/03/20/what-i-le... [Jacobs Letter]
Daskal, Jennifer, and Sullivan, Stacy. “The Insanity inside Guatanamo”. Salon.com, Guantanamo, Cuba, June 10, 2008. http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2008/06/10/guantanamo_mental/ [Guantanamo]
Sulliva, Laura. “At Pelican Bay Prison, A Life in Solitary”. NPR News, July 26, 2006. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5584254 [Pelican Bay].
This is very interesting. And I do agree that in many cases the death penalty is better--It is more humane than locking them up in a cell for the rest of their life, and other smaller benefits like releaving the pressure of having too little space and too many criminals--one of the problems a lot of prisons are having.
I'm reading a book called "the Chamber" by John Grisham. It's a story about your topic. I suggest reading it--it's very good