NYC Bar Association Issues Report on “The Brutality of Supermax Confinement”

[chill_wind]

NYC Bar Association Issues Report on “The Brutality of Supermax Confinement”
September 19, 2011
Jean Casella and James Ridgeway

The New York City Bar Association’s Committee on International Human Rights has turned its sights on the American prison system, and produced a concise, well-documented, and important report on solitary confinement in the United States. As the report’s authors write:

The policy of supermax confinement, on the scale which it is currently being implemented in the United States, violates basic human rights. We believe that in many cases supermax confinement constitutes torture under international law according to international jurisprudence and cruel and unusual punishment under the U.S. Constitution. The time has come to critically review and reform the widespread practice of supermax confinement.

This Report first describes supermax confinement in the United States, then surveys the surprisingly limited role of courts in reviewing that practice and concludes with a number of recommendations that suggest the outlines of the reforms we believe are needed. These reforms should encompass not just the administration of supermax confinement in state and federal prisons, but also the legal framework within which this practice is reviewed by courts.

Courts in recent years have largely deferred to prison administrators with regard to the implementation and expansion of supermax confinement, stretching the limits of constitutionality so that supermax is largely immunized from judicial review. Indeed, as long as a prisoner receives adequate food and shelter, the extreme sensory deprivation that characterizes supermax confinement will, under current case law, almost always be considered within the bounds of permissible treatment.

The report takes a stand for all prisoners in long-term solitary confinement, arguing that the practice is both inhumane and unconstitutional:

[chill_wind]

1. California Prisons Hunger Strikes to Renew Sept 26

“Many of the Pelican Bay inmates are in a weakened state of health.”

Inmates at the infamous Security Housing Unit of California’s Pelican Bay state prison say they will go back on hunger strike on September 26, convinced that prison officials have no intention of making a meaningful response to their five core demands. Pelican Bay was the nexus of 21 days of protest in July that, at one point, involved 6,500 inmates at 13 prisons. The protest draw national attention to the routine practice of torture behind prison walls in California and throughout the vast American Prison Gulag.

On July 20, inmate representatives voted to temporarily suspend their strike in order to give prison officials “a couple of weeks” to make good on their promise to give serious attention to the inmates five “core demands,” including clean, adequate and wholesome food, an end to group punishment, and a chance to get out of long-term isolation from human contact, in which inmates are held in solitary for 23 hours a day. But the weeks went by, and inmates finally concluded that prison officials were not about to meet any of the core demands. On September 1, Pelican Bay inmate representative Mutope Duguma told the San Francisco Bay View newspaper that the hunger strike would resume. There are indications that inmates at Calipatria State Prison will also be involved.

http://blackagendareport.com/content/california-prison-hunger-strikes-renew

[vets74]

2. Here are the prisoners' FIVE CORE DEMANDS :::

Prisoner Hunger Strike Solidarity is the web page.

Demands

1. End Group Punishment & Administrative Abuse – This is in response to PBSP’s application of “group punishment” as a means to address individual inmates rule violations. This includes the administration’s abusive, pretextual use of “safety and concern” to justify what are unnecessary punitive acts. This policy has been applied in the context of justifying indefinite SHU status, and progressively restricting our programming and privileges.

2. Abolish the Debriefing Policy, and Modify Active/Inactive Gang Status Criteria -

-- Perceived gang membership is one of the leading reasons for placement in solitary confinement.
-- The practice of “debriefing,” or offering up information about fellow prisoners particularly regarding gang status, is often demanded in return for better food or release from the SHU. Debriefing puts the safety of prisoners and their families at risk, because they are then viewed as “snitches.”
-- The validation procedure used by the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) employs such criteria as tattoos, readings materials, and associations with other prisoners (which can amount to as little as greeting) to identify gang members.
-- Many prisoners report that they are validated as gang members with evidence that is clearly false or using procedures that do not follow the Castillo v. Alameida settlement which restricted the use of photographs to prove association.

3. Comply with the US Commission on Safety and Abuse in America’s Prisons 2006 Recommendations Regarding an End to Long-Term Solitary Confinement – CDCR shall implement the findings and recommendations of the US commission on safety and abuse in America’s prisons final 2006 report regarding CDCR SHU facilities as follows:

-- End Conditions of Isolation (p. 14) Ensure that prisoners in SHU and Ad-Seg (Administrative Segregation) have regular meaningful contact and freedom from extreme physical deprivations that are known to cause lasting harm. (pp. 52-57)
-- Make Segregation a Last Resort (p. 14). Create a more productive form of confinement in the areas of allowing inmates in SHU and Ad-Seg the opportunity to engage in meaningful self-help treatment, work, education, religious, and other productive activities relating to having a sense of being a part of the community.
-- End Long-Term Solitary Confinement. Release inmates to general prison population who have been warehoused indefinitely in SHU for the last 10 to 40 years (and counting).
-- Provide SHU Inmates Immediate Meaningful Access to: i) adequate natural sunlight ii) quality health care and treatment, including the mandate of transferring all PBSP- SHU inmates with chronic health care problems to the New Folsom Medical SHU facility.

4. Provide Adequate and Nutritious Food – cease the practice of denying adequate food, and provide a wholesome nutritional meals including special diet meals, and allow inmates to purchase additional vitamin supplements.

-- PBSP staff must cease their use of food as a tool to punish SHU inmates.
-- Provide a sergeant/lieutenant to independently observe the serving of each meal, and ensure each tray has the complete issue of food on it.
-- Feed the inmates whose job it is to serve SHU meals with meals that are separate from the pans of food sent from kitchen for SHU meals.

5. Expand and Provide Constructive Programming and Privileges for Indefinite SHU Status Inmates.

Examples include:

-- Expand visiting regarding amount of time and adding one day per week.
-- Allow one photo per year.
-- Allow a weekly phone call.
-- Allow Two (2) annual packages per year. A 30 lb. package based on “item” weight and not packaging and box weight.
-- Expand canteen and package items allowed. Allow us to have the items in their original packaging
-- More TV channels.
-- Allow TV/Radio combinations, or TV and small battery operated radio
-- Allow Hobby Craft Items – art paper, colored pens, small pieces of colored pencils, watercolors, chalk, etc.
-- Allow sweat suits and watch caps.
-- Allow wall calendars.
-- Install pull-up/dip bars on SHU yards.
-- Allow correspondence courses that require proctored exams.

Style is altered minimally for clarity.

These demands/requests would put the long-term SHU prisoners on a restriction level parallel to long-term prisoners in other facilities.

Btw: gang membership is usually "determined" in the CDC system by a combination of tattoos and informant statements.

Prison gang members are packed off to Pelican Bay on a rail....