 |
Center for Human Rights and Constitutional
Law
|
California
Prisoners in Solitary Confinement
Voices from SHU “I’ve
been sentenced to solitary confinement with no
disciplinary infraction indeterminately. I’m being
deprived human contact with my wife and daughter,
deprived of my right to an appliance (T.V./Radio), and
all the oppression that comes with being in Calipatria
State Prison’s ASU. Rather than being rehabilitated we
are being suppressed and being forced to mental
anguish.”
- Robbie Riva, CDC# T-49359 (Calipatria State Prison ASU) “I
have been in SHU isolation for 35
years. I would not treat my worst
enemy in such a way as I have been
placed in isolation this long. To
torture another human being with these
horrific conditions should be contrary
to what consists of a healthy
society.”
- Phil Fortman, CDC# B-03557 (Pelican Bay State Prison SHU)  “I have been housed
in isolation for 23 ½ years. Almost daily
now I wake up to a feeling of dread. Over the
past 5 years I have become convinced that death
has to be better than this. This is the kind of
hate that threatens to destroy us all. That
makes a mockery of democracy. Isolation is
horrible and inhumane. It crushes your humanity
and faith.”
- Michael Reed
Dorrough, CDC# D-83611 (Corcoran State Prison)
|
 “It is said that no one truly knows a nation until one has been inside its jails. A nation should not be judged by how it treats its highest citizens, but its lowest ones.” - Nelson Mandela Approximately
80,000 inmates are held in some form of solitary
confinement (SHU, ASU, Ad-Seg, Control Unit)
across 44 States. 11,000 of these inmates are held
in California State prisons, the vast majority of
them are people of color.
On May 23, 2011, the United States Supreme Court rendered a decision indicating that the California Prison System was subjecting inmates to Cruel and Unusual Punishment by presiding over “a prison system so overcrowded that it cannot provide anything close to adequate mental…or medical health care to its 147,000 inmates,” in prisons designed to house just under 80,000 inmates. On March 20, 2012, approximately 400 California prisoners in segregation petitioned the United Nations (UN) to conduct an onsite investigation of the conditions of their imprisonment and issue a decision on whether these conditions violate international law, including the UN Convention Against Torture. The petitions have been submitted to the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture and the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention. _______________________ |
|
Center for Human Rights and Constitutional Law Websites:
CENTERFORHUMANRIGHTS.ORG - CASA-LIBRE.ORG - CENTERFORHUMANRIGHTS.ORG/PRISONERS - CENTERFORHUMANRIGHTS.ORG/DOMA-
VOCESUNIDAS.ORG - NATIONALIMMIGRATIONREFORM.ORG - IMMIGRANTCHILDREN.ORG