10 REASONS TO ABOLISH SOLITARY CONFINEMENT:
1. Research suggests that long-term isolation is linked to increased recidivism.
2. There is no evidence that isolation reduces prison violence.
3. Solitary confinement is a common punishment in juvenile facilities in the USA.
4. Housing people in isolation costs taxpayers $50,000 per prisoner per year compared with $25,000 for general population units.
5. Isolation has a devastating impact on family communications and relationships.
6. A disproportionate percentage of prison suicides, including of juveniles, occur in solitary confinement units.
7. Fewer than half of prisoners in isolation meet state guidelines for supermax confinement.
8. The system of confinement with solitude initiated at Eastern State Penitentiary was determined to cause madness and officially abandoned in 1911.
9. Isolation exacerbates and breeds mental illness and causes psychological and physical deterioration.
10. The excessively harsh regime of supermax prisons is a violation of the international Convention Against Torture.
Questions Continue for S.C.I. Smithfield POSTED: 10:52 am EST January 9, 2008 HUNTINGDON, Pa. -- After dozens of people protested against alleged inhumane treatment of inmates at S.C.I. Smithfield in Huntingdon County, family members of inmates who killed themselves while in prison have many questions for facility officials. Joe Kapa Sr. sent a $200 check to his son on June 23, 2007. It was cashed on June 28 -- three days after Kapa's son hanged himself in his prison cell. He showed paperwork proving his allegations. He said the prison never answered him on where the money went. But officials told Channel 6 News what can happen to money when inmates pass away. "The prison has the power of attorney over the inmates and anything that's sent to them," said Lisa Hollibaugh, the assistant superintendent at S.C.I. Smithfield. "If money remains on their account after death, we use it to pay to mail their belongings to their families, or to pay for cremation if that's what the family chooses. Anything left over after that is mailed to the family." But the families of Joe Kapa Jr., Joe Holguin, and Clifford Finney said they never received any money back after the men hanged themselves on June 25, Oct. 29, and Dec. 2, 2007, respectively. And they said the prison never explained to them where the money went. While the families were protesting outside the prison over the weekend, they said a corrections officer yelled to them, "Suicide is the answer to overcrowded prisons." They took down the license plate number. Prison officials said they ran the plate and found it did not belong to a Department of Corrections employee. The prisoners' rights groups at the protest plan on running the plate on their own to find out for sure. Hakeem Shaheed served nearly 20 years at the United States Penitentiary in Marian, Ill., where he said he was brutally beaten. His story was covered nationally. "In my case, I was tortured for two hours," said Shaheed. "Nine guards were removed from Marion Federal Penitentiary, and the case is still under investigation." He protested with families outside S.C.I. Smithfield who said they don't believe their loved ones committed suicide. They believe either they were killed and corrections officers made it look to be suicide, or that officers helped them hang themselves. "I know sometimes where they know an inmate is about to commit suicide and they basically let him do it," added Shaheed. But S.C.I. Smithfield officials said they would never turn a blind eye to a prisoner in need. "We're trained to look for signs and symptoms that an inmate may have mental health issues that need addressed," added Hollibaugh. Shaheed and the families of the dead inmates want someone besides Pennsylvania State Police to investigate deaths at the prison. "If there's any negligence on behalf of any staff member, they should be removed from duty," added Shaheed. "Fired, basically."
