Does the justice system/prison system make an special arrangements/accomodations for prisoners that are undeniably claustrophobic? Being a claustrophobe myself and barely able to tolerate an elevator for 90 seconds, it seems to me that locking up a claustrophobe in jail is very near “cruel and unusual punishment”. Anyone have any knowledge about this type of situation?
Not per se. No one is excused from imprisonment just because they’re claustrophobic. If that were the case, anyone who was scared of dying could argue they shouldn’t be subject to capital punishment.
On the other hand, most people have the wrong impression that all prisoners live in cells. Many prisoners (maybe even the majority) live in barrack-like housing units. Presumedly a claustrophobe would have no difficulty living in a forty by sixty room.
clausterphobic? well, arrangements are made for (usually) treatment of mental illnesses (some one who’s catatonic for example, wouldn’t just be put in general population), so, if the person were clausterphobic to the point of climbing walls and screaming and bloody etc, it’s possible. Tho’ I recall talking with a prison psych once who told of a case where an inmate sliced off a toe, and they felt that he’d done it intentionally to get put on the psych ward, so they refused to transfer him.
but for a general ‘I’m uncomfortable in close spaces’ nope, for very practical reasons (then you’d have each and every single one with a ‘I can’t sleep except on silk sheets’ sort of thing)
I understand what you’re saying about all prisoners claiming to be claustrophobic to get special privileges or whatever, but in my personal experience, claustrophobia manifests as exactly that - “abnormal dread of being in closed or narrow spaces” (from Merriam Webster’s online dictionary). Accent on the “abnormal dread” part. A claustrophobic reaction is real and genuine, and I don’t know if it could be successfully faked; the physiological changes in my body are not under my control; ie the cold sweat, the dry mouth, the shaking, the white as a ghost face, the heart racing, the blood pressure skyrocketing, etc. My point here is that I believe officials could tell the real claustrophobes from the fakers, and treat the claustrophobes accordingly (with tranquilizer darts, maybe?)
featherlou, well, maybe the corrections officer (remember not a trained psychologist) may realize the person isn’t faking, maybe might care to do something about it.
But, I believe that unless the person is in such serious distress (think Shatner in one of his paralell universe roles), it would come under the heading of ‘tough noogies’.
Prison officials are charged with the ‘health, safety, and welfare’ of prisoners. Not necessarily ‘comfort’. In a serious case, the person may be able to get some leeway, but I would assume that in nearly all cases, it wouldn’t matter.
For example, when I had to take urine drops on folks, I’d get a certain number who would claim to have a ‘shy bladder’ and not be able to pee in front of another person (a requirement for the proper collection of the specimin). A few even went so far as to try and get a medical opinion to waive the rule for them. So far (20+ years) I haven’t heard of one that won it.
So, I again, unless the person was in the climbing the wall, hyperventilating, about to collapse stage, I doubt that there would be any accomodations.
That’s what I’m saying (badly, obviously); that a true claustrophobe would be in the hyper-ventilating, clawing the walls, about to collapse stage. I can’t even think about being in a jail cell without my blood pressure starting to rise. My other point is that this would be very similar to cruel and unusual punishment for someone truly claustrophobic. Sort of like someone with an abnormal dread of snakes being forced to do his time in a snake pit. Except in this case of the claustrophobe the punishment is the exact thing that the claustrophobe dreads most.