Funny how that can be regional, I’ve worked in both IL and NM and tickets were called either IR, chit, or ticket. We were called officers or CO’s, and they were called inmate or prisoner. We said lock-down, and we did have SHU but since I worked death row (in NM) it was all lock-down all the time.
May I ask a few since the answers are apparently mainly being given in PMs?
Little Nemo, you once mentioned that forcible rape is quite rare in prison but made a distinction with situations where the person has to choose between being beat up and engaging in sex. How common is that latter form of sex?
What makes it awful?
What tends to make solitary confinement difficulty for inmates? Do some take it easier than other and if so, what do you think enables them to suffer less from it? Do any practice meditation while in isolation?
And in Kansas, they are facilities, inmates, and officers, with the latter reporting to the warden and the deputy wardens. Rule-breaking merits a disciplinary report (“DR”); a minor violation might get an inmate put on restriction; for a serious violation, he’ll go to Disciplinary Segregation, a.k.a. the hole.
Different jurisdictions, different terminology, different logistics. Where is your story set?
It’s awful because you are seeing human beings reduced to an animal state. Minimal human contact, 23 hours a day of solitary lock down, very degrading interventions any time they were moved (like to the hour of recreation where they are placed alone in a barred metal box in the yard). Constant strip searches, minimal hygiene (weekly showers). You could just watch them slowly lose their minds and/or become even more violent and hate filled.
Solitary is different for every inmate, but I think humans are wired to be part of a group, we’re also wired to respond positively to touch. Remove the social group and any compassionate touch and many simply wither.
Why the constant strip searches? If they got a lot of contact with people’ I could see why but it’s evidently not the case.
Why are showers so infrequent?
In what ways do they lose their minds?
Part of it seems to be the petty rules and practices that seem designed just to make life as difficult as possible.
For example, at one Kansas facility, if you were in Disciplinary Segregation, the rules stated that you were still entitled to one hour of exercise in the yard a certain number of days a week (four, I think), during which time you could also use the phone to call your family or your lawyer.
That hour would be scheduled sometime between 11 pm and 3 am.
:smack:
They are strip searched twice every time they leave or enter their cells, so at least twice a day when they go out for rec. The search is for contraband.
The state said a shower was only required one time per week so that’s what they got. The rest of the time was washing in the tiny basin in their cells.
The withdraw or act out more and more, they talk to themselves endlessly, they scream and cry at night, they write ever more bizarre letters and requests of facility officials, they engage in self harm. Over time some act, in many ways, the same as an undiagnosed schizophrenic would, responding to visual or auditory hallucinations.
The story’s setting is a bit ambiguous right now. It would make the most sense to base it in Canada, but not sure yet.
I do visit the Detention Barracks/Prison for the military regularly as part of my job. It’s fascinating really. They make rehabilitation the main focus, as opposed to punishment (which is a luxury they can afford due to the low ratio of ‘guests’ to officers. A few things really shocked me, for example, I always used to think if I was every in solitary, I would just sleep the whole time. I was surprised to know that wasn’t tolerated. They can’t even sit or lean on the wall during “awake” hours.
Could you tell us more about military prison?
Apart from not being able to sit or sleep, how does it seem to differ from civilian prison?
The not sleeping or sitting is only in solitary, and only during “awake hours”. I am not an expert though. It’s incredibly clean (the inmates clean it) and everything is very, very squared away.