# solitary confinement is cruel **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [November 2, 2013, 1:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/solitary-confinement-is-cruel/672896 "2013-11-02T01:31:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2013, 1:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/solitary-confinement-is-cruel/672896/41 "2013-11-03T13:12:10Z")
> [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](#): > > What am I, on your ignore list? Most of what you have to say [ol][li]talks about the mentally ill, and [\*]is based on your experience in Wisconsin.[/ol]Do you have any evidence the subject of the article is mentally ill, or what the circumstances of his case are?[/li] Regards, Shodan ---
**Author:** ![doreen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/858c86/32.png) [@doreen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/doreen)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2013, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/solitary-confinement-is-cruel/672896/42 "2013-11-03T15:53:47Z")
> [@handsomeharry](#): > > I was also thinking about this. The writer probably forgot to mention the “Fuck You, Pig”, as well as whatever it was that he threw at the guard who saw the stamps, and told him of the regs. And he also forgot to explain why so many inmates never end up in the box and some even serve years with no disciplinary infractions if tickets are given out “like penny candy”. ---
**Author:** ![Lakai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/9de0a6/32.png) [@Lakai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lakai)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2013, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/solitary-confinement-is-cruel/672896/43 "2013-11-03T17:29:36Z")
> [@](#): > > But I never committed one act of violence during my entire sentence. Instead, a series of “tickets”, or disciplinary write-ups for prison rule violations, were punished with a total of more than five years in “the box”. > > In New York, guards give out tickets like penny candy. During my nine years in prison, I received an endless stream of tickets, each one more absurd than the last. When I tried to use artwork to stay sane, I was ticketed for having too many pencils. Another time, I had too many postage stamps. > > One day, I ate an entire apple – including the core – because I was starving for lack of nutrition. I received a ticket for eating the core, since apple seeds contain arsenic, as spelled out in the prison handbook. The next time I received an apple, fearful of another ticket, I simply left it on the tray. I received a ticket for “refusing to eat”. This is very misleading. I find it very peculiar that the author never tells us what landed him in solitary confinement in the first place. Instead he only mentions a few of the more absurd tickets he received during his nine years in prison and lets you think that a ticket for eating an apple core extended his time in solitary confinement. It’s more likely that he had some violent offense of some type and a lot of other more serious rule violations that served as the bases for putting him in solitary confinement. I tried to search for what landed him in SHU, but could only find [this article](http://nycaic.org/2013/04/29/news-bill-aims-to-reduce-solitary-confinement-in-new-york-city-jails/) in which the author relies on Mualimmak as the source. Here is the relevant part: > [@](#): > > Once he was put in prison, a fight landed the Bronx man in solitary confinement. > > “I got stabbed at Rikers,” Mualimmak said. “If you are a victim, it’s not where they care about you. Five people were involved in the fight and everyone was going to the box.” > > This was just his introduction to solitary. > > More brawls kept him there — 23 hours of time spent in a room where the light never turns off, and one hour, “maybe,” spent outside — for about five years. A family member sent him a book that the prison deemed an organizing device, Mualimmak said, and he was given more time in solitary. It says “more brawls kept him there”. I wonder if he was the victim in all these other brawls? If he’s in solitary, then the only people he would have the opportunity to fight would be the prison officials. He’s not coming in contact with other prisoners in SHU. Kind of forgot to mention that part. ---
**Author:** ![TBG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c89c15/32.png) [@TBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TBG)\ **Post date:** [November 3, 2013, 11:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/solitary-confinement-is-cruel/672896/44 "2013-11-03T23:36:55Z")
> [@AnaMen](#): > > Solitary sounds truly unbearable, and should be reserved for extreme situations, like if the person is such a threat to others that there is no fair way to allow them near anyone. Even then, windows and ways to pass the time should be required. > Our prison system and its supporters make me sick. Criminals make me sick. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/solitary-confinement-is-cruel/672896.md?page=2)