# Throw him in solitary for 22 months. Then drop the charges. **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [March 7, 2013, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/throw-him-in-solitary-for-22-months-then-drop-the-charges/652314 "2013-03-07T19:25:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![septimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/septimus/32/410_2.png) [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2013, 9:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/throw-him-in-solitary-for-22-months-then-drop-the-charges/652314/21 "2013-03-08T09:28:09Z")
> [@Ravenman](#): > > [This](http://now.msn.com/stephen-slevin-awarded-millions-in-compensation-for-solitary-confinement-treatment) is just unconscionable. Some of the comments at the page astounded me. More than one emphasized that Mr. Slevin was charged with DWI: “If this was the punishment for DUI maybe there would be less of them…”; another was concerned about the taxpayers’ $15 million. Then from that page, I clicked on “NY millionaire on trial, charged with keeping a slave in her mansion” and saw the comment “The woman (slave) is a lawbreaker. She has chosen to flaunt US immigration laws …” ---
**Author:** ![epbrown01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7ba0ec/32.png) [@epbrown01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/epbrown01)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2013, 9:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/throw-him-in-solitary-for-22-months-then-drop-the-charges/652314/22 "2013-03-08T09:37:55Z")
> [@Martin\_Hyde](#): > > I often wonder about the people who occasionally get multimillion dollar settlements for wrongful imprisonment. Most of these people usually are not upstanding citizens who had their lives together before going to prison (probably less so afterward.) I wonder how they fare with managing their new found wealth? We know that a great many lottery winners handle it poorly, and if release services for the wrongfully convicted are what I hear they are (basically non-existent and way less than what rightfully convicted and paroled people get) I’d imagine a great many of them squander their settlement money quickly through ignorance and falling prey to “friends and relatives.” There have been some stories about such people; they tend to go thru it pretty quickly. I recall Rodney King’s family saying he didn’t leave enough money to cover his funeral, and he got nearly $9m. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2013, 2:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/throw-him-in-solitary-for-22-months-then-drop-the-charges/652314/23 "2013-03-08T14:39:35Z")
> [@Ravenman](#): > > You really think you could spend two years in a prison cell with no windows, no human interaction, no recreation time, no outdoors, etc and come out a sane and well adjusted person? Seriously? Not to minimize what happened to this guy, but we don’t really know from your article what the exact conditions of his “solitary confinement” were. ---
**Author:** ![Ravenman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ravenman/32/2929_2.png) [@Ravenman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ravenman)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2013, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/throw-him-in-solitary-for-22-months-then-drop-the-charges/652314/24 "2013-03-08T14:50:41Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > Not to minimize what happened to this guy, but we don’t really know from your article what the exact conditions of his “solitary confinement” were. [link,](http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/01/26/10243856-letters-from-solitary-confinement-reveal-dwi-mans-despair?lite) [link.](http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/01/25/10233835-man-spends-2-years-in-solitary-after-dwi-arrest) It’s awful. > [@](#): > > His toenails started curling around his foot because they were so long, he told [KOB.com](http://KOB.com). And his countless requests to see a doctor for depression medication were ignored, he said.. . . > > While in solitary confinement, a prisoner is entitled to one hour per day out of the cell, but often times, Slevin wasn’t even granted that, Coyte said. He was deprived of showers and grew fungus underneath his skin. > [@](#): > > [Before being jailed] He was physically healthy, but desperate to get treatment for his depression that he had been suffering with prior to being in solitary confinement - a cell with no natural light that prisoners are in 23 hours a day, although often times, guards failed to even grant Slevin his one hour of daily recreation time, his lawyer told [msnbc.com](http://msnbc.com). . . . “There was no doctor looking after him. There was a nurse, the nurse practitioner.” But the so-called nurse practitioner only had a bachelor’s degree in psychology and no actual medical qualifications, KOB reported. . . . > > The answer, for most of his 22-month detainment, was that he was in “deplorable” conditions of his solitary “pod,” court documents state, except for a 14-day period in May 2007, when he was sent to New Mexico Behavioral Health Institute in Las Vegas, N.M., for a psychiatric review. He had lost a third of his body weight by that point, documents say, and had bed sores and a fungal infection on his skin. ---
**Author:** ![Muffin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muffin/32/4341_2.png) [@Muffin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Muffin)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2013, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/throw-him-in-solitary-for-22-months-then-drop-the-charges/652314/25 "2013-03-08T15:00:23Z")
Millions of dollars? Hire a few hit-men. ---
**Author:** ![R3d\_Anonymous](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/aeb1de/32.png) [@R3d\_Anonymous](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/R3d_Anonymous)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2013, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/throw-him-in-solitary-for-22-months-then-drop-the-charges/652314/26 "2013-03-08T15:03:30Z")
Never mind. ---
**Author:** ![R3d\_Anonymous](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/aeb1de/32.png) [@R3d\_Anonymous](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/R3d_Anonymous)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2013, 3:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/throw-him-in-solitary-for-22-months-then-drop-the-charges/652314/27 "2013-03-08T15:08:28Z")
That’s seriously fucking cruel. This, in the US? I can’t believe this. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Martin\_Hyde](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/47e85d/32.png) [@Martin\_Hyde](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martin_Hyde)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2013, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/throw-him-in-solitary-for-22-months-then-drop-the-charges/652314/28 "2013-03-08T15:20:21Z")
> [@Ravenman](#): > > You really think you could spend two years in a prison cell with no windows, no human interaction, no recreation time, no outdoors, etc and come out a sane and well adjusted person? Seriously? Yah, me and some relatives had a discussion about just this issue but modified. It was 10 years locked in a basement, and you had “30 points” points could buy you stuff in the basement. So it wasn’t like solitary, but it was longer than this scenario. I personally think I could probably do solitary for two years. I don’t have anything to base that on, but some individuals have done solitary for longer than that. Some go crazy, some don’t. I’d be making a wager with a $15.5m payoff banking on the fact I wouldn’t be crazy at the end of it. Part of what I think would make it easier would be knowing I’d get released in two years, something the man in the subject didn’t have going for him. And I’m sane going in, which he didn’t have going for him either. ---
**Author:** ![Martin\_Hyde](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/47e85d/32.png) [@Martin\_Hyde](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martin_Hyde)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2013, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/throw-him-in-solitary-for-22-months-then-drop-the-charges/652314/29 "2013-03-08T15:24:00Z")
What actually made his solitary so bad is it was in an county jail. County jails are the worst of all things in terms of treatment of prisoners and oversight (which is minimal.) Awhile back when people were complaining about the treatment of Bradley Manning, I posted about 5-6 in depth articles that highlighted the appalling treatment of people in pre-trial detention all throughout the United States, and people put in long term segregation in prison as well. My point was basically that while I wasn’t commenting on whether I agreed with what was happening to Manning, it’s a very common thing and most people don’t realize it. I think I could do two years in supermax because I know I’d get a shower, basic hygiene treatment occasionally, they give you reading material. You get occasional time to work out in a small open air area etc. I didn’t say I could necessarily do two years in a county jail with none of those things and no idea when I’d be released, but I do think I could do two years in Supermax. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2013, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/throw-him-in-solitary-for-22-months-then-drop-the-charges/652314/30 "2013-03-08T15:28:30Z")
Apparently things are [much better](http://www.donaanacounty.org/detention/docs/Fourth_Expert_Monitoring_report_020112.pdf) as a result of this lawsuit (and another apparently unrelated one I can’t find anything about). It’s worth noting that we’re not talking about some hick county with 300 people in it. Las Cruces is in Dona Ana. Plus, current NM governor [Susana Martinez](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Susana_Martinez) was the county DA at the time. ---
**Author:** ![MichaelEmouse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/michaelemouse/32/101_2.png) [@MichaelEmouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MichaelEmouse)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2013, 3:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/throw-him-in-solitary-for-22-months-then-drop-the-charges/652314/31 "2013-03-08T15:30:31Z")
" **Stephen Slevin gets arrested for DUI**. He has some mental health problems, so he is put in solitary confinement. He gets virtually no medical care except for sedatives from a nurse. He loses 50 pounds. Fungus grows on his skin. He pulls his own tooth because he was denied access to a dentist. 22 months later, his trial is cancelled because the charges are dismissed." Did he do it? ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2013, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/throw-him-in-solitary-for-22-months-then-drop-the-charges/652314/32 "2013-03-08T15:33:32Z")
He wasn’t convicted, which is about as close as we can get to saying no. What does it matter, though? This would have been inhumane treatment even if he had received a custodial sentence. ---
**Author:** ![MichaelEmouse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/michaelemouse/32/101_2.png) [@MichaelEmouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MichaelEmouse)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2013, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/throw-him-in-solitary-for-22-months-then-drop-the-charges/652314/33 "2013-03-08T15:44:25Z")
DUI is a serious public danger. Justice has been delayed too long already. He must face up to his irresponsibility and be tried. And in the meantime, well…we can’t take any chances that he might flee, can we? And since he must have a serious aversion to prison, we can’t let him stay in the general prison population. ---
**Author:** ![Great\_Antibob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47c2d/32.png) [@Great\_Antibob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Great_Antibob)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2013, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/throw-him-in-solitary-for-22-months-then-drop-the-charges/652314/34 "2013-03-08T15:45:17Z")
Whether or not he did it is irrelevant in this case. That’s the purpose of a trial - which he never got. And charges were eventually dropped in any case. The principle is enshrined in our Constitution. The 6th amendment states that accused get a speedy and public trial. Most, if not all, states and local jurisdictions have adopted this idea for a long time. The idea is absolutely to avoid this kind of situation where a guy can languish in jail with no trial for an arbitrarily long time. We don’t want judges or law enforcement to dole out punishment without due process. That’s abuse of power in the worst way (clearly, the writers of the Bill of Rights also realized this). ---
**Author:** ![Great\_Antibob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47c2d/32.png) [@Great\_Antibob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Great_Antibob)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2013, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/throw-him-in-solitary-for-22-months-then-drop-the-charges/652314/35 "2013-03-08T15:49:44Z")
Ah, I see you’re taking the piss. Oh well. Poe’s Law strikes again. ---
**Author:** ![smiling\_bandit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9a140/32.png) [@smiling\_bandit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smiling_bandit)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2013, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/throw-him-in-solitary-for-22-months-then-drop-the-charges/652314/36 "2013-03-08T16:27:12Z")
> [@Reyemile](#): > > Cite? Trying to find it - the good news is that I know (hypothetically) where I can find it. The bad news it that I’ll have to go back over a decade of articles to find it, so no promises. ---
**Author:** ![purplehorseshoe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/purplehorseshoe/32/2996_2.png) [@purplehorseshoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/purplehorseshoe)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2013, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/throw-him-in-solitary-for-22-months-then-drop-the-charges/652314/37 "2013-03-08T16:34:39Z")
> [@Great\_Antibob](#): > > Ah, I see you’re taking the piss. Oh well. > > Poe’s Law strikes again. Damn Brits. Now I gotta pee. ---
**Author:** ![bouv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bc8723/32.png) [@bouv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bouv)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2013, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/throw-him-in-solitary-for-22-months-then-drop-the-charges/652314/38 "2013-03-08T16:35:10Z")
> [@Martin\_Hyde](#): > > What actually made his solitary so bad is it was in an county jail. County jails are the worst of all things in terms of treatment of prisoners and oversight (which is minimal.) The worst “prison” in the US is arguably Sheriff Joe’s “Tent City” in Arizona, which is just a county jail. The conditions are inhumane, and I can’t believe the number of people who think he’s God’s Gift to law Enforcement. And not just the older people who vote for him in Maricopa county because they’re scared of “brown people,” but friends and relatives of mine who share that stupid “Yay Sheriff Joe” meme on Facebook all the time. Both law enforcement and the prison system in the US are seriously broken, and it’s really unfortunate that they only way they’ll get better is making cases like this more public and getting enough outcry to change them. However, with the number of people out there who legitimately think that what **MichaelEmouse** posted is a good idea. ---
**Author:** ![Algher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Algher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Algher)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2013, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/throw-him-in-solitary-for-22-months-then-drop-the-charges/652314/39 "2013-03-08T17:21:17Z")
> [@bouv](#): > > The worst “prison” in the US is arguably Sheriff Joe’s “Tent City” in Arizona, which is just a county jail. The conditions are inhumane, and I can’t believe the number of people who think he’s God’s Gift to law Enforcement. And not just the older people who vote for him in Maricopa county because they’re scared of “brown people,” but friends and relatives of mine who share that stupid “Yay Sheriff Joe” meme on Facebook all the time. > > Both law enforcement and the prison system in the US are seriously broken, and it’s really unfortunate that they only way they’ll get better is making cases like this more public and getting enough outcry to change them. > > However, with the number of people out there who legitimately think that what **MichaelEmouse** posted is a good idea. I think a lot of people who love Sheriff Joe don’t understand the difference between jail that is holding people for trial vs. prison for convicted. They like the idea of punishing convicts ( a common meme ) but they don’t realize that some of the folks in pink undies are innocent. Another issue is how he effectively stacks the case for the prosecution by making sure that the prisoners are in bad shape for trial days: [http://www.azfamily.com/news/Attorney-Sheriff-Joe-Arpaios-lunch-and-sleep-policies-interfering-with-judicial-process-192389651.html?fb\_action\_ids=485380424859921&fb\_action\_types=og.recommends&fb\_source=timeline\_og](http://www.azfamily.com/news/Attorney-Sheriff-Joe-Arpaios-lunch-and-sleep-policies-interfering-with-judicial-process-192389651.html?fb_action_ids=485380424859921&fb_action_types=og.recommends&fb_source=timeline_og) ---
**Author:** ![SteveG1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bb73d2/32.png) [@SteveG1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SteveG1)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2013, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/throw-him-in-solitary-for-22-months-then-drop-the-charges/652314/40 "2013-03-08T18:00:39Z")
I expect in this poor guy’s case NO ONE will be “responsible”. It’s just “the system” blah blah blah. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/throw-him-in-solitary-for-22-months-then-drop-the-charges/652314.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/throw-him-in-solitary-for-22-months-then-drop-the-charges/652314.md?page=3)