tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8107037609455779557.post6151744821184024163..comments2024-02-28T05:56:28.293-08:00Comments on California Correctional Crisis: Day 23 of the Hunger Strike: Light and Shadow in Press CoverageHadar Aviramhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15200780666976305749noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8107037609455779557.post-71584307195671753002013-07-30T13:51:31.423-07:002013-07-30T13:51:31.423-07:00I think that's a great comment. The Stop Tortu...I think that's a great comment. The Stop Torture campaign isn't advocating complete abolition of the SHU; its goal is far more modest - limiting the usage of SHU to ten years. Ten years is plenty of time to keep a human being in a cage 22.5 hours a day. Moreover, the goal is to have clearly articulated standards behind classifying people to the SHU, and ways to exit the SHU that do not incentivize inmates to provide false information about other inmates.Hadar Aviramhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15200780666976305749noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8107037609455779557.post-82447686932751179192013-07-30T13:46:56.651-07:002013-07-30T13:46:56.651-07:00I'll preface what I say by acknowledging that ...I'll preface what I say by acknowledging that sticking 80,000 people in SHU/Supermax-type units nationwide is probably excessive and, at best, is the sort of overbroad application of a specific and extreme remedy that you get out of bureaucracies. They have one hammer (SHU), and every problem looks like a nail. I also don't doubt that building and staffing SHU units benefits both prison construction concerns and correctional unions, making them interested parties in keeping them occupied. And I concede that the validation and debrief process is also arbitrary and unfair.<br /><br />Having said all that, in dealing with the likes of Mr. Ashker and similar prisoners, dangerous gang members who appear to be ready to take any opportunity they're left with to hurt or kill staff, other prisoners, or even people on the street, what do critics of SHU suggest as an alternative? Running the system the way it was done before the Corcoran and Pelican Bay SHUs were set up, when Eme, AB, and the rest held sway, doesn't seem like a viable alternative. Allowing prisoners to be "taxed," forced into prostitution, or into joining a gang themselves, for fear of violence being inflicted on them or their families, laps SHU by a mile as far as "cruel and unusual" goes. Given that as an alternative, I see SHU as less a punishment, and more as an administrative measure to protect others. Do SHU critics have another way to accomplish that?Unknownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14399076535498824601noreply@blogger.com