Government officials sometimes do things that defy belief. In late September a federal judge ordered prison officials in Pennsylvania to end a convicted murderer’s solitary confinement after 36 years. The officials said they were concerned he might try to escape, as he had before.
The judge ordered prison officials to develop a plan to monitor the inmate’s mental health and increase contact with other inmates. For the past 25 years the prisoner lived in a 7x10 foot cell. He did have a TV, radio, bed, desk, and toilet. He also got one hour of exercise in a caged-in area of the prison five days a week, and he was allowed to shower, in handcuffs, three days a week.
For the past 25 years he was a model prisoner, although one wonders how he could have been much else. He did receive one misconduct citation, for having a multivitamin in his cell.
Information for this post was taken from Mark Scolforo, “Inmate’s decades in solitary to end,” Pocono Record, (22 Sept. 2016), pp. 1, 2.
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