Tag: solitary confinement

Tale of murder and insanity puts prison on trial

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By Alan Bean

It now appears that Evan Spencer Ebel, recently paroled from a Colorado prison, murdered Nate Leon, a pizza delivery man, then, last Tuesday evening, went to the front door of Colorado prisons chief Tom Clements a shot him dead.

Two days later, Ebel was pulled over in Wise County, Texas by officers who thought he looked suspicious.  Ebel started shooting and led officers on a 100 mile per hour chase before wrecking the car.  He was taken to the hospital with a head wound and died shortly after arrival.

Ballistics tests link the gun Ebel fired at police officers in Texas to shells recovered at the scene of the Colorado murders.  Dominos Pizza paraphernalia was recovered from the black Cadillac Ebel was driving when he died in Texas. (more…)

George Will: solitary confinement as torture

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Alan Bean

Thanks to Gene Elliott for bringing this column to my attention.  George Will generally writes from a conservative perspective, but he thinks independently and writes as well as anybody in the business.  Having spoken to inmates like Ramsey Muniz who have been subjected to prolonged stretches of solitary confinement, I know just how cruel and usual it can be.  It is particularly encouraging to see that opposition to mass incarceration has recently become bipartisan.  If anything, folks on the right have been more inclined in recent years to inveigh against the warehousing of US citizens than avowed liberals. This piece is highly recommended.

Alone and suffering: Solitary confinement is its own form of torture

By George Will

 

“Zero Dark Thirty,” a nominee for Sunday’s Oscar for Best Picture, reignited debate about whether the waterboarding of terrorism suspects was torture. This practice, which ended in 2003, was used on only three suspects. Meanwhile, tens of thousands of American prison inmates are kept in protracted solitary confinement that arguably constitutes torture and probably violates the Eighth Amendment prohibition of “cruel and unusual punishments.” (more…)