As the national fever of mass incarceration continues across America. every so often, a break occurs.
This was such from the unlikeliest of places: Mississippi. For there, quite recently, a U.S. federal court issued a consent decree, banning the ignoble and barbarous practice of placing juveniles–children- in solitary confinement.
The late March order, believed to be the first of its kind in the country, bans a system that consigned children to almost total isolation–the kind that have become virtually routine in America’s adult prisons.
This practice, used against children who were certified as adults, resulted in exacerbated mental illnesses, psychological breakdowns and suicide attempts (which. oddly enough, resulted in even more repression!).
Under international law solitary confinement can constitute torture. Imagine its impact on children.
A joint suit, filed by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the Southern Poverty Law Center. challenged these conditions in a November 2010 civil rights action against Mississippi’s Wal-nut Grove Youth Correctional Authority (WGYCA), a private prison which holds males aged 13 to 22. The suit charged brutality, drug smuggling by guards and sexual improprieties by them.
The consent decree also bans juveniles from placement in the facility.
What kind of country consigns its children to the horrors of solitary confinement?
This kind.
![Prison Radio is sharing an abbreviated version of a press release covering recent racist incidents at SCI Rockview in PA and the organizing to demand accountability. We are reaching out to people incarcerated at Rockview as well as recently transferred folks, inviting them to call, in hopes of hearing commentaries from them.
Benner Township, PA.-
On November 24th, 2023, imprisoned people at SCI Rockview found two nooses hanging in the CO’s office, displayed visibly for many prisoners to see. When the prisoners asked the staff why the nooses were hung, they were told it was a joke.
By December 4th, prisoners filed a grievance to document what they saw, noting that the hanging of the nooses was “unethical, racially motivated, hateful, [a] deliberate debasement of black inmates" and “unsafe for inmates, staff, [and] the whole prison in general.” In the grievance, they demanded that Sgt. Mosser and CO Richard be fired and investigated for a hate crime, and for CO Kirchner to get therapy. Captain Andrews, the head of security, denied the grievance.
The sergeant and COs are still working in the prison to this day, with no repercussions...
As of March 10th, prisoners have reached out to Pennsylvania officials at the Dept. of Corrections in a letter campaign, sending 100 copies of the grievance. Copies of the letter also were mailed to Governor Shapiro, Senator Fetterman, Senator Street, and various advocacy groups. The demands for relief in the original grievance have now become the platform of demands for this campaign. About 20 of the 100 letters were withheld by the prison.
Activists on the outside are joining forces with prisoners to elevate their demands, flooding the phone lines of DOC offices, assisting with outreach to media, and circulating the stories of prisoners who have found unity in opposition to the facility's virulent institutional racism.
In any other workplace, hanging a noose would be grounds for immediate termination. However, Nicki Paul, the superintendent's assistant and "grievance coordinator" informed the public that they self-investigated their staff and found they did nothing wrong.
Read the full article at i
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