[Peace-discuss] "Solitary in Iran nearly broke me. Then I Went Inside America's Prisons"

[Stuart Levy]

Article on solitary confinement, including what gets prisoners into 
indefinite-term solitary (SHU) in California's Pelican Bay Prison and 
others: possession of leftist literature, or any number of other things, 
is enough to get you labeled as an "associate" of an in-prison gang...

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2012/10/solitary-confinement-shane-bauer

(Thanks to Rob Kutz for pointing this out.)

Some quotes below. The author was one of three Americans held in Iran on 
espionage charges for 26 months, and some of this is comparing the two 
prison systems...

> THE DECISION TO PUT A MAN in solitary indefinitely is made at internal 
> hearings that last, prisoners say, about 20 minutes. They are 
> closed-door affairs. CDCR told me I couldn't witness one. No one can.
>
> When Josh Fattal and I finally came before the Revolutionary Court in 
> Iran, we had a lawyer present, but weren't allowed to speak to him. In 
> California, an inmate facing the worst punishment our penal system has 
> to offer short of death can't even have a lawyer in the room. He can't 
> gather or present evidence in his defense. He can't call witnesses. 
> Much of the evidence—anything provided by informants—is confidential 
> and thus impossible to refute. That's what Judge Salavati told us 
> after our prosecutor spun his yarn about our role in a vast 
> American-Israeli conspiracy: There were heaps of evidence, but neither 
> we nor our lawyer were allowed to see it.
and

> Late last year, [UN special rapporteur on torture] Juan Mendez came 
> out with a report in which he called for an international prohibition 
> on solitary confinement of more than 15 days. He defined solitary as 
> any regime where a person is held in isolation for at least 22 hours a 
> day. Anything more "constitutes torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading 
> treatment or punishment, depending on the circumstances." When I 
> called Mendez to ask about the SHU, he said, "I don't think any 
> argument, including gang membership, can justify a very long-term 
> measure that is inflicting pain and suffering that is prohibited by 
> the Convention Against Torture."
>
> CDCR, like correctional departments around the country, does not 
> consider the SHU solitary confinement. Inmates have TV, and they have 
> contact with staff when they bring them their food, officials told me. 
> Our interrogators in Iran said the same thing.

and

> When Gray [a man who has been "validated" as a gang member and 
> confined to SHU solitary since 2006] took the matter to court, the 
> judge ruled that "a prisoner has no constitutionally guaranteed 
> immunity from being falsely or wrongfully accused of conduct which may 
> result in the deprivation of a protected liberty interest." In other 
> words, it is not illegal for prison authorities to lie in order to 
> lock somebody away in solitary.