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Charles Manson Placed in Solitary Confinement at Age 77 – Solitary Confinement Abuse in U.S. prisons

// February 13th, 2012 // News, Press, Uncategorized

CORCORAN, Feb. 7, 2012 – On October 4, 2011, officials at theCalifornia State Prison in Corcoran moved Charles Manson to the Security Housing Unit (SHU), also known as “the hole”.

Manson has been sentenced to more than a year in solitary confinement, based on the allegation that he was in possession of a “deadly weapon”.  

The alleged weapon was a wire from a pair of eye-glasses.  Friends of Manson claim this recent decision by prison officials is yet another actof discrimination, since the item in question, although technically a ruleviolation, is commonly modified and used as a craft tool by inmates throughout the prison.

In solitary confinement (SHU), Manson is held in a cell for 23 hours a day and denied basic privileges such as packages, phone access, contact visits, and normal human interaction.  Considering his advanced age, friends are expressing great concern for Manson’s health and well-being.

If you would like to protest Charles Manson’s 15 month sentence to solitary confinement, and express your concern about the conditions under which he is being held, you can write a letter to the state employees listed below. Posting by certified mail will help to hold these bureaucrats to account.

http://www.mansondirect.com/wymaninfo.html  

Warden Connie Gipson, Counselor T. Wyman- CCI and Counselor Supervisor R. Broomfield- CCII can be addressed to the same P.O. Box:  

CSP-Corcoran
P.O. Box 8800
Corcoran, CA 93212

Office of the Ombudsman  (link -http://www.cdcr.ca.gov/Ombuds/index.html)

Jean Weiss, Ombudsperson for CSP-Corcoran  
1515 S Street, Room 124 South
Sacramento, CA  95811

More about solitary confinement -  

Solitary Confinement is now widely viewed as inhumane, ineffective, and as having shattering physical and psychological effects.  

Solitary confinement violates the European Convention on Human Rights.

In a United Nations report, solitary confinement is classified as “cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment and even torture”, which “cause[s] severe mental and physical pain or suffering”.  The UN recommends that “the practice should be used only in very exceptional circumstances, as a last resort, [and] for as short a time as possible.”  The UN now defines “prolonged solitary confinement” as any term longer than 15 days, because at that point, “someharmful psychological effects of isolation could become irreversible”.

LINKS:

The UN Human Rights Committee and Committee Against Torture - http://www.un.org/News/Press/docs/2011/gashc4014.doc.htm

The National Religious Campaign Against Torture - http://www.nrcat.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=546&Itemid=396

American Civil Liberties Union -http://solitarywatch.com/2011/02/21/aclu-urges-un-to-take-action-on-solitary-confinement-in-the-united-states/

“this is a generational change . We barely used solitary confinement, even during the Reagan years, but during the last decade and half our use of solitary confinement has exploded. We have over 50,000 people now in long-term solitary confinement.” – Dr. Atul Gawande