Solitary Confinement as punishment

[RustyShackleford]

Illegal drugs are big business, and not just for cartels. Do a little reading on the asset forfeiture program and HIDTA. In various investigative courses taken over the years they always say "follow the money." The same goes for drug task forces, asset forfeiture, etc. When funds dry up from equitable sharing programs developed through various task forces, police chiefs and sheriffs have been known to pull their personnel since there is no longer a financial benefit.

 

[0699]

Rise of the Warrior Cop by Radley Balko. Very well-written book on the subject of search warrants and asset forfeiture.

Summary/Reviews: Rise of the warrior cop :
Rise of the Warrior Cop: The Militarization of America's Police Forces: Radley Balko: 9781610394574: Amazon.com: Books

 

[Red Flag 1]

Illegal drugs are big business, and not just for cartels. Do a little reading on the asset forfeiture program and HIDTA. In various investigative courses taken over the years they always say "follow the money." The same goes for drug task forces, asset forfeiture, etc. When funds dry up from equitable sharing programs developed through various task forces, police chiefs and sheriffs have been known to pull their personnel since there is no longer a financial benefit.

View attachment 17410

Nice^^^^^grab!!

 

[benroliver]

So I will share this because I know some of you can relate more than I can. My cousin was a great student until he got into high school. He started hanging out with the wrong crowd so when he graduated my uncle suggested he go into the National Guard. Service is a pretty normal thing in my family so he figured he would be enlisting at some point anyway and thought it wasn't such a bad idea himself.

Right after he finished boot and AIT( however the guard does it), he was sent to Iraq. A few months in his Humvee was hit by an IED and his friend was killed. Fortunately for him he didn't have any external injuries but he was knocked unconscious and received a pretty severe concussion. Following the incident he was having all kinds of back issues and when he got back to the states he started becoming depending on pain medications. The VA would just give him whatever he wanted and send him on.

Eventually the drug addiction and dependency led him into theft and dealing so he could pay for his habit. We tried everything we could to intervene but at the same time not be part of the problem. Eventually he was arrested and sent to jail. Not long after being in he got into a fight with another inmate and was sent to solitary and from there he just crumbled.

He was a tough kid growing up, hell we all were. That is just how we were raised, but the combination of drugs, the loss of his friend, and solitary destroyed him. He has never recovered. It has been a battle now for the last decade to help him and frankly we are all at a loss. I feel like his prison sentence could have been a good thing for him, but instead it changed him forever.

 

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[benroliver]

What a sad story. I'm sorry to hear things have turned out the way they have.

I am hoping after I spend some time in the Army and away for a while that maybe he will open up to me a bit more when I come to visit. We were close growing up and I don't act like a parent like everyone else does around him. He has a hard time talking to anyone at this point, everything is taken as criticism and the conversations end up toxic. I just have to learn from it myself and just continue to be there as best I can.

 

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[policemedic]

So I will share this because I know some of you can relate more than I can. My cousin was a great student until he got into high school. He started hanging out with the wrong crowd so when he graduated my uncle suggested he go into the National Guard. Service is a pretty normal thing in my family so he figured he would be enlisting at some point anyway and thought it wasn't such a bad idea himself.

Right after he finished boot and AIT( however the guard does it), he was sent to Iraq. A few months in his Humvee was hit by an IED and his friend was killed. Fortunately for him he didn't have any external injuries but he was knocked unconscious and received a pretty severe concussion. Following the incident he was having all kinds of back issues and when he got back to the states he started becoming depending on pain medications. The VA would just give him whatever he wanted and send him on.

Eventually the drug addiction and dependency led him into theft and dealing so he could pay for his habit. We tried everything we could to intervene but at the same time not be part of the problem. Eventually he was arrested and sent to jail. Not long after being in he got into a fight with another inmate and was sent to solitary and from there he just crumbled.

He was a tough kid growing up, hell we all were. That is just how we were raised, but the combination of drugs, the loss of his friend, and solitary destroyed him. He has never recovered. It has been a battle now for the last decade to help him and frankly we are all at a loss. I feel like his prison sentence could have been a good thing for him, but instead it changed him forever.

That is a sad tale. I don't deny that long-term pain management is a tricky business that requires an ethical specialist to get good results that don't end up in opiate addiction.

Unfortunately, there isn't much a prison can do to discipline violent inmates other than to put them in administrative segregation. My experience is that a single fight doesn't result in more than a week or two in segregation, if that. It's also true that solitary confinement in the prisons I've been in is nowhere near completely solitary.

 

[benroliver]

There is a lot going on with your brother. His addiction, arrest and prison sentence has changed him, as it might anyone. Add the combat events, PTSD will be a big player as well. He will carry a great deal of self loathing, shame, guilt, and pure anger. I can see how things can become toxic in trying to talk with him.

There are mental health programs inside the prison systems, but I expect it is staffed pretty thin for the amount of mental illness seen in the correction systems today. About the only thing I might suggest is he go straight to the VA when his time has been served. Your brother will need lots of help to get things anywhere close to a positive view of the world. I am truely sad to learn of all this. I wish him luck.

Thanks for the advice and wishes. Sorry for the thread hijack. He is out now and we have him working with the VA but it has been difficult. The PTSD/addiction are absolutely the core of the issue, the stint in prison amplified everything 10 fold. I know we have not given up yet. This battle is part of what has driven me to enlist as a Medic and continue my education.

 

[benroliver]

That is a sad tale. I don't deny that long-term pain management is a tricky business that requires an ethical specialist to get good results that don't end up in opiate addiction.

Unfortunately, there isn't much a prison can do to discipline violent inmates other than to put them in administrative segregation. My experience is that a single fight doesn't result in more than a week or two in segregation, if that. It's also true that solitary confinement in the prisons I've been in is nowhere near completely solitary.

This is true. There were several instances and it just progressed. I couldn't even visit him after a while.

 

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[benroliver]

If there is one word I could say to offer your brother a chance at staying sober amd out of corrections it would be, "Halfway House". His pain issues are best treated by a multispecality pain management team. It combines many approaches all focused on pain management without addiction. Taking pain med for pain only produces dependancy on pain medications. There are many who are on narcotic pain meds, and take them as prescribed. The diagnosis of addiction comes into play when the pain meds are taken in larger doses, to gain a euphoric high. It will be difficult for a prior addict, but I have seen pain management folks make it work. He needs psych counciling and, again, a Halfway House is a safe place for your brother. These houses provide group support plus accountability to the person running the house.

This is something I will definitely need to do some more research on myself. I appreciate the support. I will be sitting down with my family again before I leave for basic so there will be an opportunity to bring this up and see if we can make it an option.

 

[pardus]

I've been going through the hiring process to become a CO for a little while now. I'm very interested to the solitary situation/debate going on. It does seem as an ignorant outsider that it has been used too often and with significant adverse effects. However it also seems quite clear that it is a needed tool in the prison system. I'm curious as to what other systems/countries employ in order to control inmates that are violent inside prison.

 

[CDG]

I've been going through the hiring process to become a CO for a little while now. I'm very interested to the solitary situation/debate going on. It does seem as an ignorant outsider that it has been used too often and with significant adverse effects. However it also seems quite clear that it is a needed tool in the prison system. I'm curious as to what other systems/countries employ in order to control inmates that are violent inside prison.

There's a documentary on Netflix called World's Toughest Prisons where a journalist travels around and experiences small doses of this. Being extracted from a cell, moved to a punishment area/cell/whatever and left there for a short amount of time. There are prisons out there that seem to do far worse than what the US version of solitary is.

 

[benroliver]

I think the largest issue is the war on drugs and separating violent and non violent offenders. You get kids from all walks of life getting busted for marijuana who go to big boy prison and end up real criminals by the time they are out. We need to treat drug addiction and abuse separately and then we really need to explore methods of rehabilitation. I mean if teens and young adults could go to jail and learn a trade instead of sitting on their ass finding ways to get in trouble or trying to survive then maybe they would have something to look forward to when they get out. Instead, you get a felony drug conviction and any sense chance of a professional career and good employment is out the window. I know there are job programs in place now but they seem underfunded and not priority.

 

[policemedic]

Or maybe we need to teach our kids to obey the law. They can fight to have laws changed if they feel strongly enough.

Felony drug charges usually apply to distribution, not possession, so if someone catches a felony case they are more involved in the trade than a casual toker.

 

[0699]

Or maybe we need to teach our kids to obey the law. They can fight to have laws changed if they feel strongly enough.

Felony drug charges usually apply to distribution, not possession, so if someone catches a felony case they are more involved in the trade than a casual toker.

Fucking A. Too many of the youth think because a law is "unfair", "unequal", or they don't "like" it, they can violate it in the interest of free speech. That's not how our system works.

I've even seen protestors claiming that cops can't arrest them because the cops would then be "violating my right to civil disobedience." Hey dipshit, civil disobedience is about going to prison for your beliefs, not getting away with breaking the law.

 

[benroliver]

Or maybe we need to teach our kids to obey the law. They can fight to have laws changed if they feel strongly enough.

Felony drug charges usually apply to distribution, not possession, so if someone catches a felony case they are more involved in the trade than a casual toker.

Well not every child has the luxury of growing up with responsible parents. Children are products of their environment, that doesn't take away personal responsibility either, but it is a reality. If its not then why bother raising children in our image, why bother teaching them anything if its that simple to learn by themselves?

 

[benroliver]

Fucking A. Too many of the youth think because a law is "unfair", "unequal", or they don't "like" it, they can violate it in the interest of free speech. That's not how our system works.

I've even seen protesters claiming that cops can't arrest them because the cops would then be "violating my right to civil disobedience." Hey dipshit, civil disobedience is about going to prison for your beliefs, not getting away with breaking the law.

Just out of curiosity, what makes you think the majority of protesters don't understand what civil disobedience is? There is a difference between getting arrested and getting the shit beat out of you lol. The protests in the states do not hold a candle to what happens in Europe. It isn't the average annoying college SJW that is the problem in this country regardless of what Fox news and Hannity think.

 

[0699]

Fucking A. Too many of the youth think because a law is "unfair", "unequal", or they don't "like" it, they can violate it in the interest of free speech. That's not how our system works.

I've even seen protestors claiming that cops can't arrest them because the cops would then be "violating my right to civil disobedience." Hey dipshit, civil disobedience is about going to prison for your beliefs, not getting away with breaking the law.

Just out of curiosity, what makes you think the majority of protesters don't understand what civil disobedience is? There is a difference between getting arrested and getting the shit beat out of you lol. The protests in the states do not hold a candle to what happens in Europe. It isn't the average annoying college SJW that is the problem in this country regardless of what Fox news and Hannity think.

We can see you have issues using correct grammar; do you also have reading comprehension issues? Where in my post did I say "majority"? Please point it out to me.