When prisoners at four federal penitentiaries began rioting in the fall of 1995, the U.S. Bureau of Prisons did something it said was unprecedented: It imposed a nationwide lockdown, shutting tens of thousands of incarcerated people in their cells and dorms.
Lockdowns over COVID-19 are much bigger—and likely to last much longer. The federal system effectively locked down its 122 institutions, holding more than 144,000 people, in a move announced March 31. A few days later, Massachusetts announced similar measures; prisons in California, Oklahoma, Vermont, Illinois and Texas all followed suit. By this week well over 300,000 prisoners were living in full or partial lockdown.
Experts say the widespread use of such restrictions is extraordinary, in scale and in length. No one knows how long hundreds of thousands of prisoners might be confined to their cells or bunks.
But what we do know, more than anyone probably did in 1995, is that lockdowns can levy a heavy toll on the mental and physical wellbeing of prisoners. And they may turn out to be risky for guards as well, by possibly leading to prison violence.
Solitary confinement can increase anxiety and disordered thinking, worsen mental health problems and heighten the risk of suicide. Studies show long-term social isolation comes with a higher chance of dying prematurely, in part because of the physical effects of stress.
Astronomers saw a star dancing around a black hole. And it proves Einstein was right
“We’re being told in the free world that social distancing and sheltering in place is the appropriate response—so then it is probably the appropriate response in prison too,” said Craig Haney, a psychology professor from University of California, Santa Cruz who has studied the effects of isolation on incarcerated people. “The difference is that what it means in prison is so much more onerous.”
Alison Horn, an investigative supervisor with the nonprofit legal organization Civil Rights Corps, said she worried that fear of a solitary quarantine or a unit-wide lockdown could lead prisoners to hide how ill they are.
“If the response to having symptoms is punitive,” she said, “that discourages them from speaking up about it. You need people to be honest about their symptoms.”
Long lockdowns have led to violence, most recently in Mississippi, where the head of the corrections department said last year that extended lockdowns create “an unsafe environment for my staff.” Lockdowns to slow the virus’ spread in Italy led to fatal riots in several prisons last month.
But some say tight restrictions are the only way to keep prisoners safe. Jeff Ormsby, a prison union president in Texas, has been pushing for the most restrictive lockdown possible across all 104 prisons in the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.
“It would make sure that inmates would have less exposure to each other and less exposure to staff,” he said. “We’re all going to have to make sacrifices to make sure this doesn’t just blow up in the prisons, and those sacrifices need to be made by TDCJ and by inmates.”
Source: What Happens When More Than 300,000 Prisoners Are Locked Down?
Recent Comments