madness at supermax

English: Aryan Brotherhood tattoo. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

An American Gulag: Descending into Madness at Supermax
A detailed new federal lawsuit alleges chronic abuse and neglect of mentally ill prisoners at America’s most famous prison. (First in a three-part series.)
http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2012/06/an-american-gulag-descending-into-madness-at-supermax/258323/
             read whole article here: http://prisonmovement.wordpress.com/2012/11/26/an-american-gulag-descending-into-madness-at-supermax/

Index of Photographic Exhibits to Plaintiffs’ Complaint, Bacote, et al v. United States Bureau of Prisons, et al
Andrew Cohen 

When Jack Powers arrived at maximum-security federal prison in Atlanta in 1990 after a bank robbery conviction, he had never displayed symptoms of or been treated for mental illness. Still in custody a few years later, he witnessed three inmates, believed to be members of the Aryan Brotherhood gang, kill another inmate. Powers tried to help the victim get medical attention, and was quickly transferred to a segregated unit for his safety, but it didn’t stop the gang’s members from quickly threatening him.

Not then. And certainly not after Powers testified (not once but twice) for the federal government against the assailants. The threats against him continued and Powers was soon transferred to a federal prison in Pennsylvania, where he was threatened even after he was put into protective custody. By this time, Powers had developed insomnia and anxiety attacks and was diagnosed by a prison psychologist as suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.

Related articles

• BONNIE KERNESS: Pioneer in the Struggle Against Solitary Confinement (inprisonedwomen.wordpress.com)
• What life is like in solitary confinement at North Carolina’s Central Prison (dogmaandgeopolitics.wordpress.com)
• “The Ninth Circle of Hell: An Eighth Amendment Analysis of Imposing Prolonged Supermax Solitary Confinement on Inmates with a Mental Illness” (sentencing.typepad.com)
• Where Are All The Photographs Of Solitary Confinement? (prisonphotography.org)
• Where Are All The Photographs Of Solitary Confinement? (inprisonedwomen.wordpress.com)
• Suit: Mental health a problem at Supermax (upi.com)
• Supermax prison officials move to address mental health after lawsuit (denverpost.com)
• An American Gulag: Descending into Madness at Supermax (prisonmovement.wordpress.com)

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