$19,600,000 -- and probably well-spent
just about every prison has a hole, a box, or a seg unit. these are thought to deter inmates from disruptive behavior, incapacitate those dangerous to themselves or others, and, sometimes, to protect inmates who might be especially vulnerable. if a prison is a microcosm of society, the seg unit is therefore the prison's prison.minnesota's ancient correctional facility in stillwater just built a new $19,600,000 segregation unit to house the institution's most disruptive residents. such costs strike those on the left as an outrageous expenditure in dehumanization, while striking those on the right as an outrageous expenditure in mollycoddling. having visited this facility and other century-old units on several occasions, however, i agree with prison administration on the need for such a facility. if you think the new seg unit is dehumanizing, you should've seen the old one -- violent, frighteningly loud, with fires, floods, and flying feces a constant threat to staff and inmates.
during visits, i thought it unimaginable that people could spend any length of time in such conditions and still be expected to function as productive citizens upon their release. one hopes that the colder but safer space in the new unit may ultimately play some role in reentry and reintegration. a kare-11 report (with a bit of video from the old seg unit) quotes stillwater's warden on this point:
"It wasn't designed for being more comfortable, but designed as being more humane," Warden John King explained. "That's an important thing, to treat offenders humanely because they're going to be back on the streets and in our communities," he added.
"It wasn't designed for being more comfortable, but designed as being more humane," Warden John King explained. "That's an important thing, to treat offenders humanely because they're going to be back on the streets and in our communities," he added.
posted by christopher uggen @ 8:00 AM
4 comments
4 Comments:
I have to say I'm all in favour of more humane conditions for prisoners - i think the quote you give sums up quite well why they're needed. to me there doesn't seem all that much wrong with the concept of segregation units (ie. taking prisoners out of the rest of the prison for theirs or others safety) - its more a question of how its carried out really.
It's interesting that the reason we should treat them humanely according to the warden isn't because they're humans with rights just like the rest of us, but because they'll be coming back into our society at some point. I think that point in particular speaks volumes about how we think about prisoners and criminals as something other than people.
right, leftwing. many seg units are graduated these days, such that people can move from a totally restricted space to one with more freedom or privilege before reentry into the general prison population. there's a potential for infinite regress here, of course: one can build a hole within a hole within a hole...
i agree, mwilliams, that we should take steps to make prisons more humane on basic human rights grounds. that said, i've had little success selling public audiences, politicians, or even my own students on this view. some believe prisons should be hellholes on grounds of retribution or deterrence.
infinte regress in seg - not good
on human rights - i think more people will support it on the ground soffenders would be less likely to re-offend than on abstarct principles of human rights - but then the idea that they will come back into society is why we should argue for human rights to be respected - not as an end in itself but as a way of creating a more humane society.
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