Rick Raemisch, executive director of the Colorado Department of Corrections, wrote an op-ed about the cruelty and futility of solitary confinement called “My Night in Solitary.”
[blockquote]I would spend a total of 20 hours in that cell. Which, compared with the typical stay, is practically a blink. On average, inmates who are sent to solitary in Colorado spend an average of 23 months there. Some spend 20 years.
Eventually, I broke a promise to myself and asked an officer what time it was. 11:10 a.m. I felt as if I’d been there for days. I sat with my mind. How long would it take before Ad Seg chipped that away? I don’t know, but I’m confident that it would be a battle I would lose.[/blockquote]
He went on to write, as Colorado Independent editor Susan Greene has written, about the impact of Ad Seg on Evan Ebel, who would leave directly from solitary confinement to kill Raemisch’s predecessor, prison reformer Tom Clements.
Raemisch says not to dramatically reduce the use of solitary confinement would be inhumane. Via New York Times.
Why does every anti-Obamacare ad fall apart upon the slightest scrutiny? Isn’t anyone being harmed by Obamacare? Via the Nation.
Get ready for the Obamacare crash. Once the enrollment numbers include only those who are paying, the numbers are going to dip significantly. Via The Atlantic.
Gary Younge writes that the killing of Jordan Davis is just the latest bit of evidence that the black body is still fair game. Via the Nation.
Eugene Robinson puts it this way in the Washington Post: I’m black. Don’t shoot me.
Amy Davidson asks whether the figure skating judges got it wrong at the Olympics or was it just NBC? (We think you can guess the answer.) Via the New Yorker.
[ Image via the University of Denver law school. ]
