[xcntktn]

There is a prisoner in the US Federal system who has been in solitary confinement for 27 years:

http://www.peteearley.com/thomas-silverstein/

A court recently ruled that his conditions did not constitute a violation of the 8th amendment:

http://solitarywatch.com/2013/09/25/federal-appeals-court-co...

It is scary to think that while this article start out with an example of "almost 10,000 hours" in isolation as something horrific, here is a prisoner in the US who has been in isolation more than 20 times longer than that, and the courts have upheld this treatment as legal.

[moe]

and the courts have upheld this treatment as legal

Well, given his track record, what alternative is there?

[anigbrowl]

One could certainly try graduated adjustments.

Fast facts: Silverstein was imprisoned for bank robbery. While in prison he was convicted for murder of another inmate, albeit on questionable evidence. Silverstein kiled and was convicted of murder for killing another inmate who was seeking revenge for the first killing he was convicted of. He led the Aryan Nation prison gang for a time. In 1983, he was convicted for a particularly brutal murder of a prison guard. Since then he has been kept in ADX (aka Supermax) custody and had no visitors. He is seen by a prison psychiatrist once a month and otherwise only sees his guards when they deliver food. Like other supermax prisoners he occupies a cell within a containment suite, so there's no chance of him communicating with other prisoners by shouting or suchlike.

Now, obviously Silverstein is all kinds of bad, but I don't buy the argument that the risk profile he presents has not changed at all in the last 31 years. It's worth bearing in mind that male criminality peaks in the late teens and then the decline steepens after age 40. Yeah, of course it's risky to grant him additional privileges, but there's a big gap between the risk that he'll attack someone in a controlled environment, and the (unacceptable) outcome of him escaping and inflicting a danger on society at large.

[sumeno]

Even just allowing visitors without allowing physical interaction would have to be a vast improvement from total isolation. They've already got a visitor room set up but don't allow it to be used.

Although at this point who is going to visit?

[anigbrowl]

Family, people who feel the injustice of his punishment outweighs the severity of his crimes.

[baddox]

Is that really that difficult? The alternative is, of course, not having him in solitary confinement for 27 years. It's not that difficult to allow some level of social interaction while still preventing violence.

[moe]

It's not that difficult to allow some level of social interaction while still preventing violence.

I think the question is why society should bother to spend further resources on enabling this for him?

And probably far from an insignificant amount of resources in the context of the correctional system...

[rurounijones]

> I think the question is why society should bother to spend further resources on enabling this for him?

Something regarding that variable quote about how you can judge a society on the basis of how it treats its X (criminals in this case)

[baddox]

Why do you think solitary confinement would cost less?

[moe]

Because it's obvious?

Anything to enable social interaction for him would have to happen on top of solitary confinement (or equivalent security) after all...

[baddox]

On the contrary, it's obvious to me that solitary confinement is significantly more expensive per inmate than non-solitary high security imprisonment.

[dllthomas]

Well, they could probably turn off the lights from time to time. Night vision cameras aren't expensive compared to all of the other costs here...

"Thomas Silverstein has been locked under the tightest conditions in the federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) in total isolation since he murdered a correctional officer in 1983. The lights are kept on 24 hours a day in his cell."

[thret]

The death penalty seems merciful by comparison.

[emiliobumachar]

As an aside, he got very good at drawing since it's all he does.