The New York City Council is expected to approve a bill to ban solitary confinement this week over the objections of Mayor Eric Adams, who may veto it.
Lock yourself in the bathroom without a phone or any other entertainment for four hours.
Then, imagine you’re a mentally ill person who was already considering suicide as solitary is often how jails deal with inmates threatening suicide because they’re understaffed and ill equipped for mental health care.
Get back to me afterwards and let me know if four hours was enough.
The county jail that put me on suicide watch left me naked in solitary for four days because the mental health staff that could clear me only worked part time and a 48 hour hold was mandatory. Three meals a day was the only break from staring at the walls and watching the guards walk by.
I assure you after two hours I was done threatening suicide. Four would have been overkill. Four days was simply humiliation and torture. I’ll never forgive that county and still have trauma responses when I visit that town.
Lock yourself in the bathroom without a phone or any other entertainment for four hours.
Then, imagine you’re a mentally ill person who was already considering suicide as solitary is often how jails deal with inmates threatening suicide because they’re understaffed and ill equipped for mental health care.
Get back to me afterwards and let me know if four hours was enough.
The county jail that put me on suicide watch left me naked in solitary for four days because the mental health staff that could clear me only worked part time and a 48 hour hold was mandatory. Three meals a day was the only break from staring at the walls and watching the guards walk by.
I assure you after two hours I was done threatening suicide. Four would have been overkill. Four days was simply humiliation and torture. I’ll never forgive that county and still have trauma responses when I visit that town.