Prisoner Robert Luca sitting outside of his cell. Terry Kupers at the Conference on Solitary Confinement and Human Rights, November 2012: Terry Kupers says that a SHU ”destroys people as human beings.”
In California, SHU inmates are 33 times more likely to commit suicide than other prisoners incarcerated elsewhere in the state. There are even reports of eye damage due to the restriction on distance viewing. Some psychiatrists, such as Terry Kupers, say there is a whole litany of effects that a SHU can have on a person: massive anxiety, paranoia, depression, concentration and memory problems, and loss of ability to control one’s anger (which can get a prisoner in trouble and lengthen the SHU sentence). It’s the amount of time many prisoners spend in that cells, alone, without any meaningful activity. But it’s not just these architectural features, that concern humanitarian activists and psychiatrists. It’s not a space that’s designed to keep you comfortable. Life inside of the SHU at Pelican Bay means 22 to 23 hours a day inside of 7.5 by 12-foot room. The control rooms are accessed by an upper deck, which has a metal mesh floor allowing officers to fire a shotgun down into the pod in the event of a security breach. Control rooms monitor the pods, and can open and close cell doors remotely. Each “pod” contains six cells, a shower, and an exercise yard.
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