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6A Daily News – Monday, August 22, 2011 Opinion Rationalized torture in California prisons D NEWSAILY RED BLUFF TEHAMACOUNTY T H E V O I C E O F T E H A M A C O U N T Y S I N C E 1 8 8 5 Greg Stevens, Publisher gstevens@redbluffdailynews.com Chip Thompson, Editor editor@redbluffdailynews.com Editorial policy The Daily News opinion is expressed in the editorial. The opinions expressed in columns, letters and cartoons are those of the authors and artists. Letter policy The Daily News welcomes let- ters from its readers on timely topics of public interest. All let- ters must be signed and pro- vide the writer's home street address and home phone num- ber. Anonymous letters, open letters to others, pen names and petition-style letters will not be allowed. Letters should be typed and cannot exceed two double-spaced pages or 500 words. When several letters address the same issue, a cross section of those submit- ted will be considered for publi- cation. Letters will be edited. 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How to reach us Main office: 527-2151 Classified: 527-2151 Circulation: 527-2151 News tips: 527-2153 Sports: 527-2153 Obituaries: 527-2151 Photo: 527-2153 On the Web www.redbluffdailynews.com Fax Newsroom: 527-9251 Classified: 527-5774 Retail Adv.: 527-5774 Legal Adv.: 527-5774 Business Office: 527-3719 Address 545 Diamond Ave. Red Bluff, CA 96080, or P.O. Box 220 Red Bluff, CA 96080 Last month prisoners in 13 state institutions staged a three week hunger strike to bring awareness to the cruel treatment of over 20,000 of their peers locked up in solitary housing units (SHU). The strike began at Pelican Bay State Prison, near Crescent City, where more than 1,000 prisoners are housed in windowless 80-square-foot sound- proof cells under incessant fluores- cent light for 22 1/2 hours a day. With the exception of the steel plumbing, all the surroundings — the bed, the walls, the unmovable stool on which one can sit — are made of gray concrete. Twice a day, a corrections officer pushes a plastic tray of food through a slot in the solid metal door. The pris- oner can hear only some of what is going on outside — the shouts of other inmates, the rattling of keys, the flush of toilets, but can see no one. They leave their cells only to shower and to exercise, alone, for 90 minutes in a small high con- crete walled enclosure. California prison officials say they use solitary confinement to control gang activity by letting prisoners out only if they provide information on gang members. But in classic Catch-22 fashion inmates refusing to debrief serve a minimum of six years in solitary confinement or are returned to the general population where they are sure to be attacked for ratting out. While the effectiveness of this pol- icy cannot be gauged, the damage to the mental health of inmates and the respect for our corrections practices most certainly can. Solitary confinement made a comeback in the U.S. in the mid 1970s, in response to prison vio- lence. The killing of two guards by inmates at a federal prison in Mar- ion, IL, prompted officials to insti- tute a permanent lockdown, in which prisoners were kept con- fined in their cells virtually around the clock. That sort of super-maxi- mum security approach soon caught on elsewhere. California's Pelican Bay, which opened in 1989, reportedly was one of the first facilities built deliberately to foster such isolation, with its SHU compound inside the prison. When considered with the Cali- fornia Department of Corrections history of substandard medical care and inhumane overcrowding it's hard to have faith in their justi- fication for what most health pro- fessionals and criminologists believe to be a form of torture. In addition, since many of these pris- oners will eventually be released one must question if torture will make them better citizens and if our tax dollars are being used effectively and humanely. There are about 60 similar such prisons-within-prisons throughout the United States. By various recent estimates, prison isolation and control units house as many as 80,000 prisoners. To prison officials, they are a tool for safely confining the most danger- ous and difficult-to- manage prisoners, and possibly motivate them to reveal information or change behavior. To prisoners' rights advo- cates and some social scientists, control units are cruel and unusual punishment that breaks prisoners' psyches and drive them into mad- ness. Of course there are those of you that believe such "hard- ened" criminals deserve such abuse and align with the sentiment "We don't want them to like being in prison," as a Pelican Bay official explained to National Public Radio in 2006. It is extremely sad that it is precise- ly this mentality which hardens criminals in the first place by treating them as subhuman and not worthy of rehabilitation, humane care, or opportunities to make amends. In my opinion a promptly carried out death sen- tence is far more humane than torturing people with extended and indeterminate confinement within concrete boxes without meaningful human contact. The fact that constitutional due Richard Mazzucchi Positive Point process prohibits the prompt exe- cution of death sentences, while allowing indeterminate inhumane incarceration of our cit- izens, is an injustice in itself and must be recti- fied to maintain the integrity and moral authority of the Ameri- can justice system. These reforms should begin with the elimina- tion or strict limitation of solitary confinement for periods in excess of one week as may be needed to maintain prisoner control or staff safety. In any event the use of extended solitary confinements to torture inmates as a means to gain information or exact retribution must be terminated immediately by a society that purports to respect human dignity. Please join me by contacting our elected officials to end rationalized torture in Cali- fornia prisons. Richard Mazzucchi is a retired research engineer specializing in energy efficiency and renewable energy. He has travelled extensively and now makes his home in Los Molinos, where he is striving to manifest a sustainable and spiritual lifestyle. He can be reached at living-green@att.net. Your officials STATE ASSEMBLYMAN — Jim Nielsen (R) State Capitol Bldg., Room 6031 Sacramento, CA 95814 (916) 319-2002; Fax (916) 319-2102 STATE SENATOR — Doug LaMalfa (R) State Capitol Bldg., Room 3070 Sacramento, CA 95814 (916) 651-4004; Fax (916) 445-7750 GOVERNOR — Jerry Brown, State Capitol Bldg., Sacramento, CA 95814; (916) 445-2841; Fax (916) 558-3160; E-mail: gover- nor@governor.ca.gov. U.S. REPRESENTATIVE — Wally Herger (R), 2635 Forest Ave. Ste. 100, Chico, CA 95928; 893-8363. U.S.SENATORS — Dianne Feinstein (D), One Post Street, Suite 2450, San Francisco, CA 94104; (415) 393-0707. Fax (415) 393-0710. Barbara Boxer (D), 1700 Montgomery St., Suite 240, San Francisco, CA 94111; (510) 286-8537. Fax (202) 224- 0454. Words, just words, or so someone said Commentary Readers may recall that I ended last week's column having run out of space to respond to the contro- versial (in the minds of some) statements from the previous week's column. I was quite incensed and outraged over the rhetoric used, not just on the Inter- net, left wing blogs and cable shout-fests, but by supposedly respectable and distinguished elected officials up to and includ- ing the President and Vice Presi- dent (Tea Party Republicans are "hostage takers" and "terrorists"). It was certainly inflammatory to refer to those responsible for inflicting incomprehensible burdens of debt upon future generations as political and financial "pedophiles." I did not "equate" but rather "compared" the concepts, for those wishing to debate the actual words I used instead of making things up. More- over, if that was inappropriate rhetorical bomb-throwing, then I'm going to have to insist that that judgment be applied to other rhetoric and images. Let's set aside that particular word and see if the issue can be explained any other way with other terms. If parents, having accumu- lated modest or greater wealth, promise an inheritance to off- spring, the children can reasonably expect to receive that inheritance and live better lives for it. But sup- pose the parents also accumulated debts that had to be satisfied upon their demise, leaving little or noth- ing to the children. The children would be no worse off than if they expected nothing in the first place. No worse off. Even if the parents decided to just blow their chil- dren's inheritance on endless cruis- es before they died, the children would still be no worse off. What if, however, the parents had accumulated vast debts that were passed on to the children? That wouldn't be fair – it could even be referred to as abusive to the trust between generations, the financial abuse being visited, obvi- ously, upon the offspring. Howev- er, that can't happen since debts unsatisfied by the assets of the deceased do not accrue to the chil- dren. Ahh, that's not the way it works in the world of benefit programs for seniors, the poor, and deficits and debt, is it? One of the You Tube entries for the Power Line blog contest to illustrate the con- cept of America's massive levels of debt was simply called "Doorbell" (enter "doorbell powerlineblog" in a search window and click on the link to powerlineblog.com). A young mother holding her little girl answers a doorbell to hear a man's voice explaining that he's from the government, they are running short on money and will need some future earnings. The mom says that things are a little tight, but the man explains that the debt amounts to $46,000 and can be paid over 60 years. The "one easy payment per year" would amount to $766, or it could be paid at the rate of $63 per month, "not including interest, of course." Then the mom, holding her now-squirming girl, tells him that she will be 85 after 60 years and "can't afford another 63 bucks a month and besides, we've already paid our taxes." All he says to the mom is "I wasn't talking to you." If you don't think it is abusive to cur- rent and future genera- tions of children, that have done nothing but be born, for today's politi- cians to blithely continue deficit spending beyond the ability of current tax- payers to ever pay back, then I have nothing fur- ther to say. I will offer no apology; I will not feel any remorse for the sen- sitivities of liberals who think we can just tax our way to solvency. It's a fact that the government could seize all taxable income over $100,000 and it wouldn't even pay this years' deficit. They could only do that once, of course, since no sane per- son would ever earn over $100,000 the next, or any subse- quent, year. If using the pedophile analogy is over the top, here's a partial sup- plemental list of other epithets that should have been shunned by respectable people: Calling tea party demonstrators against the health care law "racists" with absolutely no proof; saying Rep. Giffords was shot by or because of Don Polson The way I see it the tea party; writing that tea partiers are the "Hezbollah faction" on a "suicide mission" (Tom Fried- man); Nancy Pelosi say- ing (tea party Republi- cans) want to "end life as we know it on this planet," Joe Nocera writing that "the Tea Party Republicans can put aside their suicide vests"; and more refer- ences to "hostage tak- ers" and "terrorists" than I can count. Many of those inflammatory terms refer, when used literal- ly, to the murder of peo- ple and children. Tina Dupuy's column would be a fraction as long without similar rhetori- cally thrown bombs. On this page, just last Tues- day, Will Durst, "Raging Moder- ate" (with endless "raging" liberal narratives), apparently didn't get the memo that calling them "Tea Baggers" is very like or equal to, using the n-word, or the c-word (for women). They "held the gov- ernment hostage," were "captors" and "kidnappers." Last Thursday's cartoon had the Tea Party drown- ing Uncle Sam in a tea bag. When it comes to offensive rhetoric, I quote Rambo saying to Colonel Trautman (Richard Cren- na): "They drew first blood." Don Polson can be reached by e-mail at donplsn@yahoo.com.