Two years after litigation forced it to take action, the New York State corrections department is opening a small, dedicated unit for mentally ill offenders. Like thousands of others across the country, residents of this unit are likely to have been held in solitary confinement, which is currently the U.S. prison system’s treatment of choice for inmates […]
This story out of Montana tells an all too common story: A boy who suffered extensive abuse in childhood, and was diagnosed with depression and PTSD, landed in a state juvenile facility; when he fought with corrections officers there, he was sentenced to 5 years and sent to an adult prison; once there, he was deemed a discipline […]
Most people know that Santa Claus is derived from St. Nicholas, an early Christian saint beloved for his kindness and generosity. What hardly anyone knows is that Nicholas acquired sainthood not by giving alms, but by performing a miracle that more or less amounted to breaking out of solitary confinment. George Pappas Sr., writing in Ohio’s Zanesville Times […]