Regarding the excellent article "No peace outside 'The Box,'" April 25, serving time in isolation is not only harmful to the mentally ill, it degrades the mental health of healthy prisoners as well.
For those who have no contact with anyone who is or has been incarcerated, it's easy to imagine that our criminal justice system is fair and lives up to our best ideals of how humans should be treated.
Unfortunately, while some corrections officers, perhaps most, have the best intentions, there are some who abuse prisoners by putting them in solitary for minor infractions like reaching back for a forgotten spoon in the chow line or even lying about infractions.
The "fair hearing" the inmate got amounted to the correction officer's word against the inmate. This isn't corrective; it inspires a sense of hopelessness, anger and depression.
The documentary "Herman's House" was shown in April in Troy. It's the story of a man who spent 40 years in solitary in Louisiana. A panel discussion afterward featured professionals involved with this issue in New York, among the worst abusers for keeping inmates in isolation units.
Our prisons in New York must themselves be corrected.
Robin Schnell
Scotia