Inside the SHU

Firstly, avert your attention from your screen and take a look at your current setting . . . How big is the space in which you occupy yourself? Are you in a small cubicle or in the waiting room of a doctor's office? Are you inside of a movie theater? If so, put your phone away and read this stuff later!

Or, if you're standing OUTSIDE . . . well then lucky you!

Now imagine that the space in which you occupy is an 8' X 7' room, with concrete walls and minimal light. Your day consists of being completely isolated for 22.5 hours (if not more) everyday, for seven days a week. The only human contact you have is the correctional officer who brings you a tray of food through a slot in the door. You question the edibility of the meal that you received. When it is time for your five-hours-per-week, court-mandated recreational time, the door to your cell swings open and you are free to go to the concrete courtyard and stretch your legs.

Inside security housing units, or SHU, this is what life is like for thousands of prisoners across the United States. You may also know the term as administrative segregation unit, ad-seg, or ASU. Officially, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) does not utilize the term solitary confinement, and instead:

CDCR reports "single cell" housing. A relatively broad designation, it means people may be single-celled voluntarily or involuntarily. They may be housing in segregation units (SHUs, ASUs) or in general population. They may be on single-cell status because they've committed a rules violation or for their own protection. Further, they may be housing on single-cell status for days or years at a time.

Many of the people who end up in SHU or ad-seg are there because they would not be safe in general population. For example, a person with a pedophilia-related or a terrorism-related conviction would certainly be housed in solitary confinement; otherwise they would get jumped, shanked, or worse. Further, gang leaders and important members are normally in solitary for the duration of their conviction, given the political power and influence they have (also the threat for gang warfare inside the facility). Some prisoners are in solitary for a short period because of misbehavior or a prison rules infraction, but many inmates are in solitary for the duration of their entire sentence (could be over ten years).

Pelican Bay State Prison

So in terms of numbers and figures, given the variation of people who are locked up under "single cell" status, it is almost impossible to know exactly how many people are in solitary confinement at any given point. In Pelican Bay State Prison, a supermax California state prison in Crescent City, there are more than 1,000 isolation cells in its security housing unit. This prison has a reputation for being one of the worst prisons in the United States.

In the summer of 2013, about four inmates in Pelican Bay solitary launched a massive hunger strike to protest the prison conditions, saying their human rights were being violated. More than 30,000 inmates joined the strike in solidarity by refusing food across California's 37 state and private prisons. The prisoners issued five core demands that called for an end to solitary confinement in California and and increase in quality of life. The strikes brought national attention to the practice of solitary confinement and the debate over its use continues to this day. For more in-depth information about Pelican Bay, I recommend reading A Brief History of Pelican Bay by Keramet Reiter; it's a fascinating read--here is an excerpt:

In 1989, California opened Pelican Bay State Prison, equipped with 1,056 cells explicity designed to keep California's alleged "worst of the worst" prisoners in long-term solitary confinement, under conditions of extreme sensory deprivation. The 8 X 10 foot cells of the Pelican Bay SHU, or Secure Housing Unit, are made of smooth, poured concrete. They have no windows. Instead, there are fluorescent lights, which stay on 24 hours per day. For at least twenty-two hours every day, prisoners remain in their cells, looking out through a perforated steel door at a solid concrete wall. Food is delivered twice a day through a slot in the cell door. 

 . . .

As of 2007, prisoners in the Pelican Bay SHU spent an average of just over two years in solitary confinement, before being released back into the general prison population, or onto parole. Prisoners have spent as long as eighteen years in the Pelican Bay SHU before being released back into the general prison population, or onto parole. While some prisoners have spent decades in the Pelican Bay SHU, most prisoners are eventually released. On average, sixteen prisoners per month are released directly from the Pelican Bay SHU onto parole in California. They are provided no pre-release services to assist them transition from long-term isolation to life on the outside.

Inmate Javier Zubiate stands in the concrete recreation area allowing him periods of controlled and highly monitored exercise in a secure housing unit at Pelican Bay.

In this personal account, entitled "The Voice from Within," one of our clients described what daily life was like inside the Pelican Bay SHU:

Here in the (SHU) at Pelican Bay State Prison also known as the bay and end of the line for those viewed or considered to be the worst of the worst, too violent to interact with others? (I think family and friends of many here would surely disagree), is a desolate and dreary place where one is locked in a windowless cell, or better yet a "TOMB" 24/7 for years on end. This type of solitary confinement/sensory deprivation can and does weigh heavily on a person's mind, body, and soul. And if allowed to, will cripple you mentally, physically, and emotionally. In this graveyard of broken lives and rusting dreams, many have opt for the easy way out by simply giving up and allowing the bitterness to consume them, while others battle constantly to maintain a lil' sanity and struggle daily to better themselves in any way possible. With no outside assistance or support, one learns to look within themselves for the strength and means needed to survive and push forward. Reaching out to assist and support others in need whenever possible. In turn helps me by giving me a sense of purpose and that all these years locked away are not a complete wast. If our art can capture and hold someone's attention for only moments, maybe then they will be able to hear our voice. There is nothing to admire or glorify in having to spend your life in a cage. Believe that!

So my personal opinion on the entire matter? Like most issues in criminal justice, the interpretation is not black and white: I can see how SHU is both extremely helpful and also a cruel & unusual punishment at the same time. For those high ranking gang members who are "shot callers" (they call the shots; set the rules for what happens and what doesn't happen), they probably should be extremely limited in terms of communication with the outside world. On the other hand, those people who are in SHU for months on end because they broke a prison rule could probably receive an alternative form of punishment or an opportunity for repentance. Further, solitary confinement can be considered a form of torture under some international human rights treaties. Without any sort of debriefing or transitional process, the practice could also result in unwanted psychological or behavioral consequences.

Additional resources:

• Photos of what life is like in various security housing units across the country 
• ACLU website for resources, articles, websites, videos, and campaigns about solitary confinement
• The Gray Box, a 16-minute investigative look at solitary confinement.