Worse Than Animals: Prison System Voices Decry Solitary Confinement of Mentally Ill (1/2)

Following the death of two prisoners at New York City's Rikers Island facility, we look at mounting pressure on jails and prisons to reform their use of solitary confinement. A corrections officer was arrested last week and charged with violating the civil rights of Jason Echevarria, a mentally ill Rikers prisoner who died after eating a packet of detergent given to him when his cell was flooded with sewage. It was the first such arrest in more than a decade. Also last month, Jerome Murdough, a mentally ill homeless veteran, died in a Rikers solitary mentalobservation unit where he was supposed to be checked on every 15 minutes. An official told the Associated Press that Murdough "baked to death" after temperatures soared in his cell. We hear from Echevarria's father, Ramon, at a protest seeking justice for his son, and speak to former Rikers prisoner Five Mualimmak, who was held in solitary there. And we are joined by two guests from within the prison system calling for reformDr. James Gilligan, a psychiatrist who is helping reduce violence in prisons, and Lance Lowry, president of the Texas Correctional Employees, the union which represents Texas prison guards. Lowry is calling on the state to reduce the use of solitary confinement, including on death row. "Zookeepers are not allowed to keep zoo animals in the kind of housing that we put human beings in," Dr. Gilligan says. "We have created the situation; it is called a selffulfilling prophecywe say these are animals, they are going to behave like animals, then we treat them so that they will."

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