#3 Cruel and usual:US solitary confinement

http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/features/2011/03/201137125936219469.html

The united States hold back from the public what really is happening in prisons. Many people believe that those who murder should be murdered, but from the conditions of the prisons living in a cold cell block is as torturous as being put to death. From all ages prisons are thrown into cell blocks with no communication or physical contact besides the times guards hold the arms of a prisoner as they walk. Many prisoners have not seen sunlight or have had fresh air in years. Illness occurs as the prisons stay in solitary confinement causing them to slowly die in a cell block. Many of the prisoners have been diagnosed with mental illnesses and are not treated correctly for them. From all ages prisoners are being treated as if they do not have a second chance or cannot turn the bad days into good days. I don't understand how a society wants to grow and prosper if we are still torturing prisoners as if we haven't grown since centuries ago.Steve Bright of the Southern Center for Human Rights told a story about a 15yr old boy who was "accused, but not yet tried or convicted, of murder - who stands to spend up to two years in isolation in a Tennessee county jail because his family is too poor to afford his bond, set at $500,000. Although he had previously attempted suicide and been treated for mental illness, JP has spent his time behind bars "with no physical contact from a member of his family and no schooling".  This is one of many situations in prisons with adolescents. Prisons should not be damaging children and torturing them causing mental illness in solitary confinement. These children are not given a second chance because there punishment is so severe.Solitary confinement should not be available to not only young adults, but grown men and women as well.