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-- staff members say its more evidence of illness, place him in a locked ward, and deprive him of ways to express himself;
-- his greater anger convinces staff he's crazy; they put him in isolation with no clothes, pens or writing materials;
-- even more desperate, he smears feces on the wall and writes messages with his finger to express himself.
Kuper cites this to show the effects of institutionalized isolation. In fact, he says:
"in the USA, there are more people suffering from serious mental illness in the jails and prisons than there are in psychiatric hospitals. And the bizarre scenarios enacted in correctional settings today can make the 'back wards' of 1940's asylums look tame in comparison."
Besides the destructive effects of Supermax isolation, imagine the greater harm when a "disturbed/disruptive prisoner winds up in some form of punitive segregation, typically in a supermaximum security unit where he remains isolated and idle in his cell nearly 24 hours a day."
It produces psychiatric symptoms in even healthy prisoners because of feelings of being overwhelmed. As a result:
"The walls may seem to be moving in on him....He may begin to suffer from panic attacks wherein he cannot breathe and he thinks his heart is beating so fast he is going to die."
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