California Security Housing Units (SHU) are notoriously known for their civil rights violations. Maltreatment of prisoners does not have to be limited to physical abuse. Although, in the past California's SHU were the epitome of human rights abuse in the United $tates prison system. The effects of an environment of sterile isolation (like found in California's SHUs) on social animals has been known since the 1960s in the research of Harry Harlow: Harlow's studies proved that constant isolation in sterile environments led to antisocial behavior and that this treatment had severe negative emotional and psychological impact on the test subjects. California's SHU programs show this same result.
Mental illness is higher than normal prison poplation. The mental illness in California's SHUs is as high as 1/3 or more of the prison populations in these housing units. Although an exact proportion of the prison population would be hard to determine, because most prisoners refuse to be stigmatized with a negative label of mental illness. The effects of being locked in a cell 24 hours a day in an isolated environment has been known for decades.
California Department of Corrections plans to increase and expand these SHUs. California is not only expanding its current prisons by building more yards, it is changing the criteria for indeterminate SHU placement, meaning that it is easier for CDC to place prisoners in these units with little justification, for life. California prison populations are already growing at an alarming rate due to this state's mandatory sentencing laws. Due to CDC mismanagement of these prisons, it can be expected that California's SHU programs will increase at an even higher rate.
The fact that California's prison system is a failure is easily demonstrated in it's 87% recidivism rate. But the effects of California's SHU program on human life is impossible to calculate. The psychological effects of California's SHU programs on prisoners is a well known fact.
These prison conditions affect prisoner's emotionally, and diminish prisoner's mental capabilities, especially in verbal expression and connotative abilities. Alienation from social groups and inter-family relationships is common over extended periods of time. The extreme isolation over long periods has been proven to produce delusions and forms of psychosis in prisoners that are predisposed to these conditions. The constant isolation in these sterile environments of California's SHU programs have been proven to increase antisocial and violent behavior in prisoners.
The cruelty of these SHU programs have been known for years and CDC plans only to expand these conditions in their SHUs. CDC efforts to stop corruption in their own department have led only to more harsh, severe, and strict living conditions in these HSUs. California's prisons are a multi-billion dollar business that expand only at cost of great human suffering. California's SHU programs have been proved to be the epitome of this humyn suffering. The expansion of this governmental business of California's prison system will go on unchecked until enough people take an active stand against such practices like conditions found in California's SHUs and the United $tates prison system in general.
-- a SHU prisoner in California, February 2003