Incarcerated peoples in the State of California protest the use of indefinite and long-term solitary confinement.
I realize that a society incarcerates people for a reason, they have more than likely harmed society in some way but taking a critical look at our prison system is well past due. Sitawa Natambu Jamaa has been in solitary confinement, been locked in a single cell for 22-24 hours a day, for the better part of three decades. His own sister admits that she has not been allowed to have psychical contact with her brother since the mid-1980s. Human begins are inherently social creatures, and research suggests that even a minimal time in solitary confinement can have devastating psychological consequences, while the effects of long-term confinement have been deemed a form of torture by Amnesty International.
Now, Natambu Jamaa, along with many others, is fighting back the only way they he can, through a hunger strike. But they are asking for support from the “outside”—you can check out and support their protest here.
Sitawa Natambu Jamaa – Why is he in solitary confinement? What did he do? What was his crime?
How is his behavior in jail? In general most prisoners are not in solitary confinement.
However jail sentences are unusually long in USA and nowhere else are more people in prison than in the United States.
It is plainly wrong to lock up a person in a narrow jail cell for over 30 years up to 24 hours a day.
The entire US-justice system needs a rethinking, new laws.
The Video hints at this but I could have explained it better. Sitawa Natambu Jamaa is in a SHU, or Security Housing Unit, which the Amnesty international report explains: “Under California regulations, the SHU is intended for prisoners whose conduct endangers the safety of others or the security of the institution. Around a third of the current population are serving fixed SHU terms of SHU confinement (ranging from a few months to several years) after being found guilty through the internal disciplinary system of specific offences while in custody. However, more than 2,000 prisoners are serving “indeterminate” (indefinite) SHU terms… Read more »