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Comment by JonFish85 | Hacker News Reader

Just a quick note that the solitary can also be a way to prevent a certain prisoner (like Manning) from being torn to pieces by the general prison population. Considering that Manning is in a military prison and is very unpopular amongst the military folks, and transgender to boot, it wouldn't surprise me if solitary is in Manning's best interests.

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I take issue with this, but I don't have a better solution. Being at risk of attack from other inmates is better/worse than the terrifying reality of years of solitary confinement? Solitary confinement is probably up there among my worst nightmares. Evolutionarily, people are simply not meant to be alone with their thoughts for years - especially while simultaneously being kept in a confined space. I have no doubt I would personally go - rather literally - crazy. The idea of unending solitary confinement would, again, I assume, literally drive me to suicide.

So, no, I don't want her to sit at constant risk of physical/sexual assault or worse... but I know years of solitary confinement would permanently fuck with me in an extreme way, so I can't condone it in any fashion.

What to do?!?

Edit: in her own words, the torture of prolonged solitary confinement: http://www.theguardian.com/world/commentisfree/2016/may/02/s...

Edit 2: "Shortly after arriving at a makeshift military jail, at Camp Arifjan, Kuwait, in May 2010, I was placed into the black hole of solitary confinement for the first time. Within two weeks, I was contemplating suicide." <- So, I'm guessing maybe I'm not that far off in assuming I'd end up the same way.

Regarding the last point, it's important to remember that this is a person who has struggled with mental health issues for a very long time, so it's not just solitary confinement that caused suicidal tendencies, although it probably contributed to that.

We don't actually know everything that's been done to Manning. The same people who decided how suspected terrorists were to be interrogated, decided how she would be interrogated. So, various mental conditions might be results of more than just solitary confinement, even if they weren't in any sense preexisting.

You are looking at a false dichotomy. Solitary and general population are not the only two options.

Solitary confinement is almost certainly being used by prison administrators for purposes far less appropriate than to protect the prisoner from harm, whenever that is the primary justification for using it.

Having visited her (I wrote the original post), I can say this is absolutely untrue. She is much, much better off in the prison among other inmates than in solitary. IIRC, solitary was one of the worst experiences she went through.

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