Health & Medicine
25 Years in Solitary: Prisoner William R. Blake Discusses Confinement Through Personal Essay
Kathleen Lees
First Posted: Mar 15, 2013 08:33 PM EDT
After spending 25 years in solitary confinement, prisoner William R. Blake's essay appeared on Solitary Watch, a prisoner advocacy group, about the psychological aspects of what it was like to be shut off from human contact.
Solitary confinement is a special form of imprisonment in which a prisoner is isolated from any human contact, though often with the exception of members of prison staff. It is sometimes employed as a form of punishment beyond incarceration for a prisoner and has been cited as an additional measure of protection from the inmate or is given for violations of prison regulations. It is also used as a form of protective custody and to implement a suicide watch.
Reports indicate that in 1987, Blake, 23, shot two law enforcement officials, killing one. While on his way to appear in court for drug and robbery charges, he began shooting at Deputy Bernie Meleski and Deputy David Clark. Meleski survived but Clark didn't.
Blake said the judge told him he deserved "an eternity in hell" for the shootings. "Apparently he had the idea that God was not the only one justified to make such judgment calls."
He describes everything from his intense boredom to his feelings that solitary confinement is worse than death.
According to Solitary Watch, he's at Elmira Correctional Facility in western New York.
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First Posted: Mar 15, 2013 08:33 PM EDT
After spending 25 years in solitary confinement, prisoner William R. Blake's essay appeared on Solitary Watch, a prisoner advocacy group, about the psychological aspects of what it was like to be shut off from human contact.
Solitary confinement is a special form of imprisonment in which a prisoner is isolated from any human contact, though often with the exception of members of prison staff. It is sometimes employed as a form of punishment beyond incarceration for a prisoner and has been cited as an additional measure of protection from the inmate or is given for violations of prison regulations. It is also used as a form of protective custody and to implement a suicide watch.
Reports indicate that in 1987, Blake, 23, shot two law enforcement officials, killing one. While on his way to appear in court for drug and robbery charges, he began shooting at Deputy Bernie Meleski and Deputy David Clark. Meleski survived but Clark didn't.
Blake said the judge told him he deserved "an eternity in hell" for the shootings. "Apparently he had the idea that God was not the only one justified to make such judgment calls."
He describes everything from his intense boredom to his feelings that solitary confinement is worse than death.
According to Solitary Watch, he's at Elmira Correctional Facility in western New York.
See Now: NASA's Juno Spacecraft's Rendezvous With Jupiter's Mammoth Cyclone