Over the objections of its three liberal justices, the Supreme Court on Monday denied a petition from a prisoner confined for years without the chance to exercise outside his cell.
Over the objections of its three liberal justices, the Supreme Court on Monday denied a petition from a prisoner confined for years without the chance to exercise outside his cell.
The description in the article seems to indicate that he was seriously mentally ill to begin with, and only got worse with solitary confinement. I don’t have enough information to say whether he was actually mentally competent to stand trial. My point was just that if his case is so extreme that they can’t manage to get him out of his cell on a regular basis, then I have to question the mental state that got him in there in the first place. And on the other hand, if they can provide the basic necessity that he has as a right to, then there isn’t any excuse to withhold it. Find another punishment.
That said, on reflection, I suppose I was oversimplifying a bit. Someone can be violent, aggressive, and stubborn to the point of being self-destructive and still have the mental capacity to understand the world around them, the nature of their decisions, the consequences they have, and the difference between right and wrong.