Solitary Confinement

Over the last 10 years, California's juvenile justice system has begun to emerge from the darkest of its dark days. In settling lawsuits, the state agreed to turn away from inhumane practices and reduce youth prison violence, abide by laws that require educational and mental health and healthcare services, and provide access for the physically disabled. The state was caught physically abusing its wards, sometimes by looking the other way when fights broke out, sometimes by spurring the fights on, sometimes by guards actually beating the wards.

Over the last 10 years, California's juvenile justice system has begun to emerge from the darkest of its dark days. In settling lawsuits, the state agreed to turn away from inhumane practices and reduce youth prison violence, abide by laws that require educational and mental health and healthcare services, and provide access for the physically disabled. The state was caught physically abusing its wards, sometimes by looking the other way when fights broke out, sometimes by spurring the fights on, sometimes by guards actually beating the wards.

Human rights activists rallied in downtown L.A. on Tuesday to call for intervention by the United Nations to stop the torture of prisoners by an amoral regime. But they weren't talking about Syria, Cuba or some African dictatorship; the rogue state in question is the state of California. The Center for Human Rights and Constitutional Law, along with a handful of prison-advocacy groups, submitted a petition to the U.N. requesting an on-site investigation of conditions in California's Security Housing Units, the segregated cells where prisoners suspected of gang involvement are placed.

Human rights activists rallied in downtown L.A. on Tuesday to call for intervention by the United Nations to stop the torture of prisoners by an amoral regime. But they weren't talking about Syria, Cuba or some African dictatorship; the rogue state in question is the state of California. The Center for Human Rights and Constitutional Law, along with a handful of prison-advocacy groups, submitted a petition to the U.N. requesting an on-site investigation of conditions in California's Security Housing Units, the segregated cells where prisoners suspected of gang involvement are placed.

U.S. prisons typically reserve solitary confinement for inmates who commit serious offenses behind bars. In California, however, suspected gang members — even those with clean prison records — can be held in isolation indefinitely with no legal recourse. Indeed, hundreds have been kept for more than a decade in 8-by-10-foot cells, with virtually no human contact for nearly 23 hours per day. Dozens have spent more than two decades in solitary, according to state figures. It's a harsh fate even by prison standards: Under current policy, an inmate who kills a guard faces a maximum of five years of isolation.

Calling solitary confinement "torture," California prisoners and advocates are asking the United Nations to investigate the segregated housing of gang members at prisons throughout the state. "We have California treating several thousand prisoners in much the same way the U.S. government treats enemy combatants held in Guantanamo," said Peter Schey, an attorney representing hundreds of inmates. Schey, who announced the petition at a news conference in Los Angeles on Tuesday alongside prisoners' relatives, said solitary confinement was devastating to the physical and mental health of prisoners and was likely to increase their risk of committing more crimes upon release.

Marine Sgt. Clayton Lonetree was denied release today from eight months of solitary confinement by the judge in his espionage court-martial, despite the insistence of the former Moscow embassy guard's attorney. Lawyers for Lonetree also vowed to fight what they say was an unprecedented decision to let an anonymous witness testify in connection with the so-called sex-for-secrets scandal that led to arrests of at least five embassy guards accused of having clandestine relations with Soviet women.

Every bureaucracy has its own language, and the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service is no exception. Here's a sampling of terms immigration officials use in place of everyday words: * People locked up in correctional facilities are not "inmates" or "prisoners"; they are "detainees." * INS lockups are not called "correctional facilities" or "prisons" but "detention centers."

Orange County Jail inmate Thomas F. Maniscalco said Tuesday that he was moved to the solitary confinement of a medical observation cell after being quoted in an article in The Times about a petition signed by prisoners requesting more Mexican food. Tuesday afternoon, sheriff's deputies also charged Maniscalco with a series of jail disciplinary violations that his attorney, Joanne Harrold, called "harassment--out and out harassment."

There is no assumption in the program bio at the Pasadena Playhouse that Rupert Holmes is in any way related to Sherlock Holmes, but, trust me, they are kindred spirits. Sherlock never, as far as anyone knows, especially not Sir Conan Doyle, indulged in writing musicals or even music. Rupert, on the other hand, has written many popular songs and one popular Broadway musical, "The Mystery of Edwin Drood."

Calling solitary confinement "torture," California prisoners and advocates are asking the United Nations to investigate the segregated housing of gang members at prisons throughout the state. "We have California treating several thousand prisoners in much the same way the U.S. government treats enemy combatants held in Guantanamo," said Peter Schey, an attorney representing hundreds of inmates. Schey, who announced the petition at a news conference in Los Angeles on Tuesday alongside prisoners' relatives, said solitary confinement was devastating to the physical and mental health of prisoners and was likely to increase their risk of committing more crimes upon release.

The U.S. Army sergeant suspected in the deadly shooting rampage that left 16 Afghan civilians dead had been passed over for promotion and appeared to face mounting financial troubles on the eve of his last deployment to Afghanistan, according to accounts from neighbors and his wife's blog. Neighbors in the communities around Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington state, where Staff Sgt. Robert Bales lived with his wife and two children, said Bales had left a house in the town of Auburn abandoned after buying another home and failed to pay homeowners association dues on the deteriorating structure despite repeated demands.

A judge ruled Friday that the doctor convicted in Michael Jackson's death must remain behind bars while lawyers appeal his case. Dr. Conrad Murray had asked to be released from jail, where he is serving two years for manslaughter, but Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Michael Pastor denied the bail motion, saying the physician is a flight risk. "The bottom line is the defense does not have significant property or employment or family ties in the Los Angeles or California area," Pastor said of Murray, a native of the Caribbean who practiced medicine in Nevada and Texas.

U.S. prisons typically reserve solitary confinement for inmates who commit serious offenses behind bars. In California, however, suspected gang members — even those with clean prison records — can be held in isolation indefinitely with no legal recourse. Indeed, hundreds have been kept for more than a decade in 8-by-10-foot cells, with virtually no human contact for nearly 23 hours per day. Dozens have spent more than two decades in solitary, according to state figures. It's a harsh fate even by prison standards: Under current policy, an inmate who kills a guard faces a maximum of five years of isolation.

WASHINGTON -- Public criticism by U.S. State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley about the treatment of an Army Pvt. Bradley Manning, suspected of giving classified material to WikiLeaks, has given rise to speculation about a rift between the State Department and the Pentagon over the handling of the prisoner. Crowley told a forum in Cambridge, Mass., Thursday that Manning's treatment at the hands of the Defense Department "is ridiculous, counterproductive and stupid. " The remarks were first reported by BBC News.

Larry Joe can see only seven stars in his small slice of sky. He has spent nearly three years with those stars outside his slatted window, counting the days of his sentence for housebreaking in Douglas Correctional Center in South Africa's Northern Cape province. But he has a guitar, his songs and a wild, untamable hope. "I want to be a bright, bright star. " His voice is wistful, as soft as velvet. "I want people, when they hear me, to see the darkness a little less.

Actor Stacy Keach may be a consummate master of electronic wizardry when he stars in the high-tech, Broadway-bound thriller "Solitary Confinement," but he had a little trouble in real life when he tried to conduct an interview on his car phone this week. Rain was splattering on his windshield--making it less than ideal for driving and talking he explained between interruptions from wife and children as he rescheduled the phoner as an in-person interview later in the day.

"Solitary Confinement," Rupert Holmes' newest thriller, is a duel of wits. On one level, the conflict is obvious in the show, which opened Sunday at the Spreckels Theatre: Richard Jannings, an eccentric billionaire businessman played by Stacy Keach, thinks he is secure in his electronically fortified castle in Albuquerque, N.M. Until someone threatens to kill him. The thrill of the show comes from how that person tries to get to Jannings and how Jannings retaliates.

In the decaying lakeside mansion where Aung San Suu Kyi spent much of the last two decades under house arrest, the Myanmar opposition leader and Nobel laureate was forbidden to use the Internet or the telephone or to watch satellite TV. She did, however, have two maids, was free to read newspapers and listen to radio, and had access to a doctor. For the other 2,200 or so political prisoners in Myanmar, conditions are quite different. Sentenced to impossibly long prison terms for speaking out against the repressive military government, they face torture, barely edible food, little or no medical care and years in solitary confinement.

After a Los Angeles County Superior Court judge sent him to jail indefinitely for contempt of court last year, veteran attorney Richard Fine vowed to take his case all the way to the nation's highest court. "To fight me is to fight me all the way to the Supreme Court," he said in a jailhouse interview with The Times last May. On Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to take up Fine's petition, effectively putting an end to the attorney's dogged legal quest to end his confinement.