I. LETTERS FROM PRISONERS - LIFE IN A CONTROL UNIT

Sensory Deprivation is Depravity

From within and beyond the one hundred thousand dollar 8 by 14 sq. ft. steel and stone Sensory Deprivation cell that is designed for my mental, physical, and social de-humanization, I bring to you this letter of concern regarding the adverse effects of long-term Sensory Deprivation.

After spending over a year in the Supermax undergoing long-term intensive solitary confinement, denied and deprived of direct human contact, I was transferred back to the Maryland Penitentiary. Upon seeing me for the first time in over a year, a fellow prisoner shook my hand and then proceeded to put both arms around me to embrace me and I became visibly shaken and cringed up as if I had been physically violated. I had not had any physical contact with another human being in so long that I wasn't used to being touched. I had become supersensitive to one of the basic human senses - the sense of human touch.

Welcome to the "Sensory Deprivation Experience." Definition: self-explanatory - the deliberate and intentional stripping of the cell down to an isolation cell, then the stripping of the individual down to the basic necessities, even down to the personal effects. Then locked within this cell twenty-three hours a day with barely the bare essentials, where even the wall-mounted stainless steel mirror in the segregation cells is removed from the walls so that even the sight of one's own image is denied. This is Sensory Deprivation. And no matter how strong a person is, Sensory Deprivation is depravity at is worst. All five basic human senses - sight, sound, smell, touch, and taste - are severely suppressed -- when one is slowly, but surely, and very subtly stripped of all the common sentiments of humanity.

Under these adverse conditions of confinement, one tends to crave a change of scenery, location, atmosphere, and environment just so s/he can see new sights instead of the same ole, everyday, minddeadening routine and faceless faces ... hear new and different sounds other than the quiet, indescribable silence that seems to speak louder than noise ... smell different scents besides the foul, stale, contemptible odor so common to everyday existence in this bottomless pit ... one seeks to