残酷但并非不寻常(3)

Anyone lacking familiarity with our state prison system would probably guess I must have been a pretty scary, out-of-control prisoner. But I never committed one act of violence during my entire sentence. Instead, a series of "tickets," or disciplinary write-ups for prison rule violations, were punished with a total of more than five years in "the box."

In New York, guards give out tickets like penny candy. I received an endless stream of tickets, each one more absurd than the last. When I tried to use artwork to stay sane, I was ticketed for having too many pencils. Excess pencils are considered sharpened objects, or weapons. Another time, I had too many postage stamps, which in prison are used like currency and are contraband.
My case is far from unusual. A 2012 study by the New York Civil Liberties Union found that five out of six of the 13,000 SHU sentences handed out every year are for nonviolent misbehavior, rather than violent acts. On any given day, some 3,800 people are in isolated confinement in the state, many for months or years. Those accused of more serious prison offenses, and those deemed an ongoing risk to "safety and security," have been held in solitary for 20 years or more. In handing out these sentences-within-sentences, prison officials act as prosecutors, witnesses, judge and jury. There is no defense counsel.