Even if an inmate's sentence is not oppressively long, their treatment while incarcerated can still constitute subhuman treatment. Prisons are not medical facilities, but they regularly are forced to deal with mental health problems and care for elderly and terminally ill inmates. Food, if it's even edible, usually lacks enough nutrition for inmates' health to not deteriorate. Plus, with a lack of opportunities to see family, read, or gain skill sets, inmates are placed in buildings which lack any resemblance of the civilized world.
“Colorado lawmakers on Friday listened as state officials offered proposals and previewed bills that would tackle criminal justice reforms, including alleviating the state’s packed prison system and whether to reopen a $200 million empty building.“
Denver Post
February 22, 2019
Read More"Inmates in state prisons can’t be held in solitary confinement for more than 15 days, the Colorado Department of Corrections announced on Thursday in the latest effort to overhaul a practice criticized as “torture” by the agency’s chief. The changes also require that inmates who are held in solitary confinement at the discretion of prison officials get at least four hours per day outside a cell for recreation or group classes."
Denver Post
October 12, 2017
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