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.
“There are more than 2 million people incarcerated in the United States, and for many of them, access to books and other learning materials is not guaranteed and can even be purposely denied. One Illinois prison recently removed more than 200 of its books, many about race, from its library.“
New York Public Radio
June 5, 2019
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