A Capital Times editorial:
"Stripped naked in a small prison cell with nothing except a toilet; forced to sleep on a concrete floor or slab; denied any human contact; fed nothing but 'nutri-loaf'; and given just a modicum of toilet paper - four squares - only a few times. Although this might sound like a stay at a Soviet gulag in the 1930s, it is, according to the claims in this case, Wisconsin in 2002."
So begins the decision of the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in the latest case involving the brutal and irresponsible mistreatment of inmates at Wisconsin's Supermax prison. The decision opens the next chapter in the debate about the Supermax debacle, as it charges the federal district court in Green Bay with the responsibility of determining whether abuses described in a lawsuit against the state occurred.
Once the facts of those abuses have been established - as will likely be the case - then the 7th Circuit has made it clear that it will sanction the state of Wisconsin for treating inmates at the Boscobel prison in a manner that violated constitutional protections against cruel and unusual punishment.
Wisconsin officials ought not wait until the state is so sanctioned. It is long past time to end the use of gulag-style isolation and deprivation punishments. The lead should come from Gov. Jim Doyle. And it should come immediately.
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