The New Face of Maine's Death Penalty: Solitary Confinement

There is no pretty way to execute someone. No matter how sophisticated we get, capital punishment is an ugly thing — one that from time to time tends to go horrifically awry.

My home state of Maine abolished the death penalty in 1887, two years after the badly botched execution of Daniel Wilkinson on Nov. 21, 1885. Wilkinson — the last person to be executed in Maine — had been convicted on murder charges after shooting a constable after a foiled burglary attempt. His death was....let's put it this way, untidy. As the state tried to hang him, something went wrong with the noose. Wilkinson wriggled there on the rope for 15 minutes before ultimately strangling to death. His last words to the Sheriff? “You fellas get $50 a day for such work!”

Now, many decades later, Maine has discovered a new method of execution. It is neat, efficient and random. The public loves it, because it seems comparatively humane. It's called solitary confinement.

Though corrections officials in Maine have vigorously defended the state's policies as complying with “nationally accepted standards," the recent record of death in Maine's solitary cells suggest that's not a very high bar to cross.

For example: On October 5, 2006, prisoner Ryan Rideout — a 24-year-old with a history of mental illness who was being held in solitary confinement while serving a 17-month sentence for burglary — hanged himself by tying a bed sheet to the sprinkler head of his cell. A guard's demeaning taunts spurred him on. (The former guard, who was sued by Rideout’s family, eventually settled the case for $500,000 — an amount the state refuses to pay.)

More recently, on April 24, 2009, prisoner Sheldon Weinstein died in solitary confinement of a ruptured spleen, approximately two hours after I (as his chaplain) requested that he be given a roll of toilet paper. (He'd been using his pillow case.) He was cremated, and his death attributed to "natural causes" — no discussion of whether he'd died as the result of an assault or medical neglect.

Later that year, on Nov. 27, 2009, solitary confinement prisoner Victor Valdez was also declared dead — of unknown causes that will remain unknown. His body was cremated with no medical examination and no autopsy.

And just last month on April 10, prisoner George Magee — who'd been placed in Androscoggin County solitary for observation — ripped up his bed sheet and hanged himself in full view of the guard shack, which was apparently manned by those only casually committed to the task of “observation.”

Yes, in Maine, we've eliminated the death penalty. But we still persist in the barbaric practice of solitary confinement, which too often drives people to suicide — deaths that are assisted by neglect by guards and lack of follow-up investigations. It's a quieter phenomenon than a state execution: there are no costly appeals; there are no capital punishment protestors gathering in the middle of the night. The state can prolong its “investigation” of itself until the public grows weary.

And best of all, as I was often reminded by my colleagues at the prison in the callous days following Weinstein's death, every death means “one less mouth to feed.”

Photo Credit: amy the nurse