Pablo Pina D-28079
P.O. Box 7500 D-2 122 SHU
Crescent City, Calif 45531

RE: The SHU Syndrome: (post)...

Since my arrival here in the SHU, I've seen prisoners slowly losing their minds.

And some react to the solitary in different ways, and others don't seem to be affected by it at all.

In the early 1990s there were a lot of these guys around here. The first time I noticed it, I heard someone barking like a dog. At first I thought he was playing around, trying to make us in the pod laugh, and it was funny. But then he started doing it all the time. He wasn't violent or kicking his cell door. He just barked every now and then. I talked to him a few times, he didn't have any appliance or anything so I thought he might just need someone to talk with. He spoke like a normal person but you could tell he was losing it.

I have never been around prisoners like some I saw here that were perverts. They disrespect the female guards daily. And it was also disrespectful to all of us in the pod.

What I've been noticing is that for quite some time one of my neighbors has been talking to himself a lot. I asked him about it but he said he was reading. I don't know about that, it sounds more like he's talking to someone.

But that's how it all begins. We just finished eating and after they picked up the trays he started talking to himself again.

I'm gonna have to keep an eye on this guy, he's been in the SHU as long as I have now and I talk to him a lot when I don't have anything to do.

The guys that I saw go crazy, they started first by talking to themselves, then they started kicking the door, or banging on the sink. Then they started yelling at folks, anyone they heard talking or saw walk by their cell.

There was one guy that didn't like to hear people talk at all, and he would start telling them to shut up.

Of course, that would start an argument that would end up in some type of violent action, usually the mentally ill guy would get the worst of it.

Finally after 1995 prison officials opened a unit out on (B-Yard) called the (PSU) unit. It's a psych unit for SHU inmates. They are in cells all day, but have access to treatment, more of a program. Almost all mentally ill prisoners end up there.

And since they moved them out of the SHU, we could get some sleep at night, finally.