After years in solitary, a woman struggles to carry on

[RockaFowler]

http://bigstory.ap.org/article/44c62b6377c34851895032caa6b3d592/after-years-solitary-woman-struggles-carry

NEW YORK (AP) — Six weeks after her arrival at Rikers Island, an argument over who should clean a jailhouse shower sent Candie Hailey to solitary confinement — known as "the bing."

It was the first time, but it would not be the last.

A month later, records show, she cursed and spit at a guard and resisted when she was put in a hold. Ninety-five days in the bing. She later got 70 days for cursing at an officer, splashing the guard with toilet water and refusing to stop. Among other infractions: fighting (40 days), disrespect of staff (30 days) and blocking her cell window (15 days).

Of her first 29 months in jail, Hailey served about 27 alone in a 6-by-10-foot cell, with a bed, a toilet and a few books to pass the time. When she did go outside, it was just for one hour in 24. And she had yet to be tried for any crime, let alone convicted.

SNIP

In more than three years Hailey spent in jail, she spent 2 1/3 years in solitary. And in the nine months since she was freed, she has struggled to break free from the trauma of her confinement.

"Honestly I think I'd be better off in jail," the now-32-year-old Hailey said after yet another failed trip to court to regain custody of her two children. "It's like a nightmare, like everyone's out there trying to get me."

She had reunited with her younger sisters and father and promptly dissociated from them; struggled to regain her welfare benefits and strove to complete a still-unresolved divorce

This is one of the saddest stories I have heard.

[Gregorian]

1. Diagnosis: sick country.

There is no other way to explain this kind of treatment to people but as the result of a sick society.

Bernie is the best answer to this illness I've seen in 45 years.

[Marr]

2. It's certainly tragic, but I don't know that I'd call it sad.

She sounds very much like a sort I've encountered too regularly, and I expect many others here have as well. She sounds like a violent person who cries persecution whenever her aggressive behavior triggers a response. She seems completely incapable of acknowledging any fault of her own. She seems like sociopath, frankly.