I'm going to a salon this afternoon for Sarah Shroud, who will speak about solitary confinement. I know this is a cruel and unusual punishment, and I can't even imagine the horrors she underwent when confined in Iran. But here at home, prisons abuse this practice and even among junveniles. I want to hear her suggestions and a bit of her play written with this subject at the forefront. My dear friends are hosting, and I am glad to support this issue.
As a child I was haunted by Alexandre Dumas' "The Count of Monte Cristo", where the prisoners are kept on an island and apart from any human contact except abuse by guards. The hero's indomintable spirit awed me then. But even as a child I knew most people are broken and destroyed by such treatment. It is unjust. It allows for no rehabilitation or redemption. We must treat others as human beings, not beasts, and when we do not we become beasts ourselves.
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