Solitary in Iran Nearly Broke Me. Then I Went Inside America’s Prisons.
October 29, 2012 | by Shane Bauer | Mother Jones
On July 31, 2009, three young friends were hiking in the mountains of Iraq when they mistakenly wandered past the Iraqi border into Iranian territory. They were imprisoned for almost two years and denied basic human rights. Shane Bauer, one of the political prisoners in Iran, describes the suffering he endured in solitary confinement and compares his experience to the experience of prisoners in solitary confinement in the United States. According to Bauer, solitary confinement in the U.S. is a similar torturous experience to which many prisoners are vulnerable.
On July 31, 2009, three young friends were hiking in the mountains of Iraq when they mistakenly wandered past the Iraqi border into Iranian territory. They were imprisoned for almost two years and denied basic human rights. Shane Bauer, one of the political prisoners in Iran, describes the suffering he endured in solitary confinement and compares his experience to the experience of prisoners in solitary confinement in the United States. According to Bauer, solitary confinement in the U.S. is a similar torturous experience to which many prisoners are vulnerable. Because prisoners are sent to isolation on the basis of speculative evidence, such as alleged gang activity, Bauer asserts that many of these inmates are political prisoners, just as he was.