And a warden who wants to reform his isolation unit. Im not interested in burying you. Im already buried, though. Narrator the story of six months in solitary. Try to be normal again. Frontlinis made possible by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. Thank you. And by the corporation for public broadcasting. Major support for frontliis provided by the john d. And catherine t. Macarthur foundation, committed to building a more just, verdant and peaceful world. More information is available at macfound. Org. Additional support is provided by the park foundation, dedicated to heightening Public Awareness of critical issues. The ford foundation, working with visionaries on the front lines of social change worldwide. At fordfoundation. Org. The wyncote foundation. And by the frontline journalism fund, with major support from jon and jo ann hagler, and Additional Support from james worth. My names todd michael fickett. Im here for arson, in prison for arson. Down here, its like being buried alive. Youre like. Youre someplace alive, but youre no place anybody wants you. Narrator todd fickett has just assaulted a prison officer. Hes been put in an isolation cell as punishment. My mental state will probably go downhill like it did last time. I go pretty crazy. Narrator todd is facing six months alone in his cell. Hes one of an estimated 80,000 inmates across the United States in solitary confinement. howling banging laughter banging, shouting howling narrator friday night in the segregation unit at the Maine State Prison. All the inmates here are in solitary confinement. banging almost every day, the prisoners act out against the officers who work the unit. They flood their cells. They pour bodily fluids under their doors. And they cut themselves with razor blades. Kidd knocking kidd, you need to cuff up. You might as well talk to me now because youre going to talk to me sooner than later. I have three windows covered right now, and one of them appears to be selfabusive. Attempted to look through the tray slot to see if i could get a visual on him, and hes got it covered with a mattress. If i cant see him from the back window, im gonna have to go in and take him out for his own safety. Narrator inmates are forbidden from covering their windows in the solitary unit. They could be bleeding to death, or it could be a trick to lure the officers in. Hes got it all covered. So now we have to pull him out. Okay gents, whenever youre ready to rock and roll. 6 11, a2, do you have a large box . If i say go, rip that door open so these men can go in. If i say hold, just hold it with a crack. Any questions at this time . I think were ready to go in and do a cell extraction. banging shouting narrator the officers sometimes have to use mace on inmates who wont comply. banging monsters this is what they create in here monsters. And then they drop you into society and tell you, go ahead, be a good boy. You cant conduct yourself like a human being when they treat you like an animal. Narrator in the solitary unit, nights like this are routine. Officers regularly have to remove selfabusive inmates from their cells. This place is like an insane asylum. I dont even know how many times ive seen this tier filled with blood from these guys cutting their arms and their necks and their balls, cutting their ball sacks out, all types of crazy. Craziness, and thats because theyre stuck in here with nothing to do. Narrator gordon perry, a convicted murderer, has been here for more than a year, longer than any other inmate in the unit. If you dont have a strong mind, this place can break you quick. A lot of guys, they dont even have reasons why; they just snap out. Thats what this place does it makes you mean, makes you violent, and it bleep a lot of peoples heads up. This is solitary confinement. Narrator the maximum security Maine State Prison holds around 900 inmates. Its home to the most dangerous prisoners in the state. Most of them live in general population. Theyre allowed out of their cells each day and can interact with other inmates. The solitary unit is the prison within the prison. Inmates here spend 23 hours a day in their cells. They get an hour of exercise in a cage. banging some are here long term because theyre judged too dangerous to be around other people. banging some are here for their own protection. And others are here as punishment for disruptive behavior. I just went overboard. Freaked out, started punching stuff, threw chairs, screaming, and i got maced and tackled. They were trying to say i started a riot. They brought me down here, i been down here two days now. Narrator 21yearold Adam Brulotte is serving a fouryear sentence for breaking someones jaw in a fight. Now hes in segregation or seg as the inmates call it for starting a riot. I like seg. I can handle being locked down 23 hours a day because i can read, i can write, i can do pushups. Most of the time, i just chill. You gotta relax, you cant get yourself wound up because you cant leave that room. Well, its good to my standards im always at this window, so i like the window to be clean. My face touches it, my hands touch it. Yeah, it sucks, but i think im doing good. Narrator adam faces two months in solitary. Todd fickett is one week into his sixmonth stay in the solitary unit. Last night, he cut open a vein in his arm. Officers found him passed out in his cell. Self harm is a punishable offense. His punishment is more time in solitary. They gave me a class a Bodily Injury charge for trying to kill myself. Pretty much theyre trying to punish me for bleeding. Narrator the officers say hes faking Mental Illness in an attempt to get moved out of solitary. Hes just trying to get what he wants. He knows hes going to spend a lot of time down in our segregation unit just for the fact that he severely assaulted one of our staff members, and he is trying to manipulate his way out of dealing with the consequences that come with assaulting a staff member. Narrator todd is allowed almost nothing in his cell in case he tries to cut himself again. But in solitary, there are ways of outsmarting the officers. yelling im a bleeder todd . Whats going on . We got a bleeder fickett. Hey, fickett. Talk to me, man. How come . Okay. Narrator one of the inmates has smuggled todd a razor blade. Can you grab a camera and come in here, please . Come on, fickett. Why dont you take this stuff down . Theres a man in there bleeding to death. Narrator the officers cant go into his cell to give him first aid until theyre sure he cant attack them. They need to handcuff him through the tray slot on his door. Hey fickett, do me a favor. Put that towel over there on your arm, okay . Lets just at least slow that bleeding down. Put it on your arm, lets slow it down. Are you willing to cuff up . Are you willing to come out . Fickett, listen you need to cuff so i can come in and fix that. Holy bleep . Come on, fickett. Come on, were gonna help you. Come on, fickett. Well go right to the classroom. So another day on the job . Another day on the job. We probably average about 20 of these a month, so. In the last year, ive become an expert on blood, i guess. It doesnt just mop up, does it . No, it doesnt. It coagulates and its. Generally, i try to saturate it with a germicide, and then i use a sheet to mop it up and then afterwards, i try to scrub it down. My heart goes out to everybody down here. Ive been behind these doors, so i know what its like to stay down here for years. Being behind these walls, they get to everybody and everybody deals with it in their own particular way. As you can imagine, someone being 17, 18 years old in a setting like this, you know, its not really. It does a lot with your mind. Narrator adam thought he could handle solitary. Now hes not so sure. Yeah, i got hardcore add and im about to leave in five months. I dont know where im going to go, i dont know where im going to work. I dont know how im going to get a car. I still got 1,000 to pay with no car, no job. When you settle down in your room and you really just start thinking and just bang, bang, bang all at once. This really kind of bleep with my head. Just trying to get some medication to slow that down for now. banging yelling narrator its lunchtime in the solitary unit. Why are you pissed off . Because theyre bleep bleep with peoples portions oh scumbag thats a Million Dollar shot banging narrator the unrest soon escalates into a fullblown protest. What is all this stuff on the floor . Probably urine and toilet paper and food. banging in half an hour, im going to let that loose and itll be in the hallway. banging whats going on . Nothing. Nothing . Oh, bleep there it goes yeah banging narrator adams punishment for flooding the unit will be more time in solitary. Solitary confinement began in the United States in the 1800s as a progressive experiment to see if isolation would reform criminals. It was soon largely abandoned because prisoners didnt reform. They lost their minds. You dont know what the bleep goes on in here. You guys get to go home i have to stay the bleep in here narrator but in the 1980s, solitary reemerged as a way to stamp out prison violence. The United States now has more inmates in isolation than any other western country. The use of segregation has its place when you have real dangerous prisoners, but from my perspective, it is overused probably throughout the United States. Its really dangerous. If i have somebody that comes in with a fiveyear commitment, you could have them do their whole time in segregation. But i dont want him living next to me when you release him. The normal person, theyre going to be thinking if you punish them, youre going make them better, and the reality is the exact opposite happens. Narrator states across the country are now starting to rethink their use of segregation. Three years ago, maine began to send fewer inmates into solitary and moved prisoners with serious Mental Illness out of the unit. Now the prisons new warden is trying to take the reforms even further. I want you out on the other side of that door, because thats good for you to be on this side of the door and not that side, and you can hold me accountable. We need to make every attempt at moving them out of those cells and moving them into general population. On the surface it might look crazy, but the reality is 80 of these inmates are gonna be hitting the street, okay . So we can either make them worse, okay, and create more victims when they go on the street, or we can rehabilitate them. Narrator but the warden cant simply release violent, unstable prisoners back into general population. Adam started a riot. Todd assaulted an officer. Gordon stabbed another inmate with a screwdriver. And some of the prisoners in solitary are even more dangerous. Ive strangled a correctional officer and hid him under my bed, and then another one came in the pod and i knocked him out and dragged him into a utility closet and beat his head in with a mop wringer. So ive been in prison a long time. That was when i was 16. Narrator peter gibbs has been in and out of solitary for over 30 years. He wants to be transferred to a prison in his home state and has threatened to murder the warden if it doesnt happen. I will assault, attack, stab, do whatever i have to do to get out of your facility. Narrator in most prisons, he could expect to be stuck in solitary indefinitely. I will kill one of your inmates, i dont have nothing to lose. Narrator but the warden wants his team to consider moving even peter gibbs back to general population. I want out of here. My children cant come see me. Im not rich, were not rich, you know, so they dont have the money to come here. So mr. Gibbs, what do we need to do to get out of this hole that were in . I need to be medicated. That makes me sociable. Okay, im gonna follow that up. You cant keep on threatening to kill me. If youre threatening to kill me, im probably not gonna let you out of this room, and if you threaten to kill anybody. One thing about you, mr. Gibbs, that i know is you are good for your word. I thought it would get me back to new hampshire, i thought if you tell them, we dont want mr. Gibbs here, they have to take me back. They dont have to take you back. Then ill homicide one of your inmates what theyll do let me finish is theyll make arrangements for you to go from here to another state. New jersey, maryland. New jerseys refused me, Rhode Islands refused me because of my Mental Health issues. It seems to me that youd like to see your wife and your two daughters. Yes, thats the most important thing. It seems to me that youd like get you back out in general population. What were going to do. As long as somewhere down the road we can convince new hampshire, mr. Gibbs is doing unreal, hes changed, and maybe take me back. Look, what i can control is, how do i move mr. Gibbs out of the seg unit, okay . Narrator gibbs will have to prove he is no longer a threat before hes moved out of solitary. You know, you start with baby steps, right . Well, what are you looking at for, like, a time period . Can you start giving me some stuff in my cell maybe, like, to do . Narrator but the senior prison staff are concerned. Hes a long way from my perspective because i have to be in the pod. Any one of us could be in general population with this guy, so i dont wanna see someone die, an officer die because were trying to kind of get him settled as we wait for new hampshire. Its just going to be a process. Narrator its been 24 hours since todd fickett cut open a vein. Rather than punish him, the warden has moved him to the prisons Mental Health unit for the next three months. When that time is up, hell have to return to solitary. But for now, hell be treated by the prison psychologist. Next is to figure out how youre doing, and plan our next steps. So fill me in. Still dont feel very good . Can you tell me a little more about, uh. You feel like bleep , what does that mean . You still want to what . All right. So that started when . Without even knowing the guy very well, and i dont, i can tell you he doesnt enjoy this. The intent isnt to engender any sympathy. The intent many times is to make an officer do things. They feel totally controlled and this is what they learn, and its a learned behavior, is that you can control others with this. But its a kind of pathological way of control because it doesnt gain them anything, just for the briefest of time they feel some sense of control, and then theyre left stuck again and usually in worse physical shape. Narrator the Mental Health wing is a very different place from the solitary unit. Most of the inmates here have serious Mental Illness. Before maine began its reforms, many of them were in solitary. But this unit is about treatment, not punishment. Its different. Instead of the depressing clank of the prison, its trying to create something a little different. Every breath, every movement, every person, everything in there is clinical. There isnt a nonclinical thing we do. Everything is geared towards skill developments, relationship building, appropriate interactions. Good game. So everything about it is becoming social. Theyre used to coming from environments where people hurt each other and are antisocial, and this is a whole buildup of how you relate to people, and you have to practice it every single day. Narrator todd will still be kept separate from other inmates, but hell have frequent meetings with dr. Bannish. Hes just at the beginning. Hes still struggling. Hes still going to have to do his seg time and he doesnt want to do it, so theres that kid side of him that just doesnt want to have to, the you cant make me kind of thing, and id like to help him through that process. yelling stand up and fight the machine narrator the wardens effort to help todd has created a new problem back on the solitary unit. The other inmates think it isnt fair. You guys are running out of time. I told you im trying to do it the easy way, but ive been down here too long to keep playing their bleep games. Soon, maybe i can get some cookies and milk. Narrator peter gibbs is still threatening to kill prison staff and inmates and now says he will cut himself if he doesnt get what he wants. This is what i have to start doing. People have done stuff, theyve gotten rewarded for it. I sit in my cell, i mind my own business, but theres no rewards hey, gibbs gordon . Narrator peter is not the only inmate causing trouble. Hey, how are you feeling about not getting that meeting today . Narrator after a year in solitary, gordon perry is also running out of patience. They told me the same thing. He was gonna see me this week. If i dont get some answers by 3 00, im covering my window. And if i dont get good enough answers, theyre extracting me. Itll be a miracle if i dont get extracted today. Its unreal how they force peoples hands here. I wanna give them a little bit more time because when i cover that window up, im serious. This aint my first rodeo. I got a pretty good setup, and were gonna bleep hopefully fight the team. Come and threaten me narrator now the warden and his staff have to talk down two of the most dangerous inmates on the unit. The only way you ever get anything around here is to act up. Im sitting back being good for a year, aint bleep working. All im getting is smoke blown up my bleep ass every which way i look. This is going to disqualify you from going to new hampshire. If you do this kind of bleep , its not going to happen. Of course its going to happen ive seen him make deals like left and right with people for putting this bleep bleep up in the window. You got a couple of assaults in 17 years. How hard is it to move me . So i gotta be out of here pretty soon. Because of what youve done here, were going to move you out very slowly. What i need to know is when i move you out there, are you going to be safe . Am i going to be safe . I need to know that the other inmates are going to be safe as well. It aint happening. You guys got me down here for a year. Im all set with the stabbings. Im ready to go out and try to enjoy myself a little bit. Im willing to look at moving you along. But its going to be a while. Weve got to work the process and im not interested in burying you. Im already, im already buried, though. I already been down here a year. I want to be maced. I wont mace you, gibbs. I need to be maced. You dont need to be maced. I have to be. No, you dont. Theres no reason for this bleep . If i cut up, will you mace me . No, theres no reason for any of that stuff. You cant give me a little blast, just a burst . No, im not going to give you a blast, all right . I understand youre frustrated, okay . No, you dont understand. I do. We had that conversation. You have no clue. Dont think its lost on me that youre locked in a box for 23 hours a day. I dont care about that. This is like being, this, this to me is nothing. Thats whats so sad about segregation, is after years and years and years, you become retarded to it. Youre smarter than that. Im all bleep up. But youre smarter than that, gibbs. Im bleep up from it. Youre smarter than that. Okay, so well evaluate it and well look at moving you along, and well talk next week. Okay . Okay. Have a good weekend. I cant even get bleep maced in this place frozen, frozen, frozen, frozen, frozen buzzer narrator adam is becoming increasingly unstable. Last night he covered his window and threatened to cut himself. Because of his behavior, his original 60 days of solitary has increased to more than 100 days. Uh, mr. Brulotte, how are you feeling today . Better. Thats good to hear. All i really want to do is go to school and not go to c pod, and do my own time. I leave in like 170 days. Narrator adam is anxious about life after prison. Hes desperate to take his ged, to give himself a chance of employment when hes released. I let you guys know i need bleep bleep to do. I need to go to school. Okay. I want my ged. Thats all i ask. Okay. Im not going to go out there and scram for another job selling drugs and bleep because i dont have no education. I told you at your door yesterday, give me a shot, give me a chance. If i fill you full of bleep , then you do what you think you gotta do, okay, and well do what we got to do. Well do our best to get you the help you need. But i need you to do your part. You need to keep your head screwed on straight. Okay . I just. I still want to try to figure out. Narrator todd has been in the Mental Health unit for a month. Hes starting to open up about his family. Why do you think im asking for the court to make sure im the father . So, if youre not . If im not, im still going to love my kid. Its my kid either way. Okay. And in some ways that, thats very. Thats noble. A lot of people wouldnt, so wheres that come from . Wheres this nobility come from . It comes from the fact that i didnt have a father. Okay. My dad committed suicide, which the dates coming up. Okay. Its the 24th. Okay, so Christmas Eve . Hes really. Hes somebody who tries to elicit that hes not helpable and hes just into being a nasty guy. But i dont believe that and ive told him i dont. Do you want me to tell you or do you want to try and figure it out . Oh, i always want to try to figure it out. I like puzzles. Okay, you figure it out. Ill ask you on monday. Oh, you ask me about that, yeah. He had gotten some goodness somewhere, because he has some nice things about him that he doesnt show very often. We will see if hes willing to do the work necessary, but hes too young to throw away. I got one for you, kirkley and griffin. Narrator dr. Bannish uses unorthodox methods to engage the inmates. Today, hes giving them puzzles to solve. You see how enjoyable these guys are . I mean, they really are. They dont want to be grumpy, they dont want to be upset. They want contact thats meaningful. laughs this is a good one. Well see if you got that by monday. No conferring with each other, either so you cant take it. Im leaving in fouranda half months. They put me on the bleep bottom of the list. They didnt know. Im about to freak out they didnt come down and it was addressed, okay . Narrator two weeks have passed since adam was told hed be able to take his ged. Yes, they do. Youre going to be getting your ged, okay . Well, i want to bleep do some testing tomorrow. Absolutely. Or ill snap. You know what . Thats, thats a legitimate request, but you snapping isnt going to get it to you. Give me a shot at trying to bleep help you out with the ged bit. Yeah and thats been two weeks. This close im bleep close you believe that bull bleep , youll believe any bleep thing. Im not bleep believing nothing. Big house of lies. men shouting and swearing you treat us like animals, we will act like animals do you want to come out and talk, brulotte, about all this stuff thats going on . I will after i fight indistinct yelling narrator adam pushes feces under the door. The punishment will be yet more time in solitary. Well, my fault would be trying to go by the rules. I dont have too much openmindedness for the rules in here. And tell us why. Theres always a reason, so let us know. Obviously because im a criminal and i dont like the rules that you guys have. Besides that. Narrator after more than a year in solitary, gordon perry is in a room with other prisoners. He and adam have joined a new program being offered to inmates in the segregation unit. All you have to do is make the choice at the time that something is presented to you. Am i going to push poop on my window . Narrator prisoners are asked to talk honestly about how they make decisions. The weekly classes are supposed to help them become less violent. I show pride, i try to go, like, too far, and i start to get hardheaded. Dont know what everybody wants. Oh, yeah, ill be so much cooler if i break this guys eye socket. If your prides good, if you dont back down on bleep , people are going to give you respect, so thats a positive of that. All right, whats the negative with the pride . Oh, if youre ever a bitch then people got to treat you like a bitch, so then you dont get no respect. But thats no pride. Lets talk about actually having pride. Oh, the negative of it . Coming to smu because you got to bang somebody out because they put you in that situation. That program is bull bleep . Everybody knows it. I dont even want to do this program. I just want to get out of seg. Do you want to change . Change for what . Change into what . Im here forever. Theres nothing for me to ch. Im a criminal. I mean, im not going to jump on the other side or anything. So i am what i am. I think my characters pretty good overall. Unless youre my enemy, its pretty good, i think, so that program has nothing for me. You got an iphone . Thats some sick stuff. Narrator todd has six weeks left in the Mental Health unit before he must return to solitary. Hes been allowed to call his family and even got to speak to his twoyearold daughter. Why wouldnt it . I love you. Yes, thats the first time ive ever spoken to her. How did it make you feel . It made me feel like a new guy. I kind of feel that i want to go in the right direction so i can do what i need to do. That way i can create a Better Future for me and my kid. How are you going to cope with seg this time . Hopefully better. Im on this nice new medication that makes me feel good. If we go down through it, id like to take a look at who we would be considering. Narrator the warden has been in the job for six months. He faces some tough choices. I truly dont see him as somebody significantly mentally ill. Narrator the longer he leaves inmates in solitary, the more disturbed they could become. When hes completed that program, then he can go to general pop. Narrator but moving them out too soon could endanger staff and other prisoners. Gordon perry. Narrator now hes ready to take a risk with one of the prisons most dangerous inmates. If hes showing that hes behaving and doing what he needs to do, were going to move him along. At some point, you gotta give somebody a second chance. All right, lets do it. Friday. Thats the day when its all set in stone . I wouldnt say its 100 set in stone. You already promised me, it has to be. You already gave me your word. No, no, youre going out. Well get you out. Friday morning. Friday morning. Narrator last week, adam was let out of solitary to study for his ged. But within days he was sent back after starting another riot. Now hes in more trouble for pushing feces out of his door again. Yeah, my Mental Health diminished. Slowly but surely. Itll do it to anybody. I lasted a while. Now i just think bleep it. They put me in the coldest cell in this whole prison as punishment. Its supposed to be like a certain. I dont know, this is america, not russia. Its bleep cold in here. Narrator gordon perry is leaving solitary. Its a reward for doing the classes and a month of Good Behavior in his cell. Hes headed for a stepdown unit for prisoners transitioning out of solitary. Inmates here are allowed out of their cells for a few hours each day, and required to take more classes. If gordon does well, he will eventually move to a unit with fewer restrictions. You know, hes a very dangerous individual, but essentially i still believe that we can change him. Our obligation is to continue to provide him with the opportunity to change. I dont hesitate on the decision at all. Im just hanging out, thats what im doing. My realistic honest plan is to live as good as i can in here. But its a fantasy to think youre going to change somebody that doesnt want to change. Narrator time is running out for todd fickett. He has just one week left on the Mental Health unit. The prospect of returning to solitary is taking its toll. Im aggravated. Again . Why are you aggravated . Im aggravated because the plan im on, i seem to try to follow and nobody else is following it right now. What do you mean . Halfway through the. Narrator hes just found out he has even more solitary time to serve than he thought. That is 50 days. You have 100 days of d time to do. Yeah, we were cutting it in half to 50. No, we werent. Were halfway through 50, was 25. No, we werent. Its 50 days here and then we will meet and discuss where you go from there. How the hell am i going through 100 . Because you have a hundred days, you have a hundred days. It says half. You still have quite a bit of dtime to do and youre going to have to serve that dtime. Yeah, 15 days. Two weeks. No. Put me back in my room. I dont need this bleep . You all set . Lets go. Listen. No. No, hang on to him for a second. I would think twice about doing anything now. indistinct radio chatter todd, you all right . You going to keep hitting that for a little while or what . Huh . You going to keep hitting that for a little while . Im probably going to hit the wall soon. Dont do that. Im bleep pissed. Cant let you do that. You know that. Im going to seg anyways. They want to bleep over my plan, put me in bleep seg. Ill hit every cop that comes through that bleep door and ill get maced every bleep day. I dont give a bleep . We dont want you doing that. You going to be all right . pounding and yelling keep that down 104 primary and secondary. continues shouting bleep you i want a bleep warmer room. indistinct shouting put your hands out here and ill take you out. bleep you i want a bleep warmer room thats bull bleep i want to see Mental Health where you going . Narrator four months ago, Adam Brulotte thought he could handle solitary confinement. Now hes cut open a vein on his arm and poured blood all over himself and his cell. Stop you need to calm down. Well, ive been bleep calm. Ive been asking you all day. Im not going to sleep in a bleep cold room knocking that blood is pouring out of him in the back. You need to bring him to medical. This is bull bleep . They need to stop the bull bleep . Immediately i shouldnt have to bleep do this. Just put him on something and bring him to medical. Red man, how you feel . bleep pissed. laughter you going to bleep put me in a bleep icebox. Weve seen Adam Brulotte deteriorate since he arrived in seg. From someone whod never hurt himself before, he cut up very badly, put feces out of the door, did some pretty strange stuff. Was segregation the right place for a person like adam . You just defined why we dont like to use segregation. But sometimes its necessary. Mr. Brulotte was engaged in some very, very serious behavior while he was in general population, so without a doubt it was the right place for him. Did he spend too long in seg . You know, thats a real hard question to answer. Theres a lot of gray area in some of the decisions that we make. Theres no exact science to any one of these guys. You have to try to figure them out as we go along. But ultimately when were moving him back into the general population, we have to be certain that the staff are going to be safe, that the other inmates are going to be safe, and that hes going to be safe. Before you went to seg, did you ever imagine that you would cut yourself like that . No, never. I didnt even know what it was. And i seen a couple people doing it, so then i started doing it. Do you think its changed you forever . I dont know. Have to find out. Can try to be normal again. Just the routine every day gets to you. I been down here four months, and ive gotten in trouble, like, 30 times. Been extracted umpteen times, flooded my whole room out couple times, just stuff to pass the time away. And i guess they dont like that. They think im crazy for it. But. Got to do something. I am moving back to seg. This ought to be fun. Kind of exciting, for some reason. indistinct radio chatter open alpha 2 10 please, alpha 2 10. He has made a lot of progress over there. He does have his setbacks where he does make threats that hes going to do something to himself. But overall, weve gotten quite a bit of Good Behavior. We havent had any selfabusive behavior. What im hoping is that when he does go to spike, the coping skills that weve worked with Mental Health, hes going to ease up and maybe we can. Well level it off just like we had a couple of occasions over in a. Fickett, how was bleep awing . Mr. Ficketts case, it is a dilemma, but he assaulted someone very seriously within a correctional setting. You have to have a consequence for that somehow, even if it. Even if it doesnt benefit the inmate so much, you have a staff here. So it is a sensitive issue that has to do not only with the treatment of the inmates, but with the management of an institution and the people who work within it. Narrator todd faces at least three more months of solitary. After filming finished, Adam Brulotte was moved back to general population. He was released from prison in march 2014. After three months in the stepdown unit, gordon perry was caught with contraband and sent back to solitary. Within hours, he cut open a vein. Peter gibbs is still in solitary. Right on the edge of having a complete nervous breakdown. Narrator there are no plans to release him. I have an inmate that has started selfabusive behavior. I need a responder. Here we go again narrator todd fickett lasted just three hours. Hopefully next time you bleep die, fickett thatd be nice. Narrator his wounds will be stitched up. Then hell be back in solitary. We were the largest employer in liberia. Whoever was going to run liberia needed firestone. It appeared to us firestone was financing at least a part of taylors insurrection. They were prepared to do taylors bidding. It was a real dilemma for the company, but i believe they were the right decisions. Firestones intent was to make money always has and always will. Go to pbs. Org frontline to find out how solitary confinement started in the United States. In a special podcast hear from experts on reforming solitary. At some point you got to give somebody a second chance. What works and what doesn . Change into what . See how long prisoners are spending in isolation. And connect to tfrontline community. Sign up for our newsletter, and follow us on facebook, twitter and pbs. Org frontline. Frontlinis made possible by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. Thank you. And by the corporation for public broadcasting. 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Kennedy the hope still lives, and the dream shall never die. No one tells our nations story like pbs. Give to your pbs station, and help bring americas story to life. Captioning sponsored by Macneil Lehrer productions ifill welcome to our special coverage of election 2014 im judy woodruff. The big story of the night. Republicans are closing in on their goal of taking control of the u. S. Senate. The polls now closed in 48 states. Republicans only need to pick up one more seat to gain the majority. What is looking like a very big night for the party. Woodruff the g. O. P. Has picked up five senate sea