Punitive Treatment: The Oxymoron of Civil Commitment

His birthday was this week. He spent it in a cell; metal bed, concrete floor, locked door. He ate the food they gave him, not a fancy dinner followed by a birthday cake. No one sang. It was like any other day spent back there in SMU; just like any other day since he’s arrived at that place.

It has now been OVER 125 days he has spent back in solitary confinement. OVER 125 days of punishment for a rule violation…..A TCCO RULE. A rule that someone made up to force someone else to follow. The punishment he was given was 30 days, but yet here we are at OVER 125.

When a man is in SMU, he does not attend group, does not have one on one with his therapist, does not share his story with his peers, does not get the treatment TCCO insists he needs. The whole basis for being at that place is for treatment or so that’s what they say. At OVER 125 days spent separated from everyone it is nothing more than punitive punishment. And civil commitment is not supposed to be based on punishment, but it is.

This is just an example of many that MTC and TCCO do to the men. They misuse their power and authority to keep men locked up. Someone suggested they just follow the rules. Whose rules are they? TCCOs rules. And why should they follow them, they are FREE having already served their time for the mistakes of their past. Why does TCCO decide what they can and can’t do, who they can and can’t talk to?

He woke up on his birthday to see the walls around him and the door locked. He went outside to get air and feel sun on his face. He called who they said he was allowed to and was wished a happy birthday. A HAPPY BIRTHDAY?! IN THERE, THAT PLACE?! All I can do is hope this is the last birthday he will have to be in there.