"Life In Solitary Confinement"

Luis Felipe is serving one of the most bizarre sentences known in today's society. He was sentenced to life plus 45 years, to be served in solitary confinement. Written in the New York times:

October 26, 1997 Testing the Limits of Punishment; Unusually Severe Life Sentence vs. Society's Need for Safety By JAN HOFFMAN:

In a Manhattan Federal courtroom filled with his followers and their families last winter, the defendant addressed the judge. His English halting, his voice choked with tears, Luis Felipe, a Cuban immigrant who calls himself King Blood, said, ''You sentenced me to die day by day.''He continued, ''I don't mind my mail to be monitored, but you are telling me nobody can write to me, nobody can send money to me, nobody can care about me no more?''Exactly so.Judge John S. Martin Jr. sentenced him to life imprisonment plus 45 years. Then the judge added some extraordinary conditions.Surprising even prosecutors, Judge Martin said Mr. Felipe must serve the sentence in solitary confinement. He forbade him to write or be visited by anyone except his lawyer and close relatives. Mr. Felipe has none. And finally, the judge said, he himself, rather than the Federal Bureau of Prisons, would control the case.These conditions, legal experts say, are virtually unprecedented. In their severity and the degree to which they will be monitored by a Federal judge, sentencing experts say, they stand as an extreme example of a penological trend to make prison more punitive. At their core, they test the limits and purpose of punishment.
Some eight months after the sentencing -- and as his lawyer prepares an appeal to be argued this winter -- Mr. Felipe remains tethered to Judge Martin. Recently, Mr. Felipe, who is incarcerated at the nation's state-of-the-art ''supermax'' prison in Florence, Colo., asked permission to submit his poems and sketches to magazine contests, write to prisoners' rights groups and contact religious organizations. Judge Martin turned him down.
Dr. Stuart Grassian, a psychiatrist at Harvard Medical School who studies the effects of solitary confinement, said the conditions went too far. ''I could imagine a sober society living with capital punishment,'' he said, ''but I can't imagine a civilized society living with the punishment of driving a prisoner insane.''Since Judge Martin's February sentencing, Mr. Felipe has spent 23 hours a day in a 7-by-12-foot cell, with one hour to run in a hall outside his cell. The $60 million ADX Maximum Security Facility in Colorado was designed to house the Federal system's most incorrigible inmates. In the 64 specially designed sensory-deprivation cells of Mr. Felipe's block, meals are passed through a door slot. The cells are staggered so that prisoners cannot glimpse each others eyes. They have black-and-white televisions into which educational and religious programs are piped.But many find a lifetime in solitary, with almost no human contact, akin to a living death. ''No matter how horrible the crime somebody has committed, there are humane limitations to punishment,'' David Yellen, a professor at Hofstra Law School, said.
I mention Luis Felipe in a number of my songs. He has inspired a lot of my lyrics. You see his picture in the beginning of my first video "Conspiracy". You can see that in the chamber on onloq.com This is an insane sentence. I couldn't even begin to imagine living in that cell knowing you are going to die there without ever feeling the touch of another human for the rest of your life. I am sorry, I don't believe any crime deserves such torture not in a society that itself sheds oceans of blood. It's history is drenched in blood. I believe in the necessity to remove certain individuals from society, but I believe there is a humane way of doing it without the torture.
I stand up for Luis because I can relate. No expert can tell you the effects of being locked up in solitary confinement better than someone who has actually been through it. Because if you can learn what it's really like in solitary confinement in a book, the reader would have compassion, something that is missing in this world today.
I have tried to draw attention to this case with little progress, but I won't ever stop. See a day doesn't go by that I don't think of Luis Felipe, see in my own way I to am living Life in solitary confinement. I have Meniere's Disease. Not many people know of this disease just like not many people know about Luis Felipe. In my difficult days I feel confined within my body. Ménière's disease is a disorder of the inner ear that can affect hearing and balance. It is characterized by episodes of dizziness and tinnitus and progressive hearing loss. It is caused by an increase in volume and pressure of the endolymph of the inner ear.
I dig deep within myself every day to find the strength to keep going, but at times I just wish to expire. I have found one thing in life I love and it slips away. I love music, the only thing that has ever been there for me and didn't leave no matter what. As the days go by the music fades. I spend hours, days, weeks dealing not only with the physical pain this disease brings upon me, but I deal also with the depression that comes with being locked away. Some days are good as those who know me will tell you, I live everyday to it's fullest. My bad days are spent in solitude. I pray for Luis and others rather than myself for this is where I draw my strength from.
Dealing with this illness just like Luis is dealing with his sentence compassion is nowhere to be found. I can relate to his hopelessness seeing there is no cure for Ménière's disease like there is no end to his plight. We both will not get relief until death.
I would like to see Luis Felipe at least be able to keep his sanity. He already will never walk as a free man ever again in his life. At least let him keep his sanity. In solidarity. "X"


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