When Prisoners Protest

When Prisoners Protest was written by Wilbert Rideau and posted July 16, 2013 in The New
York Times. Wilbert Rideau served nearly 44 years for manslaughter, mostly at the Louisiana
State Penitentiary, he is a journalist and the author of the memoir In the Place of Justice: A
Story of Punishment and Deliverance.
In this article When Prisoners Protest he tells about prisoners protesting for better treatment
and prison conditions. The prisoners go on hunger strikes and working strikes to get their point
across, but it does not happen often because the authorities of the prison always have the upper
hand. He elaborates by telling about solitary confinement and how it is a punishment being
misused. He uses two men as examples of having been in Solitary confinement for 40 years or
more and his own personal experiences while serving 12 years in solitary confinement. He
speaks through this article to the general public in hopes to persuade and inform them of what
inhumane treatment is going on in these facilities, in hopes to not get rid of solitary confinement,
but to have it used properly.
Rideau makes a strong point that the prisoners are most often on the losing side because they
have so little to lose. All they really have in prison is their privileges such as purchasing
commissary for outrages prices, personal visiting time with outsiders, and work detail inside of
the prison. If the prisoners protest, they risk losing these privileges, which many inmates do not
want to lose. He gives an example of a hunger strike in California that was happening at the time
he wrote this article and still 2500 prisoners were refusing to eat. The prisoners protesting is the
only way to get authorities attention and in hopes that they will listen to the prisoners who are
really only requesting humane treatment. Rideau doesnt believe they should get rid of solitary
confinement altogether, he just wants it to be used humanely with acceptable amounts of time to
be in there. He makes a point that people are in there so long that they eventually go mad
because they are only left to their own thoughts. He was locked up in solitary confinement for 12
years so he knows what he is talking about.
Rideaus article When Prisoners Protest appeals to ethos by telling the reader he knows what
prisoners are going through because he was a prisoner for 44 years. He knows what solitary
confinement is like because he was in solitary for 12 years. He relates to the prisoners on a
personal level and gains the upper hand because of this personal experience. Rideau also gives
this statement about his own experience going through the effects of solitary confinement
Deprived of all human contact, you lose your feeling of connectedness to the world. You lose
your ability to make small talk, even with the guard who shoves your meal through the slot in the
door. You live entirely in your head, for there is nothing else. You talk to yourself, answer
yourself. You become paranoid, depressed, sleepless. To ward off madness, you must give your
mind something to do. In 1970, I counted the 358 rivets that held my steel cell together, over and
over. Every time the walls seemed to be closing in on me, I counted them again, to give my mind
something to fasten on to.
He appeals to pathos by explaining happenings to the reader that makes the reader feel sympathy
and also appeals to a standpoint that we may have to deal with these crazy people on our own

streets when they are eventually released. This statement he makes is a great example Why
should you be concerned about the inhumane conditions of prolonged solitary confinement, with
all the social, emotional and mental deterioration that it entails? Well, every year men from
Californias Pelican Bay and other supermax prisons around the nation are released directly from
the vacuum of their cells into free society, to live and work among you and your loved ones. As a
matter of self-preservation, maybe we should all join the prisoners request for rehabilitative
opportunities that will improve the mental health of those in solitary.
Rideau appeals to logos by explaining that these prisoners are being treated inhumanely and that
prisoners have rights. He also states They dont demand a total end to the use of solitary
confinement, but only reasonable limits to who is locked up and for how long, as well as some
simple improvements like more educational and rehabilitative programming for those in
solitary.
Wilbert Rideau writes this text in an informative tone, while reading this text you feel as though
he is speaking directly to you. He is very organized in this text and really seems as if he knows
what he is talking about. The text is persuasive to get the reader to take his side regarding
prisoner treatment. He has a lot of information from personal experience to back him up but in a
sense that is also what fails him. It fails him because who is going to believe a prison inmate who
committed manslaughter and why would somebody want to help someone like that or even care
about how he is being treated.