Stop Walpole's Blue Rooms

THE AMERICAN FRIENDS Service Committee recently petitioned Gov. Michael S. Dukakis to abolish the "blue room" isolation cells at Walpole State Prison. These bare concrete cells lack mattresses, toilet fixtures and adequate light and ventilation. The Department of Correction claims the cells are only used to confine suicidal or violent prisoners for short periods of time. Even if the department is telling the truth, it seems cruel and inhumane to confine suicidal prisoners in such a depressing environment. But members of the Friends Committee who have talked with prisoners in the blue rooms claim that the Department of Correction is not telling the whole story. The Friends say prisoners are often kept in the rooms without a stitch of clothing or even a blanket, for as long as six weeks at a time. They claim that the cells are often used to discipline unruly prisoners, and that inmates are often placed in the blue rooms simply because the prison is over-crowded.

Practices like these are equivalent to torture. It is intolerable that the Massachusetts government can allow them to continue. Obviously, the nation's corrections system must be overhauled. If the more shocking examples of brutality, like Walpole's blue rooms, do not provide the impetus for reform, it would seem that there is little hope for progress.