Lieber lockdown 'cruel and unusual'

I'm tired of hearing about how the inmates in the Ashley Dorm of Lieber Correctional Institution are the worst of the worst, and I feel the public should hear the other side about the conditions at Lieber.

My fiance is currently incarcerated there. I do believe wholeheartedly that if you do the crime you should do the time, and by no means should that time be easy or like a stay at the Holiday Inn. Having said that, I do not think being caged like animals 24 hours a day, seven days a week for long periods of time is the way to go.

They have been on lockdown now since the riot occurred on Jan. 18. Since that time they have been given five showers and five hot meals. Their daily diet consists of two hard-boiled eggs in the morning with an English muffin or bagel.

For lunch they are given two slices of bread and one piece of bologna and for dinner they are given four slices of bread and two slices of bologna. I'm sorry but these are grown men. Prison is supposed to "rehabilitate" them. How is this kind of treatment supposed to rehabilitate them?

What they are doing is caging them, practically starving them and making them more angry and violent than when they went in. You wouldn't go to a zoo and poke the lions with a stick because you know not only it is cruel but you know that lion is going to get angry and want to get out and retaliate. How is what they're doing to these inmates any different?

Their punishment for doing the crime is depriving them of their freedom and liberty, not depriving them of decent meals and showers.

It is a prisoner's right to be treated as a human being. The Eighth Amendment prohibits cruel and unusual punishment and I think this is cruel and unusual punishment.

I understand that they are on lockdown right now because of the riot.

But why should everyone suffer for the stupidity of a handful of inmates? Many prisoners do not deserve this kind of treatment and should not be punished for the riot over which they had no control. I know I am just one person, and I often wonder how writing a letter can change something that has been happening for years. But if I say it enough times or loud enough then maybe that one right person will hear it and help stop this madness.

I hope you can help me in trying to change even just one small thing in this flawed prison system.

Patrizia Martin

Moreland Avenue

Athens, Ga.