Policy

Hey Look! A Onesie With a Joke About Solitary Confinement On It. Hilarious, Amirite?

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So this exists, in the gift shop of Washington, D.C.'s Crime Museum:

Crime Museum

Because you know what's a laugh-a-minute? Confining human beings in a bathroom-sized cell for months at a time with extremely limited human interaction! Wocka wocka!

For $16, you can own this "Best selling infant onesie!!" bearing the words "I just spent 9 months in solitary!" which is "made of 100% preshrunk cotton" and "Awesome for our newest additions!" As a bonus, that money will go to a museum that glorifies a rotating cast of law enforcement officers and scolds visitors for participating in black markets.

Not to be a humorless jerk, but here I go: The overuse and abuse of solitary confinement is a wretched, epidemic problem in United States prisons. The New York Civil Liberties Union thinks it's unconstitutional and refers to the cells as "human kennels." One inmate called it "a fate worse than death." George Will thinks it's torture. Reason TV agrees.

And just in case the joke didn't hit close enough to home, here's a Reason TV documentary about what life is like for children in solitary. Happy Friday!