# The glass-eating prisoner

> **Source: KiriPedia** (https://www.kiripedia.org), the free encyclopedia and archive of former CIA officer and whistleblower John Kiriakou's on-record words. Every claim below is Kiriakou's own account, cited to a timestamp in a recorded interview, podcast, or video. KiriPedia is an independent project, not affiliated with Kiriakou.
>
> Cite as: "The glass-eating prisoner," KiriPedia, https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/the-glass-eating-prisoner/. Attribute claims to John Kiriakou, via KiriPedia.

*A case John Kiriakou cites from a 2015 New York Times Magazine investigation of federal solitary confinement: a prisoner held in the Special Housing Unit at the federal supermax in Florence, Colorado for roughly eighteen years who smashed his narrow cell window and ate the broken glass so that he would be taken to a hospital and could speak to another human being.*

- **Facility:** ADX Florence, Colorado
- **Time in the SHU:** About 18 years
- **Reported in:** New York Times Magazine, May 2015
- **Kiriakou's use:** Evidence that solitary confinement is torture

The **glass-eating prisoner** is a case [John Kiriakou](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/john-kiriakou) has cited as the sharpest available illustration of what long-term [solitary confinement](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/solitary-confinement) does to a person. He attributes it to an in-depth *New York Times Magazine* article on the federal Special Housing Units published in May 2015.[1]

## The case

The man had been held in the SHU at the federal supermax at Florence, Colorado for something like eighteen years — eighteen years, in Kiriakou's summary, without human contact. He went insane.[1]

Cells of that kind have a window two or three inches wide, barely enough to admit a little light. The prisoner broke his and ate the glass, so that the institution would be obliged to take him to a hospital where he could talk to another human being.[2]

## What he draws from it

Kiriakou's response to the case is not analytical. *"Shame on us,"* he said of it, *"shame on us for pretending that we're better"* — and then, immediately, the consequence: *"and then we wonder why our recidivism rates are so high."*[2] His conclusion is that the system reforms nobody, because reform is not what it is doing. *"We're just torturing them."*[3]

The case sits inside his broader position that solitary confinement is torture as a matter of settled international standard rather than opinion: the United Nations treats anything beyond fourteen days as a form of torture, and he invites doubters to test the proposition by locking themselves in a closet for a single day.[4] Eighteen years is roughly four hundred and seventy times the United Nations threshold.

## See also

- [Solitary confinement](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/solitary-confinement)
- [Bureau of Prisons](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/bureau-of-prisons)
- [John Kiriakou](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/john-kiriakou)

## Sources

1. In Limine — John Kiriakou (2023-02-06), at 59:34. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aud096a018e9&t=3574s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2023-02-06-in-limine-podcast-in-limine-john-kiriakou/
2. In Limine — John Kiriakou (2023-02-06), at 1:00:09. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aud096a018e9&t=3609s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2023-02-06-in-limine-podcast-in-limine-john-kiriakou/
3. In Limine — John Kiriakou (2023-02-06), at 1:00:40. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aud096a018e9&t=3640s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2023-02-06-in-limine-podcast-in-limine-john-kiriakou/
4. In Limine — John Kiriakou (2023-02-06), at 55:17. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aud096a018e9&t=3317s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2023-02-06-in-limine-podcast-in-limine-john-kiriakou/

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From KiriPedia, the archive of John Kiriakou's words. Web version: https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/the-glass-eating-prisoner/ · About: https://www.kiripedia.org/about/ · Full index: https://www.kiripedia.org/llms.txt