Three Thoughts

[H2O Man]

12. Thank you.

Rubin would later call prison "an unnatural laboratory of the human spirit." In the movie -- which was Hollywood rather than a documentary -- there is an intense scene showing him suffering in solitary confinement. It is very accurate. He spent close to half of those 20 years of confinement in solitary. There were times when he came out so skinny it concerned his supporters.

That brings me to another point. Solitary confinement does damage to the brain. Indeed, in recent studies, brain scans document the organic damage it does. In the "true crime" community today, most people are happy that the freak who butchered those poor college students in Idaho is unhappy about being in solitary. It is likely that a monster like him will get no sympathy. But at any given day, there are large numbers of inmates held in solitary, for a variety of reasons. So a large sum of brain damage. Some of those inmates are eventually released into society, others released back into general population. Yet they have the damage that results in their being more hostile, and less able to control their behaviors. That is a serious issue that lurks just beneath the surface, as few citizens are aware of it.

Rubin came through better than anyone could have hoped for. He was a brilliant man, with an amazing mind. But prison took a toll on him, no doubt.