It's still deplorable to me that you can force someone into solitary confinement for anything over a couple of days.

Well, a lot of the mechanisms of prison seem pretty counterproductive... 23 hours in the same room.

My understanding is that members of the military sign away a bunch of their rights but I don't understand how throwing somebody in jail for 20 years is a thing we came up with.

It came up as a consequence of the criminal justice system. That kind of punishment was meant for people who could not be left by themselves as they posed a very real threat to society: murderers, rapists, arsonists etc. Once the system is in place, its easy to just "add" to it. Making certain things severely punishable (e.g. the prosecution of Aaron Schwartz) just requires the lawmakers to categorize these new crimes in a certain way and not to invent the category itself.

Of course, if you go back further, punishments were invented by the ruling class to keep everyone else in line. The king could pretty much have anyone hanged if he wanted to and it took sometime before there were enough smart people in society to suggest that this was maybe not the best way to live.

Transgenders have an alarmingly high suicide rate even without those factors piled on.

Hopefully not too off topic, but I believe the preferred nomenclature is more along the lines of "People who are transgender" (though I could be wrong and would appreciate someone saying so)

"Person-first language" is a thing in special education- I wouldn't be surprised if that were preferred here. The idea behind it is that the adjective isn't the defining attribute of the person.

As a person who is male, I agree.

You know, thinking about it I wish this were focused on more. I think if more people had this mindset and just remembered that we're all people first we might be kinder and less hateful to one another. Focusing on what we have in common before the small differences that are a part of our identities. There's so much hate of others in the world and it makes me sad.

I've seen "trans people" and "transgender people" widely used by trans people, so I generally assume that they are okay.

It makes me wonder if the will of the people who want her pardoned could help her, or if it is actually hopeless.

Her best hope for a pardon will come at the end of President Obama's term. Legally, presidents can issue these at any time, but because of the possible political fallout the majority of them come during the "lame duck" period after an election.

https://www.justice.gov/pardon/gwbush-pardons#nov24-08

https://www.justice.gov/pardon/gwbush-commutations#novone

https://www.justice.gov/pardon/clinton-pardons#november21200...

https://www.justice.gov/pardon/clinton-commutations#novtwo

If you want to encourage Obama to do this, contact information for the White House can be found at https://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/write-or-call

I wouldn't be surprised if most of the people she has to deal with 24/7 are self-professed "patriot" types who would not be troubled to lay plenty of indifference and insults upon her.

> Locked in solitary confinement

I thought she was out of solitary?