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Good Riddance Mr. Moussaoui

Two and a half weeks ago I wrote about my desire to have Zacarias Moussaoui spend the rest of his life in prison. Specifically, about that form of punishment, I wrote

No phone calls. No letters. No Internet. No visitors. No gym time. No outdoor time. No books. Nothing. Just sitting in a cell, all day long, day after day, eating and drinking the same thing every day (a few slices of bread, a bowl of rice, and a couple of cups of water would do). Throw a toilet in his cell, give him fresh clothes once a month, and you’re done.

As you might have heard, Moussaoui was indeed sentenced to serve the rest of his life in prison. Many people are upset that he was not given the death penalty. And I don’t begrudge them that personal judgment. However, I really do think in the long run it’s going to be much more satisfying to know this man is going to spend the rest of his natural life rotting in a jail cell without any human contact or any chance for any freedom of any kind.

Mr. Moussaoui will likely soon be transfered to a maximum security prison in Florence, Colorado. The conditions of his imprisonment were described this way:

Life can be beyond harsh. Food is delivered through a slit in the cell door. Prisoners don’t leave their cells to see a lawyer, a doctor or a prison official; they come to the cell. There are 1,400 remote-controlled steel doors. Motion detectors and hidden cameras monitor every move. The prison walls and razor-wired grounds are patrolled by laser beams and guard dogs.

Imagine that. Later on in this article, the purpose of this particular prison is further explained:

There is no pretense that the prison is preparing the inmate for a return to society. Like the cellmate to the Count of Monte Cristo who died an old, tired convict, Aiken said, “Moussaoui will deteriorate.”

Sounds like rotting to me. Well, not quite:

“It’s beyond rotting,” he said. “Rotting at least implies a slow gradual disintegration.”

It looks like the lack of social contact with any other human being just very quickly causes these people to mentally deteriorate. And that makes sense, knowing that human beings are social animals. So, instead of going out in a blaze of glory and ushering in a new “holiday” for Islamic extremists around the globe to celebrate, Moussauoi will not get his (immediate) death wish. He will rot, seemingly quickly, in an 80 square foot concrete cell for the rest of his days, receiving his food through a slit in one of the four cell walls.

Good riddance Mr. Moussaoui.