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Dan Newton
English 1010
March 5, 2016
Rhetorical Analysis
When Prisoners Protest
The story When Prisoners Protest published July 17, 2013 in the New York Times was
written by a man named Wilbert Rideau. Wilbert Rideau is a convicted killer as well as a former
death row inmate in Louisiana, he is also an author and award-winning prison journalist. After
his sentence was retired and reduced to a lesser charge of manslaughter, serving nearly 44 years
he was released in 2005. Rideau was referred to as the most rehabilitated prisoner in America
according to an article in Life magazine. Through his career as an inmate Wilbert has spent a
total of 12 years in solitary confinement, as he describes isolating a human being for years in a
barren cell the size of a small bathroom is the cruelest thing you can do to a person.
The purpose of this text is to show how inmates being put in solitary confinement is a
problem that must be changed. In July 2013 in the California department of corrections, nearly
30,000 inmates participated in a hunger strike, with the complaint of authorities exercising
absolute power, particularly the use of solitary confinement. Rideau talks of his own personal
experience while in solitary confinement and how it affected him.
Then I started to think how it is a natural emotion to sympathize for other human beings,
that are being abused or mistreated. With that in mind Wilbert just wants the authorities to
consider what is being accomplished by locking these people away and forgotten. The story
When Prisoners Protest gives a first hand experience of what one might have to endure while
incarcerated. Wilbert gives examples of the three appeals to a text, he uses logos by telling how

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inmates that are in solitary confinement suffer. The emotional, mental, and psychological damage
to these men can be irreversible. And instead of these cruel and inhumane punishments they
should be focusing on rehabilitating these individuals. Yes, some inmates are more dangerous
than others, some have committed more serious crimes than others. When is the punishments too
severe, is what Wilbert wants authorities to think about. With good reason he uses logic that
these people will be free one day to live amongst you and your loved ones.
As he talks about protests in prisons, there arent many because of the punishments, and
having little to gain and too much to lose. The simple luxuries in our life that we take for granted
can be taken away from inmates for even just being a bystander in a protest. Wilbert describes
how difficult it can be to orchestrate a protest, which makes the protest among the California
prison system so remarkable. At the peak of the protest about two-thirds of the states facilities
were participating.
He is writing to appeal to peoples pathos, as he describes his own personal experience.
He says being in solitary you lose your feeling of connectedness to the world. He goes on to
talk about while in isolation he would talk to himself, and then answer himself. The depression
he experienced from years of living like this must have been unimaginable. Other men who have
been subjected to these harsh punishments he talks of Thomas Silverstein who has been in
solitary for 30 years. Albert Woodfox and Herman Wallace have been in cells for 40 years each.
So why would others stand up for these men when they themselves might receive the same
punishment? Rideau says if prison authorities do not understand why thousands of inmates not
directly affected by solitary confinement would join the protests, at great risk to themselves, they
have only themselves to blame. Wilbert says many of the reasons for prisoners protest could be
resolved with simple communication between prison officials and inmates. So why is there a

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disconnect between them, he says officials see it as a surrender of their authority, which made me
question who is really benefitting from our justice system. If prisoners are just being locked
away to serve their sentence, no rehabilitation or opportunity to better themselves not only do
they suffer, but so does society.
Rideau uses ethos in his text, you can not argue with the credibility from the writer, who
has more authority to speak about the subject than someone who has lived the exact conditions
himself. Being incarcerated for 44 years and 12 of them in solitary confinement, in one part of
the article he talks about counting the 358 rivets that held his steel cell together, over and over.
With statements like this it is hard to not listen to what he as to say, and look at what we can
learn from this man. The identity of Wilbert is of a man not angry with what he has gone
through, but to help other inmates from what he says, is the abuse of authoritys power.
In conclusion I think the purpose of the text was affective in communicating with his
audience. Wilbert Rideaus tone in this article was strong and well understood. That needs to be
heard by everyone because the way people are treated while incarcerated affects everyone. There
has to be a justice system and there needs to be punishments for breaking the law, but if people
come out of prison broken down mentally, and socially than when then went in, the justice
system is failing everyone. This what Wilbert is ultimately trying to get people to understand.

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