More on Stephen King’s The Institute
This is going to get graphic and gross again, but as a horror writer, King often deals with this.
From the midpoint of the novel: “He crumpled the paper, went into the bathroom, and dropped the note into the bowl as he lowered his pants… He would have loved to believe there was at least no surveillance in la maison du chier, but he didn’t quite believe it.”
The novel has to do with imprisonment. I have been imprisoned recently. Holding cells don’t even have bathrooms, just a toilet in a small room and a tap for water to drink. They don’t even have real beds in my experience. For someone with nerve damage or who is sensitive, that is torture. If left there for more than 24 hours (and I was left there for days on end), sleep is impossible. And sleep deprivation is a kind of torture because you develop extreme headaches from it.
There is legally permitted torture in the U.S. Yes, real criminals need to serve their time, but “thought-crime” people should not even be touched by police, let alone put in inhumane jail conditions. They should only be warned that their behavior is considered inappropriate by some others and maybe frisked, if police think they are crazy and have guns on them. Even handcuffs can be torture.