Mark David Chapman - Imprisonment

Imprisonment

Chapman was imprisoned in the Attica Correctional Facility, outside of Buffalo, New York, in 1981. He fasted for 26 days in February 1982. After the New York State Supreme Court authorized the state to force feed him, Dr. Martin Von Holden, the director of the Central New York Psychiatric Center, said Chapman still refused to eat with other inmates but agreed to take liquid nutrients. Chapman was confined within a Special Handling Unit (SHU) for violent and at-risk prisoners. There were 105 other prisoners in the building who were "not considered to pose a threat to him," according to the New York State Department of Correctional Services. He had his own prison cell, but spent "most of his day outside his cell working on housekeeping and in the library."

It is also reported that Chapman worked in the prison as a legal clerk and kitchen helper, but otherwise his activities are severely curtailed. He was barred from participating in the Cephas Attica workshops, a charitable organization which helps inmates to adjust to life outside prison. He was also prohibited from attending the prison's violence and anger management classes due to concern for his safety. Chapman reportedly likes to read and write short stories. In his parole board hearing in 2004 he described his plans, if paroled, as follows: "I would immediately try to find a job, and I really want to go from place to place, at least in the state, church to church, and tell people what happened to me and point them the way to Christ." He also said that he thought that there was a possibility he could find work as a farmhand or return to his previous trade as a printer. The Daily Mirror reported he wanted to set up a church with his wife.

Chapman is on the Family Reunion Program, and is allowed one conjugal visit a year with his wife, due to having accepted solitary confinement. The program allows him to spend up to 42 hours alone with his wife in a specially built prison home. He also gets occasional visits from his sister, clerics, and a few friends. James Flateau, spokesman for the state Department of Correctional Services, said in 2004 that Chapman had been involved in three "minor incidents" between 1989 and 1994 for delaying an inmate count and refusing to follow an order. Chapman was transferred to the Wende Correctional Facility in Alden, New York on May 15, 2012.