My Wrongs By Shaka Senghor Analysis

Four concrete walls, a steel bed, and a sink to soak the unclean clothes in as well as an insignificantly compact restroom. Welcome to solitary confinement where the lights always stay on and there’s always room for just one, you. When we think about solitary confinement we probably think of a killer or rapist getting what they deserve. What we don’t see is another human life being psychologically destroyed. Some of these prisoners have been in solitary confinement from a couple of years to decades. It is true that these are not honorable or peace keeping men, but a human life being tortured by solitude is a torture no one deserves.

Greg Dobbs is a journalist, professional public speaker, and ABC News correspondent. Dobbs argues in agreeance of keeping solitary confinements in the prison systems for way of punishment. He first talks about Rick Raemisch’s, Department of Correction boss, experience as he stayed in solitary confinement for twenty hours at the Colorado Prison. Dobbs quoted Raemisch when he said, “I sat with my mind”. Raemisch brought a lot of attention to the evil side of solitary confinement says Dobbs. He then reminds the reader that convicted criminals

Throughout history into today, there have been many problems with our prison system. Prisons are overcrowded, underfunded, rape rates are off the charts, and we as Americans have no idea how to fix it. We need to have shorter sentences and try to rehabilitate prisoners back to where they can function in society. Many prisoners barely have a high school education and do not receive further education in jail. Guards need to pay more attention to the well being of the inmates and start to notice signs of abuse and address them. These are just a few of the many problems in our prison systems that need to be addressed.

One problem that is faced in the corrections system today is overpopulation in the prisons. Prisons all over the United States are becoming overcrowded and that leads to many other problems such as

There is no objection that should someone commit a crime, they must also pay the subsequent consequences, whether it be a fine, a prison sentence or even both. At times, especially in the prisons, even these punishments are not enough and thus an extra step is taken to ensure the misbehaved party does not repeat their error again. Inmates may be placed in solitary confinement for extended periods of times, ranging from weeks to even decades. With absolutely no human interaction, a holding cell smaller than a horse’s stable, and deprivation of basic human rights and senses, solitary confinement is the wrong way to rehabilitate prisoners since it is ethically wrong, very costly and detrimental to inmate health, both physical and mental.

A teenage boy named Kalief Browder was blamed for stealing a backpack, began awaiting trial at a prison, and was placed in and out of solitary confinement for two years. Four years later, while completing college, Browder killed himself (Obama). The majority of people believe that solitary confinement has harmful effects, such as suicide in Kalief Browder’s case. The controversy of solitary confinement used as a form of punishment has been around long before Browder’s events. Opponents use negative reactions and studies for their position, while supporters say that there are positives to solitary confinement, including keeping the public safe, and an improvement in the mental state of those put inside.

Can you imagine spending years without having social interactions with others or without complete access to basic human activities like showering and exercising? Around the United States, eighty thousand prisoners at any given time are sitting in solitary confinement. Solitary confinement of prisoners is addressed by many various names that include; isolation, control units, super-max prisons, the hole, administrative segregation, maximum security or permanent lockdown. The use of solitary confinement on prisoners is cruel, ineffective, and inhumane.

Finally, solitary confinement may also be supported by the fact that it isolates violent prisoners and ensures the safety of other inmates. Indeed, the number one priority of the prison should be to keep their inmates safe. As stated in Gary Deland’s essay, prisoners’ interactions with other inmates can be severely controlled strictly by placing one in solitary confinement. There is no more effective way to prevent violence than by taking out the perpetrator from the situation.

In a criminal point of view individuals, they fine it ver difficult and tend to struggle with adapting to the norms of life after being locked in a cell for long period of time. Adjusting to this includes getting a jobs, living freely (without probation) , and many other key points of survival.

The article published by Mother Jones, discusses the practices of isolation at juvenile prisons in the U.S. and the psychological effects on teenagers and goes into details regarding the United States Justice Department's investigations into juvenile facilities' practices. The article goes into more detail with concern of a 17-year-old boy called Kenny. Kenny has experience locked in isolation cell and the effect on his mental health, and a brief history of the practice of isolating prisoners in the United States. This interviewee is a boy who was a juvenile prisoner in Ohio who have spend “ 82 days in the hole—locked in his own room or an isolation cell-once for 19 days at a stretch, according to court documents” (Liebelson). He was diagnosed with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder and being locked up in isolation was psychological torment “I wasn’t even thinking straight, banging my head on the door and everything else. I was acting like a crazy person,” he said. “I had some of the roughest nights in there that I’ve ever had in my life”

Looking back to the early nineteenth century, the United States had adopted a new form of punishment. The punishment involves imprisoning a person in a cramped, concrete, sometimes windowless cell for hours ranging from 22 to 24 hours a day. Solitary confinement for many prison officials has been one of the primary methods to deal with difficult and sometimes dangerous inmates. Recreation for the rest of the prison population is usually about an hour a day, where with somebody that’s in solitary may only be limited to only three to five hours a week alone in another cage with little to no purposeful activities.

The psychological well being of inmates is pushed to the limits under pressure of complete isolation. Post lockdowns inmates face prolonged psychological effects routinely requiring heavy drugs and dosages to maintain sanity. In the story Lockdown, numerous inmates did not have the ability to overcome the mental stress and discomfort relieving themselves of the stress by committing suicide. Lockdowns express the power the prison has over the inmates, confirming they are superior of inmate's. Hopkins has undergone countless lockdowns, in return they are beginning to destroy his mental health. Through analyzing lockdown isolation in lockdown, Evan D. Hopkins stresses the detrimental impact on inmates psychological

Prison life can be harsh, and time spent in a isolation is even worse. A majority of those in prison spend countless hours in idleness. It would be much better if they used that time to reeducate themselves for a productive life on the outside. Some of the prisoners have serious emotional and mental problems that are never addressed and it is illogical to not attempt to correct these problems before they are released.

In today world release inmates makes up a large proportion of our unemployment rate. If release inmates do not get opportunities to change, then the society is asking for every negative result to double. In modern society we should base our system off opportunities, but the EEOC, our unemployment rate, and state attorneys is stopping inmates from getting their opportunities.

When an individual is introduced to the prison life, after violating rules and laws, he or she must come to terms about the journey he or she are about to take behind bars in prison. No one can save them, or do their time for them, and a majority of their freedom has been stripped from them either temporarily or permanently. Prison life deals with all walks of life and is not discriminative toward any race. In this paper I will discuss my perspective on prison life, policies I would enforce an inmate’s need for respect, changes on correctional policy, and why people commit crimes.