Solitary Confinement: A Case Study

Many researchers have found that long periods of time in solitary confinement can have negative mental effects on inmates. This is due to long-term confinement because it consists of not only prolonged deprivation of social interaction but also sensory deprivation (Haney, 2003). Medical ethics are also in question about the effects of long term confinement. Medical professionals have to handle a particularly difficult situation because they are required to provide medical assistance to these inmates that may be facing psychological issues. This is a problem because medical professionals are aware that solitary confinement has negative effects on the well-being and mental state of these individuals (Shalev, 2011).

Solitary confinement has had a long history in the American prison system. America is the first country to adapt solitary confinement into the prison regiment. Pennsylvania had the first special housing units for inmates or “SHU”. When Europeans came to America to look at the new model for prisons in Pennsylvania they wrote reports describing to the European parliament on how prisoners were treated like caged animals. Many of them quickly realized that this was not what prisons were set out to accomplish. The purpose of a prison is to rehabilitate criminals and bring them back into society as an individual that has the best mental tools and skills to make their respective communities better. Putting inmates in solitary confinement for more than 48 hours can only lead to awful emotional pain and mental problems which can result in self-destructive behavior to regain the self-control that is being deprived through this process of isolation and expulsion.

Solitary confinement is occasionally used in most prison systems as a means to maintain prison order. Mainly for disciplinary punishment, or as a place to put inmates that are at escape risk, or a risk to themselves and prison order. Sometimes inmates that are sex offenders voluntarily choose solitary as a means of protection from other prisoners. Sometimes solitary can be used to hold pretrial detainees to prevent them from messing with witness, so they can’t try and force a confession. For 23 hours a day inmates are confined to the barren environment that is their cell with high surveillance (Smith, Peter Scharff, 2006.) Inmates have no social contact. Visits and phone calls are infrequent and highly restricted. Visits sometime only take place via video screens. The physical contact one experiences is limited to the interaction with prison guards, weather it be putting on restraints or taking them off.

Solitary confinement is a penitentiary punishment developed in which each inmate is held in isolation from other inmates or any human contact, with the exception of correctional staff. Solitary confinement. Solitary confinement is usually twenty-two to twenty-four hours a day, with a sentence extending from days to years. This form of incarceration is used as a form of punishment for the inmate, commonly for violation of correctional rules. There has been some debate to wheatear solitary confinement should be accepted as an adequate form of punishment. Society views solitary confinement as a form of cruelty, while others see it as a form of safety for other inmate with in the correctional facility. Solitary confinement is an acceptable form of punishment.

Solitary confinement can cause mental distress to inmates. Solitary confinement causes problems with people’s heads, lives, and in some occasions makes the world more dangerous. The barbaric conditions of solitary confinement may cause or worsen depression, paranoia and anger. Scientist say if you ever go in solitary you will be damaged by it. If you survive it, it has impact on you. Solitary confinement is a big discussion all around the world, because of all these mental health issues. Inmates have nothing to do but just sit there. The barbaric condition only worsens men and women, they are lonely and drenched with depression in their heads. If there wasn’t solitary there would be less angry inmates walking out of the cells and going into the real world. Nikki Jenkins went straight out of solitary to be a free man, within a few weeks

There is a loss of privacy for the prisoner, even though they are all alone in the cell, guards are constantly watching them. They are there watching every move they make. It is often argued that solitary confinement creates a loss of freedom because the prisoner is already taken away from society, but then also isolated again in prison. The idea of being surrounded by four walls for 23 hours of the day is frightening. Therefore, many prisoners develop suicidal thoughts, personality disorders, and mental illnesses such depression, anxiety, paranoia, bipolar, schizophrenia, and claustrophobia (ConnectUS, 2015). It can also be stated that the purpose of solitary confinement is often not effective because instead of having someone there to help them process what they did, they are isolated. Prisoners in confinement simply end up just waiting for time to pass by instead of thinking about their

Insomnia, paranoia, uncontrollable feelings of rage and fear are just some of the effects that a prisoner can experience after being placed in solitary confinement. I think the government should ban solitary confinement because it causes mental pain and suffering.

Confined prisoners, many of whom are later released at the end of the sentence, are excruciated with a new behavioral deficiency as a result of their time in solitary confinement. This can dangerously affect social orders/groups and it can prompt higher rates of recidivism among these prisoners. As for a psychological aspect, any human contact is critical capacity for keeping the faculties in place and when that human contact is banned or denied, inmates can lose their capacity to work appropriately. Now and again prompt themselves to inflict self-harm as well as harm others in the population. Only one could imagine what this isolation could do to a

Isolation has rarely been viewed as a positive thing. When people think of someone or something that is isolated, words like “lonely” and “outcast” may come to mind. Even in corrective facilities, such as prisons or asylums, isolation (or solitary confinement) is deemed as a punishment. A study was conducted in a hospital to determine possible psychological and/or physical problems isolation may cause for patients and Abad, Fearday, and Safdar found that, “The majority showed a negative impact on patient mental well-being and behaviour, including higher scores for depression, anxiety and anger

A study conducted in California’s prison system from 1999 to 2004 determined that nearly half of all suicides committed by inmates were because they were in solitary confinement (Breslow, 2014). Although some inmates have failed at their suicide attempts, that does not mean that they have not attempted to end their lives. There is a higher rate of inmates self mutilating while being in solitary confinement than if they were in the general prison population (Breslow, 2014). This means that inmates that are isolated are more of a danger to themselves. Being in solitary confinement also attributes to personality disorders, Breslow mentioned that many inmates lose the ability to communicate with others after being in solitary confinement for a long period of time and thus do not want to leave their cells (2014). It can be argued that having inmates in solitary confinement is a human rights violation. When inmates are isolated, they are constantly being monitored through a camera. The inmates have no form of communication with people and even their food is passed through a slot on the door. Solitary confinement can be considered torture because it has been proven that by subjecting inmates to this they experience mental illnesses such as paranoia, hallucination, panic attacks, and suicidal attempts (Breslow, 2014).

According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, Solitary Confinement is the confinement of a prisoner in a cell or other place which he or she is completely isolated from any and everyone. Merriam Webster also states that even some prisoners are held from 22.5 to 24 hours a day. Solitary confinement is sometimes referred to as isolation, segregation, separation, and cellular confinements so that it seems different from solitary confinement or too make it sound like a less harsh punishment. Solitary Confinement is a huge controversy in today’s society, although some might of forgot due to the fact that there’s an orange oompa loompa celebrity as our president, but this has been a problem since it was introduced in 1829. “In 1829, the first experiment in solitary confinement was at the Eastern State Penitentiary in Philadelphia. It was based on a Quaker belief that prisoners isolated in stone cells with only a Bible would use the time to repent, pray and find introspection.”(Timeline on NPR.org) A large population of people believe that solitary confinement is a violation against anyone 's human rights. On the other side of this argument, some people believe it is a necessary form of punishment and that it does not violate anyone’s human or constitutional rights. In my personal opinion, Solitary confinement violates both the 8th Amendment of the United States Constitution and Article five of the Declaration of Human Rights. I don’t understand how isolating someone for that

The United States practices solitary confinement. “It is commonly thought that solitary confinement is reserved for incorrigibly violent, dangerous people—the worst of the worst.” (Cloud, Drucker, Browne, & Parsons, 2015) However, in researching solitary confinement, whether or not the inmate was dangerous has not always been the reason that inmates end up in solitary confinement. In some cases the inmates who are placed in solitary confinement are not at risk of causing harm to guards, prisoners or anyone else. According to the Penal Reform International website states, “Excessive use of solitary confinement in prisons around the world is becoming an increasing concern. (Penal Reform International, 2015)

Solitary confinement is a more secure area within a prison. It is intended to be a place where inmates go when they violate prison rules or laws. This is only one of the three possible uses for confinement. Confinement is also used to house mentally ill patients as well as pretrial individuals. Solitary confinement is no longer necessary for society today due to the fact that the negative effects of being placed in solitude outweigh the benefits that it provides for the prison system as a whole. The concept of solitary confinement has been around for over thirty years, and a system that has been around for so long has its flaws. Being placed in solitude causes debilitating psychological effects. Researching through the ethical lens shows that the United States relies much more heavily on the solitary confinement system than many other countries. The United Nations has expressed concern over the United States’ excessive use of confinement. A researcher through Brandeis University found that the prison population in confinement in the United Kingdom is .1%; whereas the United States places 1.8% of its prison population in solitude. In Scandinavia, confinement is used sparingly. When it is implemented, it is only used to temporarily house mentally well pretrial individuals who will initially be sentenced to solitary confinement (Idalsky).

Since the early 1800s, the United States has relied on a method of punishment barely known to any other country, solitary confinement (Cole). Despite this method once being thought of as the breakthrough in the prison system, history has proved differently. Solitary confinement was once used in a short period of time to fix a prisoners behavior, but is now used as a long term method that shows to prove absolutely nothing. Spending 22-24 hours a day in a small room containing practically nothing has proved to fix nothing in a person except further insanity. One cannot rid himself of insanity in a room that causes them to go insane. Solitary confinement is a flawed and unnecessary method of punishment that should be prohibited in the prison

Imagine your child committed a crime, was tried as an adult and sent to an adult prison. The other inmates pick with and beat on him daily, so to keep him safe he is sent to solitary confinement, a small cell, alone with little to no attention or interaction with other humans. While in the cell he is slowly losing his mind and once released from prison he comes home differently. According to Hinds (2015), "They often aren't able to see their loved ones, are stripped of the very limited amount of control they have in prison, are left without human contact and sensory stimulation, and are often left in a state of limbo, unsure when they will be removed from solitary". Many people don't understand the effects solitary confinement can have on a person. Solitary confinement is supposed to be a punishment for acting up while in jail. However, a former inmate Elton Simpson (2015) states, "I think solitary confinement is mental