Solitary Confinement Analysis

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 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

Solitary Confinement has been used as a punishment, to keep the prisons secure. However, with the changing of opinions from a few decades ago, to present time, more people want less solitary confinement used. With also corrections policies changing over time has also changed the dynamic of how a younger person could be charged and sentenced, compared to an older person who is not a juvenile could be put into solitary confinement. More facts about the use of Solitary Confinement, the policy is up for debate. Starting with do I agree with the New York Times, The Living Death of Solitary Confinement?

Solitary confinement in the prison system is far too common in this country. Bohm and Haley (2017) note that 15 consecutive days spent in solitary confinement is considered to be cruel and/or torturesome as reported by a UN Special Rapporteur. These 15 days are also the point at which psychological damage occurs and is also irreversible. So if 15 days has been identified as cruelty and likely irreversible to one’s mental stability, then why do prison systems continue to place inmates in solitary confinement for

Dr. Milton Meltzer, former chief medical officer at Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary (2010) states, “The sense of self, the ego and ego boundary phenomena are profoundly affected by the isolation” (par. 4). Hyper responsivity to external stimuli, perceptual distortions, illusions, and hallucinations are all a result of being restricted to the conditions of isolation. Case studies have been observing why such changes in a person occur. Findings therefore led to evidence that individuals experience a degree of stupor, difficulties with thinking and concentration, obsessional thinking, agitation, and irritability. The list continues to grow depending on whether the individual already suffers preexisting mental conditions. Although it is still a controversial issue the use of solitary confinement has not been proved to be cruel and unusual

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

About one out of every 12 incarcerated people in New York State jails are in solitary confinement, and in conditions that can be torturous. These prisoners await trials and would not be there if they could afford bail. The population includes adolescents as young as 16 years. In solitary confinement these inmates are locked in a cell for 23 hours a day with minimal social interaction and activity. This isolation may last up to months or years. Solitary confinement can have a devastating psychological impact on those subjected to, particularly people with pre-existing mental illness and adolescents whose brains are not fully developed. During Mayor Bloomberg administration the number of people in solitary confinement increased even as the overall population dropped. A named Stephen Slevin was subjected to a tortuous life. He spent 22 months in solitary confinement in jail. He was neglected to a point where he was forced to pull out his own tooth because they would not allow him to see a dentist. His attorney has asked for him to get 22 million dollars for the ordeal the he suffered, but they ended up getting 15.5. (Breslow

Solitary confinement has been a controversial topic for many years now. People do not merely argue if they are pro or con, they question the short and long-term effects, look for alternatives, or try to banish it from the United States entirely.

Solitary confinement is viewed as one of the best punishments for prisoners’ bad behavior in order to protect the rest of the inmates. Solitary confinement has proven to have the reverse effects in terms of a person’s psychological state. Solitary confinement means that the prisoners do not have normal stimulus and human communication which has its toll on the prisoners. Prisoners who are in solitary confinement only have themselves and the acoustics of their squared prison cell which tends to drive many to hallucinate, act violently, or commit suicide.

Solitary confinement, destroys people as human

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.

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

In life there are choices to be made, some are positive and lead a person in one direction, some are negative and a person in trouble. The decisions that are made on a daily basis and the way that one reacts to the consequences of those choices affect the outcome of their life. The same holds true for people inside a prison cell. Adapting to life if prison is a process, and each individual prisoner choses a different path for that process. Some react with anger and violence, some develop mental health issues such as depression and some eventually chose to accept what is the reality of life in prison. This paper with briefly summarize findings about prisoner’s coping with solitary confinement and coping with wrongful conviction.