Solitary Confinement In Prisons

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 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

What if something that is supposed to be keeping society safe is actually doing more harm than good? As it turns out, that might be the case with the solitary confinement of prisoners. For multiple days at a time prisoners are locked into a lonely cell as small as a bathroom stall, going days without any human contact or communication. While solitary confinement is expensive to taxpayers, it is costing even more in social terms, as it can debilitate inmates and cause serious mental harm in forms of anxiety, paranoia, and even hallucinations beyond their life behind bars. The argument ‘On the Edge of Humane’ by Keramet Reiter argues that the inhumane conditions of solitary confinement

“The prisoner was thought to consider himself dead to all without the prison walls.” Although it may lock up some of the most intimidating and precarious criminals, Solitary Confinement is cruel and unusual punishment because it is unnecessary torture, psychologically unhealthy and provides for inhumane living conditions.

The problem with Solitary Confinement is that it causes mental health issues, it has been misused in prison, causes torture, inmates social life aren 't the same as before with their family members or friends. Prisoners have suffered severe psychological harm by being alone in small dark room without having anyone to talk to, having to only see a pitch black room. This issue should be fixed by using a different method without harming them and causing humans a physical damage. United States prisons should instead put inmates who are placed in solitary confinements and have them all together in the same area, than having each inmate in a room to their self. I believe that this method would work because prisons would be isolating them but they won’t be in a room by themselves, they will instead be in a room with other inmates to at least talk to and reflect amongst them together to become a better person outside of prison.

While solitary confinement is one of the most effective ways of keeping todays prisoners from conflict and communication, it is also the most detrimental to their health. According to NPR the reason for most solitary confinement units in America “is to control the prison gangs (NPR, 2011).” But that is not always the case. Sometimes putting a gang member in solitary reduces the shock and awe effect that it is supposed to have, when they start losing their minds. The prisoners kept in solitary confinement show more psychotic symptoms than that of a normal prisoner, including a higher suicide rate. Once a prisoner’s mental capacity to understand why he is in prison and why he is being punished is gone, there is no reason to keep said

While solitary confinement is one of the most effective ways of keeping todays prisoners from conflict and communication it is also the most detrimental to their health. According to an article by NPR.org the reason for most solitary confinement units in America “is to control the prison gangs (NPR, 2011).” Sometimes putting a gang member in solitary confinement reduces the effect that confinement is supposed to have when the confined inmate starts losing their mind. The prisoners kept in solitary confinement show more psychotic symptoms than that of a normal prisoner, including a higher suicide rate. Once a prisoner’s mental capacity to understand why he or she is in prison and why they are being punished is gone, there is no reason to

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

“Closed in a room my imagination becomes the universe and the rest of the world in missing out”. Solitary Confinement has been dated back to the 19th century and had been researched by a variety of scholars and academics. In 1818 a New York reformer Thomas Eddy and a friend lobbied for inmate labor and solitary confinement in place of other forms of punishment such as hanging. Soon after New York decided to include solitary confinement and inmate labor into their penal system. Mental instability has been then linked to solitary confinement since as far back as the 1860s. It has been put in place for criminals, who put themselves and others in danger or the risk of hurting someone else or themselves. Prisoners who are put in solitary confinement

Just imagine a criminal walking down a hallway to a small enclosed space that they will be trapped in there seeing those exact same 4 prison walls for days, weeks, month, and even years. Only seeing another human being when given food, though a small slot in the door. Some criminals turn out fine, but others Most of them slowly goes insane going crazier and crazier by the day. Many people have been debating on if solitary confinement should even be in prisons or not. So Solitary confinement does not effectively work as well as it needs to.

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.

The Flaws of Solitary Confinement Prisons should abolish the morally dubious and wholly ineffective practice of solitary confinement. Solitary confinement is the isolation of a prisoner from the jail population. Inmates in solitary confinement are treated like pups at an animal shelter, except the prisoners aren’t allowed human contact. Although there are some people locked up for awful things like murder and rape, not everyone is a monster and deserving of such cruelty. Most inmates in jail are related one way or another to drugs rather than violence, which is not deserving of solitary confinement.

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

Why is forced electroconvulsive therapry no longer acceptable but solitary confinement is? When will it become illegal? Why can’t prisoners be punished by having a meal or two withheld from them? The effects of solitary confinement are just as gruesome, if not more so, as those of forced electroconvulsive therapy. Its effects are not only psychological, but traverse even to the realm of physiology-the mind and body are equally subjected to the effects of solitary confinement. A comprehensive elucidation of the effects of solitary confinement will suffice in convincing the skeptic that it needs to be illegal and that an alternative method needs to be implemented. Since the physical effects of solitary confinement are relatively mild, the first and only “class” of effects that need to be delineated is undoubtedly the