Solitary Confinement Is A Form Of Imprisonment

Solitary confinement is a mandated arrangement set up by courts or prisons which seek to punish inmates by the use of isolated confinement. Specifically, solitary confinement can be defined as confinement in which inmates that are held in a single cell for up to twenty-three hours a day without any contact with the exception of prison staff (Shalev, 2011). There are several other terms which refer to solitary confinement such as, administrative segregation, supermax facilities (this is due to the fact that supermax facilities only have solitary confinement), the hotbox, the hole, and the security housing unit (SHU). Solitary confinement is a place where most inmates would prefer not to go.

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.

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 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 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?

According to “Solitary Confinement: Common Misconceptions and Emerging Safe Alternatives” by Alison Shames, Jessa Wilcox, and Ram Subramanian on the Vera Institute of Justice, solitary confinement is often sentenced to “fulfill a prison’s or jail’s top priority: the safety of its staff and the incarcerated people under their care.” (Shames, Wilcox, & Subramanian, 2015). However, most inmates that are placed in solitary confinement are

Imagine a world where solitary confinement does not exist. Solitary confinement is the imprisonment of inmates that fail to follow the rules of the penitentiary facility. They are stuck in a cell for 23 hours a day with no privacy. Solitary confinement is bad because it provides no purpose of rehabilitation, causes mental disorders, and violates basic human rights.

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

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

How Does Solitary Confinement Effect Inmates? Being locked in an 80-square foot room with only a bed and a toilet, with very limited human contact, will drive you into insanity. Many violent inmates that guards cannot control are usually put in to solitary confinement. Solitary confinement can cause very dangerous effects. Inmates locked in solitary for long periods of time are at risk of losing their mental senses and begin to hallucinate; this often leads becoming suicidal and even become anti-social, which usually happens to those without human contact for long period of time.

Solitary confinement is isolation from other inmates as a punishment for when you fight or get in trouble in prison. People Say that Solitary confinement is like being in a prison inside a prison, and that the second prison is the prison of your mind. “The worst scars are left in your mind,” they say. The prisoners that already have mental issues are put in solitary confinement more than non mentally challenged inmates. More than them simply because they have the issues and they can’t “act right” but how are they supposed to act right if they don’t know what acting right is.

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).

Solitary confinement, is not only bad for the inmates, but it is a drain on the economy. Solitary confinement prisons are massive complexes built at tax payer expense, meant to house a mere fraction of what it has the capability of. Each cell is made even smaller than the already miniscule prison cells, and are made to fit only one person. Guards vastly outnumber the prisoners and their salaries as well as whatever equipment, and the prisoners’ meals all cost the tax payers money. Overall, it’s too much to pay for something that does no

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

After watching the videos, and seeing inmates who have spent 13 years in solitary, react to the outside world with anger and hostility because they are not used to human interaction does not fare well for the prisons methods. Solitary should be a temporary punishment. If inmates spend less time in solitary it could reduce their chances of mental illness, the feeling of isolation, and can help eliminate their aggressive behavior from becoming worse. For individuals who have a history of mental illness while I do not believe they should receive special treatment if they endanger themselves or others I do not believe they should be sent directly to solitary. They should have their mental state reevaluated and be sent to a psychiatric ward instead. Placing a mentally unstable individual in solitary would do nothing but make their state of mind worse. For all other inmates, instead of spending a year or six months in solitary as punishment, inmates can serve a week and then receive an addition to their sentence for deserving crimes. Deserving crimes can include attacks on inmates or guards. For serious offenses that happen in jail, I do not believe there is another option besides solitary. Although, for minor offenses options like rehabilitation might be more