Solitary Confinement Research Paper

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

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.

The report was to develop strategies for reducing the use of this practice throughout our nation’s criminal justice system. Over the past several months, a team of senior officials at the U.S. Department of Justice met regularly to study the issue of solitary confinement—or “restrictive housing,” to use the more general corrections term—and formulate policy solutions. This report is the culmination of the Department’s review (Raemisch 1). Data are from the National Inmate Survey (NIS), 201112, conducted in 233 state and federal prisons and 358 local jails, with a sample of 91,177 inmates nationwide United States. (Department of Justice 1).

Many people believe that solitary confinement is justified given the magnitude of certain crimes. Utilitarianism, an ideology most commonly used by policymakers to defend solitary confinement, rationalizes isolation by suggesting that the purpose of all legislation “is to augment the total happiness of the community; and therefore, in the first place, to exclude, as far as may be, every thing that tends to subtract from that happiness: in other words, to exclude mischief...”; however, the same principles of utility also suggest that “...if [punishment] ought at all to be admitted, it ought only to be admitted in so far as it promises to exclude some greater evil” (qtd. in Isdale). Solitary confinement, however, proves to be so unnecessarily

There are many organizations and practices dedicated to the efforts of stopping solitary confinement completely. Most are dedicated community members coming together in solidarity to make a change. States such as California have begun to organize one day per month for advocates to participate in Statewide Coordinated Actions to End Solitary Confinement. People gather at various locations to expose the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation’s actions and rally support efforts to secure their rights. They hope that as more people become aware of the severity of solitary confinement, it will become a nationwide action.

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

But now perisoners are in solitary confinement not becuase they broke the rules of the prison or killed someone but becase they were belived to be connected to a prison gang. They can end up in the just by being in a picture with a gang member and they go through the game validation were the prisoner can prove he is not involve but that never had worked. I think solitary confinement should be used but only on a prisoner that is beyond rehabitaion. It doesn noe make sense to put someone in the shu for something they did not do and forgrt why they were there in the first place which is to serve thier time and help them be the better versions of themselves. There would be a system to decied if someone should be in solitary confinemen or not and not just have one man decied their fate. The suh can have many effect on the prisoners, in the early years of solitary confinement, researchers noted increased suicide and mental illness among prisoners. Also, inmates who have undergone long-term solitary confinement often become listless, apathetic and

After reading the article, textbook, and watching the films, I believe that solitary confinement should exist in our prison system up to a certain extent. While research has been conducted that concludes solitary confinement disrupts the normal pattern of human behavior; it does not make sense to me that a prisoner could be violent, or destructive and not receive a punishment for his or her actions. For example, if an inmate has assaulted other inmates or jail personnel on multiple occasions, they should not be allowed to remain in the general prison population since they have repeatedly disrupted the safety of the prison. Violent outbursts that occur in prison should not go unnoticed or unpunished. However, if an inmate engages in a minor

this old form of punishment. These tactics were used in the past, and then were eventually regarded as being cruel and inhumane. Somehow, the idea of solitary confinement has returned and is respected among many people. I believe that there are some people who do need to be put in solitary confinement and some who shouldn’t have to go through that psychological pain. The movie did shine some perspective on to me, as i had not nearly any clue as to what really went down behind those walls.

Since the introduction of solitary confinement and the construction of super-max prison there has an on going debate on whether using these punishment is violating the 8th amendment and also explaining all the health risk caused by solitary confinement. Solitary confinement is when a prisoner is held in a cell alone and they spend between 22.5 and 24 hours a day. Prisoners have no contact with other inmates and guards are also have limited contact with inmates. Solitary confinement was first introduced in the mid-nineteenth century and it was believed that it would help reform prisoners. The ideology behind solitary confinement and super-max prisons was that prisoners would be locked up alone and left with nothing but their Bible and this would allow the prisoner to reflect on his actions and wrong doings and eventually reform into a law-abiding citizen. But soon after solitary confinement was put into place it became clear that solitary confinement did not meet there goal of reforming individuals but evidence proved it caused harmed to the prisoners physical and mental health. Besides being harmful to prisoner’s physical and mental health it was also very expensive to run super-max prisons. Many began to question whether it was morally and ethically correct to keep prisoners in solitary confinement for long periods of time at once. When solitary confinement was first introduced it was used as a short-term punishment for prisoner who committed severe offenses in prison.

President Obama asked at the NAACP convention in Philadelphia “ Do we really think it makes sense to lock so many people alone in tiny cells for twenty- three hours a day, for months, sometimes years, at a time? That is not going to make us stronger. And if those individuals are ultimately released, how are they ever going to adapt” (Lueders 34)? A United Nations official has said the use of solitary confinement for more than fifteen days may constitute torture,causing “harmful psychological effects that can become irreversible” ( Lueders 34). Rick Raemisch, head of Colorado's prison system, has testified before Congress that solitary confinement is overused, misused and abused. Raemisch told Bill Lueders in an interview that the wholesale use of solitary showed how corrections has lost sight of its mission to rehabilitate inmates before they are returned to their communities (Lueders

In the United States the penal system is developed under two separate systems. One is the Auburn system and the second is the Pennsylvania system. The current system in the United States for solitary confinement was taken from the Pennsylvania model which was built for isolation and seclusion solitary confinement was used as an alternative form of punishment but at the time it was meant to provide a prisoner with solitude “to reflect on his misdeeds” It was used to help the prisoner repent, and restore his relationship with God.

Years ago the state of California had been sued by inmates. They were held without proof, and stayed in solitary confinement, violating constitutional rights.  Next due to their victory, the country is now a step closer to ending solitary.  After they once settled in court, only prisoners based on gang affiliation will be in solitary but, no longer than 5 years.  Also this settlement allows groups into housing units with rule violations, some visits, and participation in recreational, and educational programs.

Solitary confinement is a form of punishment that isolates an inmate to a small cell with heavily restricted human interaction. This method of discipline dates back to 1787, the same year the United States Constitution was drafted (Katel). However, over the years, solitary confinement has morphed into super maximum-security prisons across the nation that are built solely for the use of this punishment. Since 1842 people have disagreed with this tactic, but with the recent growth of “supermax” prisons the debate has become relevant once again (Katel). The issue is: people are being abused in prison, whether the guards are the ones being attacked by unruly prisoners, or inmates are facing maltreatment from other inmates. This violence needs to decrease greatly and the best way to do that is reform the system. As a result of this violence, solitary confinement has been utilized to punish inmates instead of attempting to solve the underlying issues that caused the offenses in the first place. Solitary confinement is a form of imprisonment that has gone from a useful method of separating dangerous inmates from the general population to a form of torture, thus restrictions needs to be put into place in order to increase rehabilitation from incarceration into society.