The Effects Of Solitary Confinement On The Mental Health Field, Criminal Justice System, And Political Arena

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.

Prisoners are locked behinds cells confined in a small space without windows for 22 to 23 hours per day. Cells are illuminated by artificial light with no means for prisoners to control the brightness. These lights remain on all day so inmates have difficulty-distinguishing day from night (Arrigo and Bullock, 2008). At times the prisoner may be confined the whole day if they decide to misbehave. Interaction with other human beings is strictly prohibited. The only contact prisoners have is through a closed-circuit television to talk to their visitors or when correctional officers placed handcuffs and other restraints (Pizarro and Narag, 2008). From the extreme isolation, such inmates tend to fear

There is no objection that should someone commit a crime, they must also pay the subsequent consequences, whether it be a fine, a prison sentence or even both. At times, especially in the prisons, even these punishments are not enough and thus an extra step is taken to ensure the misbehaved party does not repeat their error again. Inmates may be placed in solitary confinement for extended periods of times, ranging from weeks to even decades. With absolutely no human interaction, a holding cell smaller than a horse’s stable, and deprivation of basic human rights and senses, solitary confinement is the wrong way to rehabilitate prisoners since it is ethically wrong, very costly and detrimental to inmate health, both physical and mental.

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).

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.

There are many inmates who are affected emotionally every day. When people commit a crime and go to prison they are still able to communicate with their fellow inmates and participate in physical functions. When depriving someone of their daily habits and routines you are changing their entire life. We as humans cannot function without our family and friends. People in solitary confinement are deprived of much more than family and friends. They are dehumanized, tortured, and punished beyond

Effects of Solitary Confinement Sean Solar P.3 If you commit the crime you serve the time, but the long term effects of being confined with limited accessibility and constantly living in fear can affect the brain a lifetime. In prison’s across the country many are being put in solitary confinement because of violations of jail rules. While in confinement they get a small room to stare at the walls and limited personal belonging, usually just a book or a notepad. While being locked in their room ¾ of the time they get a solo gym break and lunch break. Solitary confinement goes way back to the late 1820’s when the Eastern State Penitentiary in Philadelphia . A quaker belief that alone time in a stone cell with a bible would make the “sinner”

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.

Finally, solitary confinement may also be supported by the fact that it isolates violent prisoners and ensures the safety of other inmates. Indeed, the number one priority of the prison should be to keep their inmates safe. As stated in Gary Deland’s essay, prisoners’ interactions with other inmates can be severely controlled strictly by placing one in solitary confinement. There is no more effective way to prevent violence than by taking out the perpetrator from the situation.

By depriving them of such crucial resources while their prisons because they are locked away in solitary confinement cells, inmates are being set up for failure because they lack the proper skills and resources that other inmates have access to while serving their sentence, which can be the reason for the higher revisionism rates among inmates who served time in the solitary confinement units compared to inmates who did not. (Unknown. 3) Because of data and studies provided by correctional facilities across the country, it’s safe to assume that solitary confinement doesn’t aid in the rehabilitation process of inmates but harms them even further since inmates would served time in long term confinement cells are more likely to commit additional crimes and be rearrested once they are released. If solitary confinement doesn’t work to rehabilitate inmates causes them to become more likely to commit additional crimes once released, then it shouldn’t be used as a form of punishment in jails and prisons across the

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

Solitary confinement drastically affects mentally ill prisoners differently as compared to the general population. Such effects are psychological and they are as follows: (1) anxiety; (2) depression; (3) anger; (4) cognitive disturbances; (5) perceptual distortions; (6) obsessive thoughts; (7) paranoia; and (8) psychosis (Metzner & Fellner, 2010). Being confined inside a unit with no windows can disorient inmates with or without mental disorders, and failure to provide mentally ill inmates with psychiatric help could result in more disruptive behaviors. Prison officials must be aware and mindful of inmates that are medically diagnosed with mental disorders. Placing mentally ill prisoners in solitary confinement can jeopardize the safety and efficient operation of a correctional facility, and pose challenges for correctional professionals (Newman & Scott, 2012).

I never gave any thought about a prisoner conditions before this class and always though that the one’s that end up in solitary confinement diserved it due to the crime they have commited and how danjories they were to other prisoners. This really baffols me about my own ignorance towards other issuse in the world and not on things that my just effect me. Some of the cons for solitary confinement would be that it provides prisoners with some protection from the general population due to that security protocols that are much higher in solitary so, it becomes much more difficult to harm someone. Another one would be that it still allows a prisoner to serve their sentence. The cons to solitary confinement is that prisoners develop personality disorders when left alone. Prisoners behavior will start

Imagine yourself locked in a miniature-size closet for years without electronics nor social communication- not even sunlight! The only time you are let outside your designated area is for about an hour to go outside to exercise or shower. Nevertheless, that is not the case for numerous prisoners. The majority of the time, prison guards totally fail to recall about the inmate or tend to have a neglecting state of mind when monitoring confinement inmates. Several of the prisoners who end up in isolated confinement are diagnosed with physical and emotional complications such as depression and anxiety. Prisoners over the time have trouble with socializing and interacting with other human beings. Furthermore, some officials often report some cases in which inmates held in these segregated facilities severely harm their own bodies or in some cases it goes as far as to committing suicide inside the prison area. In a study made in New York, it was concluded that inmates placed in isolation or solitary confinement are seven times more likely to commit an act of self-harm or suicide than an inmate in general population. Solitary confinement, besides being extremely expensive, it is a cruel form of punishment and it does not help anyone who convicted a crime or who seems dangerous around other inmates, become a better person. This method it’s so called a ‘disciplinary solution’ for prisoners to behave in an accordingly manner however, it instead provokes prisoners to act in a