The Importance Of Solitary Confinement In Prison

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In article 5 of the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights, it states that, “[n]o one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.” It states this, yet there are humans kept in cells smaller than the average size of a queen bed (Chan). How is this not considered an inhuman or degrading punishment? While the wellbeing of prisoners can be easily overlooked, that does not mean it is not an important issue. It is unhealthy for prisoners to be kept in solitary confinement for a prolonged period of time because it is bad for their mental health, discriminates against certain groups, and it is expensive.

One way that prisoners can be dealt with more humanely is by eliminating the need to use solitary confinement for minor rule infractions and prohibiting that inmates with mental illness be subjected to solitary confinement. According to “Solitary Confinement: Common Misconceptions and Emerging Safe Alternatives,” many believe the misconception that solitary confinement is used only for the most violent of inmates, when in reality disciplinary segregation is commonly used for minor rule violations. We should not be punishing inmates with solitary confinement for minor infractions instead we should enforce less severe consequences, such as providing correctional officers with sanction grids that guide them to choose the appropriate punishment for certain behaviors (“Solitary Confinement: Common Misconceptions and Emerging Safe Alternatives”). Moreover, inmates with a known mental illness should not be placed in solitary confinement because, in concordance with “Mental Health Alternatives to Solitary Confinement,” it causes severe mental suffering and isolating them to a small cell where they experience sensory deprivation constitutes torture. Instead of sending

“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.

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.

Solitary confinement for juveniles has been a common problem for several years. Growing up in solitary confinement as a juvenile, prison life is the only life they will know. They will not know how to act in the real world. They will get sent right back to jail over and over again. The kids adapt to the prison lifestyle. They will start to lose their mind in jail if they are in there too long. Solitary confinement should be banned for juveniles because it has the potential to negatively impact one’s mind, which can be detrimental on the brain, which is not yet fully developed.

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.

Exclusion can go from being the last person being picked to play in a game to extreme cases like solitary confinement. Humans have learned that without being in a group they can’t survive, categorizing the need to belong as a necessity just like food or water. In my AP psychology class we learned about what motivates a human, one of the most powerful motivations was having a sense of belonging. It fascinated me how feeling excluded lightened up a certain part of the cortex in the brain, this part is what signals physical pain. Being that exclusion can cause physical pain to the mind and body is why I decided to look deeper into social exclusion and ostracism.

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”

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

“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

Does solitary confinement cause severe mental issues? Are the mentally ill allowed to be put in solitary confinement? How bad can the mental issues possibly get if you don’t have a mental issue before being put in solitary confinement? All of these are questions some people ask, but really don’t care enough to dig deeper. What if your loved one or even you were to be put in solitary confinement? Wouldn’t you want to know what it was, wouldn’t you want to know what the affects of this punishment are?

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

I boarded a private jet that was heading to a discrete location a few miles from the Canada-U.S border. I had to do a private deal for some people I knew and I didn’t have the luxury of choice this time around. My boss told me I had nothing to worry about, just make the deal and head back to the plane but, I didn’t trust him and I was nervous. We were heading North and the flight was supposed to be five hours. Two hours into the flight I heard caution alarms going off and I started to panic. I walked up to the cockpit to check on the pilots but the door was locked and I could feel the plane losing altitude fast. I decided the best plan of action was to strap myself in and brace for impact. As I slowly regained consciousness to see the

False informational evidence is the top reason for wrongful convictions in capital cases. Some victims were convicted on forced confessions and many were the victims of prosecutorial misconduct. “The total number of exonerations is 159, with the most recent being Ralph Daniel Wright, Jr. on May 11, 2017” (Innocence and the Death Penalty). From the past 44 years, only 159 people have been freed from death row for being falsely convicted. Prior to that information, the death penalty system needs refinement. The death row is filled with innocent people who does not deserve to be executed. It would not be good to get rid of the Death Row entirely at all. Instead, we should improve the death penalty so it can be a lot trustworthy and accurate.