Solitary Confinement Is A Form Of Imprisonment

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.

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.

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.

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

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).

Over the last couple of decades, prison systems have adopted the use of solitary confinement as a means of punishment and have progressively depended on it to help maintain obedience and discipline inside the prison structure. Solitary confinement is a form of incarceration in which a prisoner is isolated in a cell for multiple hours, days, or weeks with limited to no human contact. According to the American Civil Liberties Union, the United States represents only 5% of the world's population yet houses 20% of the world’s prisoners (ACLU). Two of the biggest problems with our modern day criminal justice system is the overwhelming number of people that are incarcerated in the United States and the overwhelming number of convicts who return

Without human interaction they will begin to feel lonely and depressed. After a while the prisoners often get anxiety and built up anger which makes many out out and to where they will end up either in a worse confinement or more time in solitary. Being alone isn’t always bad and sometimes is relaxing but humans need other human interaction. We don’t need it everyday but humans have a connection with other humans weather it is a physical or emotional and it’s how we learn about other people and share how we feel. Human interaction also brings happiness to one more than materials can, psychologist James H. Fowler did a study on 5,000 participants proving that you are more happy when the people you are with people. Also if your surrounding friends are in a good state and happy themselves then it will brush off upon you. Many studies have proven that solitary confinement isn’t an effective way of punishment but in our society and country it is still being practiced. I believe it is a good way to keep the jails separated and under control, but when putting mentally ill convicts in a room with 0 human interaction it is going to further and worsen the effects which will not help them in the

A simple way of explaining why these sensory deprived prisoners shut down mentally is explained through this article. “Not only do sensory inputs keep us from getting bored, they also keep our brains functioning within healthy parameters. Should we lose access to natural light, social interaction and physical touch, we quickly begin to unravel.

What is solitary confinement? It is the practice of isolating prisoners in a small cell for 23 hours out of a day. These prisoners spend anywhere from 30 days to 30 years in solitary confinement, with very little human contact. The cells that they are confined to are 80 square feet and they may or may not have a window. One hour out of the day is set aside for exercise.

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

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

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