Solitary Confinement Research Paper

The most valued documents in modern American society tend also to be the most heavily debated. For instance, interpretations of the United States Constitution tend to be rooted in one of two firmly entrenched beliefs;while the first camp believes it to be set in stone, the second his convinced that the United States Constitution is by nature a perpetually evolving document, meant to reflect the desires and needs of the people. Even amongst those in the same camp, disagreements abound; those believing that the Constitution is set in stone are divided on issues such as the eighth amendment’s prohibition of ‘cruel and unusual punishment’. It is difficult to reach a consensus on what, constitutes cruel and unusual punishment. For example, the concept of waterboarding is championed by many as a ‘humane’ form of torture which causes no physical harm. However, it was deemed a cruel and unusual punishment due to the sensations of drowning and symptoms of mental illness which it produced in its victims. It can therefore be inferred that physical injury is not the only factor to be considered in whether or not a practice is to be deemed inhumane; factors such as mental wellbeing and fitness of punishment must also be considered. This leads one to ponder how the concept of solitary confinement could possibly even be considered when it so clearly violates the protections which the eighth amendment provides.

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.

Based on the wording of the amendment, I believe that the use of solitary confinement in the United States does not violate citizens’ eighth amendment rights. A cruel and unusual punishment would be considered grossly disproportionate, which doesn’t exactly concord with solitary

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.

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 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.

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

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.

The horrors of solitary confinement. One man named Gabriel Eber who was a prison inmate at East Mississippi Correctional Facility retells the horrors of solitary stating “Men are kept in small, unsanitary isolation cells with scant human attention for months and years. Self-mutilation and suicide attempts are not uncommon (Rienzi, 2015)”. There are thousands of inmates who spend 23 hours a day, in a windowless cell alone without human interaction. One account from Kate Edwards who runs an advocacy group known as “Wisdom” in one of New York State’s correctional facilities states “They would change in disturbing ways”, “They became unkempt, less able to focus. As the weeks went by, they would look more and more distressed. I was watching them disintegrate. (Lueders, 2015)”. The reality is that inmates that are locked away from 23 hours a day for weeks or even years, facing severe repercussions that ultimately do more harm than good. Inmates are locked away and having no interaction at all and nothing to do. “They face crushing depression and anxiety. They scream and cry. They slash and bite their own flesh. They smear feces on the wall. They try to kill themselves with pens, paperclips, bed sheets, with metal from

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

Such treatment was deemed cruel and unusual punishment, and therefore unconstitutional, violating inmates' 8th Amendment rights. Now, only prisoners who commit serious in-prison offenses (violence, possessing weapons or narcotics, or attempting to escape) will be sent to solitary confinement, and for a limited period of

There is no universal definition for solitary confinement, but the United Nations describes it as any regime where an inmate is held in isolation from others, except guards for atleaset 22 hours a day. Solitary confinement is one of the oldest and most enduring prison practices. Bar the death penalty, it is also the most extreme penalty which can legally be impsed on prisoners. Simply put, Solitary confinement is a brutal form of imprisonment where the prisoner is isolated from any human communication. It is considered to be a form of psychological torture when the period of confinement is longer than a few weeks or is continued indefinitely.

Solitary confinement is the most used form of punishment for those who are not stable enough to be housed with general population. With this knowledge, it is best to keep using solitary confinement as a form of punishment in the criminal justice system rather than abolishing it. Solitary confinement is one of the most common debates currently in the system. Many people believe that this form of punishment is harmful and does not rehabilitate offenders. Numerous individuals also believe that this is the best form of punishment for those who cannot be with general population because it is a necessity and provides protection for the inmate and correctional officers. It has not been empirically proven whether this form of punishment is effective, but

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 has been a practice, dating all the way back to 1787 with the idea that when inmates would be left alone in silence, they would show regret and become more remorseful. In 2005, the sentence still thrived with nearly 82,000 men and women were in solitary confinement in federal adult prisons with the title of “restricted housing.” This statistic doesn’t even include jails or immigration facilities. In the ‘70s and ‘80s, the rate of confinement for juveniles skyrocketed to the point where we define that time as an epidemic. In that time, there became definitions of a “super predator,” defining it as teenagers who are fatherless, Godless, and jobless and don’t have anything better to do than to terrorize their community. In