...When correction officials talk about solitary confinement, they describe it as a prison within a prison, and for a good reason. Solitary confinement is a form of imprisonment which isolates an inmate from any human contact. It is often used as a form of punishment for a violation of prison regulations. However, as Dana Liebelson depicts in her article, solitary confinement is detrimental to juvenile inmates. In the article, “This is What Happens When We Lock Children in Solitary Confinement”, by Dana Liebelson, she describes the horrific psychological damage solitary confinement has on youth in correctional facilities. “This is What Happens When We Lock Children in Solitary Confinement” brings to light the negative effects solitary confinement has on youth in juvenile correctional facilities. Liebelson writes about individual cases of children who have experienced isolation in correctional facilities. In each case, juveniles claimed isolation changed them for the worse. They emphasized not only the short term effects it had on their health, mind, and behavior, but also the long term effects that isolation caused as well. In one case, a seventeen year old boy named Kenny...
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...Abstract This paper discussed the topic of the effects of solitary confinement mainly in regards to Supermax prisons, but prisons of different levels as well. Also, the articles used to complete this paper converse about the legal issues with solitary confinement pertaining to the effects it has on inmates, isolated in units that are used to keep someone from interacting with anything or anyone outside of the walls, otherwise known as Communication Management Units (CMUs) or Secure housing Units (SHUs). CMUs contain a high degree of surveillance of the inmates. The articles also include the introduction and reintroduction of solitary confinement within a century’s time, and cases that were brought to trial challenging violations to the...
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...rights, they should still get the equal treatment like everyone else. A solitary confinement cell is the size of a handicap bathroom and they only get to leave a few times a week for a short amount of time to either shower or workout. Solitary confinement can cause prisoners to develop severe mental issue from being isolated from society. There has been many cases of people suffering for mental issues caused by solitary confinement. Solitary confinement can cause prisoners to act very violently, even more than what they are. Solitary confinement can also cause prisoners to have suicidal thoughts. Solitary confinement is the isolation of a prisoner in a separate cell as a punishment. Solitary confinement was made to be a harsh treatment for prisoners. Lawyers have disapproved it and call it a cruel punishment that has been banned by the Eighth Amendment. Prisoners would be held in there for twenty-two to...
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...On Solitary Confinement An Exploration Of An Age-Old Method of Punishment Solitary confinement is defined as the isolation of inmates and limiting their human contact in prison. From its birth in the late 1700s to its more widespread usage in recent history, solitary confinement has grown to be a considerable tool in the arsenal of the United States prison system’s methods of controlling its enormous prison population, shown by an increase in the construction of “Supermax” prisons, maximum-security prisons with units specifically designated to isolate inmates. With solitary confinement’s recent uptick in usage throughout the United States on both the federal and state level, questions have arisen about its implementation, its effects on the prison population, and its ethical implications. With it becoming apparent that solitary confinement will continue to play a large role in the United States correction system in the future, it is important to explore the answers to these questions. In this essay, we will explore these questions in order to understand solitary confinement more fully. History Defined fully as, “…confinement of a prisoner alone in a cell for all or nearly all of the day, with minimal environmental stimulation and minimal opportunity for social interaction,” (trauma of psychological torture 113) solitary confinement strives to eliminate the stimulus of senses such as sight, touch, and hearing, with the elimination of stimulus and social interaction...
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...point of prison, and in more specific, solitary confinement, is rehabilitation it becomes very clear that there is a cost involved in keeping inmates incarcerated, and these costs befall the tax payers. It’s costly enough to house one inmate in a regular prison, but even more so when the inmate is in solitary confinement. With reports by the Bureau of Justice, the prison population is already at nearly a staggering two million. Out of those two million, over eighty-thousand are in solitary and the costs quickly add up (Adkins 210). Furthermore, these figures don’t include criminals in jails or juvenile correction facilities, so the cost is even greater (“Key Statistics: Prisoners”). It’s been reported by NPR, in an article titled...
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...The use of solitary confinement is widely used in American is knownove internationally as a form torturement. This form of punishment is increasely common in the United States since it was introduced in the “supermax” prison system which begin in the mid-1980’s. (ICCPR Treaty Summary 2012). Prisoners are kept in a small, windowless cell for 22 to 24 hours a day, with minimal contact with family, guards, even lawyers. The number of prisoners currently in solitary confinement is estimated to be around 80,000 through the number is continuing to grow faster than the overall prison population, meaning that this is coming a normal thing for prisons. Many people will say that the first experiment of solitary confinement in the United States began...
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...In the beginning of the story, the reader learns that the narrator suffers from “nervous depression.” This type of mental illness is incredibly dangerous when left untreated. The narrator’s only source of attempted treatment is from her husband, John, who is a physician. He tells her that she is to stay home all day and that she must not have a lot of contact with the outside world. The narrator’s only other interactions are with her sister-in-law, Jennie. One side-effect of nervous depression is severe excitement over small occurrences. By the end of the story, the narrator is absolutely sure that she can see a woman protruding through the wall. This causes her to become even more excited, and with no one she trusts to tell of what she thinks...
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...Journal for Critical Animal Studies, Volume 10, Issue 2, 2012 (ISSN1948-352X) Beyond Dehumanization: A Post-Humanist Critique of Solitary Confinement Lisa Guenther Abstract What does it mean to be treated like a nonhuman animal? In this paper, I analyze the discourse of “dehumanization” in Madrid v Gomez, a 1995 Eighth Amendment case concerning the treatment of prisoners at California’s Pelican Bay Supermax Penitentiary. I argue that the language of dehumanization fails to describe the harm of solitary confinement because it remains complicit with a hierarchical opposition between human and nonhuman animal that rebounds against prisoners, especially those who have been racialized and/or sexualized as less than human. Humanist discourse neglects the sense in which both human and nonhuman animals are affective, corporeal beings who rely upon the support of others for their own capacity to orient themselves within a mutually-perceived world. Drawing on the testimony of inmates in solitary confinement, and situating this testimony in relation to the political and scientific history of US incarceration practices, I develop a post-humanist critique of solitary confinement. Keywords: Solitary confinement, sensory deprivation, intercorporeal Malebranche would not have beaten a stone as he beat his dog, saying that the dog didn’t suffer. Merleau-Ponty, Nature, 166 Certain carceral practices are often condemned – both by prisoners and by their legal or political advocates –...
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...Juveniles and Solitary Confinement Imagine being sent to solitary confinement at age 16, just for stealing a backpack; force for two years to endure violence by the guards sworn to protect you, pushing your mental and physical limits to the edge. What might seem like a horror movie is a true account for Kalief Browder, who after attending many years of rehab to deal with the trauma of being locked for 23 hours a day, committed suicide at the young of 22 (Obama, 2016). Because of juvenile incarceration, a boy was sent to the path of mental destruction. The horrific repercussion of these kind of detentions can have decades of negative effects on a teen, and should be ban in all states of this free country. Punitive segregation prison is a devastating place for adolescence, it has been link to mental illnesses like depression, PTSD, and schizophrenia. Minors in and out of prison are more likely to commit suicide and harmful acts to themselves even after being released. The U.S. Department of Justice has called prolonged juvenile isolation “cruel” and “unusual punishment” (YORK, 2014). With that in mind what will happen if we present the cruel act to a developing brain? “Even at the age of 16 the brain is still developing,” said National Institute of Mental Health (Nat). Stress afflicted to teens during this precious time causes mental problems (Nat). The vicious abuse in prison makes teens develop differently; mentally and physically setting setback for them in all course of...
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...social isolation is all bad” (Bond, “How Extreme Isolation Warps the Mind”). Overall, isolation has several negative impacts on the human mind and body. Extreme isolation can affect someone in three distinct ways: physically, mentally, and socially. Isolation can be caused either by yourself or by others. Isolation is being separated from others by one of the three following circumstances: living in a remote area, a perception of being removed from a community, or being held captive in a room. The main type of isolation is called social isolation which is the absence of social relationship and is typically considered very unhealthy if the time being spent alone becomes excessive. Another distinct type of isolation is called emotional isolation which can result from social isolation and is when people keep feelings completely to themselves. Physical health is very important to live a healthy, long life but in many cases of extreme isolation physical health is negatively affected. Bond states that “we’ve known for a while that isolation is physically bad for us. Loneliness interferes with a whole range of everyday functioning, such as sleep patterns, attention, and logical and verbal reasoning” (Bond). In the early 1940’s, a young girl named Anna received minimal to no care, living in an attic like room for the first six years of her life which had major negative physical implications. Kingsley Davis, an author for The American Journal of Sociology, states that “at the...
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...Ashely Smith was only 19 years old when she hung herself in solitary confinement in Grand Valley Institution for Women in 2007. Smith was being supervised by prison guards at this time who were given orders not to intervene even though they saw Ms. Smith attempting to commit suicide. After her successful attempt, Ms. Smith was the headline of many major news stations, all of which painted Ms. Smith to be a “troubled” and “disturbed” young woman. This paper will discuss how the labelling theory causes stereotypes that are deeply rooted into our history and maintained today through mass media. I will be using this theory to show how one’s basic human rights can be stripped and justified by Canadian Law in the name of security. I will be using...
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...personnel begin to elope into. I won’t deny seeing my co-workers become friendlier with certain inmates than others. I won’t even deny that my co-workers snuck stuff like porno magazines and cigarettes in here beneath their jacket to give to certain inmates either. Respect however, goes a long way here in California State Penitentiary, regardless whether it’s right or corrupt. I think that this is the biggest issue in this prison, the abuse of our legitimate power. Most of us are able to come into work and do our jobs respectively; we get a new inmate, we process him or her, get him or her clothed and secure their belongings, and then it’s off to whatever assigned cell he or she has. If the inmate has questions or requires assistance, that’s what we’re here for; given the inmate hasn’t had a track record of misconducts. Most of us, including myself, enjoy our jobs here; those that see it my way, feel that we’re doing a service to our community, straightening out the lives of the people here behind bars. Diaz, a fellow officer of mine whom I’ve known for at least 3 months is an experienced vet at this detainment facility. Last week, a prisoner was sent to the Special Housing Unit after we found cigarettes under his bunk mattress. He was one of our more violent inmates, a self-proclaimed leader of a white supremacy gang. He claims that Officer Diaz was the one smuggling them in, and because Officer Diaz wasn’t satisfied with amount of money the inmate was wiring to him, him...
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...Rockies" (Marcus). Before entering ADX, Powers had no history or symptoms of mental illness, but since being installed there, he has become deranged and has engaged in numerous acts of self-mutilation, including biting off his finger, and trying to kill himself on several occasions (“Reports on and from”). To give people an idea of why a previously sane person would lapse into madness at ADX, they would need look no further than the circumstances of their confinement. ADX was designed to ensure the total isolation of all its prisoners, who are held in cells about the size of an average bathroom. The cells have thick, concrete soundproof walls, a door with bars and a second door made of solid steel. The only possible means of communicating with other humans is to yell into the toilet bowl and hope that someone may hear. The inmates are kept in their cells twenty four hours of the day for two days each week (“Inside the World’s”). On the other five days, they may get to spend approximately one hour in a similarly-sized cage for what is referred to as "outdoor" recreation. By its own policy, the Bureau of Prisons (BOP) excludes the mentally ill from ADX, but it seems that many prisoners with mental illness end up there because of a deficient screening process and some who were...
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...preparation of another scientific work. Creswell further notes… “ this literature review passage should summarize large groups of studies instead of individual ones”( Creswell, 2009, p.104). Rhodes, A.L. Total Confinement: Madness and Reason in the Maximum Security Prison (2004) is a book written by Dr. Lorna Rhodes. Her study explores, examines, and recognizes what life is like inside confined walls of solitary units inside prisons. Her study provides not only the image of solitary confinement- but the sense of loss and liberty of humanity when an offender is faced with long periods of extensive isolation from all; but those who feed you (correctional officers). Dr. Rhodes- explores and discusses the challenges that are faced both by the front-line-staff and offenders. Such as, psychological, emotional, and physiological changes- and provides her academic perspective with a scientific response. Rationale for Selection There are a lot of research currently available in-regards to isolation of offenders, and the biological effects on human body, mind, and perceptions. This study is valuable to my research even though the findings are not as scientific as I would have hoped; nevertheless, it provides circumstantial evidence that supports the harmful and toxic effects of segregation on offenders, health care providers, and the front-line-staff. Her portrayal and descriptive encounters with all that are involved in her ethnographic study holds true- as I am presently integrated...
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...that 80% of inmates with serious phycological distress were sexually assaulted by another inmate more than once (Beck et al., 2013). One survivor of sexual abuse in prison is quoted in Just Detention International (2013) saying, 'There’s no therapy for rape victims in prison. The prison system is incompetent to handle the mentally ill, and in fact causes the mental illness that it should be treating.' Another pain faced by prisoners is the loss of free will and autonomy. Sykes (1958) suggests that although some inmates may welcome the strict regime as a way of keeping themselves in check, many inmates express intense hostility towards the rules. Haney (2003) argues that the failure to terminate their isolation at will has negative psychological effects on prisoners. Crewe (2015) found that inmates felt the prison officers had all the...
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