Banishing Solitary Confinement Analysis

Juvenile Justice: Mental Health and Solitary Confinement Kalief Browder was only sixteen years old when he was taken to the precinct in New York for allegedly stealing a backpack. He was detained on Rikers Island hoping to eventual return home soon. Little did Kalief know that he would not be returning home anytime soon. Instead of being home, he was often times kept in solitary confinement. Solitary confinement is likely to increase mental health issues such as anxiety, paranoia, and depression and ultimately cause individuals to have suicidal ideations. Not only does Solitary Confinement increase mental illness, but also it is unconstitutional due to the fact it violates human decency and rights. While some Institutions are limiting or eliminating

675). In fact, “an estimated 80,000 inmates are kept in solitary confinement in the United States” (Castillo, 2015, pp. 1273-1274). After Browder was arrested and sent to Rikers, “while waiting for a trail that never happened, Browder spent nearly two years in solitary confinement” (Puckett, 2016, pp. 66). Solitary Confinement is used in most prison facilities such as Rikers in an attempted to protect inmates from other inmates when in an uncontrollable fight occur, to prevent inmates from harming themselves or others and to punish inmates when correctional rules has been violated. Some of these violations include getting in to petty altercations with a correctional officer or other staff

“The most inexperience officers also work in the most explosive environments with impulsive adolescents who may have mental and behavior issues” (Johnson, 2014, pp. 58). With inexperience officers, it could be likely that they unethically place juveniles in confinement. Some of the unethical reasons why some juveniles may be placed in confinement are because youth may disagree to “get down with the system.” What this mean is that some officers may be into contraband, and ask inmates to assist. Some inmates may resist or refuse. Therefore, if they are not down with this system, they are against it. When you are against the system, they have to be prepared for the consequences they will have to face. Furthermore, officers are not held accountable for their unethical decisions. “There are insufficient reporting of use of force due to a code of silence, lack of consequences for infractions, lack of a grievance policy for inmates, insufficient supervision of inmates and staff members and lack of professionalism” (Johnson, 2014, pp. 57). Officers are just not being held accountable for wrongly putting juveniles in confinement. Let alone, they are not being investigated for any misconduct. Furthermore, “the rare times DOC staff members are found to have used force inappropriately; they are nonetheless insufficiently disciplined” (Johnson, 2014, pp.