Sleep Deprivation And Interrogation

I assessed that the use of sleep deprivation is not a useful interrogation tool with regards to intelligence gathering. Sleep deprivation should not be used as an interrogation technique due to the fact that torture as an interrogation technique leads to false confessions and sleep deprivation specifically can lead to memory loss and confusion, also leading to false confessions whether or not the subject realizes it. There is also the ethical debate regarding torture being used at all as an interrogation technique during the “Global War on Terrorism”, and the limitation of constitutional rights of those subjects.

The US Government should not be able to limit constitutional rights because they are in fact rights, if they were to be limited

Fenn, who conducted the research at Michigan State University, stated the following, “This is the first direct evidence that sleep deprivation increases the likelihood that a person will falsely confess to wrongdoing that never occurred,” said Fenn. “It’s a crucial first step toward understanding the role of sleep deprivation in false confessions and, in turn, raises complex questions about the use of sleep deprivation in the interrogation of innocent and guilty suspects.” Sleep deprivation was employed routinely and was seen as a key tool in many ‘enhanced’ interrogations. Many of these techniques overlap with other interrogation procedures—the use of stress positions, and in particular shackling a standing detainee with his hands in front of his body, this causes the subject to be unable to balance and support himself. In some cases of interrogations the shackles that their hands are in have an attached chain that the interrogator can yank if the subject begins to fall asleep. Among the most infamous was the use of loud music and white noise, sometimes played for 24 hours a day on short loops. The cells where the detainees were held were also reportedly kept deliberately cold to prevent detainees from falling asleep. The CIA was authorized to keep a detainee awake for up to 180 hours about a week, but told the Justice Department it only kept three detainees awake for 96 hours at the maximum. The Michigan State University study proved that cognitive impairment, impaired moral judgement, and decreased reaction time and accuracy are all caused by sleep deprivation which can lead to false confessions and having the individual say whatever they deem necessary for the torture to