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Reforming our prison systems in america
Reforming our prison systems in america
Solitary confinement effects on mental health essay
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Solitary confinement brings up empirical questions and moral and ethical concerns. Certain types of inmates are at a higher risk of trying to eliminate the idea of putting them in solitary confinement. However, on the other hand, for other types of inmates depending on the serious of the act committed, there's no other option of solitary confinement.
Solitary confinement brings a high cost of building facilities and also running these units. All staff must be regularly trained on how the facility must function, but also trained on the housing policies. The idea of solitary confinement isn't that inmates are thrown into a room segregated from the rest of the population and activities. “An inmate initial and ongoing placement is restrictive
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The purpose is to punish the inmate for a violation committed, but also to assist the inmate to reduce recidivism. An example of this is also assisting the inmate in medical assistance and having mental health professionals. After reading, we realized that restrictive housing is coming to an end for juveniles. Isolating juveniles and putting them behind a steel door for 22 hours a day, isolated from everything, causes extreme physical, psychological, and developmental harm. These kids are still growing and their brain is still developing, this doesn't bring any benefits, but simply just more harm on them. Instead of creating more harm on an individual, there should be investments on getting more professionals that can make a social bond with juveniles and work on leading them in the right direction. Another population that shouldn't be in restrictive housing are the people with serious mental health issues. For some mentally ill inmates, it's difficult to function in the prison population. This means that this population of individuals shouldn't end up in prisons. Prision will just lead them to get involved in altercations with the rest of the population and will end up in solitary confinement. Solitary confinement for mentally ill just makes their
Yet, solitary confinement is still considered necessary in order to maintain control within the prison and among inmates. Solitary confinement is seen as an effective method in protecting specific prisoners and altering violent/aggressive disobedient behaviors, (Maria A. Luise, Solitary Confinement: Legal and Psychological Considerations, 15 New Eng. J. on Crim. & Civ. Confinement 301, 324 (1989) p. 301). There is some discrepancy among researchers as to the varying effects on inmates who have undergone an extensive solitary confinement stay. Most researchers find that inmates who had no previous form of mental illness suffer far less than those who do, yet most if not all of these individuals still experience some difficulties with concentration and memory, agitation, irritability, and will have issues tolerating external stimuli, (Stuart Grassian, Psychiatric Effects of Solitary Confinement, 22 Wash. U. J. L. & Pol’y 325 (2006) p. 332). Although these detrimental psychiatric repercussions of solitary confinement currently appear, several researches have made suggestions as to how these may be avoided. These requirements being that
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 an article by NPR.org the reason for most solitary confinement units in America “is to control the prison gangs (NPR, 2011).” Sometimes putting a gang member in solitary confinement reduces the effect that confinement is supposed to have when the confined inmate starts losing their mind. 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 or she is in prison and why they are being punished is gone, there is no reason to keep said prisoner in solitary confinement. Once your ability to understand punishment is gone the consequences of your actions lose value and become irrelevant.
Solitary confinement treats prisoners like animals by locking them in a secluded cell by themselves. Many of the prisoners may develop psychological disorders due to being isolated with no human interactions. Many taxpayers pay for the amount of time they stay in solitary confinement. The conditions of the confinement can be harsh and brutal to many of the inmates. What if you were put in solitary confinement with these conditions, would you want others to experience the life that other inmates have gone
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 system.
There have been many arguments about why solitary confinement is necessary. The other option to solitary confinement would be to create a system of rehabilitation, this system would be more progressive and nurturing, this would guide the juveniles to a more positive and stable environment. And a lot of the punishment systems seem to be shifting away from the punitive juvenile solitary confinement. Here are some fundamental comparisons from that survey, “21 jurisdictions prohibit the use of punitive solitary confinement in juvenile facilities by law or practice.
...t in solitary confinement because they cannot handle the isolation. When a human being is confined to a small, windowless room in complete isolation from other human beings, the results can only be negative. Communication is key to survival, people feed off of each other to survive. Furthermore, when a human being is deprived of communication and is forced to be alone, it is an unknown experience to them. Nothing in life can prepare someone for this sick excuse of a punishment- the degree of isolation that one is expected to endure in solitary confinement is inhumane. Young people are a lot more vulnerable than adults; therefore the physical and mental effects of isolation take a greater toll on adolescents than on adults. It is not only unlawful but also implacable to place any human being, much less an adolescent, through such a ruthless form of ‘discipline’.
The negative effects of the long-term use of solitary confinement in prisons has been under the spot light for years, and has been considered to be broken. The maltreatment of prisoners is a constant
By doing things, we learn who we are and we learn our worth as a person. The two things solitary confinement does are make people solitary and idle” (Sifferlin, Alexandra). Isolation and confinement remove prisoners’ ability to perform significant tasks and act as a part of society.
Supporters of solitary confinement believe that Inmates that propose extreme dangers to prison staff and other inmates must be removed and placed in solitary condiment for their protection and sometimes the inmate themselves. Therefore, many would argue that when left alone in solitary confinement, it allows inmates to engage in self-reflection. Furthermore, many supporters of Solitary believe that disciplinary segregation is needed and has proven to keep stability in correctional institutions. Solitary confinement does solve the issue of physical violence and allows for personal reflection. While this argument is popular, solitary confinement causes extreme psychological consequences on inmates. When placed in solitary confinement inmates begin to lose sight to what real and mentally brake down over time. While held in solitary confinement for long periods of time prisoners experience hallucinations, extreme anxiety, amnesia, and violent impulse behavior. In 1997, a study done by the Human Rights Watch shows that 5% of the overall prison population in America has suffered some kind of psychotic illness due to extreme isolation. While Solitary confinement might try to bring down aggressive behavior, studies show that it actually causes greater
Therefore, in the bigger picture, the social construction of this widespread stigma, that criminals are not real people, has lead to the keepings of solitary confinement within the prison system. This then forces these prisoners within the American prison system to go through these psychiatric syndromes, suicidal thoughts, and overall, a more dangerous and a more unbearable life. Many may think it is not as bad as it seems, but the exact opposite. Solitary confinement can and will have extremely detrimental psychological and social effects on any human being, no matter who you are.
Solitary confinement does not help challenging prisoners in the long run. Solitary confinement actually has the potential to cause inmates to lose their ability to control and manage their anger. If an inmate continues to be violent, the result is a longer time in solitary confinement. Solitary confinement is inhumane and should be called torture. Putting and keeping an individual in solitary confinement puts them at a very serious risk of developing a mental illness, which may not be recoverable. Solitary confinement causes many effects that range in severity; it is not something that inmates should be subjected to
More studies need to be done to see if the likelihood of mental illness increases in prisoners who have been in solitary. Studies also need to look at inmates who suffer from mental illnesses before solitary confinement and see if solitary confinement makes their symptoms worse or even their mental illness as a whole worse.
We believe solitary confinement is not cruel and unusual punishment. It is not cruel because when they do a crime they did to get punished for it. When they go to prison they should not be aloud to contact family and no fun. If they do a terribly crime they should have harsher prison conditions. However the other team believes it is cruel and unusual punishment.
“Between 80,000 and 81,000 prisoners are in some form of solitary confinement nationwide.” Solitary confinement is the isolation of a prisoner from any form of human contact. Once used as a punishment, it is now used as forever disciplining prisoners, separating prisoners during ongoing investigations, forcing people to cooperate during interrogations, and even separating prisoners from threats within the prison. Within the two articles, “The Science of Solitary Confinement,” by Joseph Stromberg, and “Solitary Confinement May Not Be Psychologically Harmful,” by Joan Arehart- Treichel, the two sides opposing and agreeing with the use of solitary confinement are shown. According to the research done by highly trusted scientists, I believe that solitary confinement is not an effective form of punishment for prisoners because of the physical and psychological effects found in studies.
Solitary confinements are a prison within prisons, that isolates inmates from the rest of the world. Solitary confinement was originally founded by the Quakers and Anglicans in the early 1800s, in Philadelphia. The purpose of solitary confinement when the Quakers and Anglicans first created it, was to give the inmates the opportunity to get the chance to find Christ (Biggs 2017). Now the purpose of solitary confinement is to serve as punishment for criminals that are killers or cause a problem within the prison. Inmates in solitary confinement sit in a cell that is 80 square feet for 22-23 hours a day, with 1 hour of free time without human contact (Breslow 2014). One side believes solitary confinement is a good and a easy way to protect society