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. Here are some reason why it could be cruel. There were examples of inmates being beaten and tortured. Solitary confinement sometimes causes brain damage. When they get beaten so much they brain cells tend to die and sooner or later the brain will die and the whole body will die. When they are beaten it may cause post-traumatic stress disorder which messes with their brains. If they have post-traumatic stress disorder they have trouble sleeping because their brain is damaged. Summary Speech Our argument is that solitary confinement is cruel and unusual. …show more content…
They are their so that they can get help. When the prisoners get out of hand and want to kill someone or kill themselves there is a therapist there to help. The therapist tries to calm them down. The therapist also helps them when they have post traumatic stress disorder. With this disorder they may have trouble sleeping. When they have trouble sleeping they start getting bad thoughts. When they have thoughts maybe they think about suicide and try to kill themselves. My last contention is solitary confinement is not cruel, cruel is being hung by your hands or something like that. Solitary confinement is where you go if you do something bad not just to be took there and get killed. Solitary confinement helps you they have therapist there that try and help you. I getting into the therapist one and I already stated that one so we are not going to get into that. Cruel is suffering in pain and someone is torturing you. Solitary confinement is a form of being took to
Believe it or not solitary confinement has been around for generations. Exiles and banishments were the very first forms of solitary, but of course the standards for exile and banishment are a bit more extreme. These sentencing were punishments for those who commit crimes and or brought shame or dishonor to a group or family. Generally if exiled or banished one was not allowed to return until proving themselves worthy of being accept it once more. As decades passed developments to solitary were made. At one point criminals were placed in dark and dirty underground holes, these methods were known as "uncontrolled" solitary. The first "controlled" solitary attempt in America was in 1829 at the Eastern State Penitentiary in Philadelphia. It is on a Quaker believe that prisoners isolated in stone cells with only a Bible would use the time to repent, pray and find introspection (Sullivan). Current solitary confinement rooms are basic, well-lit, sterile boxes. Uncontrolled and controlled solitary
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
...sist either an inmate or a fellow jailer when they need help. Safety is a priority. Psychiatrists are there to diagnose and treat the inmates as best as possible. They are a big part of the facility. Furthermore, there are politics in this jail just like any other jail. Not every unit or floor has politics, but if the floor or unit does, then inmates have to follow it or they will get beat up by the rest of the inmates. Inmates like homosexuals and child molesters get special housing because the system knows that if they are left with the general population of inmates then they will be vulnerable. Last but not least, the cylinder type design of the jail is very convenient to keep a look at all the inmates from the control room. The objective is took be able to have an eye on all inmates all the time; therefore, achieving control and safety over the facility.
Many people have tried to stop the use of solitary confinement by calling it “Cruel and Unusual Punishment. (Holt vs. Sarver, 1969).” People also say that it is a direct violation of our eighth amendment rights. The definition of cruel and unusual punishment is as follows: “Such punishment as would amount to torture or barbarity, any cruel and degrading punishment not known to the Common Law, or any fine, penalty, confinement, or treatment that is so disproportionate to the offense as to shock the moral sense of the community. (Farflex Inc., 2011).” Studies show that solitary confinement can alter the mental state of a prisoner so far that it is detrimental to his or her health; I see no reason why this cannot be classified as cruel and unusual punishment. In an experiment conducted by the BBC’s Horizon group, they studied the effects ...
Solitary Confinement is a type of isolation in prison which a prisoner is segregated from the general population of the prison and any human contact besides the prison employees. These prisons are separated from the general population to protect others and themselves from hurting anyone in the prison. These prisoners are deprived of social interaction, treatments, psychologist, family visits, education, job training, work, religious programming and many other services prisoners might need during the sentence of their imprisonment. There are roughly 80,000 prisoners in solitary confinement but 25,000 are in long term and supermax prisons. According to the Constitution, “The Eighth Amendment [...] prohibits the federal government from imposing excessive bail, excessive fines, or cruel and unusual punishment”(US Const. amend. VIII). Solitary confinement is suppose to be the last straw for inmates to be in. If they don 't follow it, they can be on death row. Taxpayers pay roughly $75,000 to $85,000 to keep prisoners in solitary confinement. That is 3 times higher than the normal prisons that taxpayers pay for them to be in prison. Solitary confinement was established in 1829 in Philadelphia for experimentation because officials believed it was a way for
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.
Solitary Confinement is the isolation of a prisoner in a separate cell as a punishment. Aside from the death penalty, confinement is the most extreme punishment that a prisoner can be sentenced to. Prisoners deserve to maintain their human rights while incarcerated just as much as any ordinary citizen in the United States. Solitary confinement is unconstitutional because it violates the fundamental rights of inmates by physically and socially isolating them, which potentially inflicts severe long-term damage on adolescents.
What do you consider to be cruel and unusual punishment? Most people when asked this question think of medieval torture devices, burning people alive, and hard slave labor. However, cruel and unusual punishment, which is a protected against right by the eighth amendment, stretches far beyond these cliches and is still occurring in modern society. The case Miller v. Alabama and a parallel case, Jackson v. Hobbs deals with such punishments and brings up the questions of what, in current times, is to be considered cruel and unusual punishment. Miller v. Alabama addresses with the debate that arose surrounding the mandatory sentence of life without parole for a juvenile when two boys, fourteen-year-old Evan Miller and sixteen-year-old Colby Smith,
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. There are many reasons for this.
Grounds (2004) contends that twelve of the men met criteria for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Their symptoms are directly related to specific threats of extreme violence. Victims gave examples which included nightmares of assaults that occurred while incarcerated and panic attacks in response to police sirens. In sixteen cases, other psychiatric disorders were evident. Ten of them suffered from a type of depressive disorders, five had features of a panic disorder, four had symptoms of paranoia, and three had acquired a dependence on drugs and/or alcohol. In addition, chronic sleeping problems, moodiness, and irritability were increased in all cases. Exonerated victims are often suddenly release which creates problems with adjustment. Their functioning of practical tasks, such as using ATM’s or crossing busy roads, mandated humiliating struggles with coping. Adaptation to new physical surroundings creates tension because of the change in predictable and ordered prison cell environment. Friends and family report confusion about the victim’s withdrawal and avoidance of social contact. These individuals have often lost their sense of purpose. They may have lost their family, homes, and most importantly- hope. Coping with lost time involves managing circumstances that occurred during incarceration such as deaths, weddings, relating to their children, and cultural changes.
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.
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
Not everyone loves the ideas of alternatives to prison because alternatives to prison seem to work only when there is a limited number of cases that adhere to the sentence, However, when places like California is spending more money on their prison systems than on actual education, alternatives to prison seem to be the best choice (David, 2006).
In an ordinary prison, many are at risk of being assaulted especially within weaker inmates. These prisoners who assault and frequently act out in violence, as well as prisoners who try to escape, “must be removed from the general population of the prison environment while they threaten any of those behaviors” (Riveland, 1999). While these prisoners are in the super-maximum security prison, they are not placed out of it until it is believed their threat level is low. Other inmates of supermax prions include: death row inmates, mentally-ill inmates, and inmates with HIV or other blood disease. These inmates are placed in supermax prisons to secure inmates from those who are likely to act out in rage, and to be sure the health of inmates is not at risk by getting HIV. Many see these reasons to be a necessary condition to place these inmates in a different and confined prison. However others see the supermax prisons as being a cruel punishment. When given this argument, many may agree that having prisoners, especially smaller and weaker inmates, around these violent offenders is dangerous. Would it be cruel and unusual to leave these inmates in a cell where they are at risk of being tortured by a mentally unstable or unfit cell mate? Many other might see that it is a fit punishment and it would prevent the abused inmates from becoming repeating offenders. Which would bring up the idea that these inmates
Some prisoners are claustrophobic; they can’t be in small tight places for example their prison cell. The prisoners were used to being on the streets doing whatever they felt they wanted to do; now they got to follow rules and do as they’re told. Inmates with life sentences have to stay in prison until they’re no longer alive, knowing that some even try to commit suicide. No one would like to be in prison for life, just thinking about can make everyone scared. Inmates serving life in prison are able to get special services, depending on their conduct. Inmates have double celled housing space for themselves, a person can get frustrated being small places and since the inmate is going to be there for life they want to at least let him feel good. The inmates also get employment opportunities, also depending in their conduct. They want the inmates to spend their time out of trouble and helping them get distracted can get them out of trouble. In some facilities the inmate can receive meals in their cells, in chow hall or in day room. Some facilities offer academic education; they offer adult basic education, GED, or special