The American Penal System

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Recommended: The effects of prisoner in solitary confinement

Imagine living your life inside of an enclosed, seven by twelve foot, concrete cell. The only access you have to outside world is the small slot in the door used for delivering medication and food, and a tiny window, used by the guards to make sure you are alive and breathing. The fact that they even have to check if you are alive should be a red flag to society. You are here for twenty three hours a day with only one hour of “recreation” outside of this cell. This time can be used to shower, workout or make a phone call, but you are still isolated. You are here locked up for weeks, months, or maybe even years. Throughout this whole time, you are left alone with no meaningful activity; just yourself and your thoughts, which can eventually drive you mad. This is solitary confinement. According to the Washington Post's “The Torture of Solitude,” “The United States holds the highest number of prisoners in solitary confinement of any democratic nation...” This is what approximately 80,000 prisoners across America have to suffer through. This is what the rest of the United States population should consider immoral. Solitary confinement was first introduced as a “humane alternative to hanging almost two hundred years ago” (ABS News). Yet there is nothing humane about it. The American Penal System needs to ban long term solitary confinement because it is unnecessary, inhumane, and ineffective.
Many sentences of solitary confinement are unnecessary because many prisoners do not deserve such a harsh punishment. Deciding to place a criminal in solitary should be a last resort. Prison is a good enough punishment for people who have committed petty crimes. It is unnecessary for them to be placed in solitary, if they are not a danger to th...

... middle of paper ...

... so they can eventually learn from their wrongs. They are eventually going to be integrated back into society, so we should help them become better people.

Works Cited
ABC News. "Solitary Confinement: No Way Out of the Monster Factory." YouTube. YouTube, 20 Sept. 2012. Web. 28 Oct. 2013.
Curtis, Abigail. "Is Solitary Confinement Torture?: Proposed Bill would Place Limits on use of Solitary Confinement in State Prison." McClatchy - Tribune Business News. Oct 24 2009. ProQuest. Web. 28 Oct. 2013 .
National Geographic Society. “Explorer: Solitary Confinement.” National Geographic Channel. Web Video. 22 Nov. 2013.
"NYCLU Report Exposes Inhumane, Arbitrary use of Solitary Confinement in NY State Prisons." Targeted News Service. Oct 02 2012. ProQuest. Web. 28 Oct. 2013.
"The Torture of Solitude." Washington Post. 2 July 2012. Academic OneFile. Web. 28 Oct. 2013.

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