Crime, Law, and Society

In our textbook, Criminal Justice in America, solitary confinement or separate confinement is defined as a penitentiary system in which each inmate is held in isolation from other inmates, and all activities take place within the cells. In 1787, the Philadelphia Society for Alleviating the Miseries of Public Prisons was formed by Quakers after they became inspired by John Howard, an English Sherriff who had written about the horrible conditions in prisons he had visited. This society argued that criminals could be reformed if they were placed in penitentiaries and isolated from society and from one another, so that they could reflect on their crimes and repent. Soon after forming, the Pennsylvania legislature authorized the building of a penitentiary based on the system of separate confinement. It was believed that solitary confinement would prevent further corruption from inside prisons, it would allow offenders to reflect on their crimes, it would be an irritating punishment because humans are naturally social, and it would be economical because it would not take long for the reformation process to affect the criminal. In 1834, another Pennsylvanian prison based on this system was subject to outside investigations that detailed negative effects of separate confinement; prisoners were not reforming, physical punishments were being used as discipline, and the extended isolation resulted in many prisoners having mental breakdowns.
After watching the frontline documentary “Solitary Nation”, I think it that solitary confinement should only be used in situations where an inmate has committed a serious infraction. There are an estimated 80,000 inmates across the United States in solitary confinement. Todd Thicket, who is in prison for arson, is a good example of why it is wrong to segregate criminals for preforming mild to moderate infractions. There is one instance where Todd had made a suicide attempt and officers were unable to offer immediate medical aid until