After reading “The Cost of Solitary Confinement,” I agree that the use of solitary confinement should be abolished in prison. Before the reading, I have never heard of such a thing as solitary confinement. Once I started reading the story, I immediately thought this was a foul in wrong thing to be doing, and was flabbergasted that it was even existed in our prisons today. There are many different reasons that I agree with this, but I'm only going to be focusing on if you of them. First off, if none of you are familiar with solitary confinement is, I'll give you a little run down.…
As more inmates are found guilty and are given prison sentences the prison system has to focus on separating special needs offenders. This separation is necessary to insure safety and balance within the facility. The special needs population can affect both the state and federal level of incarceration because they must gather accurate date. Putting offenders with different needs together can lead to violence issues among inmates. There is also an increase possibility of mental and emotion strain on all ready unstable prisoners…
The United States prison system is notorious for the way it treats its inmates. There are so many theories, and facts to back up the claim that the prison system is not working the way it was intended to be, and it continues to be a growing issue that the government is not addressing. Further, within the already complicated prison system, there is another issue. Solitary confinement, which was originally supposed to be used as a short term punishment within prisons, or jails, has now become an integrated part of prison life (Edge, 2014). Solitary Nation, is 2014 documentary highlights the damages that solitary confinement is doing to people (Edge, 2014). Individuals whom have not shown any signs of degrading mental health come out of segregation, or as the inmates call it, “seg,” disturbed (Edge, 2014).…
Most people understand what solitary confinement from films or television shows that revolve around a prison. The prisoner is sent to a cell where they have zero human interaction, unless it is with the prison guards escorting the prisoner for vital human needs such as eating, which is also done alone. It is a punishment for the inmates that have been deemed unsafe to have around the normal population of the prison, or have done something wrong that caused the prison to send them to solitary to punish the prisoner for what they have done. I was originally someone who believed something such as this may seem simple enough to understand and was a humane way of dealing with a problematic prisoner, when in reality, it is much more traumatic for…
When you think about what has changed between now and the 1800’s there are endless possibilities to mention. Most of the time however these changes have been for the better. When you come across something that hasn’t changed much one can’t help but wonder why. The similarities between institutionalism now and in the 1800’s are eerily similar. “In the 1830’s jail was an all purpose solution for a lot of issues” (Campbell, 2014). Intentional or not I still feel like this is still the case. The people in prison who are confined in solitary either have mental issues, which caused them to end up in solitary confinement, or they made a bad decision causing them to end up in solitary. Whatever the primary mental state of the prisoner, the majority…
In the 1890s, social divisions in America were at their lowest wages. The Industrial Revolution happened before labor laws. Children as young as eight were working fourteen hour shifts in factories. Wages decreased until unions appeared. There were three different class divisions; the rich class, the middle class, and the poor class.…
The 1930s were a period of confusion Isolation. The first World War left Americans feeling distraught; not wanting to experience a number of lives lost again. World War I, in the beginning, stimulated growth in the economy for a short term. At the end of the war, the growth was short-lived as it was built upon the same conditions that brought about the Great Depression. The cost of losing more lives and the cost of going to war became too risky for Americans. It seemed better to focus on themselves then the problems of other countries. With the coming of the second World War, the U.S. wanted to remain isolationist, but the current president, Roosevelt felt otherwise. The relationship between Germany, Japan, and the United States became even…
During the 1800’s, America had multiple relationships with other countries during that century. For instance, they had many problems with Spain, which led them to have to create the Pinckney’s Treaty. The reason that the were forced to due so was that originally, Spain was cutting off the US right to use the Mississippi river and deposit crops in New Orleans. The US was forced to take action, which ultimately enabled them to getting access to the Mississippi river and the port to New Orleans was opened once again.…
In 1796, George Washington wrote out the newly formed script for American foreign policy. He cautioned the United States to stay clear of entangling alliances with the hawkish European powers. In 1823, this isolationist tendency was reaffirmed with the Monroe Doctrine which warned the Europeans against establishing any new colonies or encroaching on the interests of any sovereign state in the Western Hemisphere. In kind, the United States would stay out of the old world. But this seemingly complete disregard for world politics did not mean that the United States had no territorial ambitions of its own. On the contrary, for the latter half of the 19th century, the U.S. continued to expand. With the Louisiana…
Once upon a time, Whites and Blacks didn’t see each others race until after World War I. One white man said they all seemed like they belonged and that they all seemed like they were family in North Omaha. After World War I ended the men that were enlisted had to return home which made the whites have to compete with the blacks for jobs. The government spending on arms was reducing. This is when race became such a big problem in the United States. The whites began getting nervous because they were struggling to find jobs and they would take their anger out on the african americans.…
This third of the prison population that was placed in solitary confinement, one day may be released into society and asked to be socialized, when they were never rehabilitated, but rather segregated. The correctional facility is furthering the damage to inmate’s that are already psychologically unstable and furthering dissocializing these inmates, then releasing them. We would not even put animals in a situation where they would be isolated from others, because we understand the importance of socializing, but we do it to inmates and define it as humane and are confused why recidivism is so high. Solitary confinement without rehabilitation will lead to more issues, rather than solutions. Caging what society defines as animals, then isolating…
I read the story “The Bet”, during my research I found an article called “The wrong box: our prisons' use of solitary confinement is inhumane.” Although, the sceneries are different the outcome is the same. “In truth, modern solitary confinement drains more than life: It drains away the self” (Heffernan & Wood, 2015). On the one hand, a young lawyer willing to bet his freedom, and on the other hand jails where solitary confinement is used as punishment and even to protect vulnerable prisoners. The bottom line is that solitary confinement has devastating consequences to the human psyche and society (Heffernan & Wood, 2015, p.…
The inmates in solitary confinement are denied of their basic needs. According to “10 Brutal Realities of Living in Solitary Confinement” Solitary Confinement is very unsanitary and inhumane. They are denied basic needs like from showers and medical attention The guards are not following their end of the law. These inmates are treated like slaves because they made one big or small in their lives. This is the final reason to why solitary confinement is cruel and unusual…
The standard that courts must use to decide if segregation is unconstitutional is if it violates our eighth amendment. Courts have found that inmates placed in solitary have the right to adequate personal hygiene, exercise, mattresses, ventilation, and rules specifying how they can earn their release. I don’t think that segregating inmates within a prison based upon their ethnic background or race is a good idea because that’s just a form of discrimination. Just because someone may be a different color than the rest does not mean that they should instantly be separated. With that said, we should not use different prisons for different ethnic groups or races to avoid cultural or racial violence. We’ve come a long way from the 60’s and we should…
References: Miller, H. A., Young, G.R. (1997). Prison Segregation: administrative detention remedy or mental health problem? Criminal Behavior and Mental Health, 7, 85-94.…