Stephen C. Richards, an ex-convict who served time in nine federal prisons before earning his PhD in criminology, argues the supermax prison era began in 1983 at USP Marion in southern Illinois, where the first “control units” were built by the Federal Bureau of Prisons. The Marion Experiment, written from a convict criminology perspective, offers an introduction to long-term solitary confinement and supermax prisons, followed by a series of first-person accounts by prisoners—some of whom are scholars—previously or currently incarcerated in high-security facilities, including some of the roughest prisons in the western world. According to Richards, the act of holding children in solitary confinement has been a fundamental component in the process…
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.…
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).…
Solitary confinement needs to be eradicated not only because it changes peoples’ brains but also because it has an indelible effect on a person’s “whole person”, their essence. Hard Rock’s treatment, which is now illegal, is no different than modern day prisoners’ treatment. Both treatments yield the same thing: distortion of the mind and in severe cases, a disabling of it. Simply, these inhumane acts detract a significant amount of humanity from a person. It takes away dignity and self-awareness in some cases. It plagues the youngest, troubled, testosterone- fueled inmates with senescence. This is beyond cruelty, this passes into the realm of evil, exorbitant torture. Why is torture acceptable in today’s society? Is the government really…
The Stanford Prison Experiment had several important implications. One of which derives from average males that were so drastically affected under the burdens of being placed in a confinement setting. When these outcomes are correlated to the much more long- term and harshness of a real prison, you can only imagine the adverse effects on the real criminals serving jail…
The article “The cruel and unusual phenomenology of solitary confinement” by Shaun Gallagher provides vital information to understanding the issues of solitary confinement by looking at the phenomenology. The article looks at the phenomenology and psychology of solitary confinement to use in legal issues. It starts of speaking of the cruelty of this punishment and how many legal declarations prohibit cruel punishment, even within the constitution as it states “cruel and unusual punishments [shall not be] inflicted.” Gallagher has an issue with this statement as he says “From the beginning, however, the wording was thought “too indefinite,” or “to have no meaning in it.” It is still difficult to find a clear definition of “cruel” in the legal domain.” He is saying that the definition of cruel punishment lacks any sort of definition to it, as it is purely opinion based, this means there is no true way to determine what is a “cruel” punishment and what is not. After this, Gallagher begins to speak about the concepts of Phenomenology, which is the focus of this article. He defines Phenomenology as this “ Even in its classical form, emphasizes the constitutive nature of intersubjectivity” He follows this explaining many of the main concepts of Phenomenological…
Solitary confinement has been called into question as violating of the Eighth Amendment of the Constitution. The Eighth Amendment guarantee the protect from any cruel and unusual punishment. On Febuarary 24, 2012, a Russian immigrant named Viktor Bout challenged the use of solitary confinement during his time in Metropolitan Correctional Center (MCC). Bout was convicted on 2 November 2011, for conspiracy of attempting to smuggle arms to the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) to kill U.S. citizens and delivery of anti-aircraft missiles. Once Bout was convicted he was held in solitary confinement for fourteen months. Judge Scheindlin (2012) ruled that,…
Many prisoners, after being put into solitary confinement, seem to lose hope that anything will ever be fine again. Jason breslow records the statements of one Harry Harlow as he says, “‘most subjects typically assume a hunched position in a corner of the bottom of the apparatus. One might presume at this point that they find their situation to be hopeless.’ Harlow also found that monkeys kept in isolation wound up ‘profoundly disturbed, given to staring blankly and rocking in place for long periods, circling their cages repetitively, and mutilating themselves,’” in reference to many subjects he observed.…
Prison experiences are shared by those who spent much time behind the bars and most of the experiences shared exemplify how cruel the prison system really was showing that no rehabilitation was occurring due to an excess in punishment. The Los Angeles Times published an article, “Cruel and Usual Punishment in Jails and Prisons,” in which ex-prisoners were interviewed and shared stories of their time in prison, many of which showed how corrupt prisons have truly become. The stories described prisons as appalling and cruel, one prisoner describe being handcuffed every day to his bunk while he had to remain only in his underwear, another prisoner described how it was to live in a cell located directly under broken toilet pipes for weeks resulting…
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…
On January 26, 2016 Former president Barak Obama took actions against solitary confinement against juvenile. He announces that he will revoke solitary confinement against juvenile and such acts will be banned. He emphasizes that low level infraction and mentally ill prisoner are spending excessive amount of time in solitary confinement and this does not bring any good impact on the individuals but long lasting psychological problems. He states “How can we subject prisoner’s confinement, knowing its effects, and then expect them to return to our community as a whole people.” Former president Obama call upon the case of young 22-year-old Kaleif, who spend approximately 2 years of solitary confinement at the age of 16 years old for accusingly…
When in solitary confinement the inmates are more likely to have depression or violent urges which causes them to try to commit suicide which hurts them whether or not they…
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…
Built in 1829, the first solitary confinement prison was the Eastern State Penitentiary in Philadelphia. It was inspired by Quaker philosophy: penitence and reform through isolation. The idea was to put people back in touch with their own true self to incite a natural process of self-reformation. They would be in their cell, with a view of the sky, as if to be in touch with God. In its time, Eastern State Penitentiary was the most technologically advanced prison in the world. As time passed, problems started presenting themselves. Instead of being reformed, many inmates were physiologically ravaged. Some were completely withdrawn, and others displayed increasingly violent behavior. Statistical evidence showed that the rates of suicide, death, and disturbances were so high that eventually the system fell apart. In 1913, solitary confinement was widely regarded as ineffective and was abandoned in most places around the world. (Solitary Confinement) Today, the United States is one of the few countries in the world that still employs long term solitary confinement in correctional institutions. (Solitary…
One big problem that I find with solitary confinement is that it the inmates in there are getting some kind of social reinforcement. The social reinforcement that they are getting is not the positive kind either. The inmates are cutting themselves to get attention from the prison staff while they are in solitary confinement. This is not healthy for them or for the staff, with all the blood that is coming from the inmates has the possibility of spreading disease. These inmates are learning that acting out or threatening to kill themselves ore others they will get attention from the prison staff this is not a good thing to be getting reinforcement from.…