Locked Up: The Effects of Solitary Confinement Lindley Russell
Solitary confinement is a destructive practice that is commonly overused in United States prisons. In today’s society, solitary confinement is often abused and transformed from an adequate form of punishment to a cruel and unusual act of violence and violation of one’s rights. “There are many ways to destroy a person, but one of the simplest and most devastating is through prolonged solitary confinement.” Prisoners in solitary confinement are often subject to incredibly harsh conditions that deteriorate their mental and physical condition resulting in a sort of “social death” (Guenther 253). The practice of solitary confinement as it is executed today is a practice that is in need of major reform.
Roughly 200 years ago, solitary confinement was first introduced in the United States in Philadelphia at the Eastern State Penitentiary. The logic behind this confinement was that if prisoners were left alone in a cell with only a Bible in their possession, they would use that quiet time to “repent, pray and find introspection.” However, many of these first inmates went insane or committed suicide (Sullivan). Today, there are supermax prisons, “mechanized panopticons that isolate tens of thousands, sometimes for decades.” The United States built their first supermax prison, Pelican Bay, in 1989. In these high-security prisons, “all prisoners are held in high levels of confinement in cells designed to restrict visual and tactile contact with others, typically for long periods” (Cloud 19). The United States incarcerates more people than any other nation with a shocking number of 2.3 million prisoners. The United States also subjects more prisoners to solitary confinement than any other nation. Of the 2.3 million prisoners in the United States, data suggests that 84,000 prisoners endure the harsh conditions of solitary confinement (Cloud 18). To clarify, solitary confinement is the practice of isolating a person in a cell for twenty-two to twenty-four hours per day with little to no human contact or interaction” (Richmond 2). These 84,000 prisoners are in solitary confinement for multiple reasons: either they violated the rules, are thought to pose a safety risk, or are being protected from the general prison population.
Recently, solitary confinement has acquired a negative connotation and has come to be seen as inhumane and detrimental. A movement for reform has recently began to grow and become a hot topic for debate. This reform seeks to replace this harsh correctional tactic with “models based on rehabilitation and restorative justice” (Cloud 18). It is important to understand why this reform has been brought about. Criminals should be punished, right? Solitary confinement can be detrimental to a prisoner’s health, both physically and mentally. To understand the need for reform, it is helpful to know what a typical cell is like. Cloud explained that the living conditions in solitary confinement are physically unhealthy, extremely stressful, and psychologically traumatizing." A typical cell for solitary confinement is approximately 60 to 80 square feet and consists of a cot, a toilet, a sink, a small slit for a window, and sometimes a small desk. Often times, the only other source of real life besides their so-called “window” is a small slot in the steel door through which food is delivered. Besides the window and food slot, prisoners in solitary confinement are exposed to very little natural light. Bright, fluorescent lights flood the cells, even during the night. These “living tombs” are extremely silent, almost deafening (Guenther xii). However, some prisoners are subject to just the opposite: a ceaseless clamor of “clanking metal doors, jingling keys, booted footsteps, and distressed voices reverberating off thick walls.” It is common for prisoners to receive one to five hours outside of the cell once a week. During this time, prisoners can engage in recreational activities or shower while cuffed and shackled at the waist. There is almost no human interaction and no treatment making them essentially unfit to return to the general prison or society (Cloud 20). Because prisoners in solitary confinement rarely have any contact with other humans, their “socially constructed identity” is destroyed causing prisoners to lose the ability to control themselves. This can often prohibit them from reentering society, an effect that is permanent (Richmond 4). Prisoners in solitary confinement are also placed under strict constraints on visitation and the access to books, TV, and other property is prohibited (Richmond 2). It is easy to see why solitary confinement is detrimental to a prisoner's health, both mentally and physically. Furthermore, some injuries caused by solitary confinement are irreversible and will last a lifetime.
It a common myth that prisoners in solitary confinement are “incorrigibly violent, dangerous people.” However, many prisoners in solitary confinement do not need to be held in isolation and separated from the general prison population (Cloud 20). Solitary confinement, in fact, is often used as a “commonplace disciplinary tool, deployed and withdrawn at the discretion of prison and jail management” (Richmond 1). It is a very unfair system in which adolescents and mentally ill prisoners, who are especially sensitive to the damaging effects of confinement, are often subject to solitary confinement for arbitrary reasons. For example, adolescents are often subject to solitary confinement to protect them from the older prisoners or because of a minor disciplinary violation. Those who are mentally ill face the same type of treatment. It is estimated that roughly 30% of prisoners in solitary confinement suffer from some sort of mental illness (Knowles 893). Although they are sensitive to the detrimental effects of confinement, they are continually placed in it for minor infractions, for their protection, or to control them. In addition to this, prisoners who are homosexual, bisexual, transgender, pregnant, or diseased are placed in solitary confinement “solely because of their identity or medical condition.” Lastly, there are tens of thousands of prisoners who are suspected to be affiliated with gangs to be placed in solitary confinement. These suspicions are often arbitrary as well. Suspicion of gang affiliation can be based on tattoos, known associates, and possessions that suggest involvement in a gang (Cloud 20). The method used by prisons to decide if a prisoner is in need of solitary confinement is unjust and often discriminatory. It is a component of solitary confinement that desperately needs to be ameliorated.
The devastating effects of solitary confinement do not subside when a prisoner is released. To help understand the lasting effects of solitary confinement, one can look at the case of Sam Mandez, a man that was sentenced to life in prison at nineteen for a murder he supposedly committed when he was fourteen. After a short time in prison, Mandez was placed in solitary confinement for a few minor violations (making a three-way phone call and trying to open a bathroom door that was locked). Before Mandez was placed in solitary confinement, he was a mentally and physically healthy young man. However, after over sixteen years of solitary confinement, Mandez has been “variously diagnosed with schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder, and major depressive disorder with psychotic features.” Mandez continually hears the voice of a girl telling him to hurt himself, he thinks that he joined the Green Berets when he was twelve years old, and he has lost twenty percent of his body weight and has tried to commit suicide three times. Although it was clear that solitary confinement was deteriorating Mandez’s mental state, he was not released because he did not exhibit the correct behavior and did not comply. He simply could not exhibit the appropriate behavior “because [his] mental illness prevented him from conforming his behavior” and, therefore, he was “trapped in a vicious cycle that he could not escape” (Knowles 894). The case of Sam Mandez is just one of many cases.
There have been many movements towards the reformation and reduction of solitary confinement. The Eighth Amendment’s barring of cruel and unusual punishment is often used in the fight against solitary confinement. The Supreme Court has not directly addressed this issue of violation yet but “most federal courts that have considered the issue have held that indefinite isolation is not cruel and unusual” (Knowles 897). The State of Maine has set an example for others with their reformation of solitary confinement. Beginning in 2011, the Maine Department of Corrections (MDOC) has worked to reform solitary confinement. The MDOC has worked to send fewer people into solitary confinement, to shorten the time of solitary confinement for prisoners who are sent into solitary confinement, and to better the conditions of solitary confinement. The MDOC has also worked to provide prisoners in solitary confinement with “a clear path, based on achievable goals, for earning their way out of solitary” (Heiden 12). Maine has started this race and the rest of the United States of America must finish it by improving the conditions of solitary confinement in the prisons. Since Maine’s kickstart, there has been an act proposed to aid in eliminating extreme isolation longer than fifteen days and help create safe and humane alternatives. This groundbreaking act, The Humane Alternatives to Long-Term (HALT) Solitary Confinement Act, was proposed by advocates, victims, and families of victims. The promotion of this act is a step in the right direction towards the complete reformation of solitary confinement (NY State Senate).
It is obvious that prisoners must pay the price for their actions “but justice demands that we extract these payments only within the limits of our Constitution and accepted standards of human decency” (Richmond 1). The practice of solitary confinement is unjust and ruinous to the lives of prisoners. It is crucial that solitary confinement is abolished in the way that it is utilized today in order for the United States to remain a country that honors justice for all.
Works Cited
Cloud, DH, et al. "Public Health and Solitary Confinement in the United States." American Journal of Public Health 105.1 (2015): 18-26. Web.
Guenther, Lisa. Solitary Confinement: Social Death and its Afterlives. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2013. Web.
Heiden, Zachary. Change Is Possible: A Case Study of Solitary Confinement Reform In Maine. Rep. American Civil Liberties Union of Maine, Mar. 2013. Web. 19 Mar. 2016.
Knowles, Jessica. “‘The Shameful Wall of Exclusion’: How Solitary Confinement for Inmates with Mental Illness Violates the Americans with Disabilities Act." Washington Law Review 90.2 (2015): 893. Web.
NY State Senate Bill S2659, S. S2659, 30th Cong. (2015). Print.
Richmond, Cedric. "Toward a More Constitutional Approach to Solitary Confinement: The Case for Reform." Harvard Journal on Legislation 52.1 (2015): 1-16. Web.
Sullivan, Laura. "Timeline: Solitary Confinement in U.S. Prisons." NPR. NPR, 26 July 2006. Web. 19 Mar. 2016.