Is Solitary Confinement an Effective Method of Punishment?
For many years, solitary confinement has been a topic of controversy. The method of removing certain prisoners from the world for a certain amount of time raises some questions. Is it safer for other prisoners? Does it cause more harm to the mind? Questions like these are debated still today. Some argue whether keeping prisoners separated from the world is in their best interests. One might think that the practice of solitary confinement is the work of moral ambiguity. According to U.S. District Judge Thelton Henderson, he states the conditions in Californian Bay State Prison, “Hover on the edge of what is humanly tolerable.” (Reiter 4). Prisons across the country in states …show more content…
This can take a mental toll on the prisoners. In 2015, a 22-year old named Kalief Browder committed suicide after multiple attempts. He was sentenced to two years in solitary confinement. His interview with CNN in 2013 showed the emotional trauma he experienced while there, stating, “Prior to going to jail, I never had any mental illness.”(6). The effects can be aggressive as well as depressive. In 2013, Evan Abel, a prisoner at the Colorado Department of Corrections, killed his correctional officer Tom Clements after being released from solitary confinement. After Clement’s death, his successor had this to say about Evan: “Whatever solitary confinement did to him, it was not for the better.” …show more content…
But isolation does not mean the same thing as rehabilitation. In most prisons, inmates are allowed one hour outside of their cells for exercise. For adolescents, a teacher and social worker is supposed to visit every day and talk to them through the door, but most inmates don’t receive the help due to a lack of social workers, Demartini states (16). Without any help, people in solitary confinement can be just as dangerous after their release, or worse off than they were before. According to the Justice Department, 67% of all felons who are released from state prisons commit new crimes within three years. While there have been no national studies on the rate from prisoners in solitary, anecdotal evidence suggests the rate is higher among other felons (Johnson
For many years, solitary confinement has been a topic of controversy. The method of removing certain prisoners from the world for a certain amount of time raises some questions. Is it safer for other prisoners? Does it cause more harm to the mind? Questions like these are debated still today. Some argue whether keeping prisoners separated from the world is in their best interests. One might think that the practice of solitary confinement is the work of moral ambiguity. According to U.S. District Judge Thelton Henderson, he states the conditions in Californian Bay State Prison, “Hover on the edge of what is humanly tolerable.” (Reiter 4). Prisons across the country in states …show more content…
This can take a mental toll on the prisoners. In 2015, a 22-year old named Kalief Browder committed suicide after multiple attempts. He was sentenced to two years in solitary confinement. His interview with CNN in 2013 showed the emotional trauma he experienced while there, stating, “Prior to going to jail, I never had any mental illness.”(6). The effects can be aggressive as well as depressive. In 2013, Evan Abel, a prisoner at the Colorado Department of Corrections, killed his correctional officer Tom Clements after being released from solitary confinement. After Clement’s death, his successor had this to say about Evan: “Whatever solitary confinement did to him, it was not for the better.” …show more content…
But isolation does not mean the same thing as rehabilitation. In most prisons, inmates are allowed one hour outside of their cells for exercise. For adolescents, a teacher and social worker is supposed to visit every day and talk to them through the door, but most inmates don’t receive the help due to a lack of social workers, Demartini states (16). Without any help, people in solitary confinement can be just as dangerous after their release, or worse off than they were before. According to the Justice Department, 67% of all felons who are released from state prisons commit new crimes within three years. While there have been no national studies on the rate from prisoners in solitary, anecdotal evidence suggests the rate is higher among other felons (Johnson