Solitary Confinement Effect

Isolation of a human can affect a person in a multitude of ways. Isolation has the capability of effecting a person mentally and the ability to impact a person physically. Isolation of people occurs in different situations throughout life. These situations range from kids growing up who are considered to be "different", to a patient in a hospital, or maybe even a prisoner in jail. Isolation not only has the power to drive a person to insanity, but also the possibility of deteriorating a person's physical health. Isolation of a person effects a person's physical health. Study's show that lack of contact with other people reduces the production of myelin. Myelin is a protein that forms the protective sheath that insulates nerve fibers in the …show more content…
Solitary confinement used to only be used as a short term punishment, but now is regularly used as a way of disciplining prisoners. The prisoners are put into solitary confinement to separate them from perceived threats. It is estimated that between 80,000 and 81,000 prisoners are in some form of solitary confinement nationwide. It is commonly thought that most prisoners in solitary confinement are dangerous criminals. When in fact, a third of isolated prisoners are actually mentally ill. The solitary confinement cells are on average 80 square feet. This is a bit bigger then a king sized bed. Most prisoners who are in solitary confinement spend at least twenty three hours a day in the cell. On the rare occasion a prisoner may be allowed outside for an hour or less each day, but all are denied physical contact or visits from family or friends. As a result, a person may go years or even decades without physical contact with another human. Most of the prisoners develop severe psychological stress that started when they were put into isolation. The majority of those prisoners experience symptoms such as dizziness, heart palpitations, and severe depression. While 41% experience hallucinations and 27% had suicidal thoughts. Isolated prisoners are seven times more likely to hurt or kill themselves than prisoners who are not. Also, a large amount of brain activity is driven by circadian rhythms. These are in turn set by exposure to the sun. So a prisoner who is isolated and does not have exposure to the sun may become severely depressed for a long period of time. It is known that the the hippocampus has been found to significantly shrink in people who are depressed for long periods of time. This may become a problem because the hippocampus is involved in memory, geographic orientation, cognition and