Solitary Confinement Psychological Effects

In the United States state and federal prisons there are currently as many as 100,000 inmates being held in solitary confinement (Bravin, 2015), an outstanding number considering the U.S. has known since the late 1800’s the severity of the long-term psychological effects it can have on an inmate (Keramet, 2012, p. 72). Studies have shown that long-term solitary confinement can lead to a multitude of psychiatric disorders. The disorders devolved as a direct result of solitary confinement can be so disabling that it makes it next to impossible for inmates to function once released back into society. The psychological effects of long-term solitary confinement does a magnitude of more damage than it does to rehabilitate the prisoners, leaving some …show more content…
Studies and papers can be found as far back as the 1700s and as recent as 2015. In all of these studies and paper done over the last 300 years, the evidence overwhelmingly concludes that solitary confinement is destructive to the psyche. Humans are highly social animals who need frequent interaction to determine what is real or not (Arrigo, B., & Bersot, H., 2015, pp.175-197) and when left in a small white room with no form of social interaction or mental stimulation of any kind, inmates will start to lose touch with reality. Inmates will start to hallucinate and/or hear things that are not really there as their brain attempt to create its own stimulation. The inmates are so deprived of social interaction they no longer have the skills to determine whether what they are seeing or hearing is real or not. The lack of social interaction and stimulation causes a number of other negative symptoms and disorders, including anxiety, rage, panic, and hypersensitivity (Haney, C., 2003, p.130), disorders that tear apart and ruin the psyche. The psychological effects of solitary confinement is paramount to torture and should not be allowed to …show more content…
Studies have shown that, when socially isolated or even being told of future isolation, people’s cognitive abilities start to decline, cutting their correct answers to mathematical and verbal reasoning nearly in half (Baumeister, R., Twenge, J., & Nuss, C., 2002, pp. 817-827). There are some who will say a decline in cogitation is side effect that is worth risking in order to keep people safe, but the vast majority of people making these claims are under the assumption that all inmates in solitary confinement are violent. “However, in reality, most convicts secure housing (SHU) units are not incorrigibly violent. Prisoners are often placed in the SHU because they accumulated a number of nonviolent disciplinary infractions” (Arrigo, B., & Bersot, H., 2015, pp.175-197). The idea that someone’s intelligence can be ruined by committing a minor nonviolent infraction is repulsive and should not be allowed to