Solitary Confinement In Prison

“I found solitary confinement the most forbidding aspect of prison life. There is no end and no beginning; there is only one’s mind, which can begin to play tricks. Was that a dream or did it really happen? One begins to question everything.” Nelson Mandela spent twenty-seven years in prison, and close to six of those years were spent in solitary confinement. His first hand experience brings to light how truly torturous solitary confinement is. Despite how awful being locked in a stone box by yourself is, between 80,000 and 100,000 men and women are in solitary confinement at any given point in the United States (Bassett). Solitary confinement is the most heinous form of torture a human can endure, and should be discontinued in United States prisons. Solitary confinement began in 1826 when Easter State Penitentiary in Pennsylvania, also known as Cherry Hill, opened (Bassett). All prisoners that were held in Cherry Hill were kept in cells for twenty-three hours a day with no other human contact. It was thought that prisoners could be “an instrument of his own punishment” (Bassett). The only time the prisoners were allowed out of their cells is if they are wearing a hood during an exercise period, or to shower. The exercise period was held in a “dog run” or “man-cage”. The area was about the same size as the cell and contained no exercise …show more content…
He had spent 1,500 days in solitary confinement (Patriquin). The lights were on twenty-four hours a day, so he never knew when to sleep, or for how long to sleep. Capay was only allowed in the yard once or twice a month to exercise. He even went as far as to engage in self-harm (Patriquin). There were lacerations on his wrists, puncture wounds in his scalp, and he bashed his head into a wall (Patriquin). No human should have to go through so much insanity that they turn to physically injuring themselves just as a release of