Did you know that approximately 80,000 people are being held in solitary confinement in the
United States right now, and that these 80,000 people come only from the 38 states that still utilize solitary confinement in their prison systems? If the goal of prison really is rehabilitation, the inmates should be helped, not harmed. Solitary confinement is inhumane treatment and therefore, it should be abolished.
For those of you who don’t know much about solitary confinement, here is some background: not all states still incorporate solitary confinement into their prison systems, but in
Massachusetts, inmates can be sentenced to solitary confinement for up to 10 years, where they are only allowed 5 hours a week of outdoor recreation. Heinous criminals …show more content…
Solitary confinement should be abolished because it causes inmates to develop mental illnesses.
Many studies have been done looking into the psychological effect of solitary confinement and
Sandra Schank, a staff psychiatrist at a California prison, summarizes their results the best, saying, "It's a standard psychiatric concept, if you put people in isolation, they will go insane...
Most people in isolation fall apart."
In one particular study, 20 prisoners volunteered to be put into solitary confinement for a week and their resulting EEG scans were indicative of increased stress, tension, and anxiety after only one week in these conditions. Following this study more research was done, finding that prisoners in solitary confinement engage in self-mutilating behaviors at a higher incidence rate than the general prison population. As if that wasn't enough, prisoners in solitary confinement also develop psychopathologies at rates higher than the general prison population.
Some people have made the argument that stress, tension, and anxiety aren't necessarily that big of a deal and that people are in solitary confinement may be naturally more predisposed to …show more content…
For those prisoners that already have some sort of mental illness before being sentenced to solitary confinement, their signs and symptoms worsen. For years, clinicians have been stating that placing inmates with serious mental conditions in solitary confinement is pointless. Many it's time we finally listened to them.
This also results in a terrible cycle where mentally troubled inmates enter solitary confinement, build up anger as a result of their isolation, and then eventually lash out, causing them to receive an extended solitary confinement sentence. In extreme cases, this cycle eventually drives inmates to commit suicide.
Some people may be of the attitude, "Well who cares? If these people did something bad enough to end up in solitary confinement, they deserve whatever they get." While this is a fair point, it is important to know that the general public is affected by the solitary confinement treatment because inmates leave as more of a hindrance to society than when they first entered.
According to one study in particular, there is a much higher rate of inmates in
United States right now, and that these 80,000 people come only from the 38 states that still utilize solitary confinement in their prison systems? If the goal of prison really is rehabilitation, the inmates should be helped, not harmed. Solitary confinement is inhumane treatment and therefore, it should be abolished.
For those of you who don’t know much about solitary confinement, here is some background: not all states still incorporate solitary confinement into their prison systems, but in
Massachusetts, inmates can be sentenced to solitary confinement for up to 10 years, where they are only allowed 5 hours a week of outdoor recreation. Heinous criminals …show more content…
Solitary confinement should be abolished because it causes inmates to develop mental illnesses.
Many studies have been done looking into the psychological effect of solitary confinement and
Sandra Schank, a staff psychiatrist at a California prison, summarizes their results the best, saying, "It's a standard psychiatric concept, if you put people in isolation, they will go insane...
Most people in isolation fall apart."
In one particular study, 20 prisoners volunteered to be put into solitary confinement for a week and their resulting EEG scans were indicative of increased stress, tension, and anxiety after only one week in these conditions. Following this study more research was done, finding that prisoners in solitary confinement engage in self-mutilating behaviors at a higher incidence rate than the general prison population. As if that wasn't enough, prisoners in solitary confinement also develop psychopathologies at rates higher than the general prison population.
Some people have made the argument that stress, tension, and anxiety aren't necessarily that big of a deal and that people are in solitary confinement may be naturally more predisposed to …show more content…
For those prisoners that already have some sort of mental illness before being sentenced to solitary confinement, their signs and symptoms worsen. For years, clinicians have been stating that placing inmates with serious mental conditions in solitary confinement is pointless. Many it's time we finally listened to them.
This also results in a terrible cycle where mentally troubled inmates enter solitary confinement, build up anger as a result of their isolation, and then eventually lash out, causing them to receive an extended solitary confinement sentence. In extreme cases, this cycle eventually drives inmates to commit suicide.
Some people may be of the attitude, "Well who cares? If these people did something bad enough to end up in solitary confinement, they deserve whatever they get." While this is a fair point, it is important to know that the general public is affected by the solitary confinement treatment because inmates leave as more of a hindrance to society than when they first entered.
According to one study in particular, there is a much higher rate of inmates in