Solitary Confinement can be defined as being the physical isolation of individuals who are confined to their cells for twenty-two to twenty-four hours a day. Within countless jurisdictions, prisoners are allowed out of their cells for only one hour of solitary exercise. Prisoners are only subjected to routine visits from members of the prison staff, while meaningful contact with other people is typically reduced to the bare minimum. This reduction in stimuli is not only on the grounds of quantitative but also qualitative. As the available stimuli and the occasional social contacts are seldom being freely chosen, are generally monotonous, and are not often not empathetic. Solitary confinement is usually granted as a
…show more content…
The study was carried out by Charles Dickens who was at height of literary fame at that time. From his observation, he described solitary confinement as “slow and daily tampering with the mysteries of the brain to be immeasurably worse than any torture of the body.” It was reported that almost every inmate that was confined to their cell demonstrated signs of a mental breakdown. The effects observed were harsh enough to abandon the practice for over a hundred years until it was used again in Alcatraz prison in the year 1934. Without any form of stimulation, the brain plunges into a dangerous downward spiral. Stuart Grassin interviewed hundreds of prisoners to uncover their accounts of solitary confinement. He found that 1 in 3 inmates in isolation was actively psychotic or suicidal, from his study he concluded that isolation resulted in hypersensitivity, obsessive behavior, concentration problems, paranoia, and hallucinations. One of the inmates observed developed an obsession with the inability to feel like his bladder was full or empty, and spent hours a day standing in front the toilette trying to urinate but could not do anything but focus on that particular
The study was carried out by Charles Dickens who was at height of literary fame at that time. From his observation, he described solitary confinement as “slow and daily tampering with the mysteries of the brain to be immeasurably worse than any torture of the body.” It was reported that almost every inmate that was confined to their cell demonstrated signs of a mental breakdown. The effects observed were harsh enough to abandon the practice for over a hundred years until it was used again in Alcatraz prison in the year 1934. Without any form of stimulation, the brain plunges into a dangerous downward spiral. Stuart Grassin interviewed hundreds of prisoners to uncover their accounts of solitary confinement. He found that 1 in 3 inmates in isolation was actively psychotic or suicidal, from his study he concluded that isolation resulted in hypersensitivity, obsessive behavior, concentration problems, paranoia, and hallucinations. One of the inmates observed developed an obsession with the inability to feel like his bladder was full or empty, and spent hours a day standing in front the toilette trying to urinate but could not do anything but focus on that particular