Essay On Solitary Confinement

The United States is home to half of the world’s total imprisoned population (BBC News). In the nineteenth century, solitary confinement was thought to promote reform in prisoners. However, modern research suggests that locking a human being in a jail cell the size of a handicap bathroom stall for more than 22 hours a day does more harm than good. In spite of these scientific discoveries, prisons in the United States continue to use solitary confinement as a method of incarceration. Due to the negative impact prolonged solitude has on the human mind, solitary confinement should be outlawed as a form of torture.

Over 80,000 inmates in the United States are in Solitary Confinement as said by the Bureua of Justice Statistics (“Solitary Confinement Facts”). Because the federal government doesn’t keep count of the number if inmates in Solitary Confinement, there is no more recent data. However, solitary confinement is a form of punishment used all over the country. Solitary confinement is used as a punishment for the most “dangerous” criminals, but is the right way to approach the problem? Sarah Jo Pender, a woman who experienced solitary confinement in the Indiana Women’s Prison writes, Women who enter sane will become so depressed that they shut down or hurt themselves.

A recent PET survey showed that only 18% of offenders felt supported by prison officers in their learning. One third of prison courses are not completed, half of which are a direct result of the release or transfer of prisoners, wasting an estimated £30m annually. Around two thirds of those who do have a job lose it whilst in custody. 1 in 14 prisoners participate in an activity to help other prisoners, eg. the Samaritan

Once released from prison, one is labeled a felon, often denied employment because of their status, and therefore typically unable to secure work and money. This then negatively affects all aspects of the person’s life, including their finances, transportation, lodging, health, and even family. Statistics show that a family is 40 percent more likely to live in destitution while the father figure is imprisoned. And children whose guardians are imprisoned are more likely to experience (Johnson, 2009). The purpose of this study is to understand the behaviors of released felons as they re-enter society and analyze their psychological behaviors as well.

Private prisons tend not to house costlier inmates, due to the higher cost of supervising them. Scott Merryman states that, from 1990 to 1995, the overwhelming numbers of inmates in private facilities were classified as minimum-security, and this condition is still relevant today. Public prisons consist of twenty percent maximum-security inmates compared to the five percent in private prisons. Also, public prisons have thirty-five percent of their inmates in minimum-security, while the private prisons have sixty-five percent of their inmates in minimum-security. There are states that have private prisons that choose not to have any high maximum-security inmates at all.

Solitary confinement has been used in the United States prisons for more than one hundred years. Recently, the use of solitary confinement has become a large issue in whether it is constitutional. Many people believe that solitary confinement will cause mental illness in the inmates. This paper examines the research that have been conducted to see if solitary confinement will cause mental illness symptoms in the inmates. The studies include inmates throughout the United States, in jails and prisons with all different backgrounds, but mostly focuses on male inmates.

While the military maybe a riskier job there are great benefits for it.

While the military maybe a riskier job there are great benefits for it.

“ The Sounds of Silence” by Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel presents a deep understanding and meaning of the topic that people lack the ability to communicate. Peoples thoughts are ordered by the media and forget about the true meaning of their own voices. Simon and Garfunkel represent this through the use of figurative language and poetic techniques which served really well to their song. Darkness is sometimes described as a depressive state to those who can't confide in no one and are all alone.

Fining homeless does not have a positive effect on the community and often homeless end up in jail because of it. If you are homeless it is most likely because you couldn’t afford necessities like food or shelter. By allowing fines to be put on homeless you are setting them up for failure. Also if homeless get sent to jail because of a fine they know have criminal records.

”(www.hrw.org) Consequently, when evaluating the evidence that is present it is safe to say, that despite all of the efforts that are put forth every day to protect our youth, some people still have the potential to prey on those whom cannot defend themselves. The Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act of 2006 has afforded the public with ammunition to fire back at those who prey on the vulnerable. Therefore, the foundation has been laid, for the public to build upon and grow with the knowledge that we are able to obtain to keep our children safe. Furthermore, we cannot solely rely on law enforcement, and others to keep our children safe we have to be proactive within the

Just like children are taught to read and write, prisoners must be taught something other than atrocity. Property offenders were the most likely to be rearrested, with 82.1 percent of released property offenders arrested for a new crime ( ). Why are minor crime offenders committing serious crimes even after their consequence? The obtainment of the knowledge necessary to transform the perspective of the criminal into one that has no lust for crime could alter the continuous growth in the incarnation rates in

Using the taxpayer’s money to keep a prisoner in a special system is not good for anyone. The death penalty is not good at deterring criminals, unlike having life in prison. California should change their death penalty system to cut the billions of dollars going to keep prisoners on death row.  Works Cited “End the death penalty in California.”

“ We are not moving nearly fast enough to reduce incarceration… Over 2 million Americans live caged… a 550 percent increase in the last 40 years. ” Most of the people in the world are in jail. Therefore , incarceration is not lowering due to people being imprisoned on a daily basis. Half of the people in the world commit very bad crimes , which lead them to be imprisoned.

(Michelle Alexander, 2010:58) The three strikes law targeted the communities affluent with minority groups. At the turn of the 21st century the majority that entered the prison system were African Americans and Latinos. (Michelle Alexander, 2010) The reason behind mass incarceration was due to the crack down on the deteriorating communities where the majority of minorities lived. Authors Scott Ehlers, Vincent Schiraldi and Jason Ziedenberg of Still Striking Out: Ten Years of California’s Three Strikes (2004) report that African Americans in prison because of the three strike law is higher per every 100,000 African American than Whites and Latinos in California. (U.S. Census Bureau