The prison system of California has agreed to change the way in which it is decided that an inmate is kept in solitary confinement. This change could decrease the number of solitary confined inmates by more than half. Solitary confinement involves inmates having little to no human interaction for twenty-two hours or more. These hours are spent locked in a cell. In California, the state with the second largest prison population in the nation, the number of inmates currently in solitary confinement is 3,000. Due to an agreement made by their prison system that is slightly more liberal, solitary confinement cases in California are being reviewed, and a possible 1,800 of the 3,000 inmates are expected to leave solitary confinement. The others that
Craig Haney’s article Mental Health Issues in Long-Term Solitary and “Supermax” Confinement illustrates the complications faced in solitary confinement emphasizing the rise in mental health challenges imposed. Particular attention is paid to the escalation in the nature of mental health-related issues, including the negative psychological effects of imprisonment. Haney discusses these increasingly widespread and specialized units that bring forward the issues presented taking into account the notion of isolation and the association of the high percentage of prisoners suffering from mental illnesses. The article briefly assesses the recent case law concerning the difficulty of mentally ill prisoners, suggesting that the majority of broader psychological problems have been overlooked by the courts.
TO: Thomas R. Krane, P.h.D., Acting Director of Federal Bureau of Prisons FROM: Roger Rael, Graduate Student University of Colorado-Denver DATE: Tuesday, May 10, 2016 RE: Evaluating the consequences of continued super-max confinement I. Issue The issue is broad and national in scope. Whether the Federal Bureau of Prisons should continue supporting the use of super-max facilities is a matter of extreme societal and legal questions. Solitary confinement, for an extended or indefinite period of time, implicates constitutional rights and questions our morality as a society.
This article is based on imprisonment and the basic reality of American prisons is not that of the lock and key but that of the lock and clock, so it states. The scale and the brutality of the prisons are the moral scandal of American life. The United States is known to have the highest rate of incarceration per capital to other countries. Many people are trapped for many years in prison, sometimes even for life due to being caught with the procession of marijuana or for committing some brutal crimes. Just like the article stated, around fifty thousand men wake up every day to be found in solitary confinement.
Solitary confinement legal definition is referred as the act of being kept alone in a cell without any interaction with other prisoners (US Legal, n.d.). In the article “The Hole: Solitary Confinement” by Jack Abbot writes about a vivid real life description of the author’s incarceration in prison. Abbott account unfolds the hardship and the effects of solitary confinement on the human body and mind. In this enclosed space of a cell there is little room to maneuver, measuring ten feet long and seven feet wide. In addition, there is a bunk, toilet and sink combination which leaves only approximately seven feet long by three feet wide of walking space (Abbott, 2002).
The history of prison and incarceration in the United States have dramatically increased as well as the cost of keeping an inmate incarcerated. Every year, more and more prisons get overcrowded with mostly black and brown people with minor offenses. One of the main prisons is San Quentin State Prison which is the oldest and first prison ever opened in California. The prison first opened 166 years ago, on July 1852, at the northside of San Francisco Bay. It is able to hold 3,802 inmates.
How would I feel if I were in solitary confinement for 15 years? It is almost guaranteed to affect my physical, mental as well as my social health throughout the years. I will have no contact with other people, I will be fed poorly and unable to function as a normal human being. Solitary confinement for fifteen years would have negative affects on my physical, mental and social health.
The world will always have criminals, some of whom continue to be defiant towards humanity-these people will have to be punished, however, it is unambiguous that solitary confinement is an inhumane way of dealing with a difficult person. Now, what Hard Rock went through was horrid and the good news is nobody has to be tortured the way he was. The bad news is that people are continuing to be tortured with solitary confinement. The fact that solitary confinement is still legal is baffling.
After reading the article, I do agree that juveniles should be segregate from the adult prison for protection. However, I don 't agree with the solitary confinement and being restrained in small spaces. Most of these juvenile offenders have nonviolent criminal charges. Solitary confinement can cause all kinds of mental and psychological problems for juveniles. There have been cases where juveniles committ suicide while in adult prison because they have experienced physical abuse, mistreatment by staff members and long stays in solitary confinement.
The past 25 years the numbers of prisoners who are held in solitary confinement has sky rocketed. State and federal prisons all have solitary confinement. Therefore, when an inmate acts out and tries to attack other inmates, and officers then they are put into an individual cell and are isolated from other individuals. One senator had said that the expansion of the use of solitary confinement is an issue. Supermax prisons hold inmates that are considered “the worst of the worst”.
California state penitentiaries who for years managed prisons without court interference were now in a constitutional bind. Those in favor of California policy system argue that segregation by race invariably resulted in the prison system especially among inmates affiliated with gangs and to put different gang members of different races into the same cell would result in violence. In order to stop interracial violence, many prisons in California adopted the system of assigning race-based cells. State penitentiary would argue that they implemented this system not because they believe in racial segregation but for the safety of all inmates. Those in favor of this system also argued that the 2005 Supreme Court ruling jeopardized the safety of inmates, especially newcomers.
In my honest opinion solitary confinement in the U.S. is not justified and only does more harm than good. Not only is it a rash punishment, but it is one of the worst kinds of psychological tortures that could be inflicted upon an inmate. Human beings are undoubtedly social creatures and without the mere contact of another person the mind decays and ultimately leads a person to anger, anxiety, and hopelessness. Psychologists also claim that solitary confinement and isolation in general also cause depression or the loss of ability to have any "feelings", cognitive disturbances, such as confused thought processes and disorientation, perceptual distortions, such as hypersensitivity to noises and smells, distortions of sensations, and hallucinations affecting all five senses, as well as paranoia and psychosis which often times involve schizophrenic type symptoms, and finally, the worst of all symptoms, being self-harm such as self-mutilation, cutting and even suicide attempts.
In Atul Gawande “ HellHole” essay they talked about the experiences and effects of people who were previously in solitary confinement. Solitary confinement can be best explained as the process of removing an individual and isolating them from their environment and socialization. Atul Gawande is specifically talking about prisoners of war and incarcerated people and how their experience was and that process. The essay talked about how people are put in isolation which caused them to act out of their character. Goffman would argue that effects of solitary confinement are exactly what total institutions can do to a person's.
In 1971, Philip Zimbardo and his associates at Stanford University conducted a highly influential and contentious study named the Stanford Prison Experiment (SPE). Originally setting out to prove that positional factors affected prison conduct equally as much as or even more so than dispositional factors, the study not only supported their theory but also garnered extensive media coverage along with significant ethical ramifications. Furthermore, a docudrama thriller film of the same name, directed by Kyle Patrick Alvarez, premiered in 2015—aiming to disseminate the events of the study to a wider audience. Consequently, the SPE continues to remain highly controversial and one of social psychology’s most well-known experiments.
Unit 1 Written Assignment Literature Review of article on Standard Prison Experiment Introduction This article concerns the Stanford Prison experiment carried out in 1971 at Stanford University. The experiment commenced on August 14, and was stopped after only six days. It is one of the most noted psychological experiments on authority versus subordinates. The studies which emerged from this have been of interest to those in prison and military fields due to its focus on the psychology associated with authority.
The Stanford Prison Experiment, conducted in 1971 by social psychologist Philip Zimbardo, aimed to investigate the psychological effects of perceived power and authority within a simulated prison environment. The experiment sought to explore how individuals' behavior and attitudes might be influenced by the roles they assume. Zimbardo and his team set up a mock prison in the basement of Stanford University's psychology department. They recruited 24 male participants who were deemed mentally and emotionally stable for the study. The participants were randomly assigned either the role of a prisoner or a guard.