Solitary Confinement In Juvenile Prisons

“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.”This is a quote from Nelson Mandela who spent 27 years in prison and many of those years in solitary confinement. He only got through with intense determination which many criminals don’t have. Solitary confinement should not be allowed and must be banned. Solitary confinement, or SHU(special housing unit), causes severe mental problems as well as brain damage. Solitary confinement violates basic human rights. SHU is not just used for the “worst of the worst”, it is a common punishment for misbehavior in

The book Burning Down the House: The End of Juvenile Prison, by Nell Bernstein is a compelling expose on the inherent evil of juvenile detention facilities. In her eye-opening account of the danger that lies within locking up this nation’s youth, Bernstein utilizes a plethora of rhetorical strategies to urge her audience to recognize and act on her claim. In writing this account on the heinousness of juvenile detention centers and why the system as a whole must be reformed, Bernstein uses personal cause and effect examples, studies and statistics, as well as concrete refutations to advocate the world for change.

Shawshank’s Redemption, an all-time best movie produced in 1994 starred and led by actors Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman. A story about two imprisoned men’s experience with the corrupted prison institution through their way of self-redemption. There is a line, which was well read by Morgan Freeman, I am particularly fond of. Here I quote ‘These walls are funny. First you hate them, then you get used to them. Enough time passes, you get so you depend on them. That 's institutionalized.’ A prison should aim at retribution, incapacitation, deterrence and rehabilitation. I am very well convinced that prison has served its first three purposes by depriving offenders’ freedom, but the

In the United States, there have been many cases where a juvenile would be found guilty and be tried as an adult. There are other cases where those juveniles are tried as adult forever. I am against charging juveniles as adults when they commit violent crimes, the juveniles lose many educational opportunities and the adult system is far too dangerous for the young juveniles.

In all three mediums, the authors and presenters are all averse to the ideas of minors being tried as adults, death row and solitary confinement. I agree in all three cases. Minors should not be tried as adults because they are not adults. While there should be some level of culpability for their actions, it should never reach the point where they are tried as anything other than a juvenile. Many youth, for no other reason than biological constraints, lack the psychological maturity to make logical and well-reasoned choices. For that reason, they should not be condemned for a crime they committed in their youth, for their entire lives. I do not believe in solitary confinement because in all of the materials I’ve read, all it does is cause mental

Solitary confinement can affect a person’s physical and mental health simply because it deprives an individual of their need to interact with others on a daily basis. Solitary confinement, which is used to restrain violent and volatile inmates from the general prison population, is done in increments ranging from several months to years. In an article retrieved from the American Psychological Association, ‘Alone, in ‘the Hole’’, the author states that, “for most of the 20th century, prisoners' stays in solitary confinement were relatively short.” This was the standing rule, in which inmates visited what is known as ‘the hole’, for several weeks to months. As time went by, the average length of stay

Solitary confinement, in my opinion, is cruel and unusual punishment. If there was not a mental-health crisis in America, and there was in fact a rehabilitation-focused prison system, solitary confinement would be greatly reduced and used much more sparingly. What is the point of driving people to madness by putting them in isolation? It would be so much cheaper for tax payers to change the system to a more effective one that actually reduces

Researchers can 't ethically create situations in which human babies are deprived of basic needs and attachments to learn about motor, physical, language, and social development. However, when circumstances create those terrible situations in the world, much can be learned by studying those involved.

The Juvenile Detention Alternatives Initiative isn’t about letting juvenile offenders off the hook with just a slap on the wrist, it is about a more proactive approach that involves the community as whole. JDAI is about reducing the number of juveniles that are being detained and using that information to help make the right decisions for our youth that are considered at risk.

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.

According to Department of corrections and rehabilitation there is approximately 2.3 million adult offenders currently detained and which consist of 316,229 prisoners which are overseen by correctional officers on an ongoing basis costing on an average of $49 per prisoner, additionally their current budget is approximately $11 billion, which is distributed between 33 state prisons, 40 camps, as well as 12 community correctional facilities.

Super maximum prisons facilities are commonly known for their highly secured facilities that house the most horrible offenders who have committed the most monstrous crimes. Most offenders are serving multiple life sentences and spend their time in seclusion. The inmates are housed in individual rooms and placed on 23 hour lock down with minimal interaction with anyone. Thinking of the types of offenses the inmates committed leads many to believe that there are pros to having these facilities. However, many others believe that because of the severity of the seclusion the cons can perceived as cruel and unusual punishment.

These similarities aren’t by chance, or even unexpected. In fact, in a US military study quoted by Gawande, “almost a hundred and fifty naval aviators returning from imprisonment in Vietnam, reported that they found social isolation to be as torturous and agonizing as any physical abuse they suffered” (Gawande, 2009). Thus, it seems very clear that the psychological agony imposed by prolonged isolation in US prisons is frighteningly similar to the torture experienced by prisoners of war overseas. The United States has a long (if nuanced) history of condemning torture, and in a previous report to the UN, the US submitted that torture was “categorically denounced as a matter of policy and as a tool of state authority” (Human Rights Watch, 2009).

In order to do this they need to make new centers to help prisoners inside better themselves. In Alabama prisons may soon shut down 14 of its prisons for overcrowding, neglect, and violence in the state’s correction systems. In the prison St. Clair Holman in Alabama the prison system makes prisoners act different. There is no safety, security or supervision. “We have people being killed, sexually assaulted, raped, stabbed on daily basis at St. Clair, Holman, and multiple facilities; it’s a systemwide problem,” said Charlotte Morrison, a senior attorney at the Equal Justice Initiative (EJI), which represents Alabama prisoner.” Within this quote we see that in St. Clair prison, inmates get raped and stabbed. These are reasons why prisons should be reformed. Prisoners shouldn’t be hurt for whatsoever problems. Conversely, Penal Reform International article suggested different reasons to reform prisons one that stood out to reform the particular prison in Alabama was this, Provide a healthy, safe environment. “Spaces that are filled with sunlight, outside views, therapeutic color schemes and normalized materials, encourage inmates’ participation, reduce stress, incidents and assaults and decrease staff absenteeism.” Considering the fact that prisoners in Alabama are brutally hurting each other in their cells, we can conclude that if prisons provided a safe environment bad

When children and teens commit a violent crime such as murder, courts convict them as adults. This means that children as young as eight have been tried as adults in court. Eventually, these convicts will be housed in jails with adults. Despite the federal law stating that juvenile and adult inmates must be separated, most states do not comply with these rules. Furthermore, a law that varies throughout the states is the age in which courts send the children to adult or juvenile prisons. These cutoffs range from 7 to 14 years old. At any rate, the current situation is one that has sparked many moral and ethical beliefs to surface, resulting in debates that have yet to be resolved. Children who commit violent crimes should not be tried as adults, because proper educational services are typically not affordable, children are more susceptible to harming themselves