ipl-logo

The Hole: Solitary Confinement, By Jack Shihab

1030 Words5 Pages

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 psychological effect on the mind deprived from the constant daily state …show more content…

Confined to at least 23 hours a day with one hour utilized for outdoor exercise. Journalists Jason Breslow cover story “What Does Solitary Confinement Do to Your Mind (2014); broadcast the various challenges faced by the inmates. The first reality check for inmate in solitary confinement is the space of their cell, smaller than a horse stable. Inmates are feed daily their food delivered from a slot in the iron clad door (Breslow, 2014). Regardless of the restricted space and almost 24 hours of confinement; supporters of this type of segregation attest it keeps the prisons safe. Sadly, the truth is that solitary confinement does take a heavy toll mentally on inmates (Breslow, 2014). The philosophical question the writer seeks is summed up to if solitary makes inmate crazy; the effects on the inmates, and are inmates more dangerous after solitary confinement. The background to the effect of solitary confinement on the mind was conducted in 1950, by psychologist Harry Harlow. The research resulted in that extreme isolation is havoc to the human psyche (Breslow, 2014). Harlow test subjects were rhesus monkeys placed in a special designed solitary chamber. Within two days in the chamber the monkeys displayed signs of hopelessness, profound disturbances, with blank stares and rocking in place. In addition, the monkeys conducted self-mutilation, and for those who spent 12 months in isolation their social skills were almost obliterated (Breslow,

Show More
Related

  • Super Max Confinement Case Study

    2085 Words  | 9 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of After Years In Solitary, Freedom Hard To Grasp

    656 Words  | 3 Pages

    The article is mostly fact and it does provide references for quotations and dat. The author of this source is Kevin Johnson, and this source was originally published by USA Today Information Network. The article does not give the author credentials. Owning the fact that the author is trying to inform the ready that solitary confinement is an effective punishment, the article is mostly free of bias. In this source, I learned that once you are released from solitary confinement it is hard for someone to adjust to the real of the world.

    Read More

  • Solitary Nation Sparknotes

    665 Words  | 3 Pages

    The documentary solitary nation demonstrates the effects of solitary confinement on the prisoner’s health. There are several problems associated with using segregation as a punishment, however, the main problem is the effects to the mental health of the inmates. The documentary illustrate that some prisoner lost their sanity in solitary confinement. One example is what happened to the prisoner Adam Brulotte, at the beginning of his solitary confinement time he was optimistic and have plans to improve himself by reading books and think about his future, but only after twenty five days he started to lose his mind and become unstable, threaten to cut himself, pushes feces under the door and flooded the unit. This behavior clearly indicates segregation bad affects to the mental health of the inmates.

    Read More

  • Was Anthony Graves Insane

    2707 Words  | 11 Pages

    Graves recalled that he remembers hearing loud piercing screams from inmates losing their minds and the feeling of isolation can dehumanize themselves. A person will eventually completely lose their emotions and become a shell of a person they once was. Graves noted, that there should be a reform on how solitary confinement should addressed when there is a need to separate a dangerous prisoner from the general population. He believes that there should be a system of policies and regulations that should be carried out in court before putting an inmate into solitary confinement. He claims that the majority of inmates in solitary confinement observes their lives is hopeless and

    Read More

  • Kalief Browder Case Study

    203 Words  | 1 Pages

    According to American Friends Service Committee, “numerous studies have documented the harmful psychological effects of long-term solitary confinement, which can produce debilitating symptoms and result in an increased risk of suicide and the effects are magnified for two particularly vulnerable populations: juveniles, whose brains are still developing, and people with mental health issues...” (2017). My topic of discussion deals with the injustice of social isolation in our prison system and the effects on an individual 's mental health. Kalief Browder a fairly normal adolescent residing Bronx, NY. Kalief endured false imprisonment at the age of sixteen; he spent three years and 800 days of those years were served in solitary confinement.

    Read More

  • Solitary Nation By Dan Edge

    1101 Words  | 5 Pages

    There are three ways to be sent to solitary confinement: the inmate is too dangerous to be around others, for their own

    Read More

  • Solitary Confinement: Rehabilitation-Focused Prison System

    75 Words  | 1 Pages

    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

    Read More

  • Are Prisons Obsolete?

    1772 Words  | 8 Pages

    Prompt 2 First Draft Prison Industrial Complex (PIC) is a term used to describe the overlapping interests of government and industry that use surveillance, policing, and imprisonment as solutions to social, economic, and political problems. Angela Davis is a journalist and American political activist who believes that the U.S practice of super-incarceration is closer to new age slavery than any system of criminal justice. She defines the PIC as biased for criminalizing communities of color and used to make profit for corporations from the prisoner’s suffering. In her book, Are Prisons Obsolete? , she argues that the prison systems are no longer in use and out of date since prisons just keep increasing as each become more and more populated.

    Read More

  • Rehabilitation In Shawshank's Redemption

    766 Words  | 4 Pages

    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

    Read More

  • Solitary Confinement Benefits

    353 Words  | 2 Pages

    Some might argue that solitary confinement is actually effective and has its benefits, however this is not the case since this punishment only seems to make criminals much more dangerous when they leave prison than they were before and research shows that inmates who left solitary confinement experience increased anger and end up committing the kind of criminality that society is looking to prevent by using this method of punishment. Thus, solitary confinement ultimately fails as a rehabilitative measure, and as a way to "settle down" problematic

    Read More

  • Controlled Environment In One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

    725 Words  | 3 Pages

    There are many instances, even today, where people are put in a controlled environment, and when they are released they are unaware of how to function normally in society. For example, many prisoners who are released after an extended period of time will commit the same crimes again to be sentenced again, because they know and understand the prison environment now more than they do societies. One Flew Over the Cuckoo 's Nest shows just how difficult being thrown into a new environment can be not only on a person 's mental health, but also physical

    Read More

  • Research Paper On Solitary Albert Woodfox

    1153 Words  | 5 Pages

    I INTRODUCTION TO SOLITARY CONFINEMENT It is somewhere around three a.m. in the morning. You wake up to an empty, cold room, no larger than 60 square feet, with nothing but four walls surrounding you. You are stripped, handcuffed and taken about 30 feet outside your cell where you are allowed a brief shower.

    Read More

  • Solitary Confinement In Atul Gawande 'Hellhole'

    488 Words  | 2 Pages

    PEople who are isolated said that they experienced hallucinations, tried hurting themselves and felt a disconnect to reality. Which brings in an interesting question is that even though these guards see that solitary confinement is hurting prisoners and is not working why do they do it? I would suggest that Goffman would say that people are dehumanized when they are

    Read More

  • Caaging Of America By Adam Gopnik Analysis

    606 Words  | 3 Pages

    The citizens of the the United States preach moral equality and the wrongdoings of their government, yet they fail to realize the horrors that occur when trapped in a cell the size of your bathroom. The article makes great points against the criminal- justice system and their cruel punishment towards prisoners, but the author has failed to persuade me because although their current state in the system might be wrong, it doesn 't take from the fact that they are convicted felons who need to do their time, even if

    Read More

  • The Role Of Isolation In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

    1090 Words  | 5 Pages

    It is quite telling that the most severe punishment in our society other than the death penalty or torture is solitary confinement. Although, isolation is in itself a form of torture, it can drive someone to the brink of insanity. Although published nearly 200 years ago, Mary Shelley clearly understood the potential detrimental effects of isolation, as demonstrated in her famous novel, Frankenstein, where both main characters, Victor Frankenstein and his creation, suffer from and cause isolation for the other. Mary Shelley directs the reader to believe that isolation is the true evil, not the monster, Victor or any emotion inside of them. At the beginning of the novel, Victor is isolated from other people, causing to forget his scientific

    Read More

More about The Hole: Solitary Confinement, By Jack Shihab

Open Document