Solitary Confinement Is Cruel and Ineffective

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The first time I remember being put in time out was when I was five years old. I can remember feeling scared, lonely and infuriated, all at the same time. My time outs were only for a short time, but they felt like a life time. Now can you imagine being in a time out for a week, months, or even years? This is a tactic used by the prison system to punish bad behavior. Solitary confinement is being locked in a cell where you can see out, for 23 hours a day with no human interaction. How long can the human mind be left alone? Many people think this is a way of humanly punishing deadly behavior, but science is proving otherwise. Humans are not meant to be alone. We are social creatures. Can this form of punishment do more harm than good?

Solitary confinement or isolation can be given to many people, for many reasons. Anywhere from causing bodily harm to another person, to being very disruptive, but this is not always the case. Rapper Lil Wayne got solitary confinement for stashing headphones and an mp3 player in his cell. Many people think that only violent, horrible people get that punishment, but it’s just not true, many of them are innocuous things. An unnamed man I interviewed spent 3 years in a NYS prison. He spent 3 months in solitary confinement for something he didn’t do. He was being escorted by two correction officers, when one of them made an impertinent comment, he (the prisoner) said “his lawyer would like to hear that remark”, (Unknown named male) and was slammed into the wall. He still has the ghastly scare today. The next day he was told he was being taken to solitary confinement for hitting an officer. Something he didn’t do. Not everyone in solitary confinement deserves to be there. This form of punishment gi...

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...ng and people taking a stand we will take back our rights as human beings.

Work cited

DR. Metzner, Jeffery. Solitary Confinement and Mental Illness in U.S. Prisons: A Challenge for Medical Ethics 2010 http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2010/03/22/solitary-confinement-and- mental-illness-us-prisons

Dr. Grassian, Stuart PSYCHIATRIC EFFECTS OF SOLITARY CONFINEMENT 1993 http://www.prisoncommission.org/statements/grassian_stuart_long.pdf

Godoy, Maria. Q&A: Solitary Confinement & Human Rights. 2011 http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5586937

Lenzer, Emily Solitary Confinement: How Effective Is It? 2006 http://www.npr.org/about/press/060725.solitary.html

Smith, Alexandra Torture At Home: Documentary On Solitary Confinement in U.S. Prisons Misses the Mark 2010 http://www.alternet.org/rights/146497/torture nement_in_u.s._prisons_misses_the_mark

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