Extraordinary Confinement's Detrimental Effects On Prisoners

Extended periods of prolonged solitary confinement can have severe detrimental effects on prisoners. Moreover, “Few social scientists question that isolation can have harmful effects. Research over the last half-century has demonstrated that it can worsen mental illness and produce symptoms even in prisoners who start out psychologically robust” (Goode, 2015). Eventually, prisoners in solitary confinement will choose to freely withdraw from interaction, as that has become their new norm and feels most comfortable. Also, those that have studied solitary confinement report, “evidence of acute sensory deprivation, paranoid delusion belief systems, irrational fears of violence, resentment, little ability to control rage, and mental breakdowns…

Indeed, there is more cause for concern from individuals that do not have a negative response to either incarceration or solitary confinement. Unfortunately, some accuracy is lacking in research on the effects of solitary confinement, primarily because “most studies have focused on laboratory volunteers or prison inmates who have been isolated for relatively short periods” (Goode, 2015). “At the very least, solitary can certainly make prisoners much more of a danger to themselves. Inmates in solitary, for example, have been found to engage in self-mutilation at rates that are higher than the general prison population” (Breslow, 2014). Additionally, suicide and suicide attempts become statistically more significant when compared to general population inmates. However, from correctional experience, when inmates are already suicidal, they are placed in isolation for monitoring and protective reasons. As a result, a question remains, what extent of reported suicidal inmates are a result of individual segregation and isolation? Conversely, what percentage of prisoners are suicidal beforehand and placed in isolation as a