Solitary Nation: Documentary By Frontline

Solitary Nation is a documentary film produced by “Frontline”. It takes place in a maximum-security prison in Maine and reveals the everyday experience of prisoners and correctional officers in the isolation section of the prison. The prisoners refer to this division of the prison as “seg”; an abbreviation for segregation. The inmates are locked in their cell for twenty-three hours each day with an hour designated for exercise or recess outside. However, during their hour of recess, each prisoner is confined to a cage outside or workout in. The producers of the film capture the inmates discussing their experiences within the isolation unit throughout the documentary. The vast majority of inmates enter isolation believing they will be okay;

Despite these repulsive behaviors, the most common vile behavior seen throughout the documentary is the inmates covering their windows with blood from cutting themselves with razor blades. Convicts execute these self-harming habits for countless reasons. Despite these unsettling, eye opening situations, the most disturbing aspect of the film is hearing prisoners discuss their experiences in isolation and how it has negatively affected them psychologically. This typically results in a prisoner cutting themselves, bleeding all over their cell and covering themselves in their own blood. Inmates propose that being placed in isolation hinders their ability to be re-integrated into society once they finish serving their sentence. However, the detainee’s bad behavior in the isolation unit simply leads to their isolation sentencing time being increased. This results in more detrimental behavior of the inmates and an increasing amount of self-harm conduct. Although the warden of the prison is aware of the effect isolation has on the prisoners, he continues to use segregation as a source of punishment for offenders who misbehave and to ensure correctional officers and other inmates are safe from dangerous

One aspect of the documentary that relates to class material was the inmate’s description of being trapped in their cells like animals in a cage. This description of imprisonment can be associated to the article written by Sykes entitled, “The Pains of Imprisonment”. In this article, the author elaborates about how an inmate’s liberty is restricted to a specific building but then reduced further to a specific routine where they are told where to go and what to do. “In short, the prisoner’s loss of liberty is a double one — first, by confinement to the institution and second, by confinement within the institution.” (Sykes, 65). This is similar to how the prisoners in segregation are confined to the prison, and additionally to their cell. Another feature of the film that reflected class material was the campus style design of the prison. The inmates were allowed to roam around cell area and interact with other prisoners. Furthermore, different styles of adaptation to the segregation unit can be linked to class material. For instance, one member of the isolation unit is focused on completing his GED, an adaptation called gleaning. This is when an inmate takes advantage of offered programs because they do not want to return to prison. Prisoners who have served longer sentence times in isolation, for instance over a year, reflected a “doing time” adaption. They were simply focused on