Solitary Confinement In Prisons

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Solitary confinement means that you are alone in a cell for days, maybe even decades. Solitary confinement is used for punishment and deterrence of criminal offenders. The cell that the inmates are in is eight by ten foot cell. They are in there for 23 hours a day, seven days a week, and 365 days a year. Today, there is more than 80,000 Americans that are in solitary confinement. In solitary, inmates are cut off from any kind of human contact. The inmates are very restricted on phone calls and visitors. Most inmates have none. They are subjected to the most extreme prison environment in the world. Some say that it is the only way to handle the worst prisoners. But others claim it amounts to physiological torture, which is way worse than…show more content…
These obsessional preoccupations are especially troubling. Individuals in solitary easily become preoccupied with some thought, some perceived slight or irritation, some sound or smell coming from a neighboring cell, or — perhaps most commonly, by some bodily sensation — tortured by it, unable to stop dwelling on it. In solitary confinement, ordinary stimuli become intensely unpleasant, and small irritations become maddening. Individuals in such confinement brood upon normally unimportant stimuli, and minor irritations become the focus of increasing agitation and paranoia (Grassian). For the inmates that get released from Colorado State penitentiary, two thirds of the inmates find themselves back in prison within three years. This goes to show you that there is a problem with segregation. Segregation does not rehabilitate or give anyone any kind of help while they are…show more content…
Human beings are capable of doing terrible things to each other. But that is the point, they are human beings. Not animals. I don’t know of anyone that can be isolated all day every day, and not want to explode or crack under that kind of pressure. The people in solitary confinement don’t deserve to be treated like a dog. That is exactly how they feel in solitary confinement. And if they were to crack, or “act out”, that in return can land them more time in prison. How do you think that makes the inmates feel? Like there is no way out. That is exactly how they feel. They can act perfect for years, and one mistake can add on years. Once that has been started, the inmates feel as if they are drowning in a cage. There is no way out. Even if they do behave and get out, once they get out they don’t know how to act in the real world. That can also result in coming
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