Solitary Confinement

The United States is number one for the most inmates ( 80,000 inmates) held in solitary confinement ( also called segregation). The use of solitary confinement was stopped in the late 19th century in the United States because it was viewed as barbaric. During the massive increase of inmates during the 1980’s and 1990’s, prisons prisons started using solitary confinement with the illusory hope of reducing prison violence.

Prisoners in isolation are confined to small cells, six feet by nine feet, without windows, and with little to no access to the outside world for many months and even years. Inmates are confined to these cells for 23 hours a day. Extreme isolation has serious psychological effects on inmates who will eventually be released to their community. According to several state reports, fifty percent of prison suicides occur in solitary confinement.

Numerous studies have shown that solitary confinement does not reduce prison-jail violence. The use of excessive solitary confinement has a disastrous effect on all inmates, but especially inmates with mental illnesses. In 2016, President Obama acknowledged that inmates in segregation were more likely to commit suicide.

In 2015, the Association of State Correctional Administrators issued a report stating that prolonged isolation of inmates is– “a grave problem in the United States.”Various states have finally realized the gravity of this punishment and have made changes in their use of solitary confinement.

Pennsylvania’s policy with respect to serious mentally ill inmates in solitary confinement changed in 2015 as a result of a settlement between the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections and the Disability Rights Network of Pennsylvania. Many of the Pennsylvania inmates had been  placed in solitary confinement for behavioral issues which were caused by their severe mental illnesses.

Pennsylvania inmates had been confined to a minimum of twenty three hours a day in isolated cells. The solitary confinement would often aggravate and intensify the mental diseases. Inmates considered dangerous to staff and other inmates will now have a minimum of twenty hours a week outside of their cells under strict supervision.

Colorado, Mississippi and Washington have also made major changes regarding their use of long-term solitary confinement.

It is common sense that inmates who have violated minor rules or who are found with drugs should not be placed in solitary confinement. Addicted inmates need drug programs and not additional punishment.

Gary Mohr, director of the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction stated that inmates sentenced to solitary confinement should be inmates, “we’re afraid of, not mad at.”

Fyodor Dostoevsky: “You can judge a society by how well it treats its prisoners”.

By: Bradley Schwartz
Founder of prisonpath.com