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A rough draft of your Final Essay that should be APA formatted and needs to be 6
A rough draft of your Final Essay that should be APA formatted and needs to be 6 pages in length is due by Friday July 5th by 11;59PM for full credit. It should contain the following to get full credit:
It must be at least 6 full pages in length [Note: The APA formatted cover page AND references page make up a part of this, and you have finished both of these, so really 4 full written pages of the actual essay]
It must be APA formatted throughout [e.g. 12 pt, Times New Roman, double-spaced, etc.]
It should include the intro, a claim and at least 2 body paragraphs.
It should include at least 2 paraphrases and 1 direct quote that reference some of your sources from the references page [Note: these come from your annotated bib/ library database and/or approved sources and you can access the example A rough draft of the essay and Maslane’s hints for body paragraph in Content tab].
Example essays from teacher below
Solitary Confinement and the Social and Psychological Effects
SM
Solitary Confinement and the Social and Psychological Effects
Imagine one is watching an inmate waking in a tiny room surrounded by blank white walls; one might notice that they scan the room looking for any visual relief. Hours pass, then days, then weeks and months while they just sit in the stone-cold room; once a day they are allowed 30 minutes outside their box. Now, imagine that they step out of their cell, and one notices that no one even glances their way, as if they aren’t even human. If one watched them for long enough, one might notice that the paranoia and sleep deprivation the inmate feels begin to feed into one another and he begins to seek any kind of stimulation. One imagines that the voices in his head become his company as he throws his head against the wall to feel something-or anything, maybe. This is his new reality; and, like an animal in a cage, one notices that he begins to behave more like an animal than a person. Now, imagine this inmate one has seen is one of 80,000 inmates, and one gets the sense of what is happening in U.S. prison systems across all 50 states.
The United States is one of the biggest, most developed countries in the world and with such a large population comes more regulations and surveillance to maintain order. From cameras on traffic lights to screening phone calls to prevent terrorist communication, surveillance is a cornerstone for regulations in the United States. Similarly, correctional facilities have always been a part of this country’s history and are a necessary component of any government who imposes punishments for criminals or reoffending criminals. The United States government categorizes crimes based on severity. As a result, correctional facilities house inmates based of the severity of their offenses and these facilities can range from jails to supermax prisons. Supermax prisons are usually reserved for reoffending criminals or felonies who have a history of violent behavior in while serving time in pervious correctional facilities. These max prisons come with more aggressive, oppressive punishments. Solitary confinement, as known as a Special Hoisting Unit (SHU), Control Unit (CU), or Segregation Units (SU), is the systematic isolation of inmates to individual cells and vigorous regulations on their activities and social interactions. These units focus on targeting the psyche while coupling traditional disciplinary techniques such as using physical force to restrain inmates. Solitary confinement use in the U.S. dates to the late 18th century, which began from silent prisons, Jeremy Bentham’s panopticon, and New York’s Auburn Prison. These were the foundation for the birth of modern solitary confinement in America. As Shames, et al (2015) state: “On any given day as many as 80,000 inmates are in isolated confinement in state and federal prisons. This figure does not include those isolated in local jails and detention centers or juvenile facilities”. While it’s true that many supermax prisons have specified sections for inmate isolation, it’s a common misconception to believe that they are the only prisons that have these isolating units. SHU can be commonly found in traditional state prisons across the country, as well. These units are meant to provide safety for inmates and guards, but their methods run counter to the purpose of U.S. prisons, which is to reform an inmate and make him or her a person that can become a functioning member of society. Certain methods used in correctional facilities create dysfunctional inmates rather than reformed citizens. Solitary confinement, the isolation of a single inmate in a separate cell with strict control, impairs the social and psychologically health of inmates rather than working to reform them by excising surveillance protocol, minimalizing social interactions, and deprivation sensory stimuli, causing interpersonal and mental disconnection.
Some advocates claim that solitary can be used for protective custody, but this is a very small percentage of the inmates that fill the isolation units, which does not justify an unwillingness to reform isolation units. On occasion, if a prisoner is a gang member or a pedophile they are put in confinement for their own protection, but these are the exception. While it can also be argued that with reform, solitary confinement could be still theoretically be utilized in a more limited, monitored form, solitary still would need to be fitted to coincide with the intention that the prisoners will one day be released back into the society. An inmate is still entitled to humane, civil punishment, even if they are serving a life sentence or are on death row. To claim a convict deserves to be placed in SHU for an unreasonable or extended sentence without any form of direct causality would be prejudice. Not only will the inmates with those particular circumstances never get a chance to be released into the general public, they will also never get the proper assimilation that they need to feel human if they are isolated alone for the rest of their sentence with is cruel and unusual punishment.
Surveillance affects behavior, whether it is intentional or unintentional. Hence, surveillance in the prison system is a necessary component to maintain control and differs from surveillance in the general public in one major way – lack of freedom of action. Cameras cloak every area of prisons very similar to mall and store sectary cameras, yet the general population doesn’t fear cameras the same way prisoners fear them while incarcerated. This is because the general population is free to act on their own will and don’t worry of reciprocation for their actions. Guards and the prison staff meticulously scan their screens looking for any kind of misdemeanor or altercation that could disturb their order, so inmates psychologically learn to alter their behavior while in the presence of cameras. They become very aware of them and fear them. But in the grocery store, the only kind of person who even remembers the cameras are there are shoplifters. While both situations demonstrate that surveillance does affect behavior, they differ based on circumstance and the effects of being monitored changes based on the surveilles preconceived notion of what surveillance leads to.
Humans are social beings and require interactions to process, develop, and grow. Unfortunately, inmates who have served time in solitary have reported suffering from sensory deprivation, insomnia, and detachment from people and the outside world. Cloud, et al (2015) describe the conditions of solitary confinement an inmate’s perspective. They claimed that some confinement units were completely silent aside from an occasional outburst or uneasy voices echoing off the concrete walls. In newer units, security cameras, automatic doors, and intercoms further minimize the physical person-to-person interactions. The effects of solitary confinement vary depending on the inmate and some suffer social dissociation, interpersonal degradation, from their family and society making it more difficult to assimilation back into society following release. Following this idea, Jeremy Bentham’s panopticon is seen one of the fundamental ideas concerning behavioral control using surveillance. The panopticon was one of the first architectural buildings that played with this idea of surveillance coupled with the idea of psychological self-regulation. Jeremy Bentham (1977) describes his panopticon as a visual trap. It is a circle shaped building that houses hundreds of individual cells, all looking onto the center of the circle, which has a watchtower fitted with a large spotlight. This spotlight shines directly at the inmates thus meaning they are seen from the front by the watchtower guard but are prevented from encountering other inmates. Bentham (1977) describes this relationship as being seen while not seeing: Stating that the inmate is an informational object and never a subject of communication. This constant surveillance plays with the notion that because the inmate believes he is constantly being watched, he starts to act differently and regulates his own behavior, so he is not punished. If he knew the guard was not always watching his cell, he would know he could deviate. Since the light blinds him from knowing if the guard is watched or not, he assumes he is always being monitored and acts accordingly. This concept is where the idea of solitary confinement branched from.
References
Casella, J., & Ridgeway, J. (2012). New York’s Black Sites. Nation, 295(5/6), 18–24.
Cloud, D. H., Drucker, E., Browne, A., & Parsons, J. (2015). Public Health and Solitary Confinement in the United States. American Journal of Public Health, 105(1), 18–26.
Foucault, M. (1977). Panopticon. In Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison (pp. 195-200). New York: Pantheon Books.
Guenther, L. (2013). Supermax Confinement and The Exhaustion of Space. In Solitary Confinement: Social Death and its Afterlives (pp. 161-194). Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota.
Harrington, M. P. (2015). Methodological Challenges to the Study and Understanding of Solitary Confinement. Federal Probation, 79(3), 45–47.
Rhodes, L. A. (2005). Pathological Effects of the Supermaximum Prison. (Cover story). American Journal of Public Health, 95(10), 1692–1695.
Shames, et al (2015). A Life in SuperMax. TIME. 298 (10), 42-48.
0
Solitary Confinement and the Social and Psychological Effects
SM
Department of English, Lone Star College
English 1302: Composition and Rhetoric II
Professor David Maslane
May 6th, 2022
Solitary Confinement and the Social and Psychological Effects
Imagine one is watching an inmate waking in a tiny room surrounded by blank white walls; one might notice that they scan the room looking for any visual relief. Hours pass, then days, then weeks and months while they just sit in the stone-cold room; once a day they are allowed 30 minutes outside their box. Now, imagine that they step out of their cell, and one notices that no one even glances their way, as if they aren’t even human. If one watched them for long enough, one might notice that the paranoia and sleep deprivation the inmate feels begin to feed into one another and he begins to seek any kind of stimulation. One imagines that the voices in his head become his company as he throws his head against the wall to feel something-or anything, maybe. This is his new reality; and, like an animal in a cage, one notices that he begins to behave more like an animal than a person. Now, imagine this inmate one has seen is one of 80,000 inmates, and one gets the sense of what is happening in U.S. prison systems across all 50 states.
The United States is one of the biggest, most developed countries in the world and with such a large population comes more regulations and surveillance to maintain order. From cameras on traffic lights to screening phone calls to prevent terrorist communication, surveillance is a cornerstone for regulations in the United States. Similarly, correctional facilities have always been a part of this country’s history and are a necessary component of any government who imposes punishments for criminals or reoffending criminals. The United States government categorizes crimes based on severity. As a result, correctional facilities house inmates based of the severity of their offenses and these facilities can range from jails to supermax prisons. Supermax prisons are usually reserved for reoffending criminals or felonies who have a history of violent behavior in while serving time in pervious correctional facilities. These max prisons come with more aggressive, oppressive punishments. Solitary confinement, as known as a Special Hoisting Unit (SHU), Control Unit (CU), or Segregation Units (SU), is the systematic isolation of inmates to individual cells and vigorous regulations on their activities and social interactions. These units focus on targeting the psyche while coupling traditional disciplinary techniques such as using physical force to restrain inmates. Solitary confinement use in the U.S. dates to the late 18th century, which began from silent prisons, Jeremy Bentham’s panopticon, and New York’s Auburn Prison. These were the foundation for the birth of modern solitary confinement in America. As Shames, et al (2015) state: “On any given day as many as 80,000 inmates are in isolated confinement in state and federal prisons. This figure does not include those isolated in local jails and detention centers or juvenile facilities”. While it’s true that many supermax prisons have specified sections for inmate isolation, it’s a common misconception to believe that they are the only prisons that have these isolating units. SHU can be commonly found in traditional state prisons across the country, as well. These units are meant to provide safety for inmates and guards, but their methods run counter to the purpose of U.S. prisons, which is to reform an inmate and make him or her a person that can become a functioning member of society. Certain methods used in correctional facilities create dysfunctional inmates rather than reformed citizens. Solitary confinement, the isolation of a single inmate in a separate cell with strict control, impairs the social and psychologically health of inmates rather than working to reform them by excising surveillance protocol, minimalizing social interactions, and deprivation sensory stimuli, causing interpersonal and mental disconnection.
Some advocates claim that solitary can be used for protective custody, but this is a very small percentage of the inmates that fill the isolation units, which does not justify an unwillingness to reform isolation units. On occasion, if a prisoner is a gang member or a pedophile they are put in confinement for their own protection, but these are the exception. While it can also be argued that with reform, solitary confinement could be still theoretically be utilized in a more limited, monitored form, solitary still would need to be fitted to coincide with the intention that the prisoners will one day be released back into the society. An inmate is still entitled to humane, civil punishment, even if they are serving a life sentence or are on death row. To claim a convict deserves to be placed in SHU for an unreasonable or extended sentence without any form of direct causality would be prejudice. Not only will the inmates with those particular circumstances never get a chance to be released into the general public, they will also never get the proper assimilation that they need to feel human if they are isolated alone for the rest of their sentence with is cruel and unusual punishment.
Surveillance affects behavior, whether it is intentional or unintentional. Hence, surveillance in the prison system is a necessary component to maintain control and differs from surveillance in the general public in one major way – lack of freedom of action. Cameras cloak every area of prisons very similar to mall and store sectary cameras, yet the general population doesn’t fear cameras the same way prisoners fear them while incarcerated. This is because the general population is free to act on their own will and don’t worry of reciprocation for their actions. Guards and the prison staff meticulously scan their screens looking for any kind of misdemeanor or altercation that could disturb their order, so inmates psychologically learn to alter their behavior while in the presence of cameras. They become very aware of them and fear them. But in the grocery store, the only kind of person who even remembers the cameras are there are shoplifters. While both situations demonstrate that surveillance does affect behavior, they differ based on circumstance and the effects of being monitored changes based on the surveilles preconceived notion of what surveillance leads to.
Humans are social beings and require interactions to process, develop, and grow. Unfortunately, inmates who have served time in solitary have reported suffering from sensory deprivation, insomnia, and detachment from people and the outside world. Cloud, et al (2015) describe the conditions of solitary confinement an inmate’s perspective. They claimed that some confinement units were completely silent aside from an occasional outburst or uneasy voices echoing off the concrete walls. In newer units, security cameras, automatic doors, and intercoms further minimize the physical person-to-person interactions. The effects of solitary confinement vary depending on the inmate and some suffer social dissociation, interpersonal degradation, from their family and society making it more difficult to assimilation back into society following release. Following this idea, Jeremy Bentham’s panopticon is seen one of the fundamental ideas concerning behavioral control using surveillance. The panopticon was one of the first architectural buildings that played with this idea of surveillance coupled with the idea of psychological self-regulation. Jeremy Bentham (1977) describes his panopticon as a visual trap. It is a circle shaped building that houses hundreds of individual cells, all looking onto the center of the circle, which has a watchtower fitted with a large spotlight. This spotlight shines directly at the inmates thus meaning they are seen from the front by the watchtower guard but are prevented from encountering other inmates. Bentham (1977) describes this relationship as being seen while not seeing: Stating that the inmate is an informational object and never a subject of communication. This constant surveillance plays with the notion that because the inmate believes he is constantly being watched, he starts to act differently and regulates his own behavior, so he is not punished. If he knew the guard was not always watching his cell, he would know he could deviate. Since the light blinds him from knowing if the guard is watched or not, he assumes he is always being monitored and acts accordingly. This concept is where the idea of solitary confinement branched from.
For that reason, solitary confinement is a section in prisons that aims to produce a self-regulating inmate, rather than one who needs constant external regulation, by isolating inmates in single cell blocks. The inmates in the SHU are helplessly dependent on the prison staff who roam outside their doors. They give them their meals, messages, and even toilet paper through slots in their metal doors. This can produce a lack of independence and fails to psychologically prepare inmates for the independent demands of becoming a productive member of society. When inmates are allowed outside their concrete cells, they only go one of two places- solitary yards or the shower. As Cloud, et al (2015) explains “The United States not only incarcerates the most people (world-wide), but also exposes more of its citizenry to solitary confinement than any other nation.” The average time spend in solitary can range from 2 weeks to 6 months, but it is not unheard of for prisoners to spend years in these confinement units.
Humans are social beings and require interactions to process, develop, and grow. Unfortunately, inmates who have served time in solitary have reported suffering from sensory deprivation, insomnia, and detachment from people and the outside world. Cloud, et al (2015) describe the conditions of solitary confinement an inmate’s perspective. They claimed that some confinement units were completely silent aside from an occasional outburst or uneasy voices echoing off the concrete walls. In newer units, security cameras, automatic doors, and intercoms further minimize the physical person-to-person interactions. The effects of solitary confinement vary depending on the inmate and some suffer social dissociation, interpersonal degradation, from their family and society making it more difficult to assimilation back into society following release.
Rhodes(2005) wrote about one inmate named Todd Tarset who allowed his drawings to be released to the public with the help Bonnie Kemess of the American Friends Service Committee. The aim was to help people on the outside better understand the effects of solitary. Tarset’s drawings focus on three main points about solitary in the U.S: Solitary affects the psychological self-image of inmates, it produces and exacerbates mental illnesses, and ultimately raises bigger questions about the extended effects of the U.S prison system as a whole. Tarset used drawing to help channel the confusing psychological pressures he and his other unit members sustained. He based his drawing titled “Decompensation” on his personal observations of inmates that were held in solitary for years. The image depicts four faces, each expressing different emotions: resting, rage, depression, and psychosis. Todd explains that for many individuals, solitary confinement is extremely effective at its purpose to isolate. It is quite painful for some who suffer withdraws from the outside reality as they start feeling less human. In Todd’s other drawing “Untitled”, Tarset explains how the depiction of eyes with prison bars over them represents the perspective change that occurs when inmates serve time in prison. Prisoners like Tarset have commented that the longer they stay in solitary, the more the perspective of themselves and the outside world changes until the only reality they know is their single cell and their internal thoughts.
Similarly, Guenther (2013) told the story of a man named Anthony Graves, who was wrongly accused of murder and served 10 of his 18 years on death row in Texas. Graves gave his testimony about solitary confinement to the court in 2012: He discussed how he hadn’t had any physical contact with another human for those 10 years that he served while incarcerated. This indicates that Graves was immediately placed in disciplinary confinement upon arriving in prison. He now struggles with being in large groups of people for extended amounts of time and wrestles with the memories of inmates he saw enter prison completely sane and three years later were mentally devastated. He claims that solitary confinement only produces one result – it breaks an inmate’s will to live and causes deterioration. Solitary confinement is a type of living death or social death for many. Moreover, in J. Casella and J. Ridgeway’s New York’s Black Sites, Bonnie Kernes (2015) calls solitary confinement a non-physical torture. The isolation units use every method available to disconnect inmates from the free world. The techniques used in solitary try to gain control of inmates by attempting to break their psychological connect to the outside world which can impair the functionally of their social and mental wellbeing as seen in previous cases. The greater time spent in SHU, the greater the dissociation between the inmate and their connection to society becomes. In general prison population, prisoners go to the mess hall, talk to other inmates and guards, and do programs. These interactions make the difference between feeling like a human being or not. Casella and Ridgeway (2012) argue that in solitary confinement, inmates are treated like a caged animal not a human being.
There is another common misconception the general public tends to believe: Isolation units like SHU are a last resort for inmates or are only reserved for those who try to escape or are dangerous for others, but the reality it’s usually the first option for both minor and major offenses once convicts have been committed. The idea behind this quick placement is to nip unwanted behaviors in the bud when the prisoners start to deviate, yet these disciplinary methods are counterproductive to the purpose of correctional facilities who aim to release productive, reformed convicts back into society.
Consequently, lawmakers need to reevaluate the purpose of penitentiary systems in the U.S. and how, or if, solitary confinement coincides with that purpose. The United States prison system exists to reform criminals, so they may be reintroduced to society as functional, productive members. While both normal and supermax prisons can be found all over the country, supermax correctional facilities are designed to confine inmates for longer sentences than traditional prison and have a tendency to abuse these disciplinary punishments. In supermax prisons, the inmates are usually more difficult to maintain and are charged with more serious crimes. For guards and prison staff, this is all the more reason to place inmates in solitary confinement at an inmate’s first disruptive incident. Most inmates who are mistreated or wrongly placed in isolation units have few options to fight back, but “one of the few places inmates can turn to for help fighting a SHU sentence in court is Prisoners’ Legal Services of New York. But in the past twenty years, the group has had its funding cut to the bone.” (Casella & Ridgeway, 2012). James Bogin (2012) is a member of this organization and says the cuts have resulted in the organization only being able to represent a fraction of the inmates that write them asking for help. His biggest concern with these cuts is that there could be inmates suffering real torture and he would be unable to help them. In order to start reforming or removing solitary confinement from these correctional facilities, awareness must be brought to the reality of application and how misuse can lead to such negative effects on inmates. Yet there are still advocates who are in favor of solitary confinement as it presently exists. Guenther (2013) address how advocates of solitary confinement try portraying the incarcerated, especially in supermax prisons, as rapists, mass killers, pedophiles, and terrorists: the most threatening types of people to the whole of society. These loaded words discourage the general public from fighting to reduce the power of control units in prisons. Truthfully, many inmates who find themselves in SHU have not committed any violet crimes, but instead are places in confinement for broken prison rules, such as fighting, not participating in work, or attempted self-harm: None of these misdemeanors are related to their initial crimes thus resulting in an unfair punishment for the crimes committed.
Solitary confinement is a cruel, inhumane punishment method used in the United States prison system that can cause social and psychological turmoil and counteracts the primary purpose of correctional facilities in this country. The use of SHU, while effects vary depending on the inmate, does not aim to help the overall growth of the incarcerated and untimely can do more harm than good.
References
Casella, J., & Ridgeway, J. (2012). New York’s Black Sites. Nation, 295(5/6), 18–24.
Cloud, D. H., Drucker, E., Browne, A., & Parsons, J. (2015). Public Health and Solitary Confinement in the United States. American Journal of Public Health, 105(1), 18–26.
Foucault, M. (1977). Panopticon. In Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison (pp. 195-200). New York: Pantheon Books.
Guenther, L. (2013). Supermax Confinement and The Exhaustion of Space. In Solitary Confinement: Social Death and its Afterlives (pp. 161-194). Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota.
Harrington, M. P. (2015). Methodological Challenges to the Study and Understanding of Solitary Confinement. Federal Probation, 79(3), 45–47.
Rhodes, L. A. (2005). Pathological Effects of the Supermaximum Prison. (Cover story). American Journal of Public Health, 95(10), 1692–1695.
Shames, et al (2015). A Life in SuperMax. TIME. 298 (10), 42-48.
Another example
Solitary Confinement and the Social and Psychological Effects
SM
Department of English, Lone Star College
English 1302: Composition and Rhetoric II
Professor David Maslane
May 6th, 2022
Solitary Confinement and the Social and Psychological Effects
Imagine one is watching an inmate waking in a tiny room surrounded by blank white walls; one might notice that they scan the room looking for any visual relief. Hours pass, then days, then weeks and months while they just sit in the stone-cold room; once a day they are allowed 30 minutes outside their box. Now, imagine that they step out of their cell, and one notices that no one even glances their way, as if they aren’t even human. If one watched them for long enough, one might notice that the paranoia and sleep deprivation the inmate feels begin to feed into one another and he begins to seek any kind of stimulation. One imagines that the voices in his head become his company as he throws his head against the wall to feel something-or anything, maybe. This is his new reality; and, like an animal in a cage, one notices that he begins to behave more like an animal than a person. Now, imagine this inmate one has seen is one of 80,000 inmates, and one gets the sense of what is happening in U.S. prison systems across all 50 states.
The United States is one of the biggest, most developed countries in the world and with such a large population comes more regulations and surveillance to maintain order. From cameras on traffic lights to screening phone calls to prevent terrorist communication, surveillance is a cornerstone for regulations in the United States. Similarly, correctional facilities have always been a part of this country’s history and are a necessary component of any government who imposes punishments for criminals or reoffending criminals. The United States government categorizes crimes based on severity. As a result, correctional facilities house inmates based of the severity of their offenses and these facilities can range from jails to supermax prisons. Supermax prisons are usually reserved for reoffending criminals or felonies who have a history of violent behavior in while serving time in pervious correctional facilities. These max prisons come with more aggressive, oppressive punishments. Solitary confinement, as known as a Special Hoisting Unit (SHU), Control Unit (CU), or Segregation Units (SU), is the systematic isolation of inmates to individual cells and vigorous regulations on their activities and social interactions. These units focus on targeting the psyche while coupling traditional disciplinary techniques such as using physical force to restrain inmates. Solitary confinement use in the U.S. dates to the late 18th century, which began from silent prisons, Jeremy Bentham’s panopticon, and New York’s Auburn Prison. These were the foundation for the birth of modern solitary confinement in America. As Shames, et al (2015) state: “On any given day as many as 80,000 inmates are in isolated confinement in state and federal prisons. This figure does not include those isolated in local jails and detention centers or juvenile facilities”. While it’s true that many supermax prisons have specified sections for inmate isolation, it’s a common misconception to believe that they are the only prisons that have these isolating units. SHU can be commonly found in traditional state prisons across the country, as well. These units are meant to provide safety for inmates and guards, but their methods run counter to the purpose of U.S. prisons, which is to reform an inmate and make him or her a person that can become a functioning member of society. Certain methods used in correctional facilities create dysfunctional inmates rather than reformed citizens. Solitary confinement, the isolation of a single inmate in a separate cell with strict control, impairs the social and psychologically health of inmates rather than working to reform them by excising surveillance protocol, minimalizing social interactions, and deprivation sensory stimuli, causing interpersonal and mental disconnection.
Some advocates claim that solitary can be used for protective custody, but this is a very small percentage of the inmates that fill the isolation units, which does not justify an unwillingness to reform isolation units. On occasion, if a prisoner is a gang member or a pedophile they are put in confinement for their own protection, but these are the exception. While it can also be argued that with reform, solitary confinement could be still theoretically be utilized in a more limited, monitored form, solitary still would need to be fitted to coincide with the intention that the prisoners will one day be released back into the society. An inmate is still entitled to humane, civil punishment, even if they are serving a life sentence or are on death row. To claim a convict deserves to be placed in SHU for an unreasonable or extended sentence without any form of direct causality would be prejudice. Not only will the inmates with those particular circumstances never get a chance to be released into the general public, they will also never get the proper assimilation that they need to feel human if they are isolated alone for the rest of their sentence with is cruel and unusual punishment.
Surveillance affects behavior, whether it is intentional or unintentional. Hence, surveillance in the prison system is a necessary component to maintain control and differs from surveillance in the general public in one major way – lack of freedom of action. Cameras cloak every area of prisons very similar to mall and store sectary cameras, yet the general population doesn’t fear cameras the same way prisoners fear them while incarcerated. This is because the general population is free to act on their own will and don’t worry of reciprocation for their actions. Guards and the prison staff meticulously scan their screens looking for any kind of misdemeanor or altercation that could disturb their order, so inmates psychologically learn to alter their behavior while in the presence of cameras. They become very aware of them and fear them. But in the grocery store, the only kind of person who even remembers the cameras are there are shoplifters. While both situations demonstrate that surveillance does affect behavior, they differ based on circumstance and the effects of being monitored changes based on the surveilles preconceived notion of what surveillance leads to.
Humans are social beings and require interactions to process, develop, and grow. Unfortunately, inmates who have served time in solitary have reported suffering from sensory deprivation, insomnia, and detachment from people and the outside world. Cloud, et al (2015) describe the conditions of solitary confinement an inmate’s perspective. They claimed that some confinement units were completely silent aside from an occasional outburst or uneasy voices echoing off the concrete walls. In newer units, security cameras, automatic doors, and intercoms further minimize the physical person-to-person interactions. The effects of solitary confinement vary depending on the inmate and some suffer social dissociation, interpersonal degradation, from their family and society making it more difficult to assimilation back into society following release. Following this idea, Jeremy Bentham’s panopticon is seen one of the fundamental ideas concerning behavioral control using surveillance. The panopticon was one of the first architectural buildings that played with this idea of surveillance coupled with the idea of psychological self-regulation. Jeremy Bentham (1977) describes his panopticon as a visual trap. It is a circle shaped building that houses hundreds of individual cells, all looking onto the center of the circle, which has a watchtower fitted with a large spotlight. This spotlight shines directly at the inmates thus meaning they are seen from the front by the watchtower guard but are prevented from encountering other inmates. Bentham (1977) describes this relationship as being seen while not seeing: Stating that the inmate is an informational object and never a subject of communication. This constant surveillance plays with the notion that because the inmate believes he is constantly being watched, he starts to act differently and regulates his own behavior, so he is not punished. If he knew the guard was not always watching his cell, he would know he could deviate. Since the light blinds him from knowing if the guard is watched or not, he assumes he is always being monitored and acts accordingly. This concept is where the idea of solitary confinement branched from.
For that reason, solitary confinement is a section in prisons that aims to produce a self-regulating inmate, rather than one who needs constant external regulation, by isolating inmates in single cell blocks. The inmates in the SHU are helplessly dependent on the prison staff who roam outside their doors. They give them their meals, messages, and even toilet paper through slots in their metal doors. This can produce a lack of independence and fails to psychologically prepare inmates for the independent demands of becoming a productive member of society. When inmates are allowed outside their concrete cells, they only go one of two places- solitary yards or the shower. As Cloud, et al (2015) explains “The United States not only incarcerates the most people (world-wide), but also exposes more of its citizenry to solitary confinement than any other nation.” The average time spend in solitary can range from 2 weeks to 6 months, but it is not unheard of for prisoners to spend years in these confinement units.
Humans are social beings and require interactions to process, develop, and grow. Unfortunately, inmates who have served time in solitary have reported suffering from sensory deprivation, insomnia, and detachment from people and the outside world. Cloud, et al (2015) describe the conditions of solitary confinement an inmate’s perspective. They claimed that some confinement units were completely silent aside from an occasional outburst or uneasy voices echoing off the concrete walls. In newer units, security cameras, automatic doors, and intercoms further minimize the physical person-to-person interactions. The effects of solitary confinement vary depending on the inmate and some suffer social dissociation, interpersonal degradation, from their family and society making it more difficult to assimilation back into society following release.
Rhodes(2005) wrote about one inmate named Todd Tarset who allowed his drawings to be released to the public with the help Bonnie Kemess of the American Friends Service Committee. The aim was to help people on the outside better understand the effects of solitary. Tarset’s drawings focus on three main points about solitary in the U.S: Solitary affects the psychological self-image of inmates, it produces and exacerbates mental illnesses, and ultimately raises bigger questions about the extended effects of the U.S prison system as a whole. Tarset used drawing to help channel the confusing psychological pressures he and his other unit members sustained. He based his drawing titled “Decompensation” on his personal observations of inmates that were held in solitary for years. The image depicts four faces, each expressing different emotions: resting, rage, depression, and psychosis. Todd explains that for many individuals, solitary confinement is extremely effective at its purpose to isolate. It is quite painful for some who suffer withdraws from the outside reality as they start feeling less human. In Todd’s other drawing “Untitled”, Tarset explains how the depiction of eyes with prison bars over them represents the perspective change that occurs when inmates serve time in prison. Prisoners like Tarset have commented that the longer they stay in solitary, the more the perspective of themselves and the outside world changes until the only reality they know is their single cell and their internal thoughts.
Similarly, Guenther (2013) told the story of a man named Anthony Graves, who was wrongly accused of murder and served 10 of his 18 years on death row in Texas. Graves gave his testimony about solitary confinement to the court in 2012: He discussed how he hadn’t had any physical contact with another human for those 10 years that he served while incarcerated. This indicates that Graves was immediately placed in disciplinary confinement upon arriving in prison. He now struggles with being in large groups of people for extended amounts of time and wrestles with the memories of inmates he saw enter prison completely sane and three years later were mentally devastated. He claims that solitary confinement only produces one result – it breaks an inmate’s will to live and causes deterioration. Solitary confinement is a type of living death or social death for many. Moreover, in J. Casella and J. Ridgeway’s New York’s Black Sites, Bonnie Kernes (2015) calls solitary confinement a non-physical torture. The isolation units use every method available to disconnect inmates from the free world. The techniques used in solitary try to gain control of inmates by attempting to break their psychological connect to the outside world which can impair the functionally of their social and mental wellbeing as seen in previous cases. The greater time spent in SHU, the greater the dissociation between the inmate and their connection to society becomes. In general prison population, prisoners go to the mess hall, talk to other inmates and guards, and do programs. These interactions make the difference between feeling like a human being or not. Casella and Ridgeway (2012) argue that in solitary confinement, inmates are treated like a caged animal not a human being.
There is another common misconception the general public tends to believe: Isolation units like SHU are a last resort for inmates or are only reserved for those who try to escape or are dangerous for others, but the reality it’s usually the first option for both minor and major offenses once convicts have been committed. The idea behind this quick placement is to nip unwanted behaviors in the bud when the prisoners start to deviate, yet these disciplinary methods are counterproductive to the purpose of correctional facilities who aim to release productive, reformed convicts back into society.
Consequently, lawmakers need to reevaluate the purpose of penitentiary systems in the U.S. and how, or if, solitary confinement coincides with that purpose. The United States prison system exists to reform criminals, so they may be reintroduced to society as functional, productive members. While both normal and supermax prisons can be found all over the country, supermax correctional facilities are designed to confine inmates for longer sentences than traditional prison and have a tendency to abuse these disciplinary punishments. In supermax prisons, the inmates are usually more difficult to maintain and are charged with more serious crimes. For guards and prison staff, this is all the more reason to place inmates in solitary confinement at an inmate’s first disruptive incident. Most inmates who are mistreated or wrongly placed in isolation units have few options to fight back, but “one of the few places inmates can turn to for help fighting a SHU sentence in court is Prisoners’ Legal Services of New York. But in the past twenty years, the group has had its funding cut to the bone.” (Casella & Ridgeway, 2012). James Bogin (2012) is a member of this organization and says the cuts have resulted in the organization only being able to represent a fraction of the inmates that write them asking for help. His biggest concern with these cuts is that there could be inmates suffering real torture and he would be unable to help them. In order to start reforming or removing solitary confinement from these correctional facilities, awareness must be brought to the reality of application and how misuse can lead to such negative effects on inmates. Yet there are still advocates who are in favor of solitary confinement as it presently exists. Guenther (2013) address how advocates of solitary confinement try portraying the incarcerated, especially in supermax prisons, as rapists, mass killers, pedophiles, and terrorists: the most threatening types of people to the whole of society. These loaded words discourage the general public from fighting to reduce the power of control units in prisons. Truthfully, many inmates who find themselves in SHU have not committed any violet crimes, but instead are places in confinement for broken prison rules, such as fighting, not participating in work, or attempted self-harm: None of these misdemeanors are related to their initial crimes thus resulting in an unfair punishment for the crimes committed.
Solitary confinement is a cruel, inhumane punishment method used in the United States prison system that can cause social and psychological turmoil and counteracts the primary purpose of correctional facilities in this country. The use of SHU, while effects vary depending on the inmate, does not aim to help the overall growth of the incarcerated and untimely can do more harm than good.
References
Casella, J., & Ridgeway, J. (2012). New York’s Black Sites. Nation, 295(5/6), 18–24.
Cloud, D. H., Drucker, E., Browne, A., & Parsons, J. (2015). Public Health and Solitary Confinement in the United States. American Journal of Public Health, 105(1), 18–26.
Foucault, M. (1977). Panopticon. In Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison (pp. 195-200). New York: Pantheon Books.
Guenther, L. (2013). Supermax Confinement and The Exhaustion of Space. In Solitary Confinement: Social Death and its Afterlives (pp. 161-194). Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota.
Harrington, M. P. (2015). Methodological Challenges to the Study and Understanding of Solitary Confinement. Federal Probation, 79(3), 45–47.
Rhodes, L. A. (2005). Pathological Effects of the Supermaximum Prison. (Cover story). American Journal of Public Health, 95(10), 1692–1695.
Shames, et al (2015). A Life in SuperMax. TIME. 298 (10), 42-48.
Solitary Confinement and the Social and Psychological Effects
SM
Department of English, Lone Star College
English 1302: Composition and Rhetoric II
Professor David Maslane
May 6th, 2022
Solitary Confinement and the Social and Psychological Effects
Imagine one is watching an inmate waking in a tiny room surrounded by blank white walls; one might notice that they scan the room looking for any visual relief. Hours pass, then days, then weeks and months while they just sit in the stone-cold room; once a day they are allowed 30 minutes outside their box. Now, imagine that they step out of their cell, and one notices that no one even glances their way, as if they aren’t even human. If one watched them for long enough, one might notice that the paranoia and sleep deprivation the inmate feels begin to feed into one another and he begins to seek any kind of stimulation. One imagines that the voices in his head become his company as he throws his head against the wall to feel something-or anything, maybe. This is his new reality; and, like an animal in a cage, one notices that he begins to behave more like an animal than a person. Now, imagine this inmate one has seen is one of 80,000 inmates, and one gets the sense of what is happening in U.S. prison systems across all 50 states.
The United States is one of the biggest, most developed countries in the world and with such a large population comes more regulations and surveillance to maintain order. From cameras on traffic lights to screening phone calls to prevent terrorist communication, surveillance is a cornerstone for regulations in the United States. Similarly, correctional facilities have always been a part of this country’s history and are a necessary component of any government who imposes punishments for criminals or reoffending criminals. The United States government categorizes crimes based on severity. As a result, correctional facilities house inmates based of the severity of their offenses and these facilities can range from jails to supermax prisons. Supermax prisons are usually reserved for reoffending criminals or felonies who have a history of violent behavior in while serving time in pervious correctional facilities. These max prisons come with more aggressive, oppressive punishments. Solitary confinement, as known as a Special Hoisting Unit (SHU), Control Unit (CU), or Segregation Units (SU), is the systematic isolation of inmates to individual cells and vigorous regulations on their activities and social interactions. These units focus on targeting the psyche while coupling traditional disciplinary techniques such as using physical force to restrain inmates. Solitary confinement use in the U.S. dates to the late 18th century, which began from silent prisons, Jeremy Bentham’s panopticon, and New York’s Auburn Prison. These were the foundation for the birth of modern solitary confinement in America. As Shames, et al (2015) state: “On any given day as many as 80,000 inmates are in isolated confinement in state and federal prisons. This figure does not include those isolated in local jails and detention centers or juvenile facilities”. While it’s true that many supermax prisons have specified sections for inmate isolation, it’s a common misconception to believe that they are the only prisons that have these isolating units. SHU can be commonly found in traditional state prisons across the country, as well. These units are meant to provide safety for inmates and guards, but their methods run counter to the purpose of U.S. prisons, which is to reform an inmate and make him or her a person that can become a functioning member of society. Certain methods used in correctional facilities create dysfunctional inmates rather than reformed citizens. Solitary confinement, the isolation of a single inmate in a separate cell with strict control, impairs the social and psychologically health of inmates rather than working to reform them by excising surveillance protocol, minimalizing social interactions, and deprivation sensory stimuli, causing interpersonal and mental disconnection.
Some advocates claim that solitary can be used for protective custody, but this is a very small percentage of the inmates that fill the isolation units, which does not justify an unwillingness to reform isolation units. On occasion, if a prisoner is a gang member or a pedophile they are put in confinement for their own protection, but these are the exception. While it can also be argued that with reform, solitary confinement could be still theoretically be utilized in a more limited, monitored form, solitary still would need to be fitted to coincide with the intention that the prisoners will one day be released back into the society. An inmate is still entitled to humane, civil punishment, even if they are serving a life sentence or are on death row. To claim a convict deserves to be placed in SHU for an unreasonable or extended sentence without any form of direct causality would be prejudice. Not only will the inmates with those particular circumstances never get a chance to be released into the general public, they will also never get the proper assimilation that they need to feel human if they are isolated alone for the rest of their sentence with is cruel and unusual punishment.
Surveillance affects behavior, whether it is intentional or unintentional. Hence, surveillance in the prison system is a necessary component to maintain control and differs from surveillance in the general public in one major way – lack of freedom of action. Cameras cloak every area of prisons very similar to mall and store sectary cameras, yet the general population doesn’t fear cameras the same way prisoners fear them while incarcerated. This is because the general population is free to act on their own will and don’t worry of reciprocation for their actions. Guards and the prison staff meticulously scan their screens looking for any kind of misdemeanor or altercation that could disturb their order, so inmates psychologically learn to alter their behavior while in the presence of cameras. They become very aware of them and fear them. But in the grocery store, the only kind of person who even remembers the cameras are there are shoplifters. While both situations demonstrate that surveillance does affect behavior, they differ based on circumstance and the effects of being monitored changes based on the surveilles preconceived notion of what surveillance leads to.
Humans are social beings and require interactions to process, develop, and grow. Unfortunately, inmates who have served time in solitary have reported suffering from sensory deprivation, insomnia, and detachment from people and the outside world. Cloud, et al (2015) describe the conditions of solitary confinement an inmate’s perspective. They claimed that some confinement units were completely silent aside from an occasional outburst or uneasy voices echoing off the concrete walls. In newer units, security cameras, automatic doors, and intercoms further minimize the physical person-to-person interactions. The effects of solitary confinement vary depending on the inmate and some suffer social dissociation, interpersonal degradation, from their family and society making it more difficult to assimilation back into society following release. Following this idea, Jeremy Bentham’s panopticon is seen one of the fundamental ideas concerning behavioral control using surveillance. The panopticon was one of the first architectural buildings that played with this idea of surveillance coupled with the idea of psychological self-regulation. Jeremy Bentham (1977) describes his panopticon as a visual trap. It is a circle shaped building that houses hundreds of individual cells, all looking onto the center of the circle, which has a watchtower fitted with a large spotlight. This spotlight shines directly at the inmates thus meaning they are seen from the front by the watchtower guard but are prevented from encountering other inmates. Bentham (1977) describes this relationship as being seen while not seeing: Stating that the inmate is an informational object and never a subject of communication. This constant surveillance plays with the notion that because the inmate believes he is constantly being watched, he starts to act differently and regulates his own behavior, so he is not punished. If he knew the guard was not always watching his cell, he would know he could deviate. Since the light blinds him from knowing if the guard is watched or not, he assumes he is always being monitored and acts accordingly. This concept is where the idea of solitary confinement branched from.
For that reason, solitary confinement is a section in prisons that aims to produce a self-regulating inmate, rather than one who needs constant external regulation, by isolating inmates in single cell blocks. The inmates in the SHU are helplessly dependent on the prison staff who roam outside their doors. They give them their meals, messages, and even toilet paper through slots in their metal doors. This can produce a lack of independence and fails to psychologically prepare inmates for the independent demands of becoming a productive member of society. When inmates are allowed outside their concrete cells, they only go one of two places- solitary yards or the shower. As Cloud, et al (2015) explains “The United States not only incarcerates the most people (world-wide), but also exposes more of its citizenry to solitary confinement than any other nation.” The average time spend in solitary can range from 2 weeks to 6 months, but it is not unheard of for prisoners to spend years in these confinement units.
Humans are social beings and require interactions to process, develop, and grow. Unfortunately, inmates who have served time in solitary have reported suffering from sensory deprivation, insomnia, and detachment from people and the outside world. Cloud, et al (2015) describe the conditions of solitary confinement an inmate’s perspective. They claimed that some confinement units were completely silent aside from an occasional outburst or uneasy voices echoing off the concrete walls. In newer units, security cameras, automatic doors, and intercoms further minimize the physical person-to-person interactions. The effects of solitary confinement vary depending on the inmate and some suffer social dissociation, interpersonal degradation, from their family and society making it more difficult to assimilation back into society following release.
Rhodes(2005) wrote about one inmate named Todd Tarset who allowed his drawings to be released to the public with the help Bonnie Kemess of the American Friends Service Committee. The aim was to help people on the outside better understand the effects of solitary. Tarset’s drawings focus on three main points about solitary in the U.S: Solitary affects the psychological self-image of inmates, it produces and exacerbates mental illnesses, and ultimately raises bigger questions about the extended effects of the U.S prison system as a whole. Tarset used drawing to help channel the confusing psychological pressures he and his other unit members sustained. He based his drawing titled “Decompensation” on his personal observations of inmates that were held in solitary for years. The image depicts four faces, each expressing different emotions: resting, rage, depression, and psychosis. Todd explains that for many individuals, solitary confinement is extremely effective at its purpose to isolate. It is quite painful for some who suffer withdraws from the outside reality as they start feeling less human. In Todd’s other drawing “Untitled”, Tarset explains how the depiction of eyes with prison bars over them represents the perspective change that occurs when inmates serve time in prison. Prisoners like Tarset have commented that the longer they stay in solitary, the more the perspective of themselves and the outside world changes until the only reality they know is their single cell and their internal thoughts.
Similarly, Guenther (2013) told the story of a man named Anthony Graves, who was wrongly accused of murder and served 10 of his 18 years on death row in Texas. Graves gave his testimony about solitary confinement to the court in 2012: He discussed how he hadn’t had any physical contact with another human for those 10 years that he served while incarcerated. This indicates that Graves was immediately placed in disciplinary confinement upon arriving in prison. He now struggles with being in large groups of people for extended amounts of time and wrestles with the memories of inmates he saw enter prison completely sane and three years later were mentally devastated. He claims that solitary confinement only produces one result – it breaks an inmate’s will to live and causes deterioration. Solitary confinement is a type of living death or social death for many. Moreover, in J. Casella and J. Ridgeway’s New York’s Black Sites, Bonnie Kernes (2015) calls solitary confinement a non-physical torture. The isolation units use every method available to disconnect inmates from the free world. The techniques used in solitary try to gain control of inmates by attempting to break their psychological connect to the outside world which can impair the functionally of their social and mental wellbeing as seen in previous cases. The greater time spent in SHU, the greater the dissociation between the inmate and their connection to society becomes. In general prison population, prisoners go to the mess hall, talk to other inmates and guards, and do programs. These interactions make the difference between feeling like a human being or not. Casella and Ridgeway (2012) argue that in solitary confinement, inmates are treated like a caged animal not a human being.
There is another common misconception the general public tends to believe: Isolation units like SHU are a last resort for inmates or are only reserved for those who try to escape or are dangerous for others, but the reality it’s usually the first option for both minor and major offenses once convicts have been committed. The idea behind this quick placement is to nip unwanted behaviors in the bud when the prisoners start to deviate, yet these disciplinary methods are counterproductive to the purpose of correctional facilities who aim to release productive, reformed convicts back into society.
Consequently, lawmakers need to reevaluate the purpose of penitentiary systems in the U.S. and how, or if, solitary confinement coincides with that purpose. The United States prison system exists to reform criminals, so they may be reintroduced to society as functional, productive members. While both normal and supermax prisons can be found all over the country, supermax correctional facilities are designed to confine inmates for longer sentences than traditional prison and have a tendency to abuse these disciplinary punishments. In supermax prisons, the inmates are usually more difficult to maintain and are charged with more serious crimes. For guards and prison staff, this is all the more reason to place inmates in solitary confinement at an inmate’s first disruptive incident. Most inmates who are mistreated or wrongly placed in isolation units have few options to fight back, but “one of the few places inmates can turn to for help fighting a SHU sentence in court is Prisoners’ Legal Services of New York. But in the past twenty years, the group has had its funding cut to the bone.” (Casella & Ridgeway, 2012). James Bogin (2012) is a member of this organization and says the cuts have resulted in the organization only being able to represent a fraction of the inmates that write them asking for help. His biggest concern with these cuts is that there could be inmates suffering real torture and he would be unable to help them. In order to start reforming or removing solitary confinement from these correctional facilities, awareness must be brought to the reality of application and how misuse can lead to such negative effects on inmates. Yet there are still advocates who are in favor of solitary confinement as it presently exists. Guenther (2013) address how advocates of solitary confinement try portraying the incarcerated, especially in supermax prisons, as rapists, mass killers, pedophiles, and terrorists: the most threatening types of people to the whole of society. These loaded words discourage the general public from fighting to reduce the power of control units in prisons. Truthfully, many inmates who find themselves in SHU have not committed any violet crimes, but instead are places in confinement for broken prison rules, such as fighting, not participating in work, or attempted self-harm: None of these misdemeanors are related to their initial crimes thus resulting in an unfair punishment for the crimes committed.
Solitary confinement is a cruel, inhumane punishment method used in the United States prison system that can cause social and psychological turmoil and counteracts the primary purpose of correctional facilities in this country. The use of SHU, while effects vary depending on the inmate, does not aim to help the overall growth of the incarcerated and untimely can do more harm than good.
References
Casella, J., & Ridgeway, J. (2012). New York’s Black Sites. Nation, 295(5/6), 18–24.
Cloud, D. H., Drucker, E., Browne, A., & Parsons, J. (2015). Public Health and Solitary Confinement in the United States. American Journal of Public Health, 105(1), 18–26.
Foucault, M. (1977). Panopticon. In Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison (pp. 195-200). New York: Pantheon Books.
Guenther, L. (2013). Supermax Confinement and The Exhaustion of Space. In Solitary Confinement: Social Death and its Afterlives (pp. 161-194). Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota.
Harrington, M. P. (2015). Methodological Challenges to the Study and Understanding of Solitary Confinement. Federal Probation, 79(3), 45–47.
Rhodes, L. A. (2005). Pathological Effects of the Supermaximum Prison. (Cover story). American Journal of Public Health, 95(10), 1692–1695.
Shames, et al (2015). A Life in SuperMax. TIME. 298 (10), 42-48.
Solitary Confinement and the Social and Psychological Effects
SM
Department of English, Lone Star College
English 1302: Composition and Rhetoric II
Professor David Maslane
May 6th, 2022
Solitary Confinement and the Social and Psychological Effects
Imagine one is watching an inmate waking in a tiny room surrounded by blank white walls; one might notice that they scan the room looking for any visual relief. Hours pass, then days, then weeks and months while they just sit in the stone-cold room; once a day they are allowed 30 minutes outside their box. Now, imagine that they step out of their cell, and one notices that no one even glances their way, as if they aren’t even human. If one watched them for long enough, one might notice that the paranoia and sleep deprivation the inmate feels begin to feed into one another and he begins to seek any kind of stimulation. One imagines that the voices in his head become his company as he throws his head against the wall to feel something-or anything, maybe. This is his new reality; and, like an animal in a cage, one notices that he begins to behave more like an animal than a person. Now, imagine this inmate one has seen is one of 80,000 inmates, and one gets the sense of what is happening in U.S. prison systems across all 50 states.
The United States is one of the biggest, most developed countries in the world and with such a large population comes more regulations and surveillance to maintain order. From cameras on traffic lights to screening phone calls to prevent terrorist communication, surveillance is a cornerstone for regulations in the United States. Similarly, correctional facilities have always been a part of this country’s history and are a necessary component of any government who imposes punishments for criminals or reoffending criminals. The United States government categorizes crimes based on severity. As a result, correctional facilities house inmates based of the severity of their offenses and these facilities can range from jails to supermax prisons. Supermax prisons are usually reserved for reoffending criminals or felonies who have a history of violent behavior in while serving time in pervious correctional facilities. These max prisons come with more aggressive, oppressive punishments. Solitary confinement, as known as a Special Hoisting Unit (SHU), Control Unit (CU), or Segregation Units (SU), is the systematic isolation of inmates to individual cells and vigorous regulations on their activities and social interactions. These units focus on targeting the psyche while coupling traditional disciplinary techniques such as using physical force to restrain inmates. Solitary confinement use in the U.S. dates to the late 18th century, which began from silent prisons, Jeremy Bentham’s panopticon, and New York’s Auburn Prison. These were the foundation for the birth of modern solitary confinement in America. As Shames, et al (2015) state: “On any given day as many as 80,000 inmates are in isolated confinement in state and federal prisons. This figure does not include those isolated in local jails and detention centers or juvenile facilities”. While it’s true that many supermax prisons have specified sections for inmate isolation, it’s a common misconception to believe that they are the only prisons that have these isolating units. SHU can be commonly found in traditional state prisons across the country, as well. These units are meant to provide safety for inmates and guards, but their methods run counter to the purpose of U.S. prisons, which is to reform an inmate and make him or her a person that can become a functioning member of society. Certain methods used in correctional facilities create dysfunctional inmates rather than reformed citizens. Solitary confinement, the isolation of a single inmate in a separate cell with strict control, impairs the social and psychologically health of inmates rather than working to reform them by excising surveillance protocol, minimalizing social interactions, and deprivation sensory stimuli, causing interpersonal and mental disconnection.
Some advocates claim that solitary can be used for protective custody, but this is a very small percentage of the inmates that fill the isolation units, which does not justify an unwillingness to reform isolation units. On occasion, if a prisoner is a gang member or a pedophile they are put in confinement for their own protection, but these are the exception. While it can also be argued that with reform, solitary confinement could be still theoretically be utilized in a more limited, monitored form, solitary still would need to be fitted to coincide with the intention that the prisoners will one day be released back into the society. An inmate is still entitled to humane, civil punishment, even if they are serving a life sentence or are on death row. To claim a convict deserves to be placed in SHU for an unreasonable or extended sentence without any form of direct causality would be prejudice. Not only will the inmates with those particular circumstances never get a chance to be released into the general public, they will also never get the proper assimilation that they need to feel human if they are isolated alone for the rest of their sentence with is cruel and unusual punishment.
Surveillance affects behavior, whether it is intentional or unintentional. Hence, surveillance in the prison system is a necessary component to maintain control and differs from surveillance in the general public in one major way – lack of freedom of action. Cameras cloak every area of prisons very similar to mall and store sectary cameras, yet the general population doesn’t fear cameras the same way prisoners fear them while incarcerated. This is because the general population is free to act on their own will and don’t worry of reciprocation for their actions. Guards and the prison staff meticulously scan their screens looking for any kind of misdemeanor or altercation that could disturb their order, so inmates psychologically learn to alter their behavior while in the presence of cameras. They become very aware of them and fear them. But in the grocery store, the only kind of person who even remembers the cameras are there are shoplifters. While both situations demonstrate that surveillance does affect behavior, they differ based on circumstance and the effects of being monitored changes based on the surveilles preconceived notion of what surveillance leads to.
Humans are social beings and require interactions to process, develop, and grow. Unfortunately, inmates who have served time in solitary have reported suffering from sensory deprivation, insomnia, and detachment from people and the outside world. Cloud, et al (2015) describe the conditions of solitary confinement an inmate’s perspective. They claimed that some confinement units were completely silent aside from an occasional outburst or uneasy voices echoing off the concrete walls. In newer units, security cameras, automatic doors, and intercoms further minimize the physical person-to-person interactions. The effects of solitary confinement vary depending on the inmate and some suffer social dissociation, interpersonal degradation, from their family and society making it more difficult to assimilation back into society following release. Following this idea, Jeremy Bentham’s panopticon is seen one of the fundamental ideas concerning behavioral control using surveillance. The panopticon was one of the first architectural buildings that played with this idea of surveillance coupled with the idea of psychological self-regulation. Jeremy Bentham (1977) describes his panopticon as a visual trap. It is a circle shaped building that houses hundreds of individual cells, all looking onto the center of the circle, which has a watchtower fitted with a large spotlight. This spotlight shines directly at the inmates thus meaning they are seen from the front by the watchtower guard but are prevented from encountering other inmates. Bentham (1977) describes this relationship as being seen while not seeing: Stating that the inmate is an informational object and never a subject of communication. This constant surveillance plays with the notion that because the inmate believes he is constantly being watched, he starts to act differently and regulates his own behavior, so he is not punished. If he knew the guard was not always watching his cell, he would know he could deviate. Since the light blinds him from knowing if the guard is watched or not, he assumes he is always being monitored and acts accordingly. This concept is where the idea of solitary confinement branched from.
For that reason, solitary confinement is a section in prisons that aims to produce a self-regulating inmate, rather than one who needs constant external regulation, by isolating inmates in single cell blocks. The inmates in the SHU are helplessly dependent on the prison staff who roam outside their doors. They give them their meals, messages, and even toilet paper through slots in their metal doors. This can produce a lack of independence and fails to psychologically prepare inmates for the independent demands of becoming a productive member of society. When inmates are allowed outside their concrete cells, they only go one of two places- solitary yards or the shower. As Cloud, et al (2015) explains “The United States not only incarcerates the most people (world-wide), but also exposes more of its citizenry to solitary confinement than any other nation.” The average time spend in solitary can range from 2 weeks to 6 months, but it is not unheard of for prisoners to spend years in these confinement units.
Humans are social beings and require interactions to process, develop, and grow. Unfortunately, inmates who have served time in solitary have reported suffering from sensory deprivation, insomnia, and detachment from people and the outside world. Cloud, et al (2015) describe the conditions of solitary confinement an inmate’s perspective. They claimed that some confinement units were completely silent aside from an occasional outburst or uneasy voices echoing off the concrete walls. In newer units, security cameras, automatic doors, and intercoms further minimize the physical person-to-person interactions. The effects of solitary confinement vary depending on the inmate and some suffer social dissociation, interpersonal degradation, from their family and society making it more difficult to assimilation back into society following release.
Rhodes(2005) wrote about one inmate named Todd Tarset who allowed his drawings to be released to the public with the help Bonnie Kemess of the American Friends Service Committee. The aim was to help people on the outside better understand the effects of solitary. Tarset’s drawings focus on three main points about solitary in the U.S: Solitary affects the psychological self-image of inmates, it produces and exacerbates mental illnesses, and ultimately raises bigger questions about the extended effects of the U.S prison system as a whole. Tarset used drawing to help channel the confusing psychological pressures he and his other unit members sustained. He based his drawing titled “Decompensation” on his personal observations of inmates that were held in solitary for years. The image depicts four faces, each expressing different emotions: resting, rage, depression, and psychosis. Todd explains that for many individuals, solitary confinement is extremely effective at its purpose to isolate. It is quite painful for some who suffer withdraws from the outside reality as they start feeling less human. In Todd’s other drawing “Untitled”, Tarset explains how the depiction of eyes with prison bars over them represents the perspective change that occurs when inmates serve time in prison. Prisoners like Tarset have commented that the longer they stay in solitary, the more the perspective of themselves and the outside world changes until the only reality they know is their single cell and their internal thoughts.
Similarly, Guenther (2013) told the story of a man named Anthony Graves, who was wrongly accused of murder and served 10 of his 18 years on death row in Texas. Graves gave his testimony about solitary confinement to the court in 2012: He discussed how he hadn’t had any physical contact with another human for those 10 years that he served while incarcerated. This indicates that Graves was immediately placed in disciplinary confinement upon arriving in prison. He now struggles with being in large groups of people for extended amounts of time and wrestles with the memories of inmates he saw enter prison completely sane and three years later were mentally devastated. He claims that solitary confinement only produces one result – it breaks an inmate’s will to live and causes deterioration. Solitary confinement is a type of living death or social death for many. Moreover, in J. Casella and J. Ridgeway’s New York’s Black Sites, Bonnie Kernes (2015) calls solitary confinement a non-physical torture. The isolation units use every method available to disconnect inmates from the free world. The techniques used in solitary try to gain control of inmates by attempting to break their psychological connect to the outside world which can impair the functionally of their social and mental wellbeing as seen in previous cases. The greater time spent in SHU, the greater the dissociation between the inmate and their connection to society becomes. In general prison population, prisoners go to the mess hall, talk to other inmates and guards, and do programs. These interactions make the difference between feeling like a human being or not. Casella and Ridgeway (2012) argue that in solitary confinement, inmates are treated like a caged animal not a human being.
There is another common misconception the general public tends to believe: Isolation units like SHU are a last resort for inmates or are only reserved for those who try to escape or are dangerous for others, but the reality it’s usually the first option for both minor and major offenses once convicts have been committed. The idea behind this quick placement is to nip unwanted behaviors in the bud when the prisoners start to deviate, yet these disciplinary methods are counterproductive to the purpose of correctional facilities who aim to release productive, reformed convicts back into society.
Consequently, lawmakers need to reevaluate the purpose of penitentiary systems in the U.S. and how, or if, solitary confinement coincides with that purpose. The United States prison system exists to reform criminals, so they may be reintroduced to society as functional, productive members. While both normal and supermax prisons can be found all over the country, supermax correctional facilities are designed to confine inmates for longer sentences than traditional prison and have a tendency to abuse these disciplinary punishments. In supermax prisons, the inmates are usually more difficult to maintain and are charged with more serious crimes. For guards and prison staff, this is all the more reason to place inmates in solitary confinement at an inmate’s first disruptive incident. Most inmates who are mistreated or wrongly placed in isolation units have few options to fight back, but “one of the few places inmates can turn to for help fighting a SHU sentence in court is Prisoners’ Legal Services of New York. But in the past twenty years, the group has had its funding cut to the bone.” (Casella & Ridgeway, 2012). James Bogin (2012) is a member of this organization and says the cuts have resulted in the organization only being able to represent a fraction of the inmates that write them asking for help. His biggest concern with these cuts is that there could be inmates suffering real torture and he would be unable to help them. In order to start reforming or removing solitary confinement from these correctional facilities, awareness must be brought to the reality of application and how misuse can lead to such negative effects on inmates. Yet there are still advocates who are in favor of solitary confinement as it presently exists. Guenther (2013) address how advocates of solitary confinement try portraying the incarcerated, especially in supermax prisons, as rapists, mass killers, pedophiles, and terrorists: the most threatening types of people to the whole of society. These loaded words discourage the general public from fighting to reduce the power of control units in prisons. Truthfully, many inmates who find themselves in SHU have not committed any violet crimes, but instead are places in confinement for broken prison rules, such as fighting, not participating in work, or attempted self-harm: None of these misdemeanors are related to their initial crimes thus resulting in an unfair punishment for the crimes committed.
Solitary confinement is a cruel, inhumane punishment method used in the United States prison system that can cause social and psychological turmoil and counteracts the primary purpose of correctional facilities in this country. The use of SHU, while effects vary depending on the inmate, does not aim to help the overall growth of the incarcerated and untimely can do more harm than good.
References
Casella, J., & Ridgeway, J. (2012). New York’s Black Sites. Nation, 295(5/6), 18–24.
Cloud, D. H., Drucker, E., Browne, A., & Parsons, J. (2015). Public Health and Solitary Confinement in the United States. American Journal of Public Health, 105(1), 18–26.
Foucault, M. (1977). Panopticon. In Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison (pp. 195-200). New York: Pantheon Books.
Guenther, L. (2013). Supermax Confinement and The Exhaustion of Space. In Solitary Confinement: Social Death and its Afterlives (pp. 161-194). Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota.
Harrington, M. P. (2015). Methodological Challenges to the Study and Understanding of Solitary Confinement. Federal Probation, 79(3), 45–47.
Rhodes, L. A. (2005). Pathological Effects of the Supermaximum Prison. (Cover story). American Journal of Public Health, 95(10), 1692–1695.
Shames, et al (2015). A Life in SuperMax. TIME. 298 (10), 42-48.
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