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Cori Villers
Mr. Rogers
Government 4
2 November 2015
Solitary Confinement
Imagine being in the same room for most of the hours in a day, in complete isolation, just
waiting for the hour to be outside. You only see other people for small amounts of time each day,
normally just prison staff who monitor food, drink, and medicine. Many of the freedoms
prisoners are given while incarcerated are taken away the moment they step foot into solitary.
Solitary confinement is a punishment used on inmates who are dangerous to themselves and to
other inmates and/or guards. Solitary confinement should be abolished because of the loss of
freedoms, the tendency of being overworked, and the numerous affects that it has.
During an inmates stay in solitary confinement, many of the freedoms that were once
given vanishes before their eyes. While inmates are in the regular prison population, they are
able to see other people outside of the prison such as family. But in solitary, they rarely see
anyone besides the prison staff. It is shown that we need to be with humans and have human
interaction to function, while being in solitary limits human interaction (Gawande). Think about
not seeing your family and being forced to stay in a cell by yourself, just waiting for the time you
are able to complete your punishment. In solitary, inmates are locked in their cells for twentythree hours a day (Jefferys). The only time they are outside of their cells is for an hour to do as
they wish, such as calling someone on the phone, showering, or exercising. Besides that, they
are kept in small cells, wasting their days away (Professor: Solitary Confinement is Torture).

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In these cells, they are forced to come up with their own way to be entertained, since the
inmates are not allowed to have things such as books, paper, and ink during the first few weeks
(Griest). After these weeks, they are able to receive these items and more to pass by their
remaining days quicker. Even then, the freedoms the prisoners are able to earn back, such as
books, can be taken away if they are used dangerously. In solitary confinement, freedoms are
gained and lost and it can be used excessively.
Solitary confinement is a punishment that is completely overused. The inmates can be
moved into isolation, but when they are released from it is unknown. There was never a time
limit set for the amount of time in solitary, over 200 inmates are in solitary confinement for
many years (Lueders). The prison officials can extend the time in solitary confinement until the
punishment has served its purpose. It might seem like a decent punishment, yet it is being
overused, the United States hold far more prisoners in segregation or solitary confinement than
any other democratic nations on Earth(Durbin). Solitary is often used to keep order in the
prisons. But with the number of inmates increasing, this makes the punishment predictable and
common. It is given to inmates who cause disorder in the prison, yet the majority of people in
solitary are mentally ill, who are not able to function with prison rules and without rights
(Guenther). If someone is ill and cannot function with the way prison is set up, putting him/her
into solitary will make matters worse. Since solitary has no limit and is overused, it should be
stopped as a form of punishment and taken out of use. Also the negative effects during and after
placement of inmates are greater than were thought when first established.
When solitary confinement was created, the officials did not realize there would be
negative effects. This punishment was designed to isolate inmates who cause disorder and to
have a way to make them cooperate better within the prison, but there are many ways to destroy

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a person, but one of the simplest and most devastating is through prolonged solitary
confinement (Guenther). This shows that while solitary can fix the problems that are occurring,
it can have horrible effects on prisoners who are stuck in isolation for days, weeks, months, or
maybe even years. Being alone for almost the whole day and having to rely on themselves for
entertainment can really affect the inmates. For example in juvenile facilities more than 50% of
youth suicides occur in isolation (Guenther). The children stuck in solitary for a very long
period of time can become so alone that being able to handle a small cell for many hours is no
longer possible. When they are in these cells, they are supposed to think about what they did and
to make better choices. However, solitary confinement crushes your spirit and weakens your
resistance more effectively than any other form of mistreatment (Durbin). Solitary can be
successful, but it makes the inmates more unstable because they change during the weeks in
isolation. In solitary, the inmates are forced to be alone for many hours in a day and can go
insane with the lack of human interaction and very minimal things to do. The prisoners suffer
more than improve by being apart from everyone. Unfortunately, the inmates are released back
onto the streets without receiving the treatments they need after being in solitary for a long
period of time (Guenther). This is really dangerous for the civilians and the inmates themselves
when they are released because they have not been able to become comfortable with people
again nor learned the laws of the city. The numerous effects of being in solitary for a long time
shows that it is an immoral form of punishment to use. People on the other side of the argument
feel that solitary confinement is a beneficial form of punishment and should be retained.
Even though solitary confinement can really affect the inmates, some individuals believe
that it should be kept in practice and used in prisons. Solitary can seem good by putting the
prisoner who disrupts order in prisons to be put in isolation to think about what he/she did and to

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have an opportunity to change their ways. Like some people believe, "it is a valuable tool to me
and others in the correctional facilities (Rienzi). This shows that in some cases solitary is a
reliable way to keep order and to diminish the amount of chaos in the prisons, but the long hours
in solitary harm the inmates more than it changes them. Another reason confinement is in use is
to keep gang members separate from one another (Igdalsky). This keeps the violence down,
but there could be more violence when they come back out. There are many ways to fix the
inmates with dangerous behavior, but solitary confinement is not one of them.
Solitary confinement should be eliminated as a form of punishment in prisons because of
the overuse, the freedom lost, and the many long term effects that occur because of it. It tends to
be used too often and harms the inmates more than it changes them. Solitary takes away the
limited freedoms the prisoners already had. It affects the prisoners dramatically and a different
person walks out of solitary than who walked in. Solitary confinement should no longer be used
in prisons.

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Works Cited
Durbin, Hon. Richard J. et al. Resassessing Solitary Confinement: The Human Rights, Fiscal, and
Public Safety Consquences. Washington D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 2012. Print. 12.
Gawande, Atul. Hellhole. New Yorker85.7 (2009): 36-45. Web. 24 Sept. 2015.
Griest, Stephanie Elizondo. The Torture of Solitary. Woodrow Wilson International Center for
Scholars, 2012. Web. 17 Sept. 2015.
Guenther, Lisa. Solitary Confinement- Social Death and Its Afterlives. Minneapolis: U of Minnesota,
2013. Print.
Igdalsky, Leah. Exploring the Ethics of Solitary Confinement. Ethical Inquiry: August 2014.
International Center of Ethics, Justice and Public Life, Aug 2014. Web. 22 Oct 2015.
Jeffreys, Derek S. Cruel but Not Unusual: The Scandal of Solitary Confinement. Commonweal
Foundation, 13 Jun. 2014. Web. 23 Sept. 2015.
Lueders, Bill. The Horrors of Solitary Confinement. Progressive. 01 Oct 2015. Web. 24 Sept. 2015.
Professor: Solitary Confinement is Torture. The University of North Carolina of Chapel Hill. N.p., 13
Apr. 2015. Web. 17 Sept. 2015.
Rienzi, Greg. Thousands of American Prisoners Spend 23 Hours a Day in Solitary Confinement. The
Hub. John Hopkins Magazine, 05 Mar. 2015. Web. 23 Sept. 2015.