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Jamel Ross English 1102 Professor Campbell February 12January 24, 2014 In this section, I will be explaining whyWhy Solitary Confinement be banned from Prisons Some call it torture, some call it proper punishment but long-term solitary confinement may cause serious mental health problems to lots of inmates. Solitary Confinement should be banned from both State and Federal prison systems. I have researched this topic on the Internet and by watching videos off the National Geographic channel. Solitary Confinement because it is a ruthless punishment used in many prison systems today in order to teach corrupt prisoners a lesson about whatever crimecrimes they have committed. which put them in jail. This form of torturemistreatment takes place in an eight-by-ten foot cell and it also forces the prisoners to spend twenty-three hours in this cell with no way out, unless they have very minimum freedom privileges (Solitary Confinement Facts). Eight thousand people are locked up in confinement a year. Prison systems need to ban severe Solitary Confinement from their programs because of its effects that it has on a criminals physical and mental health, mental stability, and actions after being released. I minor in criminal justice simply because I am very interested in the laws and studies about crimes in the United States. My focus in this research paper is primarily on Solitary Confinement solely because I have people very close to my heart who have had to go through

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this imprisonment. These people have told me stories that have completely changed my view on prison systems all around the world. I am in awe by how inmates are treated in confinement, and I feel that it should be illegal to punish a human being to this extreme. This is such an interesting subject to study and research, which is ultimately why I wanted to write about it in order to spread the word about this horrible imprisonment. Solitary Confinement was first established during 1829 in the Eastern State Philadelphia Penitentiary (Taylor 1). Prison officials seemed to believe that this disciplinary action was effective; therefore. The Eighth Amendment of the Constitution prohibits cruel and unusual punishment. The Supreme Court has held that this standard can be applied to prison conditions, including solitary confinement. However, with one exception, no court has found that solitary confinement violates the Eighth Amendment. The Due Process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment holds that no state may deprive any person of life, liberty or property, without due process of law. Due process generally requires a hearing before an impartial decision maker during which evidence can be presented and an individual can defend his or her interests, even if in a very informal manner. To make a due process challenge, a plaintiff must first show that his or her right to life, liberty or property is threatened. When applied in the prison context, the courts have consistently stated that prisoners retain only the most limited liberty interests and courts are exceedingly deferential to the decisions of prison administrators. In Wilkinson v. Austin, the Supreme Court examined the procedures used in assigning prisoners to Ohios Supermax facility, the Ohio State Penitentiary. The Court determined that prisoners do have a protected liberty interest in avoiding placement in a Supermax facility. Therefore, they added this form of imprisonment to three hundred other prison systems around the United States. Before long,
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jailbirds became angry, causing violent, unresponsive behavior later leading to destruction to their physical heath (Burney 1). This penalty caused inmates to kill themselves with whatever they could get their hands on, no matter the drastic measures. The argument of whether solitary confinement should be banned or not came to focus in May 2012, when The Center for Constitutional Rights filed a lawsuit against the state of California for its extreme use of solitary confinement in the Pelican Bay prison. The case of Ruiz v. Brown Jr. was a federal action that challenged prolonged use of solitary confinement and inhumane, unconstitutional conditions under which thousands of prisoners live and that it was against on the rights guaranteed under the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments.Prisoners were breaking the glass toilets and sinks in order to create a weapon that they could use to commit suicide. Also, I was told a story by the dean of the Columbia State Penitentiary about a woman who used the bolts of her steel bed to puncture into her skin all over her body in hopes of going to the hospital. Inmates go to the extremes of hanging, gutting, and bashing just to get out of the cruel lives that they are living. This is why prison systems need to ban the use of Solitary Confinement. Solitary confinement affects not only the physical health of a prisoner, but the mental health as well. Anthony Graves opened up about the personal horror he faced in solitary during an interview with host Alyona Minkovski, a writer with the Huffington Post, Grant said Youre caged in like an animal. Youre in a little eight-by-twelve foot cage, and youre just existing. You exist behind some inhumane conditions. So it was hell every day. It breaks your will to live. It breaks your spirit, Graves said. I dont think you can get anything positive out of that. The number one emotional state prisoners fall into while in confinement is depression. One fourth of the jailbirds at the Colorado State Penitentiary were diagnosed with serious mental illnesses (Prison Safety in New York 2). Imagine being in a room as big as your master

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bathroom at home. Imagine that there is a steel sink and toilet with a mirror not even made of glass. There is a small bed with one pillow, and very few blankets. The desk is nothing but a tiny, foot wide shelf coming from the wall. Lastly, when you look up there is a window as big as your head with bars on it. Imagine that you are locked in this room every day for twenty -three hours. In this room you have no telephone, no computer, no television You are left with absolutely nothing (Webb). This form of isolation causes agony to the brain, which makes depression completely normal for these people. According to United States senator, John McCain exclaimed, It crushes your spirit and weakens your resistance more effectively than any other form of mistreatment (Taylor 1). In addition, the mental stability of an inmate that is currently in Solitary Confinement, or has ever been, is most likely much worse than it was before being captivated. Physiatrists say that Solitary Confinement can be physiologically devastating (qtd. in Solitary Confinement Facts). Their minds begin to go insane after long or even short term isolation as a result of their boredom and seclusion. In addition, prisoners memories begin to slowly worsen after being taken out of a more promising environment. For example, a researcher asked several inmates to list as many animals as they could in only thirty seconds. A task like this is simple to a person adapted to the real world, unlike someone locked in Solitary Confinement. Or the researcher would ask them to basically memorize several objects and later they were asked what the items were and that quickly, they forgot. Many of the inmates are given medications for their sicknesses and insanity in order to keep them sane and to hopefully avoid suicides (Rhodes 1). All things considered, State and Federal prison systems need to ban severe Solitary Confinement due to the effects that it has on a criminals physical and mental health, mental stability, and actions after being released. Not only is this form of captivity something that
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everyone needs to be aware of, but it is also something that more people should work to put an end to. No one wants to be imprisoned for years, or even life, without any entertainment, communication, or freedom.
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Works Cited

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Burney, Christopher Solitary Confinement. NY: Macmillan, 1984. (1952) Print.

Rhodes, Lorna A. Total Confinement: Madness and Reason in the Maximum Security Prison. University of California Press; 2004. Print.

Yost, Peter. "Solitary Confinement: Tough Justice." National Geographic Channel. National Geographic Explorer, Season 24, Episode 15

Taylor, Troy. "Eastern State Penitentiary." Solitary Confinement History. The Learning Channel, 2003. Web. 2 Mar 2011. http://www.prairieghosts.com/eastern.html

Webb, Tyrone, Personal interview. 30 September 2013. Tyrone Webb is my uncle who has been in prison since I was a little boy. I called him to ask if he had ever been in Solitary Confinement and to my surprise, he had. His mistake that got him into this situation was getting into a fight in the break room. He explained to me how waking up in the morning became something that he didnt even look forward to anymore. He shared with me how strict the rules were and how much they were enforced. He explained how being locked in confinement was the low point of his existence and he wishes never to go back. This interviewee is a relative of mine, which is how I know of this person.
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