Living in Solitude

Somewhere there is a person who is spending between 22 and 24 hours in a ten foot by seven foot room with next to no contact with any other people. Most people would consider this to be torture and a violation of human rights. These are the conditions that many prisoners live in, in prisons across the United States, and yet the use of solitary confinement is deemed legal, and even necessary. However, it isn’t very difficult to see that this policy violates the 8^th amendment of the Constitution, which prevents the use of cruel and unusual punishment.

            The main excuse used in support of the use of solitary confinement is that it is being used to punish prisoners who are considered a danger to others and themselves. It is said that solitary confinement is being used to rehabilitate prisoners. However, multiple studies have said otherwise.

            Juan Mendez, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading punishment or punishment, decided in August 2011 that “even 15 days in solitary confinement constitutes torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, and 15 days is the limit after which irreversible harmful psychological effects can occur.” This conclusion shows that the use of solitary confinement, even when used for a short amount of time, can cause more harm than help. And there are prisoners who have spent years, even decades, in solitary.

               Senator John McCain has said, “It’s an awful thing, solitary. It crushed your spirit and weakens your resistance more effectively than any other form of mistreatment.” This was said by John McCain, who had spent two years in confinement in a North Vietnamese cell, and he fared better than most prisoners who have lived in solitary confinement. Most fall into insanity, leading to self-mutilation and even suicide. Almost half of all prison suicides are committed by prisoners in solitary confinement. This shows that the use of solitary is more of a tool of torture than a tool of rehabilitation.

            Additionally, there is the argument that solitary is used as a form of punishment for prisoners who misbehave, and that prisoners who spend longer amounts of time in a prison are there because they are considered violent and a danger to themselves and others around them. This has also been found to be potentially false, as a prison in Mississippi eliminated the use of solitary confinement, and overall prison violence went down 50%. If this is so, then there must be a better way to punish violent prisoners than to subject them to torture?

            Ultimately, it can easily be determined that solitary confinement can be considered a cruel punishment; however, it is more difficult to determine if it can be considered an unusual form of punishment. This is more challenging.

            The use of solitary confinement first showed up in the early nineteenth century, with the United States being the leaders of the world in the practice. However, the use of solitary was all but abandoned when the negative effects of isolation quickly became apparent in the prisoners behavior. However, in the recent past, the use of solitary has been taken up again and is now being used in excess. It’s for this excess that it is difficult to determine if it can be considered unusual.