 Forms of solitary confinement have been used in prisons around the world for centuries. it’s extremely helpful in isolating prisoners for the guard’s safety, but also particularly dangerous for the inmate’s mental health. Recently the practice of solitary confinement has come under scrutiny by the media for being cruel. Inmates are coming forward about their experience with solitary and how it affected them, the public is split on whether the inmate’s crimes merit the punishment. Maximum security prisons use of solitary confinement is extremely outdated, and has a large number of flaws. Ranging from violating the prisoners 8th amendment right, which restricts the use of cruel and unusual punishment especially for mentally ill. To the prison system not being able to adequately protect its guards without it

Solitary confinement is not a new thing it’s been used around the world for centuries in many different forms not always associated with actual prisons. The first approach to running a supermax prison in the US occurred in the nineteen eighties. It was inspired by an incident at the Marion Penitentiary where guards were killed and all prisoners were put in a form of solitary confinement (Smith 2). The United States struggled with prison violence for a while but this new form of controlling unruly inmates boomed in the late nineteen nineties, where “fifty-five supermax facilities in thirty-four states” had arose (Smith 2). Solitary is used for inmates that the guards see as a threat to themselves or others, along with that the type of prisoner put in a max-security prison has committed a very serious crime (Morris 2). Once placed in solitary confinement the inmate is restricted to his cell for twenty-three hours a day and denied contact with other people.

The main goal of solitary from the prisons stand point is to punish the inmates so that they will not continue with their violent behavior, resulting in no further need for the use of solitary (Morris 4). It’s also for the prison staff’s safety that they separate violent prisoners from the general public for extended periods of time. Prison guards are dangerously outnumbered by the inmates, and since prison is the inmates home they have nothing to do all day but think, possible plan an attack on the guards. Recently in the news six officers were assaulted in a New York prison, three prisoners took down a female officer taking them to get medication, then fight six more responding officers. Later when the inmates had been detained “officers searched Wiley (one of the inmates) and found a 6.5 inch plexi-glass shank hidden in his underwear” the prisoners were placed in “special housing” afterwards (Schutzman 1-2).  This is by no means a rare situation that guards are attacked, it must be brought in consideration for the way the guards handle and house the inmates.

Prisoners can gain a reputation with the guards of being simply disruptive or well behaved and this influences how the prison guard deals with them. Along with that since the choice on whether to put an inmate in solitary or not is an “administrative decision rather than a punitive one,” meaning the staff can temporarily place them in solitary (O’ Keefe 123). That’s where the officers underling opinion about the inmate becomes imperative. This is because it’s the officers job to quickly handle situations. Along with the effort to stop an incident from happening in the first place. Prison security has been described as “unreliable and subjective” because profiling must be used (O’Keefe 124). Each different job in the prison system from warden to correctional officer was given a “competency profile” this outlines each jobs duties and how much time they should spend on their tasks (Ruddell and Norris 2). The problem with them is most are outdated and don’t reflect what needs to be accomplished during the work day. This is where the prisoner’s safety becomes most important. If guards are taught how to do their jobs incorrectly prisoners are at risk.

Recently prisons have come under scrutiny for the treatment of the inmates, it’s a divided issue, because the it’s criminals we are focusing on. Inmates have started to come forward with their experiences in solitary confinement. One of the most notable being the vice documentary by James Burns, where he gives a background on his experience with solitary than goes on to relive it by spending thirty days in solitary confinement. He live streams the thirty days, where he is put in the same solitary that any other prisoner would be placed in and shows the general public what isolation does to a person. Burns is quoted saying this about solitary confinement which he became familiar with in his teens.

“I don’t want to put poison in anyone’s ear-I want to start a conversation, is this something as a society that we should continue to do? Everything suggests that it doesn’t make facilities safer, doesn’t make out community safer, and that people are developing mental and physical ailments because of this practice. So knowing all of these things, why are we still doing this? I want people to really think about that.”

(Burns). Inmates still in prison have been interviewed also saying the same things burns said in his documentary. Inmate James Beasley has been in solitary for the past fifteen years. In his interview he has said solitary has changed. He says he doesn’t know how he will handle normal human interaction, and that solitary has given him extreme anger issues. Those claims are what researchers are looking into, what effects does isolation really have on inmates. 

Researchers like Craig Haney have begun to do research into correlations between mental health issues and prison isolation. The main concerns of the researchers are the sensory deprivation that the inmates experience and the lack of social interaction. Research has brought forth a bounty of problems such as “appetite and sleep disturbances, anxiety, panic, rage, loss of control, paranoia, hallucinations, and self-mutilations.” Along with a long list of psychological problems (Haney 130-131). Post-traumatic stress disorder has also been connected to the use of solitary. It seems that inmate James Beasley was not lying in his interview when he said that solitary changed who he was as a person. There is a mental health program in all prisons where the guards determine the prisoners SIB, or self-injury behavior and when prisoners are found to have a high SIB they are placed in solitary confinement. They are put in there for what is assumed their own safety, but research has found that a large majority of successful suicides are in solitary (Lanes 5-6). Along with that fact mentally ill prisoners will usually be housed in solitary for a longer period of time than non-mentally ill inmates. The combination of the physiological problems gained while in administrative segregation, along with the prisoners having preexisting problems makes for a ticking time bomb for something like suicide to occur. This is why solitary confinement is a highly disputed topic, and is not viewed by many as cruel and unusual

The eight amendment right bestowed upon all American citizen states that there shall be no cruel or unusual punishments inflicted upon any citizen. But solitary confinement can fall under the category.

