Solitary Confinement

    Solitary Confinement was thought to have been a way of punishing those who did not follow the rules. The saying goes that "Your actions have consequences." But maybe this saying was taken too far. What if people abused this saying, and caused irreversible damage to people that were getting punished. 

       In the United States, there are about 80,000 to 100,000 prisoners in solitary confinement nationwide. The APA-American Psychological Association- highlights the dangers of solitary confinement. With a cell the size of a king bed, prisoners are limited to what they can do. In fact, they can't do much. After spending just 10 days in solitary confinement (some spend years in solitary confinement), the effects are ever-lasting. Haney was appointed this year to a National Academy of Sciences committee. He was studying the causes and consequences of high rates of incarceration in the United States. He said that many inmates experience panic attacks, depression, and paranoia, and some suffer hallucinations. Another report came from Don Grant, a forensic psychiatrist formerly with the Queensland Community Forensic Mental Health Service. He said that these psychological effects are the result of social isolation, which can lead to further withdrawal; boredom and sensory deprivation, which cause brain activity to slow; and a lack of control with no personal autonomy, which may lead to a loss of self-reliance and dysfunction in social situations when an inmate is released. With this in mind, it is clear how inhumane solitary confinement is. If solitary confinement causes disabilities and other disturbing effects on prisoners, why does the United States allow this to continue? This clearly goes against the 8th amendment right of protection against cruel and unusual punishments. We must put an end to these inhumane acts against prisoners.

       On top of being torture to prisoners, the cost of keeping this up is too much. With at least 6.4 MILLION dollars spent on this cruelty, the hard earned money of taxpayers is being wasted. In totality, it is being spent on harming people. Why should taxpayers be paying for this injustice when it could be going to better funding, such as public transportation or education. We as a country should not be funding programs that harm other humans. Rather, we should be putting forth money to rehabilitation centers to reform prisoners. An average of $30,000-$60,000 is spent on each prisoner to be placed in prison per year. Instead of wasting money to keep them in a cell, we should put this money on a center to rehabilitate them. This will help not only the prisoners but will keep the community safe from further threats by dangerous human beings.