Prison Within Prison

In the United States today, solitary confinement claims the lives of 80,000 prisoners. Not their actual lives, but with the countless, unimaginable effects solitary confinement has on a person, it's pretty similar. 

Solitary confinement, the isolation of a prisoner in a separate cell, is used as a "mechanism for behavior modification, when suspected of gang involvement; as a retribution for political activism; or to fill expensive, empty beds." Does solitary confinement solve the issues it seeks to resolve? Probably not to the extent officials would like it to. In reality, it creates even more issues.  

First, prisoners under solitary confinement are at a much higher risk of becoming mentally ill. In one report, it was found that 64 percent of prisoners in solitary confinement are diagnosed as having a mental illness, while only 24 percent of regular prisoners are. Craig Haney, a psychologist at the University of California, Santa Cruz, argues that solitary confinement "precipitates a descent into madness." Because mental illness is so common among isolated prisoners and is becoming an increasingly bigger problem, the effects of solitary confinement have become known as SHU, which stands for Special Housing Unit Syndrome. The effects of solitary confinement include, but are not limited to: hypersensitivity to noise and touch, distortions of perception, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, increased risk of depression and suicided, and visual and auditory hallucinations. The medical community has recognized and even created a syndrome for the medical issues caused by isolation in prisons- so why hasn't solitary confinement been done away with? 

The Eighth Amendment states that no person should be given "cruel and unusual punishment." Recently, however, many have begun to see that solitary confinement constitutes as just that: cruel and unusual. In May of 2012, the Center for Constitutional Rights filed a federal lawsuit "on behalf of prisoners at Pelican Bay State Prison who have spent between 10 and 28 years in solitary confinement." The lawsuit was part of a larger movement to change policies and put an end to "cruel and unusual punishment" in prisons. This movement is justifyable and long past due; the facts support those fighting to end solitary confinement in the United States: "prisoners spent 22 ½ to 24 hours every day in a cramped, concrete, windowless cell. They are denied telephone calls, contact visits, and vocational, recreational or educational programming. Food is often rotten and barely edible, and medical care is frequently withheld." In addition, prisoners are often kept in forced solitude for years, decades even. The prison system is supposed to reform and educate prisoners, preparing them for a better life once they are realised from jail. How would you feel if you were left on your own after decades of having virtually no contact with not only the outside world, but other humans?