Psychological Effects of Solitary Confinement

Psychological Effects of Solitary Confinement
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Abstract
Solitary confinement has been a practice that has taken place in the United State Prisons for a very long time. How effective it has been as a form of punishment and a rehabilitation measure has been the primary concern. The research is based on the history of solitary confinement and the purpose it was intended to serve. It as well serves to find out if this purpose has been well covered and what have been the results and has it been effective in serving the purpose.
Introduction
Solitary confinement can be described as a prison within a prison. It is a small room barely 80 meters square with mostly a bed, a toilet and a sink. The prisoner confined is brought food through a small opening. With the exception of the prison officials, the prisoner is entirely isolated. They are only allowed few hours of exercise but in a cage. Originally, this confinement was supposed to take a few hours or in extreme cases, a week. It is, however, not the case now. A prisoner can even be confined for years. Studies have shown that this kind of imprisonment has drastic effects on the psychological state of an inmate. Before these results are unveiled, it will be important to look at the history of this kind of imprisonment.
History of Solitary Confinement
Solitary confinement has been practiced for almost 190 years now (Denis, 2016). The first experiment was based on the argument that it would aid in the rehabilitation of the incarcerated prisoners. It was believed that being isolated with a Bible would give the inmate time to introspect, repent and pray. It was entirely based on Quaker's beliefs. The first experiment in the United States took place at Eastern Estate Penitentiary in Philadelphia in 1829 (Laura, 2006). The results, however, were unexpected. Most of the inmates went insane, became functionless when they were released to the society while others committed suicide.
Justice Samuel Freeman Miller, from the U.S Supreme Court, housed an opinion concerning the effects of solitary confinement in Philadelphia in 1890 (Laura, 2006). He found out that even the inmates who were in solitary for a short period suffered from a condition that can be best termed as semi-fatuous. Arousing them was hard. There are those who resolved in committing suicide as well as those who went insane completely. The few, who could stand this, however, were unable to function well in the society.
The worst criminals were sent to Alcatraz by the federal government. The Alcatraz was built in San Francisco Bay in 1934 (Laura, 2006). There were three conditions here. There were those inmates who were allowed some few hours to work in the yard. There were those who conformed to the other two conditions: there was one that was termed as ‘D Block' and then another one ‘The Hole.' Inmates in the D Block could spend years of their lives there. They were given food and clothing. They were however restricted from interacting with other prisoners. ‘The Hole,' had the worst conditions. It was a concrete room with a hole in the floor. Inmates were naked and stayed in the darkness. Food that was barely bread and water was given to them through an opening in the door. Inmates spend few days here, however, unlike the ‘D Block.'
There occurred some incidences in Marion, III prison, in 1983, where prisoners murdered two correction officers. Though the incidents were isolated, they occurred on the same day. This led to the confinement of all the prisoners, in what they called a permanent lockdown. Here, the prisoners were refrained from eating from the cafeteria or engaging in their daily duties and educational programs. Several states adopted this kind of confinement a few years later.
In 1989, California came up with the States' first supermax facility called the Pelican Bay. It was solely for isolating inmates (Laura, 2006). The prisoner would spend 22.5 hours of the day in an eight by 10 feet cell. The 1.5 hours were spent in an exercise pen. The pens were concrete, and the inmate would spend those 1.5 hours there, alone. A number of states adopted supermax facilities in their prisons in the 1990s. Some of these states were Ohio, Indiana, and Virginia.
The ADX Florence was built by the U.S. Bureau of Prisons in Florence, Colo in 1994. It was the first supermax of the Federal Government. A Federal Judge in 1995 found the California's Pelican Bay conditions. He says that it could not be closed down or substantially altered by the court but better conditions could be found. In 1999, Department of Justice filed a report that stated that more than 30 states used the supermax facility. The conditions there were; inmates were locked in for twenty-three hours. It was also found that the number of prisoners that were locked up in the supermax in different states ranged from 0.5% to 20% (Laura, 2006).
An associate professor at the Florida State University, Daniel P. Mears, while undertaking a nationwide study on prisons, found that 40 states used supermax with 25,000 U.S prisoners and above. This was in 2005. New York office of mental health advocates, shifted some of the inmates who were severely ill mentally from solitary confinement in 2007 (Alexandra, 2016). They also recommended that these prisoners be given time out of the cell and improve mental health programs and screening. In 2014, there were recommendations for solitary reforms by the National Academy of Sciences. President Obama announced some significant changes in the implementation of isolation in 2016. This was due to a report by the Department of Justice (Alexandria, 2016).
Psychological Effects of solitary confinement.
Basing on the above history, it can be deducted that solitary confinement has drastic effects on the victim's psychology. The inmates who went through it some suffered insanity, committing suicide or could not integrate themselves fully as per the expectations of the society. In other terms, they could not function properly in the society. It is, therefore, crystal clear that solitary confinement has a significant impact on the victims' mind.
Research or experiments on human psychology through confinement are very rare since most research institutes do not consent to them. However, there was a research done on the university students in 1951. It was at the McGill University, and it was an experiment on sensory deprivation (Jason, 2014). It was done on male students who were locked up in a small room but were allowed to use washrooms. They were also given goggles and earphones to impair their sense of sight and hearing.
The experiment was supposed to last for six weeks. It barely lasted for seven days, though. The results after seven days were; students could hardly reason well for any given length of time. Others suffered from hallucinations. There was one who said that he could not see anything else apart from dogs. Another one could only see different types of sunglasses (Jason, 2014). What the experiment shows is that there is a certain psychological impact that solitary confinement has on individuals.
This psychological impact is manifested in a number of ways. The inmates who undergo such confinement suffer from hallucinations, diminished impulse control, overt paranoia, external stimuli hypersensitivity, memory, concentration and thinking difficulties, panic attack, development of crippling obsessions and inability to maintain themselves in an alert state (Jason, 2014). The above characteristics are the ones that can quickly degenerate to insanity and make the inmates become dangerous.
The one danger that these inmates cause to themselves is self-mutilation. The rates at which inmates that are in solitary confinement mutilate themselves are higher than the overall population of the prison (Jason, 2014). Another danger that the inmates can cause is committing suicide. Solitary confinement accounts for almost half of suicides in prison. This is according to the study at California prison system from 1999 to 2004. According to federal prison system, 63% of suicide cases in prison resulted from the inmates confined in special housing status.
The housing status can be psychiatric seclusions or soli...