A Look Into The World Of Solitary Confinement Essay

A Look into the World of Solitary Confinement Looking back to the early nineteenth century, the United States had adopted a new form of punishment. The punishment involves imprisoning a person in a cramped, concrete, sometimes windowless cell for hours ranging from 22 to 24 hours a day. Solitary confinement for many prison officials has been one of the primary methods to deal with difficult and sometimes dangerous inmates. Recreation for the rest of the prison population is usually about an hour a day, where with somebody that’s in solitary may only be limited to only three to five hours a week alone in another cage with little to no purposeful activities. There have been numerous class actions challenging the use of solitary confinement. Due process along with rights guaranteed under the eighth and fourteenth amendment has been brought into questioning. The eighth amendment indicates that the United States federal government is prohibited from imposing excessive bail, excessive fines, or cruel and unusual punishment. The fourteenth amendment addresses citizens of there right to equal protection of the laws, which was in response to slaves during the American Civil War. All around the world and especially the United States, there has been movements calling for the end of solitary confinement. Most of the movements across the United States have been prison-led. Inmates have brought up issues such as equal treatment towards substandard medical care, the use of isolation,Show MoreRelatedWhat Are The Ethical Issues Of Solitary Confinement?1526 Words   |  7 PagesWhat are the Ethical Issues of Solitary Confinement? What are ethics? Why is it important? Ethics can be defined as â€Å"the discipline dealing with what is good and bad and with moral duty and obligation; or â€Å"a set of moral principles (Merriam-Webster, 2017)†. The reason ethics is important is because it gives us a basic understanding the difference between concepts and situations that are considered right or wrong. We as humans have learned a set of values and beliefs that tell us what is consideredRead MoreSolitary Confinement Is No Longer An Option Essay1099 Words   |  5 Pagesthe hole, the cooler, and many more are all prison terms describing solitary confinement. Chances are you have heard some or all of these terms watching TV shows and movies, but what does it mean for the people who actually spend large amounts of time on the inside. Many are against the use of solitary confinement and say that it has no place in the modern world. In pointing out the many negative side effects of solitary confinement, the pos itive side must be looked at as well. Certain parts of controlRead MoreThe Incarceration Of Prison Policy913 Words   |  4 Pagescontact, no windows to look outside, and hardly anything to stimulate your senses. The other 1 hour you will spend in recreation, which is nothing more than a cage outside, barely larger than your room. There is no space to run, no view of the outside world. You’ll never even see a blade of grass during your stay. This is solitary confinement, something many say is a sentence worse than death. In the United States today, there are over 80,000 prisoners currently in solitary confinement. It was originallyRead MoreSolitary Confinement : A New Idea Of Punishment And Maintaining Order1708 Words   |  7 PagesSolitary confinement commits an individual to small room closed off from the world; a room devoid of light and human interaction for nearly twenty three hours a day. Not only is the morose environment and isolation unhealthy, but it contributes to increased recidivism rates, sometimes referred to as the revolving door phenomenon. Although solitary confinement provides the staff and general prison population with safety, there are alternatives that can be used rather than continuing the revolvingRead MoreThe Death Penalty Should Be Abolished1534 Words   |  7 Pageselectrocution, gas chamber, and firing squad (â€Å"Methods of Execution†). Although the death penalty has evolved throughout history, the basis of what it is remains--legalized murder. We look upon the aforementioned events with shame while we continue to use capital punishment today. The U.S. is ranked fifth in the world behind China, Iran, Iraq, and Saudi Arabia for most executions in the past year (Manning). With thirty-two of our fifty states embracing the death penalty, our nation needs to continueRead MoreTranscendentalism, By John Waldo Emerson And Henry David Thoreau1594 Words   |  7 Pagestranscendentalism is wrong. Their ideals are not just incorrect, they are potentially dangerous. First, transcendentalists such as Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau, among others, believe the spontaneous emotion and childlike wonder of the outside world outweigh logic and intellect. However, that is all transcendentalism is: childlike. Transcendentals think that reactions should be spontaneous, not well thought out through reason and logic. However, this spontaneity can be harnessed by others to doRead MoreThe Resurrection Of Former Prisons Across The World1444 Words   |  6 PagesPrison Theory The resurrection of former prisons across the world has equally captured the awareness of tourists and scholars alike. While prison museums, as a result of their bleak and in some cases disturbing subject matter, invert the â€Å"Disney† experience, they proceed to exploit a phenomenon known as dark tourism,† . . . in which people gravitate to sites associated with war, genocide, and other tragic events for purposes of remembrance education, or even entertainment,† (Welch, 1). GeneratedRead MoreThe Shawshank Redemption By Stephen King And Frank Darabont Essay1274 Words   |  6 Pagesfor funds to improve the deteriorating library. In 1954, Brooks is paroled, but cannot adjust to the outside world after fifty years in prison. He commits suicide by hanging himself. Andy receives a library donation that includes a recording of The Marriage of Figaro. He plays the song over the loud speaker system, resulting in receiving solitary confinement. After his release from solitary, Andy explains that hope is what gets him through his time, a concept that Red dismisses. Norton begins exploitingRead MoreDramatic Devices in Williams Cat on a Hot Tin Roof Essay676 Words   |  3 Pagesisolated from each other within their marriage. Maggie is, because she is childless and Brick is, because he drinks and the reason for his drinking drives him to this isolation. Williams uses a lot of symbolism to illustrate this solitary confinement. Brick has a crutch for his ankle; this represents his physical need for a crutch and demonstrates how he uses it for support. This is also reflected in his drinking; Brick uses alcohol as a mental crutch for support. When MaggieRead MoreWhat Does Solitary Confinement Do The Human Brain?4613 Words   |  19 Pages1 What does solitary confinement do the human brain? By Ronaldo Clerveaux English 4 Mr. Wilson Period 4 03/14/16 Solitary confinement is basically when someone is isolated from others and is usually contained in a cell for hours, days, months, and even years. They call the solitary confinement a â€Å"shoe† because it stands for Special Housing Unit (SHU), but it is pronounced like â€Å"shoe†. Its main focus is to keep people detained if they were to get in a fight, talking back towards