Order 837208: Research Methods in CJ- Research Design/Conclusion - SOLITARY CONFINEMENT

According to Bennion (2015), solitary confinement can take a severe and permanent toll on the mental and emotional health of the inmates. Research has indicated that those inmates taken to solitary swiftly become paranoid, hypersensitive to sounds and light, become withdrawn, more prone to hallucinations and violence. At the University of California, professor Santa Cruz, has evidence which indicate that people who did not have previous history of mental illness, who after prolonged exposure to confinement, developed paranoid psychosis. According to Umphres (2017), the issue is more serious for adolescents, whose brains are still developing and this can culminate into suicidal cases. In prison, almost half of the suicides in prisons occur in isolation cells. Morgan et al (2017), posit that human beings are social beings, therefore, when they are put in isolation, this leads to hopelessness, anxiety, and anger. Terry Kupers, a psychologist indicates that confinement destroys individuals as it leads to depression, anxiety, cognitive disturbances, anger, perceptual distortions, self-harm, psychosis and paranoia. According to Reiter (2017), in California, inmates who are in confinement are 33 times more probable to commit suicide in comparison to inmates from other states.

According to Reiter (2017), prisoners in solitary confinement experience physiological symptoms despite the duration they spent in solitary. Prisoners in isolation report signs identical to those of hypertension, and they include trembling, chronic headaches, extreme dizziness, sweaty palms and heart palpitations. Inmates after being subjected to isolation experience trouble with their digestion and eating habits, more so in the initial three months of confinement. Drastic weight loss and lack of appetite goes hand in hand with irregular digestion leading to diarrhea. According to Gallagher (2014), those prisoners in confinement may experience insomnia or difficulty in breathing. Prisoners may also experience chronic lethargy.

Some physical effects of confinement are as a result of psychological stress, while other psychological effects are as a result of the physical condition of confinement. For instance, prisoners complain of muscle pain and abdominal pains, which may be as a result of prolonged inactivity. According to Morgan et al (2017), research has indicated that the undesirable effects of solitary isolation are as a result of the depravation of sensory. Prisoners who are confined may experience augmented oversensitivity to stimuli, which is normal like the noise made by closing doors. Hence, this can lead to sleeping problems. Hence, the increased probability that prisoners will become oversensitive to stimuli becomes a problem when they return to the general prison population (Reiter, 2017). The subsequent visits to solitary can worsen the situation and hence aggravate the already existing symptoms, and also culminate into new psychological effects.

Logan et al (2017), state that solitary makes prisoners more dangerous. Solitary endangers the lives of the prisoners. Prisoners who are subjected to confinement have been found to undertake self-mutilation at higher rates than those prisoners in the general population. Suicide has also been another major concern. A study done in the prison system of California indicated that between 1999 and 2004, solitary confinement led to nearly half of the suicides encountered in prisons. A study which was done in 1995 in the federal prison system, uncovered that 63% of suicides took place in those prisoners who were under solitary confinement (Morgan et al, 2017). Prisoners who are in solitary confinement are so depressed and the only way out is suicide. This is because such inmates do not have any hope of getting out of solitary and they therefore see solace in suicide.

Solitary confinement makes it difficult for prisoners to adjust because they lose the capacity to control or initiate their own behavior or even to put in order, their own lives. This is attributed to the loss of control that inmates have over their daily lives in solitary. Those inmates in solitary commence losing the ability to initiate action of any kind (Umphres, 2017). This results in lethargy, chronic apathy, despair and depression. In dire cases, prisoners cease to behave completely. Prisoners once out of solitary, do not have the ability to communicate with others. They literally do not leave their cells, and this is a sign of social atrophy. The anxiety that revolves around social interaction can be very problematic and disabling for those who leave solitary confinement (Morgan et al, 2017).

Prisoners, who encounter solitary confinement, reflect problems which are similar to motor problems, and major disruptions of experience. Reiter (2017) looks into the phenomenology, which is linked to solitary confinement, and he relates this to the act of being unhinged. Inmates in solitary confinement tend to see things that are non-existent. Their body senses may even fail as they may cease to feel any pain and they do not know when others are harming them or when they are harming others. Solitary confinement leads to impaired memory, distort of time, difficulty in concentration and severe boredom. According to Gallagher (2014), how and whether confinement destroys people depends on the circumstances and duration and the individual character of the inmate. However, most inmates suffer from mental illness and solitary confinement interferes with the mysteries of the brain, which is much worse than any form of body torture. Solitary confinement has the negative effect of derealization, which indicates that the prisoners downplay their relation to the world. Therefore, the object boundaries turn out to be uncertain. Solitary confinement clearly downplays the capability to sustain meaning. According to Gallagher (2014), women who experience solitary confinement have the possibility of disappearing into non-existence or losing oneself. This is because the experience of solitary confinement undermines the inter-subjective relationality hence culminating into self-destruction.

Regardless of the negativity associated with solitary confinement, it was worked positively in reforming the behavior of prisoners. This is because prisoners fear what solitary does to an individual and they therefore try and avoid actions that will land them into solitary. Incidences between inmates are reduced and also the unruly behavior of inmates is also mitigated (Gallagher, 2014). In addition, inmates give their ordeals of what transpires in solitary confinement which improves the behavior of other inmates to avoid going to solitary confinement. Nevertheless, the effects of solitary confinement cannot be ignored. Solitary confinement changes people by affecting them psychologically and physiologically. People tend to suffer from various mental illnesses like paranoid psychosis. Prisoners also experience insomnia or difficulty in sleeping. They may also experience lack of appetite, leading to weight loss and stomach problems. People tend to lose themselves and even forget their personality and they may therefore be a danger to themselves and to others (Bennion, 2015). They may inflict bodily harm or even lead to the incidences of suicide.

Reference:

Bennion, E. (2015). Banning the bing: Why extreme solitary confinement is cruel and far too usual punishment. Ind. LJ, 90, 741. Retrieved from https://www.repository.law.indiana.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=11149&context=ilj

Gallagher, S. (2014). The cruel and unusual phenomenology of solitary confinement. Front Psychol, 5, 585. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00585

Logan, M. W., et al (2017). Correctional shorthands: Focal concerns and the decision to administer solitary confinement. Journal of Criminal Justice, 5290-100. doi:10.1016/j.jcrimjus.2017.08.007

Morgan, R. D., et al. (2017). Questioning solitary confinement: is administrative segregation as bad as alleged?. Corrections Today, (5), 18. Retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/320179584_Questioning_solitary_confinement_Is_administrative_segregation_as_bad_as_alleged

Reiter, K. (2017). Response: retaking the archive of knowledge about solitary confinement. Social Justice, (4), 118. Retrieved from https://search.proquest.com/openview/b09ba90e144a6ed6533d84fb1d2c9aa1/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=48122

Umphres, E. (2017). Solitary Confinement: An Unethical Denial of Meaningful Due Process. Georgetown Journal of Legal Ethics, (4). 1057. Retrieved from http://heinonline.org/HOL/LandingPage?handle=hein.journals/geojlege30&div=55&id=&page=