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Solitary Confinement

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Solitary Confinement
Abstract

This paper touches base with the reality that it solitary confinement and everything that goes along with that punishment. These supermax prisons are often overlooked by the everyday citizen; this leaves the inmates serving time in one of these facilities feeling isolated, not only in spirit but in the physical as well. It is the research of a few scientists, but more actual POW victims that will be able to shed some light on what really goes on in the depths of the human mind. It will also spend some time looking at what are some of the possible mental outcomes of these inmates, and will see if these problems are even relevant and if they are, are they permanent? The main objective of this paper is to ask the question “Is solitary confinement a constitutional and humane punishment?”

Keywords: Sanity, supermax, mental health, constitutional, prisons, mental trauma,

Check your sanity at the door.

Arguably, the majority of Americans can agree on the idea that America is one of the most politically correct countries in the world. No other country in the world spends more time and more money on ensuring that its people are happy with every little minute detail that they could construe as rude or insensitive. Not even countries like Australia, who’s Prime Minister appeared on national television told his countryman that in Australia the language that all road signs and television channels will be English; and if anyone had a problem with that then they could excuse themselves from the country. For all of America’s interest in public affairs one major problem has seemed to slip through the cracks. Whether it’s because people don’t know or whether people just don’t care, no one seems to be talking about solitary confinement.

The truth is many Americans, if asked about solitary confinement, normally come back with a comment like, “Oh, well they probably deserve it anyway.” Or “It’s their fault they



References: Siegel, L.J. (2010). Introduction to criminal justice. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth. Out of sight: super-maximum security confinement in the united states. (2000). 12(1), Retrieved from http://www.hrw.org/legacy/reports/2000/supermax/index.htm#TopOfPage Gawande, A Sullivan, L. (2006, July 26). Timeline: Solitary Confinement in U.S. Prisons. Retrieved from http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5579901 ----------------------- [1] (Gawande, 2009) [2] (Gawande, 2009) [3] (Gawande, 2009) [4] (Gawande, 2009) [5] (Gawande, 2009) [6] (Gawande, 2009) [7] (Gawande, 2009) [8] (HWR, 2000) [9] (Gawande, 2009) [10] (Gawande, 2009) [11] (Gawande, 2009) [12] (Sullivan, 2006) [13] (Sullivan, 2006) [14] (Gawande, 2009) [15] (Sullivan, 2006) [16] (Sullivan, 2006) [17] (HWR, 2000) [18] (Sullivan, 2006) [19] (Sullivan, 2006) [20] (Sullivan, 2006) [21] (HWR, 2000) [22] (HWR, 2000) [23] (HWR, 2000) [24] (HWR, 2000) [25] (HWR, 2000) [26] (Metzner, & Fellner, 2010)

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