Solitary Nation: Documentary Analysis

The United States prison system is notorious for the way it treats its inmates. There are so many theories, and facts to back up the claim that the prison system is not working the way it was intended to be, and it continues to be a growing issue that the government is not addressing. Further, within the already complicated prison system, there is another issue. Solitary confinement, which was originally supposed to be used as a short term punishment within prisons, or jails, has now become an integrated part of prison life (Edge, 2014). Solitary Nation, is 2014 documentary highlights the damages that solitary confinement is doing to people (Edge, 2014). Individuals whom have not shown any signs of degrading mental health come out of segregation, or as the inmates call it, “seg,” disturbed (Edge, 2014).
This is already problematic for anyone’s sanity. We as humans, are social beings, and thrive with communication with others. Along with the forced routine, people begin to slip into a mental breakdown. In the film they introduce a man who has been put into Solitary confinement for the first time. Adam Brulotte will be facing time in the whole, he thinks is going to be able to handle “seg.” However, by the end of the film, Adam has resulted to cutting himself, as he puts it, “just to pass the time” (Edge, 2014). Clearly this form of prison punishment is not working. People are not reforming their behavior, in fact they are leaving, if they can, solitary with even worse