The Negative Effects Of Solitary Confinement

Try to imagine yourself locked in a cement room that is 8x10 feet small. Now, imagine the walls of the room being ridden with filth. The walls are empty and the room is dark. Last, and worst of all, try to imagine yourself in this room 23-24 hours a day with no social interaction whatsoever. You are placed in your own cell, with a slab of cement for a bed and only a shower and sink. You can only sit in this small space, thinking to yourself, letting your own thoughts consume you. It seems okay for a little while, but shortly after you start to hear voices coming from the vents. This is exactly what living in a maximum security prison is like.

In 1791 the Bill of Rights was being ratified, and the Eighth amendment was created. This prohibited
Solitary confinement can be defined as torture because it often causes prisoners to lose their mental stability, or make their mental state worse. Social interaction is beyond important to humans. Humans are social creatures, and it can cause detrimental effects on us if we don’t socialize regularly. Forcing humans to go without this interaction can cause them great mental harm. There are a whole host of psychological consequences that are associated with long-term solitary confinement in Supermax prisons that have been confirmed by anecdotal accounts and empirical evidence. Separation from society can cause humans to become actively psychotic (this includes, hallucinations, panic attacks, over-paranoia, diminished impulse control, hypersensitivity to external stimuli, maladjusted sleeping patterns, rage, depression, withdrawal, obsessive behaviors, and difficulties with thinking, concentration and memory.) There was a study done on supermax prisons in which he interviewed 100 inmates from the Supermax prison at Pelican Bay to indicate their levels of psychological distress. Almost all inmates experienced symptoms of anxiety (91%) and a great majority reported feeling like they were on the verge of a nervous breakdown (70%). A sizable number of inmates also reported feelings of irrational anger and ruminations (88%) and social withdrawal (83%). Some inmates also reported more troubling symptoms, such as perceptual distortions (44%), hallucinations (41%) and suicidal ideations (27%). Overall, these symptoms were far less common in prisoners that were placed in normal housing, underscoring the psychological disturbance that is present in Supermax inmates. (Haney, 2003) While Lovell did a similar research experiment in Washington with 131 randomly selected inmates in 2008, yielding similar troubling results. A total of 60, or 45% of