There has always been a debate over capital punishment- whether people, judge jury or not has the right to decide to kill another individual. Yet, too often we don’t question other punishments that still flourish in our prison systems. For example, America quite frequently subjects people to solitary confinement without so much as a second thought. This doesn’t get much attention, possibly because the person is still alive in solitary confinement. However, how alive the person is after some time is questionable.
It’s well known that people need human contact. Without it, we would not survive. Close relationships- friendships or romantic- are preferable, but simple person-to-person interaction is absolutely necessary. Without it, people begin to disintegrate and lose the thread of the person that they once were. Although in many cases (in this country, at least) the prisoner is given a television and a few books, they often describe their time in solitary confinement as the most miserable experience of their lives.
One French prisoner survived years in the Bastille by befriending and naming rats. He made schedules for them, and developed a sort of relationship with them in which they came to visit him at the same time each day. Thus, he was able to cling to survival by imitating social contact in any way that he could.
Solitary confinement is nothing less than a more socially acceptable form of torture. Supposedly, it became a form of punishment because it was thought that time alone would leave the prisoner with time to reflect on his or her wrongdoings and thereby reform them. This was quickly disproved when all prisoners who were subjected to it suffered a relatively rapid mental breakdown.
The U.S seems to have the most prisoners currently in solitary confinement. The ultimate purpose now is not for reform, but for control. Inmates who refuse to adhere to prison rules and regulations or who otherwise give prison guards a difficult time- and especially those who try to escape- are likely to be put into solitary confinement. Their only form of social contact, then, will be attempts to shout at other prisoners down the hall, or with the guard who comes to supply them with food.
As prisoners fall apart mentally, they are very likely to do things that are not necessarily in their character. For example, one inmate recently threw a bucket of urine at a guard who came in to deliver food. This ensures that he remains in solitary confinement, which in turn will ensure that he keep disintegrating. It is a vicious cycle, and I am not sure how many people stuck in it will ever be able to lead a normal life in society.
Solitary confinement may be convenient for prison officials, but it is the most detrimental thing that could possibly be done to a person. Throwing a person in a small cell by himself is often the equivalent to killing the person- often the person they once were dies in there as they become more and more unable to handle the isolation. We cannot look away from it anymore.
