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Essays on solitary confinement being inhumane
An essay on solitary confinement
Essays on solitary confinement being inhumane
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The Rolling Stone article “Slow Motion Torture,” written by Jeff Teitz, is a perplexing article that dives into the various psychological affects that solitary confinement can have on an individual’s mind. The arrangement of the article itself was hard to follow at times. It was all over the place, talking about multiple things at once that did not correlate with the topic of the paragraph. But, for the most part, I was able to understand it.
the phenomenological argument as the Author of “the living Death of Solitary confinement” Lisa Guenther’s argues, is the study of the structure of the consciousness from the first point perspective of the subjective individual relative to his experience. specifically, in relation to her argument of Solitary confinement, Guenther uses phenomenological study to argue that solitary confinement is a living death sentence in which the person succumbed to such confinement is at risk of developing psychological problems, due to the deprived of communication with the world. Due to the developing of such psychological issues, Guenther’s arguably suggest if the U.S Prisons are to release an inmate from their cells to the open world who are succumbed
According to Bassett, 50% of suicides occur inside solitary confinmenet (419). Not to mention, inmates are sometimes physically abused by the guards in power. Through the Solitary Nation documentary, it is seen that guards sometimes have to use bigger forces like a toxic gas to get an inmate out of their cell. While it makes sense that guards have to do it for their own protection, there needs to be thought about why inmates do the things they do. When inmates suffer from their mental illnesses, they begin to lose their sense of reality as well as sense of right and wrong.
On April 21st, 1930, Ohio State Penitentiary, which was built in Ohio’s capital, Columbus, in 1834, caught fire and killed hundreds of inmates. When returning for the night, they discovered that a fire was started within cell blocks G and H. It was only after the fire had been doused, that everyone had realized that the scaffolding, on the outside walls of those cell blocks, was what had caught fire. At the time, the prison was known for its poor conditions. The prison was only meant to hold 1,500 people, but at the time of the fire, it was housing 4,300 inmates. This disaster goes down in history as the worst fire at any prison in the United States.
Craig Haney’s article Mental Health Issues in Long-Term Solitary and “Supermax” Confinement illustrates the complications faced in solitary confinement emphasizing the rise in mental health challenges imposed. Particular attention is paid to the escalation in the nature of mental health-related issues, including the negative psychological effects of imprisonment. Haney discusses these increasingly widespread and specialized units that bring forward the issues presented taking into account the notion of isolation and the association of the high percentage of prisoners suffering from mental illnesses. The article briefly assesses the recent case law concerning the difficulty of mentally ill prisoners, suggesting that the majority of broader psychological problems have been overlooked by the courts.
In his essay, “Hell Hole” Atul Gawande informs his audience how damaging solitary confinement can be to the human body and character. To make his argument he uses examples of prisoner’s solitary confinement stories and people who have been similar situations. Gawande explains to his readers the difference phases and problems the human body goes through considering the lack of human interaction. The writer makes a compelling argument that solitary confinement is detrimental to the human’s mental state and physical well-being. His argument includes impressive diction, vivid emotional appeals, and logos appeal to guide his readers through his essay.
Imagine being trapped in a damp, dark, cage as a form of punishment for something that seems completely out of your grasp. Prisons were understaffed and as barbaric as it gets the people charged with crimes were whipped. The primary cause for their creation was to keep the crooks from harming any people right? Everyone in solitary confinement is treated the same way but not everyone came for the same reason. In fact, mentally ill people were considered to be harsh maniacs which did not receive treatment for a long time.
In the article “Escape From Alcatraz” by Deborah Hopkinson, she describes Alcatraz as a tough and fear-inducing prison by explaining the precautions took to keep prisoners locked up and describing the rough punishments. On page 8, the author gave us an example of a precaution by stating, “Cell blocks were turned into fortresses meant to hold those who had tried- and sometimes managed- to break out of other prisons.” This shows how the government had to take extra steps to make sure this prison was inescapable. The author then talks about what were to happen if one broke the rules by writing, “Men who broke the rules faced harsh punishment, the most feared of which was solitary confinement” (page 9). This quote shows that even these powerful
Major Ethical Issues of Solitary Confinement Solitary confinement can affect a person’s physical and mental health simply because it deprives an individual of their need to interact with others on a daily basis. Solitary confinement, which is used to restrain violent and volatile inmates from the general prison population, is done in increments ranging from several months to years. In an article retrieved from the American Psychological Association, ‘Alone, in ‘the Hole’’, the author states that, “for most of the 20th century, prisoners' stays in solitary confinement were relatively short.” This was the standing rule, in which inmates visited what is known as ‘the hole’, for several weeks to months. As time went by, the average length of stay
In Atul Gawande “ HellHole” essay they talked about the experiences and effects of people who were previously in solitary confinement. Solitary confinement can be best explained as the process of removing an individual and isolating them from their environment and socialization. Atul Gawande is specifically talking about prisoners of war and incarcerated people and how their experience was and that process. The essay talked about how people are put in isolation which caused them to act out of their character. Goffman would argue that effects of solitary confinement are exactly what total institutions can do to a person's.
In Adam Gopnik 's piece “Caging of America,” he discusses one of the United States biggest moral conflicts: prison. Gopniks central thesis states that prison itself is a cruel and unjust punishment. He states that the life of a prisoner is as bad as it gets- they wake up in a cell and only go outside for an hour to exercise. They live out their sentences in a solid and confined box, where their only interaction is with themselves. Gopnik implies that the general populace is hypocritical to the fact that prison is a cruelty in itself.
First you hate them, then you get used to them. Enough time passes, you get so you depend on them. That 's institutionalized.’ A prison should aim at retribution, incapacitation, deterrence and rehabilitation. I am very well convinced that prison has served its first three purposes by depriving offenders’ freedom, but the
The mandatory detention provision is limited to when aliens are released from custody related to specific crimes. Aliens convicted of crimes involving moral turpitude committed with five to ten years after the date of admission and convicted of a crime that sentence is one year or longer are deportable. Also, an alien who is convicted of two or more crimes involving moral turpitude that does not come of out the same trial is deportable. Additionally, an alien that commits an aggravated felony any time after admission is deportable.
Some might argue that solitary confinement is actually effective and has its benefits, however this is not the case since this punishment only seems to make criminals much more dangerous when they leave prison than they were before and research shows that inmates who left solitary confinement experience increased anger and end up committing the kind of criminality that society is looking to prevent by using this method of punishment. Thus, solitary confinement ultimately fails as a rehabilitative measure, and as a way to "settle down" problematic
Does it make sense to lock up 2.4 million people on any given day, giving the U.S the highest incarceration rate in the world. More people are going to jail, this implies that people are taken to prison everyday for many facilities and many go for no reason. People go to jail and get treated the worst way as possible. This is a reason why the prison system needs to be changed. Inmates need to be treated better.
