Solitary Confinement Thesis

320 Words2 Pages
For decades, solitary confinement has continually been used in attempts to keep order in U.S. penitentiaries. Solitary confinement or “the hole” is a prison within the prison. First experimented with in the U.S. in 1829 it was meant to isolate prisoners in a stone cell with only a Bible with the idea that the inmates would reflect, pray, and repent. To be more specific “solitary confinement is a person in a cell alone for 22 to 24 hours a day with little human contact or interaction; reduced or no natural light; restriction or denial of reading material, television, radios or other property; severe constraints on visitation; and the inability to participate in group activities, including eating with others” (The Dangerous Overuse…). The cell