Social justice is the belief that every person deserves equal opportunity in economics, politics, and civil rights. For a country that values social justice as a foundational principle, the United States has a Penal system filled with social injustice. Four decades ago, there were 300,000 people in jails and prisons. Today, the U.S. has the highest incarceration rate in the world with 2.3 million prisoners. Atul Gawande, a professor of medicine and public health at Harvard University, examines the Penal System and the detrimental effects regarding solitary confinement in prisons. In the Penal System, one of the most severe forms of punishment for criminals is solitary confinement. Solitary confinement is when a prisoner is placed in a solitary cell for twenty-three hours a day and permitted out only for a shower or recreation in an outdoor cage. Prisoners live in these conditions for up to many years with no human contact. In his essay, “Hellhole”, Gawande produces evidence to indicate that solitary confinement is a social injustice because the lack of sustained …show more content…
Gawande then describes the current prison situation and how the United States has put more inmates in long-term solitary confinement than any other country in history. Gawande uses research from monkey experiments conducted by Harry Harlow, statements from prisoners of war, and behavioral studies of inmates to show that those who have no social interaction become more than lonely, but rather lose their capability of functioning normally. Ultimately, Gawande explains how the prisoners developed an inability to initiate behavior, follow simple instructions, and had hallucinations and irrational anger to the extent of acute psychosis. Lastly, Gawande states that putting people in solitary confinement has not shown evidence to fix violent behavior in prisons, but actually produces more long-term