832044

Jessica Duarte
Ms.Torain
English lll
12-10-14

Isolation of Prisoners
Suicidal is a critical problem within a jail environment. Prisoners in a solitary
confinement spend about twenty two to twenty four hours in their cell. Not only do they stay
isolated to other prisoners but to their family and society as well. Even though some people
believe separating repeat violent offenders from the rest of the prison population creates a
safer environment, isolation makes inmates more violent creating a greater risk to
themselves and other inmates because they get suicidal thoughts, start getting mental
illness, and they run into hunger as a protest and they get small amount of food that is not
nutritious .

A study was made indicating that isolated prisoners are seven times more likely to hurt or
kill themselves, than the prisoners that are not in isolation cells. Haney, a researcher says "They
began to withdraw from the little amount of social contact that they are allowed to have, because
social stimulation becomes anxiety arousing."(The Science of Solitary Confinement, Joseph
Stromberg)
Brain activity is motivated by circadian rhythm which is consecutively by the exposure to
the sun. Isolated prisoners stay in their cells for up to twenty three hours with no contact to
sunlight. The brain depending on sun exposure and prisoners not receiving it, causes the
prisoners to get the suicidal thoughts they start having while they are in isolated prison. Harvard
Medical School interviewed many prisoners and found that one third of the population had

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suicidal thoughts. The prisoners are put in a room that is approximately about 80 square feet,
with only a stahl, sink and a small bed. The prisoners do not get out for any reason not even to
eat since they receive their food into their solitary cells. They have nothing to do, and performing
the same situation day after day makes them get anxious, depressed until they get to the point
where they begin to think it would be better if they were dead and not stuck in a small cell
without anything to do or who to interact with. Having those thoughts in their mind is where the
suicidal thoughts begins to proceed. The prisoners locked up in a cramped up room with only
themselves, and with no hope makes the prisoners decide they rather be dead instead of being in
the cell they are currently in, causing them to start with suicidal thoughts.

(Gang Instigation
Alleged in California Prison Hunger Strike; Force-Feeding Possible, Victoria Law)

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Put into a cell for months or maybe many more years, prisoners having nothing to do
same thoughts to think about, causing them to become depressed then start to not function the
proper way it should. The prisoners brain stops functioning the way it it should be working as
humans brains do. They are put away from society and put into their small world and place. With
nobody to interact with and no actions, it causes the prisoners to suffer from mental loss, anxiety
and depression. A research was made by Brandon Keim a scientist with some prisoners and
realized that the prisoners obtain the same symptoms soldiers receive after war.The prisoners and
soldiers have the symptoms that comes from post traumatic stress disorder.The stress enters the
brain's pathways causing the pathways to alter. When the prisoners are released they are put back
into society and there is a high possibility that they will not be able to see society or the outside
world from prison. The prisoners may not remember how to interact with people, or how to do
things the way they would and even maybe who they were in society. It will be hard for them to
go back to the way they were before they has entered the isolated cell they had been put into for
months or years. Some may remember their memories, while others will not be able to and
would have to start their life over or just take it on from where they are currently staying at at the
moment.After their long term of solitary confinement they have a problem with the prison
condition they were in. Because of that problem the person who was in the solitary confinement
becomes a biggest threat to public safety and community health problem. Studies have been
documented about the effects of what solitary confinement does to the prisoners.Special Housing
Unit Syndrome also known as SHU is the syndrome that prisoners receive for being put into
solitary confinement for months or years. The symptoms of SHU are visual and hallucination,
hypersensitivity to noise and touch, insomnia and paranoia, uncontrollable feelings of rage and

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fear, distortions of time and perception. All those symptoms were found in the prisoners. If the
prisoners were not mentally ill when they had been put into solitary confinement for the first
time, by the time they get released their mental health will be severely compromised. Locked up
for many years with no one to interact with and nothing to do makes them get mental illness and
a threat to the community after they get released from prison.
An issue that has been happening with the prisoners in prison is that they run out of
hunger. In any prison the prisoners are given a non nutritional or maybe spoiled food to eat. The
hunger is a big problem in Pelican State Prison for over two years. In the summer and fall the
prisoners had claimed they had went in hunger for several weeks since the prison people who are
in charge of feeding the prisoners wouldn't feed them. More than six thousand prisoners went
into hunger for weeks. Because of the hunger many prisoners had been hospitalized and one had
died. On July twenty-two of the year twenty-thirteen a thirty-two year old prisoner named Billy
and also known as Guero was found dead in his SHU cell at Corcoran State prison. the CDCR
had documented that after missing nine consecutive meals, Guero had died of hunger. The
CDCR does not want to accept the fact that the prisoners are being hospitalized and one death
because of hunger. Two hundred and seventy prisoners were found hungry in six prisons. Two
days later the amount of prisoners in hunger rose to two hundred and eighty-four in eight prisons.
In any type of prison both male and female, they have a hunger issue. Jules Lobel president of
the center of the Constitutional Rights and leader and lead attorney of the action suite of Ashker
v. Brown had announced that the staff members prohibit the prisoners to buy juice from the
canteen(Gang Instigation Alleged in California Prison Hunger Strike; Force-Feeding Possible,
Victoria Law)

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. The tea and coffee they would consume were confiscated from them as well. A prisoner
named Alfred Sandoval, had informed that he was fed the remains of food and it didn't help with
any of the hunger she had contained. With just eating remainings he lost about forty-six pounds.
The prisoner are given enough fluids but not enough solid food, They are given twenty cups of
water, and two packs of gatorade powder. On July twelve of the year twenty thirteen the prison
officials had taken away their canteen food.The prisoners informed the inquiry about the
situation that was going on expecting them it to help. Instead of helping them the CDCR fed
them less food for writing to the inquiry that they had not been fed enough food. The prisoners
are not given enough food to eat and because of that they go through a lot of hunger. Those who
had received food did not eat the food they were given as a way of protest. They lasted up from
days to months with no food. After their protest was over they had many health problems and
most of them were all dehydrated.
People believe that separating the repeat violent offenders from the rest of the prison
population creates a safer environment. They believe that since they are alone in the cell they
will not harm anyone. At the moment they are in prison they will not harm anyone but when they
get back into society their set of mind is different since they will be having mental illness and
they will not be getting help of any kind. With years not interacting with society they will not
remember what they had been through, they might have gone from bad to worse. Isolation of
prisoners does not change their set of mind, they end up with no mind. They will be eventually
set free from prison and them having mental illness are being set free into the people. They will
not know how to interact, they were put into a small cell for many years. They are violators and
they are in there for a reason but they will be set of free when they are finished with their

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sentence. They will not be the same at all they have a huge difference on their set of mind.
Having them isolated will not help the rest of the prison population be safe.
Even though some people believe separating repeat violent offenders from the rest of the
prison population creates a safer environment, isolation makes inmates more violent creating a
greater risk to themselves and other inmates because they would get suicidal thoughts, they start
getting mental illness, and they run into hunger. They may have been repeated violent offenders
but having them isolated makes them much more violent not only to themselves but to the
community as well. Their set of mind is not in good conditions at all. They come out with mental
illness, and with suicidal thoughts. There should be a different way to keep the prisoners
disciplined and a way where it will actually work. A way where the prisoners will stop doing the
crimes they would commit.