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Andy Hua
Senior Inquiry
Mrs. Rodgers, Mr. Washington & Mrs. Yonamine
24 April 2016
Solitary Confinement: A Timeout That Never Ends
The child stares at the wall bored out of his mind. He feels he has stared at this wall for
over an eternity but in reality it has only been two minutes. For another 13 minutes he is not
allowed to move an inch away from the wall. He is not allowed to watch television, play with
toys, or talk to anyone. We have all experienced this at some point in our lives, the dreaded
timeout. A timeout allowed us to experience what isolation was and we hated it. Now imagine a
timeout for a minimum of 22 hours each day for 365 days. No child would ever receive a timeout
this extreme but over 80,000 prisoners nationwide experience this extended period of isolation
known as Solitary Confinement, which has caused more harm than good. Prisons must eliminate
the use of Solitary Confinement because it is an ineffective rehabilitative method can leads to
long term mental damage.
Solitary Confinement began in 1820 when it was believed that isolating prisoners
would be rehabilitative (Dvorsky). This was based on a Quaker belief that prisoners isolated in
stone cells with only a Bible would use the time to repent, pray and find introspection.
(Sullivan). It was believed that prisoner would spend their time feeling guilty about their actions.
This method spread to the United States and Europe but quickly fell out of practice since solitary
confinement was considered cruel by many (Cockrell). However beginning in 1983 many
states built entire prisonsoften called supermax prisonsdedicated to long-term solitary
confinement (Schlanger). At the time solitary confinement was perceived as a socially and

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morally progressive way to deal with punishment and a viable alternative to the death
penalty (Dvorsky).
On average prisoners spend 22 to 24 hours a day in cells smaller than an average
parking space, many without a window. Inmates very often do not see the sun for years at a time.
Communication between inmates in solitary confinement is forbidden. Prisoners get little
stimulation: there are limited educational opportunities, no work opportunities, very limited
entertainment, and only a few hours of exercise per week but exercise too, is solitary in a bare
cage or concrete enclosure not much larger than the cell itself. What little physical contact with
other human beings they experience can only be described as rough handling by the guards
(Schlanger). Prisoners in solitary confinement receive nothing to stimulate their brain and their
only human interaction is being manhandled by prison guards. This is not done unintentionally as
the dehumanizing conditions in which inmates are held--the lack of sensory stimulation and
human contact; the petty control over inmate's' daily lives; the disorientation with regard to time;
and the threat of indefinite isolation--are, in the minds of prison officials, essential to solitary
power as a disciplinary tool (Jeffreys). Solitary has been designed to be a more severe
punishment than the death penalty.
A common assumption of prisoners in solitary confinement is that they are the most
dangerous criminals but in reality these prisoner are placed in solitary confinements for various
reasons. Today incarcerated men and women can be placed in isolation not only for violent acts
but for possessing contraband, testing positive for drug use, ignoring orders, or using profanity.
Others have ended up in solitary because they have untreated mental illnesses, are children in
need of protection, are gay or transgender, are Muslim, have unsavory political beliefs, or
report rape or abuse by prison officials (Schaeffer). Their time in isolation does not last for just

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a few days or weeks. A 2013 survey done on eighteen states found that these states had 3,100
inmates held continuously in segregation for more than one year, including 200 in the hole for
more than ten years (Lueders). No prisoner should be place in complete isolation for a year just
because of a mental illness, age, sexual orientation, faith, political views or reporting a crime
against a prison guard. The origin of solitary was to make prisoners think about their actions
however the reasons why they are placed in solitary confinement do not relate at all to violence
and instead they are being profiled and placed in solitary confinement because they are
considered outliers from a typical prisoner. America is the only country that resorts regularly,
and on a long-term basis, to this and ironically, we spend very little time analyzing the effects of
solitary confinement.
Eventually these prisoners will be released from solitary confinement and they come out
even more violent. Researchers have found that prisoners in solitary quickly become
withdrawn, hypersensitive to sights and sounds, paranoid, and more prone to violence and
hallucinations (Vazquez). Grassian, a former consultant in criminal cases, discover that even
when prisoners are let out of solitary confinement, they are so overwhelmed by stimulus that
they become incapable of tolerating their new environment and have trouble integrating back
into the general population (Vazquez). This prolonged isolation caused prisoners to have violent
outbursts, because they are afraid of their surrounding, and sends them right back to prison. A
2007 study of Washington State's prison population found that 69 percent of those who were
released directly to the community from solitary committed new crimes that landed them back in
jail within three years, compared with 46 percent of those who had been allowed to readjust to
the general prison population before release (Vazquez). We can not expect a person who has not

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talked to anyone and has been confined to a six feet by 9 feet cell for years to smoothly
transition to a normal life. These are not the only effects solitary confinement causes.
Many prisoners experienced high anxiety that can cause panic attacks, paranoia and
disordered thinking, as well as anger and compulsive actions, like pacing or repeatedly cleaning
the cell. Basic cognitive functions are also dulled (Sifferlin). Additional experienced symptoms
are dizziness, heart palpitations, chronic depression, while 41 percent reported hallucinations
and 27 percent had suicidal thoughts- all levels significantly higher than those of the overall
prison populations (Lueders). Researchers who were allowed to talk with prisoners in solitary
confinement noted that inmates often confide that their self-harm acts are used as a means to
avoid the rigors of solitary confinement and that many inmates report to us that they have and
will continue to do anything to escape these settings (Wihbey). Solitary confinement was
implemented to be an alternative to the death penalty however prisoners would rather die than
live another day in solitary confinement and deal with the mental effects.
Although these rooms contain the bare minimum that does not reduce the cost. It costs
about 78,000 a year to house someone in the federal prison system in solitary (Johnson). This
is three times as much as a regular prison unit. Solitary is more expensive because of the increase
of the use of solitary confinement resulting in more super-max prisons. These prisons are all
single-cell confinement and rely heavily on enhanced security technology (Paying the Price).
This allows prison guards to monitor prisoners from afar and not interact with them at all.
Ongoing operations cost are also increased because more staff is required. Prisoners in solitary
confinement are usually required to be escorted by two or more officers any time they leave their
cells, and work that in other prisons would be performed by prisoners (such as cooking and
cleaning) must be done by paid staff. Because of increased security protocols, staff must also

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take the time to perform regular searches on prisoners held in solitary confinement (Paying the
Price). Staff need to perform constant searches to ensure a prisoner has not attempted suicide.
Three times more of taxpayers money funds solitary confinement so each individual prisoner can
experience a living hell of complete isolation.
Our prison systems have taken advantage of solitary confinement to make their jobs
easier. All prison guards need to do is escort a prisoner to the exercise room and back. The rest of
the time the prisoner can be monitored on the camera. A majority of these prisoners are not even
dangerous criminals but they are forced into complete isolation for years. We must eliminate
solitary confinement from our prisons systems because it does not rehabilitate any prisoners but
actually makes them more violent and likely to commit crimes and leave irreversible mental
effects. These men and women have committed crimes but that does not give us a right to treat
them like animals and make them fight for their sanity.

Works Cited
Casella, Jean. "FAQ." Solitary Watch. Solitary Watch, 31 Jan. 2012. Web. 24 Apr. 2016.
Dvorsky, George. "Why Solitary Confinement Is The Worst Kind Of Psychological
Torture." Io9. IO9, 01 July 2014. Web. 24 Apr. 2016.

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Jeffreys, Derek S. "Cruel but not unusual: the scandal of solitary confinement."
Commonweal 141.11 (2014): 20+. Academic OneFile. Web. 25 Apr. 2016.
Johnson, Carrie. "Solitary Confinement Costs $78K Per Inmate And Should Be Curbed,
Critics Say." NPR. NPR, 25 Feb. 2014. Web. 16 May 2016
Lueders, Bill. "The horrors of solitary confinement." The Progressive Oct. 2015: 33+.
Academic OneFile. Web. 24 Apr. 2016.
Paying the Price for Solitary Confinement. Fact sheet. American Civil Liberties Union.
United States. n.d. Web.
Schaeffer, Carol. "FAQ." Solitary Watch. Solitary Watch, 31 Jan. 2012. Web. 24 Apr.
2016.
Schlanger, Margo. "Eight Principles for Reforming Solitary Confinement."The American
Prospect. The American Prospect, 6 Oct. 2015. Web. 24 Apr. 20
Sifferlin 29, Alexandra. "What 28-Years of Solitary Confinement Does to the Mind."
Time. Time, 29 July 2014. Web. 24 Apr. 2016.16.
Sullivan, Laura. "Timeline: Solitary Confinement in U.S. Prisons." NPR. NPR, 26 July
2006. Web. 24 Apr. 2016.
Vazquez, Eva. "Solitary Confinement Is Cruel and Ineffective." Scientific American.
Scientific American, 1 Aug. 2013. Web. 24 Apr. 2016.

Wihbey, John. "Solitary Confinement in Prisons: Key Data and Research Findings Journalist's Resource." Journalists Resource. Journalists Resource, 25 Jan. 2016. Web.
24 Apr. 2016.

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