Over the weekend of October 23rd, Bucknell University experienced the highest increase in cases since students first arrived. This announcement came out Saturday night, October 24th, and less than an hour later I got a text that someone I had seen Friday afternoon tested positive. I immediately started panicking about what two weeks in isolation would look and feel like, I was petrified. I am lucky enough that the time I spent with the person who tested positive did not count as close contact, so I did not have to go into isolation. After this relief, I began to reflect on my reaction. Isolation started to remind me greatly of a very moderate form of solitary confinement. And if that was my reaction at the thought of spending two weeks alone, I cannot imagine what it would feel like for that to be my reality for years and years like a prisoner sentenced to solitary confinement. All information discussed below about solitary confinement is from the article, “Solitary Confinement: Inhumane, Ineffective, and Wasteful” (2019) from the Southern Poverty Law Center.
Solitary confinement can be understood as the isolation of a prisoner in a cell as punishment, where they have minimal contact with other people and often sensory deprivation. These prisoners are most likely in their cells for twenty-two to twenty-four hours a day. The worst part is there are scarcely any benefits or none at all. Research has found that when people return to society from solitary confinement they are more likely to commit crimes than those who were not isolated. Isn’t the point of jail is to encourage people not to commit crimes again?
The most frightening effect of solitary confinement is its influence on people’s mental health. Research has found that anyone subjected to solitary confinement has increased instances of mental health issues, like anxiety or depression. This has led to the fact that individuals who are forced to live in solitary confinement attempt and die by suicide at a much higher rate compared to the general prison population. Worst of all, people in solitary confinement are denied sufficient mental health assistance because of prison rules that regulate the services individuals in solitary receive. This could be because those in solitary confinement have an intense absence of audio or visual stimulation and physical and external contact with other people.
Individuals are usually placed in solitary confinement because they fail to follow prison rules, but most often their failure to follow rules is because of a mental illness. This creates a vicious cycle because solitary confinement will do nothing but exacerbate their mental illness issues, which in turn increases their time in solitary confinement. A horrifying reality. Even if an individual enters solitary confinement completely mentally healthy, this isolation puts them at a much greater risk to develop issues with anger, anxiety, paranoia, and hallucinations to name a few.
While solitary confinement might seem like the better option for a struggling prisoner, its determinants can only worsen the situation they are in no matter what it is. The consequences it has on mental and physical health cannot be ignored. There are virtually no positives to solitary confinement and letting the practice continue only increases the mental health issues in the prison system and society in general (Southern Poverty Law Center, 2019).
The thought of living even a day in solitary confinement is horrifying to me, and I presume to others as well. No one should have to go through that trauma. Legislation needs to be introduced to get rid of the practice of solitary confinement or the individuals forced to live in it will continue to suffer deeply. If you truly want to understand how it feels to live like that, here is a link to a simulator:
Sources:
“Solitary Confinement: Inhumane, Ineffective, and Wasteful.” Southern Poverty Law Center, 4
Apr. 2019, www.splcenter.org/20190404/sol….