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Issue Exploration
English 1010
Dec 3, 2015
Used or Abused Solitary Confinement
There are many who feel that the use of solitary confinement in the United States is being
abused. The administrators of the penal system feel it is necessary to keep order and sometimes
lives from being lost. Some in the medical and psychological fields feel that it has a place but it
needs to be limited to prevent physical or mental damage. Those who are clamoring for reform
want to change it to a place of study and reflection with books or activities. Then there are
extremist that feel it is inhumane and should be done away with entirely.
In the article by Dr. Vernon Fox, former psychologist and assistant deputy warden in
charge of individual treatment at the state prison in southern Michigan, he stated how they
handled prison disciplinary problems. He experienced prison riots and the aftermath of them.
Trying to find balance between therapy levels and maintaining the authority of society is very
difficult. He discussed how solitary confinement was intended to be therapeutic in the prison
system.
The World Medical Association gave several recommendations, stating the different uses
of solitary confinement in different countries and why prisoners might be put in solitary. They
state that people have differing temperaments and that will effect how they handle solitary. The
WMA recommend using it only as a last resort, for as little time as possible, prisoners should be
evaluated on a regular basis for changes in their mental or physical health. It should be time
limited by law, and there should be a readjustment period from solitary before they can be
released from prison. Physicians should report if conditions in solitary are inhumane to the
proper authorities.

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In the South African Journal of Psychology, the authors use evidence from many trials
that psychologist have testified in; the most famous was Nelson Mandela during the apartheid
trials. It wasnt until the 1990s before the courts really considered psychologist testimony as a
real testimony. There was one psychologist who didnt think solitary was damaging to the well
being of people. I think this article is an interesting historical look at how long people have been
studying solitary confinement. It has been a controversial subject for a long time. Is it the abuse
of solitary confinement that is the problem, or the actual isolation?
Of the people looking for reform, Stephanie Griest wrote about her interview with Joe
Loya, who served 7 years 2 of which were in solitary confinement for violent behavior in jail;
then she gave a history of how solitary confinement started. She tells of going to the historic
Philadelphia Eastern State Penn. The images she describes are haunting. She also interviewed
Robert Hillary King, who holds the record of the longest stint in solitary of 29 years. This article
gave quite a bit of information about the history of solitary confinement, a vivid description of
the places, and two different men who were put in solitary for about the same reason for very
different lengths of time. She also states that the use of torture was less effective than solitary. If
someone is murdered in prison and they didnt know who was responsible, it seems rather harsh
to put the most likely in solitary as punishment. I wouldnt have thought that the Quakers would
have used it first. I really appreciated her description of the Penitentiary that she toured and the
emotions that evoked in her.
Shira Gordons article talks about how the prison system has shifted from reform to
command and control. They propose that moving mentally ill persons from the general
population and using solitary as little as possible will help with lower recidivism rates. I had to
look up the word recidivism (the habitual relapse into criminal behavior after the person receives

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sanctions or undergoes intervention for a previous crime google dictionary). This is what they
hope doesnt happen after prisoners get out of prison. This article takes a fairly removed look at
the use, benefits, and consequences.
Derek Jefferys article uses interviews with inmates in solitary, court cases, and the
hunger strike in California. Being a humanity professor, he is against the use of solitary except in
extreme situations and then only for a very short period of time. He deems it unconstitutional as
cruel and unusual punishment but the courts havent ruled it as such. With as widespread as the
use is, it really isnt that unusual. I find this an interesting perspective with the court cases to
back it up and his credibility as a study of human nature quite well done.
In her article, Paige St. John sites a study by psychiatrist Terry Kupers, U.S. Supreme
Court Justice Anthony Kennedy, and the statistics of how the numbers in solitary have changed.
This is an attempt at showing the progress that the penal system is trying to make. The number of
people who are in solitary each year surprised me, but she didnt say why each one was there.
One of the people who want solitary done away with, Shaka Signor has a very
compelling argument. In his Ted Talk he describes his time in solitary for killing his bunkmate
while in prison. When he describes the emotional change he went through during the experience
it appealed to pathos. He said,My wish today is that we will embrace a more empathetic
approach toward how we deal with mass incarceration, that we will do away with the lock-themup-and-throw-away-the-key mentality, because its proven it doesnt work. According to the
studies, there is much to refute this claim. Solitary can work when it is used appropriately.
In researching all of these viewpoints, I have come to the conclusion that there is a reason
to use solitary confinement and agree with the medical field that it needs to be limited. That way
it isnt damaging but it would not be a place of study or activity since prison is a punishment for

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a crime committed. Prisoners that are demanding more rights should remember that they lost
their rights when they broke the law resulting in their incarceration.

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Fox, Vernon. "Analysis of Prison Disciplinary Problems." The Journal of Criminal Law,
Criminology, and Political Science 49.4 (1958): 321-26. Print.
Gordon, Shira E. "Solitary Confinement, Public Safety, and Recidivism." University of
Michigan Journal of Law Reform (2013): 495-528. Print
Griest, Stephanie Elizondo. "The Torture of Solitary." Wilson Quarterly. Spring 2012: 2229. SIRS Issues Researcher. Web. 14 Nov. 2015.
St. John, Paige. "State Prisons Isolate Fewer Inmates." Los Angeles Times. 13 Jul. 2015:
B.1. SIRS Issues Researcher. Web. 14 Nov. 2015
Jefferys, Derek S. "Cruel but Not Unusual." Commonweal (2014): 20-23. Print.
Louw, Johann, and Catherine O'Brien. "The Psychological Efects of Solitary Confinement:
An Early Instance of Psychology in South African Courts." South African Journal of
Psychology 37.1 (2007): 96-106. Print.
"WMA Statement on Solitary Confinement." World Medical Journal 60.4 (2014): 146-47.
Web. 13 Nov. 2015.
Why Your Worst Deeds Don't Define You. Perf. Shaka Senghor. Ted Talks, 2014.