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SOLITARY CONFINEMENT

​Did you know...

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  • There are over 80,000 individuals in solitary confinement in United States’ prisons today- more than any other nation.

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  • The maximum amount of time someone can spend in solitary confinement in Massachusetts is 10 years.

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  • 15% of the prison population in Louisiana is in solitary confinement.

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  • The longest solitary sentence served was 43 almost continuous years by Albert Woodfox. He survived and was released in 2016.

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THE PRISON WITHIN THE PRISON

What is solitary confinement?

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1. the confinement of a prisoner in a cell or other place in which he or she is completely isolated from others.

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2. The act of being kept alone in a cell, without being able to see or speak to other prisoners. This is intended to influence the prisoner psychologically.​

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Why does someone get put in solitary confinement?

"How can we subject prisoners to unnecessary solitary confinement, knowing its effects, and then expect them to return to our communities as whole people? It doesn't make us safer, It's an affront to our common humanity." 

- Barack Obama

  • Violent acts

  • Possessing contraband

  • Testing positive for drugs

  • Ignoring orders

  • Using profanity

  • Children in need of "protection"

  • Symptoms of mental illness can result in solitary

    • Where little to none psychiatric consultation​ is received​

  • The subjectivity of guards

  • Disruptive conduct 

  • Many mentally ill are sent to solitary for nonviolent offenses

"I found solitary confinement the most forbidding aspect of prison life. There is no end and no beginning; there is only ones mind, which can begin to play tricks. Was that a dream or did it really happen? One begins to question everything."

- Nelson Mandela

"It's an evil. Solitary confinement is the most torturous experience a human being can be put through in prison. It's punishment without ending."

- Albert Woodfox

What are conditions like?

  • 2 days a week spent entirely in isolation- 48 hours total

  •  5 remaining days in the week- 23 hours spent in cell 

  • 1 hour allotted for exercise- fenced or walled in room alone

  • Communication/ meals come from a slot in the door

  • Harsh, fluorescent lighting 

  • Not allowed to go to work or attend prison programs

  • Sensory deprivation
     

How does long-term solitary confinement affect a person?

  • Visual and auditory hallucinations

  • Hypersensitivity to noise and touch

  • Post-traumatic stress disorder 

  • Insomnia and paranoia

  • Increased risk of suicide

  • Uncontrollable feelings of rage, fear and hopelessness

  • Distortions of time and perception

  • Schizophrenia

  • Self-harm

"...prisoners in these units complain of chronic and overwhelming feelings of sadness, hopelessness and depression... Many people held in the SHU's [security housing unit's] become deeply and unshakably paranoid, and are profoundly anxious around and afraid of people. Some begin to lose their grasp on their sanity and badly decompensate"

- Dr. Craig Haney

Professor of psychology at USSC

"It is absolutely inhumane and doesn't benefit anymore. It doesn't benefit the inmate, it doesn't benefit the guard, it doesn't benefit society when the person reenters."

- Gretchen Shae Moore

Professor of Mass Incarceration

"The United States is a nation of second chances, but the experience of solitary confinement too often undercuts that second chance."

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- Barack Obama

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