Solitary Confinement: A Tragedy of American "Justice"

Imagine spending the rest of your life in a 6 x 8 foot cell. Food is delivered to you twice a day through a slot. Perhaps you are let out for an hour of solitary exercise, or perhaps you aren't. Your books, radio, even the light above your (steel or concrete) bed are all privileges that can be taken away from you as punishment. Now, imagine that over 20,000 people in the United States are in this very situation.

Sadly, none of this is hypothetical. The United States has 5% of the world's population, 25% of its prisoners, and probably the vast majority of prisoners in solitary confinement -- certainly more than any other rich country. Placing prisoners in solitary confinement has become something of a "new normal" in the state penitentiary system; most new prisons are built with solitary confinement wings, and some prisons have been built with the sole purpose of housing prisoners in solitary confinement.

Now, the most well-known supermax prison in the United States is ADX Florence, in the Colorado grasslands. This is where some of the country's most notorious criminals are held, nearly all in solitary confinement. Inmates such as Barry Mills and Tyler Bingham of the Aryan Brotherhood, Zacarias Moussaoui (the alleged "20th hijacker"), Oklahoma City Bombing conspirant Terry Nichols, and Theodore Kaczynski, the unibomber, are all housed at ADX Florence. Finding sympathetic voices for these individuals is nearly impossible, and, indeed, it is hard to argue that they have gotten anything less than what they deserved.

The prisoners housed at ADX Florence are not the problem. The problem is the other 20,000 inmates held in solitary confinement throughout the country in the state penitentiary system. There is a veritable mountain of scientific evidence that shows that human beings are insatiably social creatures. Deprive a person of meaningful social contact for a time, and he becomes irritable and depressed. Deprive him from any form of social contact for an extended period of time, and psychosis will almost certainly present itself, even in perfectly sane individuals.

The fact is, solitary confinement has become a form of prison punishment, a kind-of pall that hangs over the heads of nearly every inmate. ADX Florence is designed to house extremely dangerous, psychotic, or otherwise highly risky inmates who could not be held in other prison facilities. But in the state prison system, inmates can be placed in solitary confinement simply for breaking prison rules, or being suspected of gang involvement, or any other manner of non violent actions.

Placing people in solitary confinement who will eventually be released back into the general prison population, and in many cases out onto the streets onto parole, is a recipe for disaster and recidivism. Many people who have spent an extended period of time in solitary confinement describe the conditions as mind-bendingly torturous. Inmates will often go on hunger strikes when placed in solitary confinement. Some will even attempt suicide. Many survivors of long-term solitary confinement sentences describe the sensation of "soul-destroying loneliness."

Placing our citizens, whether convicted of a violent crime or not, in situations such as these do not mesh with our ideals as a community, or as a nation. And we do not have to do it. Britain is a prime example: they have certainly had their share of serial killers, gangsters, and terrorists, and the British government even experimented with solitary confinement in 1960s and 70s. However, today the British government houses fewer than 40 inmates in solitary, and focuses on rehabilitating and properly handling their problem inmates. There is hope in America, too. Some states have begun remodeling their high-security prisons to focus on building a sense of community amongst their inmates, and not having to resort to threatening them with solitary confinement. Besides, we can always send the "worst of the worst" to ADX Florence.