Solitary confinement’s psychological effects

Interesting read.

Similarly I'd love to see people experience some of the pain and danger they seem willing to put others in. The cycling comment was flippant (and my personal bugbear) but I think it is part of a whole spectrum of engagement and understanding that we should expect from those that want to and chose to run and operate the mechanics of our countries.

Interactions existed but are twisted, and I try to avoid them whenever I can. I agree that even bad interactions may be a little better than no interactions at all.

When living at night, I could see the sunlight around 5pm throught the curtains bottom.

It's true I do have control, that's what I tried to say above. I realize that even going to pee or shower is some kind of leasure time in that setting.

I very, very much doubt that most people (even those that enjoy books etc) would prefer solitary confinement to some form of gen-pop. We are social creatures, and being completely alone, without being able to do anything about our situation (not by choice) is quite terrible when it stretches out over time.

That's an argument for a better prison system.

A U.S. military study of almost a hundred and fifty naval aviators returned from imprisonment in Vietnam, many of whom were treated even worse than McCain, reported that they found social isolation to be as torturous and agonizing as any physical abuse they suffered.

And what happened to them was physical. EEG studies going back to the nineteen-sixties have shown diffuse slowing of brain waves in prisoners after a week or more of solitary confinement. In 1992, fifty-seven prisoners of war, released after an average of six months in detention camps in the former Yugoslavia, were examined using EEG-like tests. The recordings revealed brain abnormalities months afterward; the most severe were found in prisoners who had endured either head trauma sufficient to render them unconscious or, yes, solitary confinement. Without sustained social interaction, the human brain may become as impaired as one that has incurred a traumatic injury.

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2009/03/30/090330fa_fact_...

Not the star of Death Wish: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Bronson

Sorry, I can see where that would have been confusing.

Apparently Charles Manson has been placed in solitary for debatable reasons: http://mansondirect.com/solitary-confinement.html

It's not the only component of the problem of prison population control, but deinstitutionalization under Reagan absolutely punted the mental health issue to the prison system.

I worked in the criminal justice system in an inner city for a medium sized metro area. We'd have cases where a guy would repeatedly break into a business, not to steal anything of value, he was just schizophrenic and felt he needed to be in there some nights. Turning him back on the street perpetually screws over the business owner, incarceration without treatment risks ruining his already fragile life. There weren't an abundance of good options, and everyone in the courtroom, prosecution, judge, public defender, they all recognized it.

This was an extreme example, but mental health issues weren't atypical. It wasn't the majority, but a substantial fraction (guessing here, maybe 10-20%?) of the cases I saw involved some underlying mental health issues.

The criminal justice system is just at its worst with these defendants too. For serious crimes, juries just never find them sympathetic, even if their mental health issue is not sociopathy, but something like down's syndrome, it's basically impossible to get a sympathetic jury, despite the fact that it's supposed to be a "jury of peers."

We really need mental health courts. We need to recognize, like we did with drug courts, that some of these cases just aren't a normal criminal justice issue. They have their own special issues that require a special set of expertise and special policy options. We also need mental health facilities or in home monitoring to handle the problem.

That all means massive amounts of money, but it would be money well spent on social justice, and some costs would even be recouped by lowering the burden on the rest of the system, which is an ill fit for this social problem.

On the other hand, there's only so far you can go with this. The Supreme Court has found that prisoners have a right to refuse treatment (with certain exceptions), and many do. Other violent offenders don't have any particular mental illness, just take every opportunity to defy prison rules. Some prison rules are arbitrary, but some aren't.

I still think guards need a robust range of tools at their disposal to control behavior, but I'd be all for much greater oversight and access to appellate review of disciplinary decisions. I'm glad cops in California are experimenting with body cameras, maybe guards will start being required to wear them too. Less wrongful liability for the prison, less behind the scenes violence against inmates, maybe everyone wins.

Personal attack based on no evidence. Until you fix it, I'm going to assume your response was an emotional outburst based on a failure to construct a strong counter-point. I feel it's appropriate, given that it's about the same level of intellectual engagement you afforded the response to your post.