The Tyranny of Solitary Confinement
A group of lawmakers, along with survivors of solitary confinement and their family members, are together pushing for a change when it comes to the widespread abuse that takes place today with the prevalence of solitary confinement punishment.
On any given day it's estimated that there are at least 80k people or more in the US who are being held in solitary.
According to a NYC Board of Correction report on mental health standards, it's been deemed to be one of the most severe forms of punishment that an individual can be faced to endure. It can exacerbate mental illness and has been described by legal scholars as a punishment that quite literally drives men mad.
For these reasons and others, many legal scholars agree that maintaining that this form of punishment falls under the category of cruel and unusual punishment which seems to violate what should be Constitutionally-protected rights.
The longest that any US prisoner has been held in solitary was allegedly for 43 years
Even the senior associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, has seemingly urged lawyers to challenge the unconstitutionality of solitary confinement.
Today, solitary confinement is governed by the arguably boundless discretion that has been afforded to corrections authority figures. And over the years, it has fueled much more harm than good and many have already called for this old fashioned torture practice to be done away with.
To bring attention to the realities surrounding solitary confinement, a new VR experience was recently unveiled in Portland and it gives people the chance to virtually experience being locked in such a cell. It's called 6x9: A Virtual Experience of Solitary Confinement and it gives you an idea of what it would be like to be locked away for an extended period of time. There have been a myriad of different exhibits like this one, that have been put on over the years which have sought to raise awareness about this issue. Their goal is to give people an eye-opening look at to what they might actually experience if they ever found themselves in solitary.
Lawmakers in various regions of the U.S. have been active in their campaign to truly serve the cause of justice in attempting to reform this cruel practice and hopefully they start to make some real and meaningful changes in the near future.
Pics:
Pixabay
Sources:
http://waer.org/post/prison-reform-advocates-gather-protest-justice-center
http://legislativegazette.com/legislators-join-prisoners-families-hoping-to-limit-solitary-confinement/
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/opinion-reinert-solitary-confinement_us_5afb46a6e4b0779345d3c999
https://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/listeningpost/2018/05/locked-solitary-confinement-180512082018214.html
http://ripr.org/post/solitary-confinement-display-new-providence-exhibit#stream/0
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/14/us/politics/supreme-court-solitary-confinement-exercise.html
http://wnyt.com/politics/solitary-confinement-halt-governor-torture-corrections-prison/4910281/
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/apr/29/albert-woodfox-43-years-solitary-confinement-wish-i-was-back
http://www.wweek.com/arts/visual-arts/2018/05/16/a-vr-program-that-attempts-to-replicate-the-experience-of-solitary-confinement-is-now-in-portland/
I'm not sure how that VR experience can really convey the weight of the experience of solitary confinement, but I hope it opens people's eyes to the inhumanity of the prison system.
It is a cruel way to treat a human being, the rights they currently snatched away, hopefully there is change in a democratic and ensure their lives
Too bad many people suffer from solitary confinement due to the hostility of the world. They become shut ins.
Of the prison industry, i feel the entire thing is set up wrong.
Especially now that we have prison labor in The USSA.
An interesting experiment is the building of walled communities. Where basically, inmates live in little houses that they share and run little stores... and the only thing missing is they cannot go outside to the wide world.
however, for many people this would be a much better world. The big world is too big for them. Especially those with mental processes that do not allow full functioning or just low IQ people.
If a person has spent time in solitary confinement and has come out of it, you can be sure that he gone through extreme mental stress and he is more of a threat to society after solitary confinement than before he went to it.
Buen post. En mi país los aislamientos no solo son en cárceles, aquí la vivimos en plena calle, al no poder hacer nada por nuestra libertad. 😢
No one who is deemed guilty of a victimless crime should suffer such a fate. It's terrible. I don't know what the solution is to rid the world of psychopaths, but I know one thing, a psychopath implemented that punishment.