Nora Olagbaju

Does The Time Fit The Crime?

Critical Thinking Essay
Nora Olagbaju
English 9
5-10-15
Green Group

Nora Olagbaju

Because solitary confinement has negative mental and physical effects, increases
violence, and is ineffective, the Federal Bureau of Prisons must ban the use of solitary
confinement to ensure the health and safety of the prisoners, officers, and the community.
In solitary, prisoners are locked in a small room for 23 hours a day, they are let out one
hour for exercise that is usually in a cage outside. Solitary confinement, sometimes called
segregation, inflicts irreversible psychological damage on the prisoners. According to
department statistics, more than 27% of male prisoners and 37% of female prisoners
suffer from mental illness (Chapman The inhumane punishment causes prisoners to act
violently Inmates locked in 23/1 often have chronic mental illnesses that cause them to
act out (Barry Krisberg). Being locked up with virtually no human contact for extended
periods of time does nothing to improve behavior, and it doesnt teach inmates how to
transition back into the community.

Over time the tactic of solitary confinement has transformed from its original
purpose. In the late 18th century, Quakers in Philadelphia, created solitary confinement as
an improved alternative to the previous punishments at that time: hangings, floggings,
and over crowded dungeons. The Quakers thought that this would give the prisoners time
to reflect and repent. Many prisons adapted this method of incarceration and solitary cells

Nora Olagbaju
were built. Prisoners at this time were put in an eight by twelve foot room, allowed a bath
every two to three weeks, and an hour of exercise a day. Many prisoners were tortured for
even talking. The results were horrendous, at Pentonville Prison in England; so many
inmates were sent to the insane asylum that the warden ruled that nobody could be
isolated for more than a month (Griest). While visiting Eastern State inmates in 1942
Charles Dickens wrote about his experience in his book American Notes, On the
haggard face of every man among these prisoners, the same expression sat. I know not
what to liken it to. It had something of that strained attention which we see upon the faces
of the blind and deaf, mingled with a kind of horror, as though they had all been secretly
terrified (125-126).
In 1890 solitary confinement was almost declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court,
Justice Samuel Miller argued that A considerable number of the prisoners fell, after even
a short confinement, into a semi-fatuous condition, from which it was next to impossible
to arouse them, and others became violently insane; others, still, committed suicide;
while those who stood the ordeal better were not generally reformed, and in most cases
did not recover sufficient mental activity to be of any subsequent service to the
community (The Torture of Solitary, Stephanie Elizondo Griest). Despite the conditions
of solitary it continues to be widely used today, there are at least 80,000 inmates in
solitary confinement in America.

There have been some steps toward reforming solitary confinement. Since 2008 in
Massachusetts correctional staff members have to check on inmates in solitary every four

Nora Olagbaju
minutes. Inmates on suicide watch cannot be isolated at all. This program was a noble
attempt but it was only used in Juvenile prisons. Programs such as these have also been
used in other states. In West Virginia a 2012 court order banned the correctional staff
from putting kids in the hole for minor infractions, only uncontrollable inmates could be
confined and there was a 10-day maximum confinement policy. The court order seems
like a major step towards reforming prisons but the employees are worried about their
disciplinary power. Youth inmates have been threatening the staff with the court order
saying You can't do anything to me. I'll have your job! Though the attempts to solve the
problem were a slight improvement, they mainly focused on the youth and caused tension
between the inmates and correctional officers.

There is a simple remedy to the issue of solitary confinement, which is to reduce

and eventually discontinue its use of it as a punishment. Many prisons have begun to
reduce their use of solitary confinement and are seeing positive results. In Maine the
amount of prisoners in their SMU (special management units) drastically decreased. The
prison changed their criteria for sending the inmates to SMU. Now if a prisoner is being
considered being sent to solitary the segregation unit manager and housing unit manager
have to collaborate to see what would be the most effective way to improve the inmates
behavior. Prisoners who do end up getting sent to solitary routinely talk to therapists and
make individualized plans for success. These plans help the prisoners focus on improving
themselves and they are reviewed each week on their progress. The new system is a
success; violence decreased, prisoners behavior improved, and now half of the
segregation unit remains empty.

Nora Olagbaju

The same solution was tried in Mississippi after an uproar of violence in 2008.
Contrary to what would be expected after multiple stabbings, the guards at Unit 32
loosened regulations. They allowed most of their inmates out for hours a day and built a
basketball court and group dining area. The number of inmates dropped from 1000 to
300. So many inmates got moved out of unit 32 that it was closed, saving the state $5
million (Goode). Before the reform the prisoners at unit 32 were let out only a few hours
a week, therefore being denied college programs. Getting a job with a criminal record is
difficult but without the classes offered in prison to the inmates, prisoners who are
released often come back and are unable to get a job and land right back in prison. Of the
1000 prisoners in solitary Psychiatrist Terry Kupers found that at least 100 of the
prisoners had a serious mental illness, many of them were wrongly diagnosed if
diagnosed at all. the mentally ill inmates were mistreated by corrections officers, who
had little understanding of their condition, Dr. Kupers said. The conditions at this
Mississippi prison were miserable and by loosening the regulations and giving the
prisoners more time out of the cell and it not only reduced violence, and improved
prisoners behavior to the point where the more than half were transferred out, but it also
saved the state millions of dollars.

If prisons do not begin to reform the solitary system then there is a high chance
prisoners who are put in solitary will commit more crimes and return, the state will lose
money, and there will be an increase of violence and mental illness. Prisoners released
from solitary or supermax units are more likely to commit another crime than prisoners

Nora Olagbaju
released from regular or general population prisons. In Colorado 40% of inmates held in
isolation for extended periods of time were being released back into the community with
no time for transition (Clements). The mental damage takes a toll on prisoners and makes
them a potential danger to society. Its really dangerous, says Rodney Bouffard, the
warden of Maine state prison, "You could have someone in here on a five-year
commitment. They could do their whole time in segregation. But I dont want him living
next to me when we release him. The warden sees the psychological decline in prisoners
as they spend more time and segregation, and he agrees that it is ineffective in the
positive development of inmates. Sending inmates to solitary confinement is more costly
than general population because there are more guards required to work there. Inmates in
isolation cost taxpayers on average about $75,000 a year, in contrast to $25,000 a year for
regular prisoners ("Solitary Confinement and the U.S."). The violence will only increase
if the prisoners are forced to be alone with nothing to do for 23 hours. The issue must be
solved, if not everyone involved will be negatively affected.

Solitary confinement is not only cruel but ineffective. This punishment tactic was
created to be beneficial to the prisoners because they could think about their actions and
change. However over the years the old ideology was lost replaced by guards putting
inmates in solitary because they dont know how to properly deal with them.
Confinement has catastrophic affects on the prisoners, giving most of them mental illness
even if they came in mentally healthy. Isolation is detrimental because the prisoners
released from solitary are likely to commit another offense because they learned nothing

Nora Olagbaju
from being locked up for 23 hours a day. The Federal Bureau of Prisons must ban solitary
confinement to reduce crime and save money.

Nora Olagbaju

Works Cited

Chapman, Steve. "The High Toll of Solitary Confinement." Chicago Tribune [Chicago]
23 Feb. 2014: n. pag. Print.
DeMartini, Alayna. "Long Terms in Solitary Can Warp Minds, Critics Say." Columbus
Dispatch [Columbus] 9 Sept. 2007: n. pag. Print.
Goode, Erica. "Prisons Rethink Isolation, Saving Money, Lives and Sanity." New York
Times 10 Mar. 2012: n. pag. Print.
Griest, Stephanie Elizondo. "The Torture of Solitary." Wilson Quarterly 2012: n. pag.
Print.
Johnson, Kevin. "After Years in Solitary, Freedom Hard to Grasp." USA Today 9 June
2005: n. pag. Print.
Liebelson, Dana. "'They Locked Me in That Little Room with Nothing.'" Mother Jones
Feb. 2015: 48-53. SIRS Issues Researcher. Web. 15 Mar. 2015.
<http://sks.sirs.com/cgi-bin/hst-article-display?id=SMCPSSTAFF1-02117&artno=0000370086&type=ART>.
"Solitary Confinement and the U.S. Prison System." PBS. American Documentary, Inc., 8
July 2013. Web. 15 Mar. 2015.
<http://www.pbs.org/pov/hermanshouse/photo_gallery_background.php?
photo=2#.VQXe2ktZyns>.
Stableford, Dylan. "What Life is Like in Solitary Confinement." Sun Journal [Lewiston,
ME] 22 Apr. 2014: n. pag. Print.

Nora Olagbaju

Annotated Bibliography

Chapman, Steve. "The High Toll of Solitary Confinement." Chicago Tribune [Chicago]
23 Feb. 2014: n. pag. Print. I quoted this source directly in my essay. It was
helpful because the author wrote about solitary confinement not just in the United
States but in Lebanon. The article had statistics that I used such as the one about
the suicide rate.
DeMartini, Alayna. "Long Terms in Solitary Can Warp Minds, Critics Say." Columbus
Dispatch [Columbus] 9 Sept. 2007: n. pag. Print. This article highlights how if put
in solitary for a long time, prisoners are very succeptible to mental illness. The
article talk about juvenile prisons and how they have no limit to the amount of
time they are put in isolation. I learned about the mental effects (depression,
suicide, hallucinations) that solitary confinement has on kids.
Goode, Erica. "Federal Judge Approves California Plan to Reduce Isolation of Mentally
Ill Inmates." New York Times 30 Aug. 2014: n. pag. Print. Erica Goode wrote this
article and another that was used in the critical thinking paper. This article is about
how california will reduce its isolation for those with mental illness because it just
further increases their condition. I didn't quote this article in my paper but it gave
me ideas for the paragraph on possible solutions.
- - -. "Prisons Rethink Isolation, Saving Money, Lives and Sanity." New York Times 10
Mar. 2012: n. pag. Print. This article was helpful because it provided an in depth
analysis of a solution that actually worked in a Mississippi prison. The newspaper

Nora Olagbaju
gave quotes and statistics that I used in my paper. The author Erica Goode wrote
another source that I used in my paper.
Griest, Stephanie Elizondo. "The Torture of Solitary." Wilson Quarterly 2012: n. pag.
Print. I used many quotes from this source in my essay. this source was especially
helpful because it showed the history of solitary confinement. It also had a quote
from charles dickens that I used.
Johnson, Kevin. "After Years in Solitary, Freedom Hard to Grasp." USA Today 9 June
2005: n. pag. Print. This article shows that prisoners do not have a transition time
into society thus making freedom "hard to grasp". This article gave me
background knowledge about the lives of teens and prisoners after they leave
prison, although i did not directly quote it in my essay. The source is helpful
because it tells about individual peoples struggles, even interviewing their family
to get the full perspective
Liebelson, Dana. "'They Locked Me in That Little Room with Nothing.'" Mother Jones
Feb. 2015: 48-53. SIRS Issues Researcher. Web. 15 Mar. 2015.
<http://sks.sirs.com/cgi-bin/hst-article-display?id=SMCPSSTAFF1-02117&artno=0000370086&type=ART>. This article is different from the others
because it tells a story of a kid who was put in solitary at a young age, and how it
increased his violent behavior and how he deteriorated mentally. The article also
had an experiment that showed the symptoms that prisoners had after spending a
long time in isolation.
"Solitary Confinement and the U.S. Prison System." PBS. American Documentary, Inc., 8
July 2013. Web. 15 Mar. 2015.

10

Nora Olagbaju
<http://www.pbs.org/pov/hermanshouse/photo_gallery_background.php?
photo=2#.VQXe2ktZyns>. This article and documentary gave a visual as to what
i was writing about, before i just read the articles but actually watching what it
was like inside the prison was completely different. The publisher was PBS so the
interview was valid, they got interviews from prisoners, guards, and wardens so it
gave insight to everyone in the jail.

Stableford, Dylan. "What Life is Like in Solitary Confinement." Sun Journal [Lewiston,
ME] 22 Apr. 2014: n. pag. Print. This article gave many details about what the typical day
would be like in solitary confinement. I used this in my source to explain how bad it is
being stuck in a cell 23 hours a day. I learned from this source that prisoners actually
flood the cells and cut themselves to get attention or just because they have mental
illness. I used the article in my source to explain the conditions of solitary.

11