Have you heard about solitary confinement? According to the Wikipedia site, it is a form of imprisonment where the inmate lives in a single cell with little or no meaningful contact with other people. What is solitary confinement used for? You may wonder about the use of it so here you are able to read about the use of solitary confinement.
Solitary Confinement is Used For These Things
According to the APT (Association for the Prevention of Torture) site, solitary confinement is used with different purposes. It can be used as a disciplinary sanction, during criminal investigations, to prevent situations of risk, or to protect an individual. Here is more explanation about the use of solitary confinement according to the APT site.
-
- Solitary Confinement for a Disciplinary Measure
Solitary confinement can be used for disciplinary sanction. However, if it is the reason, it needs to be restricted to the most serious disciplinary offenses. Solitary confinement also can have effects on the physical and mental health of people who experience it, so it should be limited where it is no more than 15 days. Not only that, procedural rules also need to help prevent all abusive and arbitrary use of this sanction. - Solitary Confinement for a Criminal Investigation
Solitary confinement can be given to an accused person with the aim to secure the criminal investigation. It is done to limit the accused person’s contact with witnesses, accomplices, or victims, and also to avoid prejudicing the integrity of the proceedings. If the criminal investigation is long, it cannot justify indeterminate solitary confinement. So, if there is an accused person who is given solitary confinement, a magistrate needs to review the reasons which justify this special regime. The confinement also needs to be ended if there is no longer any justification for it. - Solitary Confinement for Protection Measure
A person may need to be placed in solitary confinement by the authorities with the aim to protect the detainee from the risk of violence from other inmates. If it will be done, the authorities need the consent of the person concerned. Not only that, solitary confinement can also be requested by a person under threat. It is important to note that the authorities should not see solitary confinement as a long-lasting and satisfactory solution to solve specific situations where inmates are at risk. Instead, the authorities need to take all preventive measures and all corrective measures to be able to avoid the use of solitary confinement. Solitary confinement may be needed when there is a detainee who is threatened because of hir or her ethnic background, political views, religion, sexual orientation or gender identity, or any other reason. In these situations, it needs the informed consent of the person. - Solitary confinement for a Detention Regime
Solitary confinement must not be used as a detention regime for certain categories of people who are considered particularly dangerous or hard to handle. High security or ‘supermax’ prisons apply detention regimes which are very strict. In these prisons, inmates are given solitary confinement for a long time where they are in their cell for 23 hours per day with very limited contact with the staff and the other inmates. If this system is applied, it can cause severe consequences for the health of inmates.
- Solitary Confinement for a Disciplinary Measure
The Risk of Solitary Confinement
There are a number of risks if solitary confinement is given to an inmate. Solitary confinement can affect their physical and mental health. Some of the reported effects are anxiety, psychotic troubles, anger, depression, paranoia and self-mutilation. As explained on the APT site, the effects can be severe and even irreversible, especially when solitary confinement is given exceeds 15 days.
On the APT site, it is also explained that if a prison wants to give solitary confinement to an inmate, it must be strictly regulated and offer solid safeguards where it includes limitations in time to at least mitigate its negative effects. When solitary confinement lasts more than a few hours, controls must be done to avoid any systematic and/ or discriminatory use of the measure. The negative effects of solitary confinement can be reduced by maintaining contact with families, fellow inmates and their spiritual experts. Besides, the authorities also need to take measures to ensure that the material conditions in solitary are equivalent to conditions within the rest of the institutions.
Even though accommodation is more limited in the disciplinary confinement, but it needs to meet the international standards, especially about the access to light, size of the cells, toilets, fresh air and the ability to exercise. The authorities also need to make sure that certain categories of vulnerable inmates like pregnant women, children, nursing women, women who are detained with young children and people with mental disabilities should never be placed in solitary confinement.
Some Pros and Cons of Solitary Confinement
According to pappalardolaw.com, here are some pros and cons of solitary confinement.
Pros of Solitary Confinement
-
- Solitary confinement can help ensure prison safety.
If there is an inmate who causes a danger to other inmates or staff, solitary confinement functions as a safety measure for the rest of the prison population. - Solitary confinement gives prison guards another method to discipline inmates.
Solitary confinement is an effective way to control the negative behaviour of an inmate. - Solitary confinement is able to reform the character of an inmate.
Solitary confinement also can give inmates rehabilitation or reform their character. If inmates are left alone with their thoughts, it can tap into their conscience, be involved in inner reflection, and understand the weight of their crime.
- Solitary confinement can help ensure prison safety.
Cons of Solitary Confinement
-
- Solitary confinement is able to worsen prisoner mental health.
Inmates who are in solitary confinement, they tend to experience delusions and hallucinations. They are also prone to the risk of schizophrenia, paranoia, anxiety, claustrophobia, and other symptoms. - Solitary confinement is able to damage physical health.
When inmates are placed in solitary confinement, they can be Vitamin D deficient so that they are vulnerable to a number of illnesses. - Solitary confinement violates basic human rights.
If inmates are placed in long-term confinement, it is a form of punishment which is shown to cause mental and physical damage to inmates. It also inflicts severe pain mentally or physically where it is a distinct violation of human rights. - Solitary confinement is not always effective.
Even though solitary confinement is designed to be able to reform and rehabilitate inmates, it does not always work successfully. Sometimes, those who are in solitary confinement only focus on the solitude itself or the harshness of the punishment.
- Solitary confinement is able to worsen prisoner mental health.
A bookworm and researcher especially related to law and citizenship education. I spend time every day in front of the internet and the campus library.
