The use of solitary confinement in the United States is higher than any other country.
Around 4% of inmates in the US are locked up in solitary confinement every day.
A lot of people spend months or even years at a time in isolation, only being allowed out a few times a week for a shower or exercise. It also affects other people. Up to 20,000 other people are also affected by this.
In order to better understand solitary confinement from both sides of the bars, we interviewed people who were in it. A book called " Way Down in the Hole" is based on the interviews.
We spent hundreds of hours in solitary confinement in a mid-Atlantic Rust Belt state. Interviews were done with 75 prisoners and 25 staff members.
The interviews gave us this information. The names have been changed.
Everyone we interviewed, both prisoners and officers alike, said that solitary confinement was like being locked away out of sight, out of mind, and that the consequences on their physical and mental health were significant.
prisoners locked in a cell about the size of a mall parking space are confined for 23 hours a day with virtually no human interaction other than to be subjected to strip searches and have their hands cuffed They eat, sleep, meditate, study and exercise a short distance from where they defecate.
Nine months into his stay in solitary confinement, Scholar spoke to us. They treat you like an animal. They give you food, they throw it to you, you shower in a cage, and you exercise in a cage. It doesn't mean I'm not human, just because I'm wearing orange.
His experience is not a one-off. Marina said that she was being treated like an animal in solitary confinement. I don't feel like I'm remembered.
A prison officer who has been working in solitary confinement for 12 years says the same thing. He said that people don't realize how stressed it is inside. You feel like you're being held captive. You have to take care of institutions that are run by inmates, and no one is taking care of us.
Black and Hispanic people are more likely to be imprisoned than whites.
Almost one third of the male population is black, yet they make up 40% of the incarcerated population and 45% of those locked in solitary confinement.
Most prisons in the US are built in rural areas that are overwhelmingly white. Many of the staff members of the corrections department are white. In seven different prisons, we did not see a lot of people who were not white. The majority of people we saw were black or Hispanic.
Guards talked about the resentment they felt towards prisoners in general and those in solitary.
They think that prisoners have better living conditions than the people who work in prisons.
Inmates and victims get the same things. They don't get their family member back I lived in Iraq for a year and the guys there have a better commode than I do.
Every day needs must be met by an officer because prisoners are locked up for 23 hours a day. Meal trays are delivered and picked up by officers three times a day. There is toilet paper available for purchase. The prisoners have to be taken to showers and the yard. They have to be strip searched and handcuffed before they can leave the cell. We watched officers do this for a long time. It's easy to see how resentment builds up under these circumstances.
An officer we call Porter said that he had an elderly family member who had to give up their house to get a medical procedure and the inmates got the best medical care for $5. I know a guy on death row. Imagine how much it would cost to keep a guy alive.
The resentment becomes racialized because staff members are almost all white. One of the most racist prisons is where Scholar is currently being held. The guards have no problem using the N-word.
Despite the dehumanizing conditions of solitary confinement, we met many prisoners who sought out solitary and staff members who chose to guard them.
There are many reasons why staff prefer to work in solitary confinement. The pace of the work was preferred by some and not others. They said that working in solitary was more interesting than other jobs in their community.
An officer who worked at an Amazon fulfillment center before starting at the prison said that people are more interesting than boxes.
Many prisoners said they chose solitary.
Some requested solitary confinement for their own safety, to avoid gang violence or the threat of sexual assault by other prisoners, or to retaliate for debts they owed on the inside. Those who were placed in administrative custody were placed in solitary not for punishment but for safety and had less restrictions than those who were sent to solitary confinement as punishment.
Many prisoners we interviewed were sent to solitary confinement because they refused a guard's order. Some people thought it was a way to control one aspect of their lives.
The dehumanization of solitary confinement was experienced by others who were moved from one housing unit to another. They chose either to be closer to home or to a prison that had more programming, such as education classes or treatment.
The supermax facility in the state is known as one of the most racist prisons in the system and is one of the hardest places to do time.
It kept him away from the man who killed his brother. He was worried that if he tried to kill the man, he would spend the rest of his life in jail.
It was a success. Fifty was paroled a few months after we met him, after he had been released from solitary confinement.
A system that doesn't serve the prison population or those employed to guard them emerged from the interviews.
People who spend time in solitary confinement are more likely to die sooner than people who don't spend time in solitary confinement. There isn't any evidence that confinement works as a deterrent.
A lot of time in solitary confinement can affect mental health. Many people who are placed in solitary confinement end up in prison because they are unable to function or because they don't know how to stay out of trouble.
The cost to hold a prisoner in solitary confinement is three times that of the general prison population.
Our interviews show that it is a system in which no one wins or loses.
The Conversation is a news site that shares ideas from academic experts. It was written by two University of Delaware professors. Do you like this article?
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