Solitary Confinement

Excluding death penalty, there is nothing more tougher form of punishment than solitary confinement. It is next to impossible to explain in words, the trauma a human being may have to go through, if he or she is kept in solitary confinement. Debates have roared in the political and social sphere on the rationality of this inhumanly form of punishment. Human right activists and even the UN has protested any form of violation of human rights in any prison all across the globe. Nevertheless, the fact is that solitary confinement does exist as a law of many countries and there are prisoners kept in long periods of isolation. In this article, I won't give an account of the dark side of this system, neither would I give you an account of horrific stories of prisoners who have gone mad, years after being in isolated from living beings in prison. My conclusions, statements and judgments about this form of punishment are just what a human heart would be able to think from common sense and sound logic. So, let us know more about them.

Solitary Confinement Effects
When we look at the heinous crimes committed by many prisoners who're send to life imprisonment, it seems obvious that they deserve such harsh forms of punishment. But on the flip side, psychologists have studied prisoners who have been in solitary confinement for many years and they have reported that such prisoners can turn out to be more destructive when they're released in the public. In the modern world, the meaning of life imprisonment has taken a more sophisticated form.

Today's prison cells are not just prison basements with some sunlight entering in the room, from a small hole in one of the corners of the room. Nowadays, prison cells are high tech designed and prisoners are made to live in it for years, completely out of the public and with no human contact. Everything is isolated from them, as if they're living in another world, deprived of any human touch or contact. Just imagine, being a human, what can be a bigger torture than the inability to communicate, to feel, to touch, to smell, to hug, to feel loved and most importantly to feel human? I'm surprised what rationality and social justice sense gave way to the concept of solitary confinement.

Psychologists studying prisoners who're living in life imprisonment have reported that such prisoners can suffer from severe depression and psychological problems that can interfere with their ability to deal with human being normally when they're left out in the public. It has to be understood that depending on laws and intensity of crimes committed many prisoners are kept for few months to few years in solitary confinement. The duration of isolation that extends for years is certainly unhealthy for any human being. In the US Federal prison system, prisoners are isolated from everyone and kept in Special Housing Unit (SHU) and till date there have been no evidences that have proved that such isolation from mainstream society has in any way helped an individual become a better person. Many officials claim that prisoners who're extremely dangerous for other inmates are kept separate to avoid gang violence or prison violence.

In essence, solitary confinement is a living torture and it is no way to treat a human life. It can result in severe emotional disturbances in the personality of an individual. It is just like a struggle to maintain sanity and living off the edge. How can, after all, a human being maintain sanity when all that he has is a 80-square-foot concrete cubes lit by fluorescent light, with barely any human contact. I believe it is better to grant death penalty to a person who has been found guilty of heinous crimes rather than torturing him or her in such a worse environment. What do you think about this issue? Do you find it humane? Share your valuable views, down in the comments column.