This week’s cover story about a former prisoner who spent time in solitary confinement prepping to perform in a series about a prisoner spending time in solitary confinement got me thinking.
And here’s what I thought: Solitary confinement is a stupid idea.
Obviously, it has benefits when it comes to keeping violent offenders away from the general population for safety reasons, but from what I’ve read since I started thinking about it, the practice of isolating a prisoner can be triggered by a variety of infractions—and even chalked up to protecting the prisoner in question from others. So you can be the one ostensibly in danger and be forced to sit in a cell with no outdoor access for a chunk of your life. Can you imagine what that would do to you?
Committing a crime does not strip someone of his or her rights to be treated like a human. And where’s the humanity in shutting someone away from companionship—or any sort of human interaction—for years at a time?
Last year, Scientific American reported that recent research suggests that solitary confinement can actually lead to an increase in violence—within prisons, as well as in the community at large after formerly isolated prisoners are released. That same article noted that about half of suicides that happen in prisons happen in isolation.
I don’t know about you, but that sounds cruel and unusual to me.
I’m certainly not arguing that convicted offenders be coddled, but solitary can’t be the answer.
The Canary is an extrovert. Send comments to canary@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Jul 17-24, 2014.