Month: June 2020

Oh, a prisoner‘s punishment, which will it be?

Serving your time, being confined or crossing your line?

Serving your time, a common one indeed,

Go to prison for some years, and get too freedom for some cheers

Being confined, in a small space to be,

Nobody to talk to, nowhere to go,

You could only stare, dream and think about what will happen soon

But until then, just hope for some tune

Crossing you line, you will not feel anything,

You simply disappear as a killer or a thief

Now which is more cruel, time, confine, or die?

Time is regular, a standard punishment

Confine is torture, insanity it is

Dying is well…. not too swell

Confinement is the worst of course!

Nothing to do, only dreaming and thinking

Nobody to talk to, nobody to see

Your identity fades away, you don’t know who you are,

You Make friends with yourself, and other nasty critters

So confinement… insanity torturing you mentally

So confinement… is seeping someone’s life force

So confinement… is inhuman

So confinement… do you agree with it?

So it started with Mike’s mustache. So, nobody liked his mustache. Including his girlfriend, his mom, his dad, and his sister. His girlfriend didn’t like it because when he went to the movies, the person at the front of the place charged him full price because he had a mustache. Also, at home, his sister and his mother didn’t like his mustache either. And when he went to the nursing home to visit his grandmother, he was relived that his grandmother recognized him as Mike. But, then she started to talk to Mike, and slowly he realized, that she didn’t recognize him as the 17 year old mike. She recognized him as the grandfather Mike. Her husband. And she said she was asking forgiveness about things. After she talked with him, he went home, used a razor his sister gave him for Christmas, and shaved off his mustache.

People in solitary confinement, or ADX, are known to be a place where “bad” people are housed.”Bad” people meaning that they had countless murders, are terrorists, and more. Outside of the prison may look nice and sweet and look like a nice suburban middle school with a nice lobby, but what’s happening inside the prison, is much, much worse than what you see on the outside.

Inside the prison, it is dirty and isn’t maintained properly from the inmates. The inmates have little bathrooms and have dirty attitudes. There are two examples of dirty attitudes in the prison, the first one is rubbing feces on their faces. The second example is attempting suicide and cutting themselves. Both of these examples are both from the effect of being trapped in such a miserable environment causing them depression. While these actions are being done, police don’t seem to care about them. This could lead to many deaths each year in jail and will have a negative effect on hummanity.

Self isolation could be worse than any other punishment for prisoners. Of course, physical punishments such as death penalty could be bad, but psychological torture is much worse. Solitary confinement is widely used in prisons worldwide, usually violating human rights. Boredom is not the only effect of isolation. Solitary confinement for long periods of time can mentally harm the prisoner, causing them to take drastic measures. Prisons that use this immoral and unethical way of punishment push away the media, and silence those with information. Solitary confinement can greatly harm a person mentally and physically, and such a practice should not be legal.

Confinement lengths can range from around a day, to even months. Those sentenced to isolation would be put all alone in a tiny cell and are hardly every let out. In the US alone, hundreds of thousands of prisoners have been sentenced to self isolation for very long periods of time, and the numbers still rise. Usually, solitary confinement is used for the suicidal, dangerous, or those who have other related mental illnesses. For those suffering from mental illness or other related sickness, self isolation should be the very last choice. Self isolation could actually drive the prisoner insane, causing them to do even more dangerous things. Solitary confinement last a long time, and can cause insanity in many different ways.

Many prisoners who have experienced self isolation have described their horrible experiences. Being isolated for long periods of time can cause a person to question themselves. Without any connection to the outside world, many prisoners find themselves taking desperate measures. Some would yell as loud as they could to try and communicate with other prisoners. Others resorted to harmful methods such as self harming and suicide, and many were successful. Some prisoners who have experienced solitary confinement could not even describe the experience into words, so they use forms of art instead. Solitary confinement has permanently affected prisoners in some of the worst ways possible.

Some might argue that the worst and most terrible criminals deserve such physiological torture. This is wrong, as solitary confinement should never be the correct choice. It is the human right of the prisoner to have have access to the outside world. If criminals should have the right to hire a lawyer or attorney, why should prisoners be deprived of their basic human right of social communication. If it comes to a certain point, there are other methods of punishments such as the death penalty. This goes to show that solitary confinement is not the right method for helping or punishing prisoners.

To make the situation even worse, little is known about solitary confinement use in prisons. Prisons usually block out the media, refusing interviews and journalists. Mail is even prohibited or tampered with. On the rare occasion of a family member being allowed to visit, they will be tightly monitored, in case any information is leaked. If a family member somehow got important information, the would be sworn to secrecy, as a result of the government. Prisons block out the media, giving them full control over prisoners, leaving them helpless.

Solitary confinement can substantially harm a human being mentally and physically, and such a practice should never be allowed. Isolation can cause prisoners to take desperate measures, causing them to self harm, and drives others to suicide. Prisons block out the media, a silence those with an opinion. No matter how big of a crime, prisoners should never be sentenced to such inhumane practices.

The problem of torture and stopping it is one that has concerned people of all backgrounds, who belive solitary confinement is torture and are fighting for these actions to stop.

To encapsulate, I belive that criminals should get basic human rights. For example, they could be allowed to step outside, see the scenery and run around in a field for exercise, not run around in a large cage! These torture actions have a horrendous effect on the prisoners, who not even them deserve such a treatment, and will only lead to human corruption.

Because the US government has kept what happens inside jails extremely private, not many people know the torture that prisoners go through daily. I, along with Laura Rovner, a law professor, believe that criminals should not be put in solitary confinement as it is a form of torture. Rovner talks about a man, Tommy Silverstein who was put into this torment for thrity-three years for killing a corrections officer. Although some people may think that he deserves it after what he had done, there are several reasons why many people should not have been put in solitary confinement. To start, this form of torture can result in someone not even knowing if they exist anymore, which could damage their brain and thoughts. It can result in them going insane or committing suicide, which has happened many times. In addition, when put through this, criminals are not really in our world anymore, Most of them have not even seen a blade of grass or any living thing for years. However, there are several alternatives to this. 

One option is to put criminals in a larger area with a couple of other inmates. Instead of steel walls and just a toilet and bed in their cage, they could add some other stuff that makes it less of a torture. Additionally, they could also put these people in jail instead of solitary confinement. If one is put through this torture, it may teach him a lesson, but no one in the world should deserve this sort of punishment. 

In the short story “The Moustache” by Robert Cormier, the lesson is to cherish childhood.

Mike, the main character of the story, has a moustache. His family wants time to shave it off, but he wants to keep it. His grandmother has dementia, and he goes to visit her because he feels guilty about not doing so. When he comes there, her grandmother thinks that he is his grandfather, who is also named Mike. She says that she wants to apologize for accusing him. When Mike gets home, he shaves off his moustache.

Mike got a moustache to prove that he could, and he kept the moustache because he thinks it makes him look like an adult. However, when he realizes what being an adult is like, he shaves it off.

In the TED talk, a woman named Laura Rover went over solitary confinement and what it does to people. Solitary confinement is placing a person in a small room without seeing anyone for almost their entire day. This technique of punishment is used in many countries, usually in secret because of how inhumane it is, and the damage it does to people mentally.

There is a facility that operates in Colorado where this is done routinely every day. Inmates have to spend 23 hours inside a bathroom-sized cell, and this is extremely destructive to the brain. Humans are social creatures, and not seeing another for so long can hurt us. People went crazy, and for good reason.

The US is telling lots of countries like a grand prophet that solitary confinement is inhumane, and that they should not use it, while we are using it ourselves. It is way too effective, like poison gas. Banned from WW1, using poison gas was considered a war crime, because it caused widespread suffering and pain. Solitary confinement should be dropped from use in all nations, as no person would ever deserve it.

Solitary confinement is definitely torture. It has every single aspect of torture. The definition of torture is “the action or practice of inflicting severe pain on someone as a punishment or to force them to do or say something, or for the pleasure of the person inflicting the pain.” which is exactly what solitary confinement is. Severe pain as punishment. Solitary confinement has all the aspects and factors of what torture is.
First, you are stuck in a tiny cell for a major amount of time. This can have many bad effects such as damaging eyesight and losing your voice. Many inmates also start going insane, such as banging their head against the wall to see if they even exist. This is very damaging and a painful experience which matches torture’s definition.
Next, some may say that the inmates deserve it. It’s still torture. Doesn’t matter what they did it’s just the fact that it is damaging and painful, which is what torture is. The entire premise of torture is what you think about what they did and how you think they should be punished. It is all personal opinion and at the end, it’s still just hurting someone who did something as punishment.
Lastly, it all ties up. Torture is hurting someone who did something. Solitary confinement is just that. Pain: loss of eyesight, loss of voice, degrading mental state, and self-harm. Everyone in solitary confinement did something bad and it’s just punishment. Which is exactly what torture is.
In conclusion, solitary confinement is torture. It matches the definition perfectly. It hurts all the victims of it, and it is a type of punishment. It may seem like the receivers deserve it, but in the end, it is torture. And torture isn’t right.

I think long solitary confinement is necessary some of the time but not necessary the other part of the time. Sometimes, it’s not cool, but other times, some people just need it. Here is why:

First of all, there are the really, really, bad guys that are repeatedly committing crimes. Like, they do it over and over again, no matter how many times you put them in jail. I think you just can’t have this in our communities because then every day would be filled with police, trying to arrest the criminals. I think the bad guys would be thinking, “Oh, the police are going to let me go after some time in jail anyways. Besides, this is kind of fun. I’ll just keep doing it.” That’s why long solitary confinement would be nice. If you could make sure that they get that there are consequences more than just “some time in jail”, then I think there’s a better chance of them not repeating their crimes over and over again. Repeating crimes are really not fun for the police, who are really trying their best to keep everything in order and help keep the criminals at bay. They risk their lives every day and it’s not that fair if they just let the criminals out again every time, forever going in a loop of crime, jail, crime, jail, crime, and jail. That’s why I think longer solitary confinement could be really useful in these cases.

But this long solitary confinement could also be a worse idea than regular jail. For example, a bad guy could commit a crime, get punished to a long time in solitary confinement, and when they get released a long while later, they might, instead of regret, have a need for extreme revenge. While being in their bathroom-sized cell for so long, they could have thought of a really, really, good plan to try following when they get released from jail. I don’t like this idea of criminals being more powerful than ever with their plan and their need for vengeance combined. It would make the police’s job so much harder, too. Instead of a lot of small, easier crimes, there would be a lot less but a lot bigger, harder, and more well-thought-out crimes. Now, if there was a prisoner, they would think, “If I go to jail like right now, I will emerge years later a more experienced, smarter, and more powerful criminal,” So of course they would choose to go to jail! In the bad guys’ minds, jail would not be a punishment anymore, but would rather be a possible gateway to success (In the criminal world)!

But, if that didn’t happen, then this could also be pretty bad. The police officers are also human, after all. Putting another human in solitary confinement for years can be stressful, worrisome, and uncomfortable for the police as well as the prisoner. The prisoner would most likely go crazy from the lack of social relations or lack of communicating. In the Ted Talk from today, the lady said that some prisoners even tried to commit suicide. Some tried to yell to each other through the shower drains. Some started smearing poop on the walls or cutting themselves to keep feeling human and themselves. You see, years of solitary confinement and years of no social interaction can really make you crazy. One guy who experienced being in solitary confinement made artwork depicting what he felt during that time. He couldn’t put his misery into words and he probably couldn’t speak for more than an hour, anyways. Years of not being able to speak to someone else would wear out the prisoners’ vocal cords.

And that’s why I think solitary confinement can be really, really bad… But for the really, really, really, really, really bad guys who really, really, really, really, deserve it, it can still be used. Very rarely, when we meet someone so bad that even jail cannot stop them, then we should put them in long solitary confinement. But other than that, I think it’s very, very sad.