For over forty years it has been observed but rarely acknowledged that inmates in prison suffer from severe psychological harm. For example, many prisoners often experience hallucinations, perceptual distortions, self-harm, and even suicide. Much of these symptoms have increased with the use of solitary confinement. Beginning in the 1970’s and 1980’s solitary confinement is used by prison systems as a way to protect others and the inmates themselves. However, most people would think of solitary confinement as a means of punishment based on how horrible the conditions are and how it can do physical as well as mental damage to the inmate. There are, on average, 55,000 prisoners subject to solitary confinement and an additional 25,000 who have to suffer these conditions long-term in maximum security, or “supermax”, prisons. While confined in these windowless cells, prisoners experience no social interaction. It should be addressed that psychological research shows that depriving people of social interaction results in mental harm. “Prolonged isolation alters prisoners’ psychology by depriving them of human touch, of mutual recognition, of our dependency on one another to discern and navigate the world” (Villegas). It can be concluded from this information that segregating people violates the concept of human nature because, as humans, we are social beings. Disrupting this principle will inherently affect a persons psychological state.
Although it has been proven that long-term imprisonment and solitary confinement can alter a persons mind, lower courts rarely acknowledge it and the Supreme court has never acknowledged it. The Supreme court only takes into account a prisoners physical need and whether the punishment violates the eighth amendment, which states that “cruel and unusual” punishments must not be inflicted. This is interesting because neurological evidence shows that people process social and physical pain in similar ways. In the case of McMillan v. Wiley confinement conditions were challenged based on the fact that the inmate received no social interaction. The court refuted that he received food, shelter, and recreation periods. So, like previously stated, the courts only focus on physical need. They don’t realize that keeping a person locked away from everything and everyone is a cruel and unusual punishment that can do some major damage to a persons mind. Hopefully with psychological evidence continuing to be discovered, more lower courts and the Supreme court will consider the fact of mental harm on the people they choose to confine.
A classic example of prison and psychological harm is The Stanford Prison experiment. I’m sure almost every student who studies psychology is familiar with this particular experiment. Conducted by Phillip Zimbardo, this 1971 study called for college-age male volunteers who would be paid $15 a day to participate in a prison simulation. It would occur in the basement of the psychology department at Stanford University and was intended to last 1-2 weeks. The young men were chosen at random who would play the role of prisoners and who would play the role of guards. The purpose of Zimbardo’s experiment was to see “how an institution affects an individuals behavior.” Almost immediately after the experiment began, the “guards” began to display signs of cruel behavior and seemed to enjoy having power over their “prisoners.” Likewise, the “prisoners” obeyed the “guards.” However, this did not last long. After only 1 day of the simulation the “guards” aggressive and abusive behavior caused the “prisoners” to react and the rule of no touching each other was violated. The “prisoners” tried to escape and the “guards” would use force on them. Surprisingly, Zimbardo did not stop this behavior. As a matter of fact, when a couple of the “prisoners” asked to leave Zimbardo denied their request and, like the “guards”, treated the boys with cruelty. It could be observed that Phillip Zimbardo and his fellow coordinators unconsciously became a part of their own experiment. Thankfully Zimbardo was able to recognize the obscene behavior he was allowing to happen and canceled the experiment after just 6 days. Although the experiment was traumatizing for the “prisoners” and unbelievable for the “guards”, none of the participants suffered any long-term damage. However, this study shows that not only can a prison-like situation mentally affect prisoners, it can even affect those who are in power. The boys who played guards seemed to forget that they were all just college kids and instantly became corrupted by their permission of harshness and authority. If the “prisoners” hadn’t even committed crimes and they were treated so unbelievably, I can’t even begin to imagine how actual prisons with actual guards and actual felons operate and the psychological damage it does to everyone there.
When doing research on some of the worst prisons in the United States, most articles pointed out that the United States has the world’s highest incarceration rate and that over two million people are in jails or prisons. I found a list of some of the worst prisons in America and some stood out to me as being excessively horrible. These include Pelican Bay State Prison in Crescent City, California, Walnut Grove Youth Correctional Facility in Leake County, Mississippi, and Allan B. Polunsky Unit in Livingston, Texas.
Pelican Bay is a supermax prison where inmates in the Security Housing Unit spend twenty-two and a half hours a day in their seven by eleven foot windowless
cells. When not in their cells the inmates receive a “recreational period” in concrete pens. Over five hundred people have had to suffer this torture for over a decade and there’s one inmate who has been there for over 40 years. I can’t imagine what goes on inside that guys head. The majority of these people are here due to being alleged gang members or associates which is validated on what they read, write, or draw. So you can infer that most of these men and women are serving time in the SHU for bullshit reasons and that they are on the line of mental suicide.
The privately owned Walnut Grove Facility was shut down in 2016 due to violence and budget cuts. Thank god it was shut down because the youth facility continued to violate the constitution and engaged in “inhumane acts.” Kids from ages 13-22 were “severely scarred both physically and psychologically by their experience” at Walnut Grove (Gunter, 2012). This facility was deemed to have some of the worst sexual misconduct including ridiculously excessive incidences of youth-on youth rape, and sexual assault and coercions by guards. In addition to that
guards would act violently towards the young inmates and would frequently pepper spray them for no reason as well as entice riots and gladiator-style fights that they would actually bet on. Many prisoners showed signs of suicidal tendencies and mental illness but no action was ever taken to help the kids recover. And, of course, solitary confinement was used and no one cared. Walnut Grove was a for-profit institution so they just ignored when kids were stabbed (an often occurrence), raped, thrown off the second floor balconies. While the young prisoners suffered physical and psychological trauma, the organization was making their money.
The strictly solitary Allan B. Polunsky Unit has been declared “the most lethal death row anywhere in the democratic world” on the basis of how harsh the conditions are. Until their day of execution, inmates spend twenty-two hours a day in their cells and the remaining two hours in literal cages. Having to do this for at least three years has fatal effects on the mental state of these inmates. Some choose to kill themselves instead of waiting three years for the injection. A former prisoner of the Polunsky Unit described some of the terrors he witnessed of other inmates wrapping themselves in their bedsheets and lighting it on fire, one who smeared feces on their face, and another who took his own eye out and ate it. This is what happens when you’re forced to spend every second of every day completely confined and completely alone. You are no longer a person, and not only not physically free, but neither mentally free