Solitary confinement
Solitary confinement is a form of imprisonment where individuals are isolated from the general prison population, typically resulting in minimal human contact aside from staff interactions. This practice is often employed for prisoners deemed a threat to themselves or others, or to protect inmates from potential harm from peers. Historically rooted in the early 19th century, solitary confinement has been criticized for its severe psychological impact, including links to mental instability and heightened risks of suicide. The prevalence of this practice is notable, with over 122,000 individuals reported to be in solitary confinement in U.S. facilities as of 2019.
Advocates for prison reform argue that solitary confinement constitutes cruel and unusual punishment, causing lasting harm without offering rehabilitative benefits. Various reforms have emerged in recent years, including legislative efforts to restrict or eliminate solitary confinement for vulnerable populations, such as minors and individuals with mental health issues. International human rights organizations have also expressed concern over the use of indefinite solitary confinement, labeling it a form of psychological torture. Current legislative initiatives, such as the proposed End Solitary Confinement Act, aim to significantly limit the use of this practice in federal institutions, reflecting ongoing debates about its ethical implications and impact on inmate well-being.
On this Page
Subject Terms
Solitary confinement
Solitary confinement is a form of incarceration in which a prisoner is isolated from the rest of the prison population in a cell and has no form of human contact apart from brief interactions with prison staff. Solitary confinement is used if a prisoner is considered a danger to themselves or to others, or is suspected of organizing or conducting illegal activities. Prisoners may also be placed in solitary confinement as a form of protective custody if they are in danger of being harmed by other inmates. It is difficult to estimate the number of prisoners held in solitary confinement at any given time. According to the watchdog groups Solitary Watch and Unlock the Box Campaign in 2023, more than 122,000 people were held in solitary confinement in US prisons and jails in 2019.
Overview
Solitary confinement dates to the nineteenth century, when both Quakers and Calvinists supported the practice. In 1818, New York reformer and Quaker Thomas Eddy lobbied for inmate labor and solitary confinement to substitute for other methods of punishment, such as hanging. Later, the state of New York incorporated solitary confinement and prisoner labor into its penal system. Many prisoners at the time indicated that they preferred the lash over solitary confinement because the lash did not induce the same mental suffering as solitary confinement did. As far back as the 1860s, solitary confinement has been linked to mental instability.
Traditionally, solitary confinement has been used to gain physical and emotional control over the prisoner. Newer prisoners more often violate prison rules than those who have been imprisoned longer and are more likely to be placed in solitary confinement. Personality characteristics and environmental factors increase the likelihood that a prisoner will be put into solitary confinement.
Immigration officials sometimes use solitary confinement in immigration detention centers to prevent immigrants from communicating with each other. Solitary confinement is also used as a punishment in work labor prisons. Prison reform advocates argue that using security housing units, which are extreme forms of solitary confinement, causes psychological harm and has no rehabilitative purpose. They contend that it is a form of cruel and unusual punishment and torture because sensory deprivation and lack of human contact can negatively impact a prisoner’s mental health. Despite the debate and literature documenting the psychological effects of solitary confinement on prisoners and links to prisoner suicide, according to the 2006 report of the Commission on Safety and Abuse in America’s Prisons Confronting Confinement, prison administrators and government policymakers are not moving quickly to abolish solitary confinement or security housing units. The report also points out that solitary confinement is a social issue because prison inmates lose important skills in solitary confinement, including emotional control and communication skills. Many prisoners in secure housing units are minorities, which has brought further scrutiny on the practice by advocates of reform. Indefinite solitary confinement is considered to be psychological torture. The US penal system and its practice of incarcerating its civilian population in maximum-security prisons, or supermax facilities, across the country has caused the Red Cross and other international human rights organizations to express human rights concerns. Attempting to protest the use of indefinite solitary confinement, a group of prisoners held in isolated confinement within California's Pelican Bay State Prison managed to organize a statewide, publicized hunger strike in the summer of 2013. Frequently used as an example by both other prisoners and prison reform groups, murderer Thomas Silverstein—who was believed to have spent more time in isolation than any other inmate—spent about thirty-six years in solitary confinement before his death in 2019. The amount of time spent in restrictive housing was recorded by Silverstein to have affected his mental health and wellbeing.
Under pressure from such calls for reform from both inmates and human rights groups, several states have begun reforming their solitary confinement policy. According to the Marshall Project, in 2014, ten states adopted measures that included reduced use of the practice as well as, in many cases, complete abolishment regarding minors and the mentally ill. New York City officials unanimously voted to ban solitary confinement for prisoners twenty-one years old and under in early 2015. Coming less than a year after New York State's decision to prohibit the use of solitary confinement for prisoners under the age of eighteen, the city's new policy would affect Rikers Island, one of the world's largest penal facilities.
In January 2018, the British Columbia Supreme Court ruled that the use of indefinite periods of solitary confinement—which had been used frequently for non-disciplinary reasons such as protection from fellow prisoners—violated Canada's Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Later that year, the Canadian government introduced a bill intended to end solitary confinement in federal prisons.
The US federal government made efforts to improve its restrictive housing policies and practices in the 2020s. In May 2022, US president Joe Biden issued an executive order directing the Attorney General to make sure the BOP fully implemented dozens of recommendations regarding restrictive housing made by the Department of Justice. In early 2024, however, the US Government Accountability Office reported that the BOP had yet to fully implement the Justice Department's recommendations. During this time, House Democrats introduced a 2023 bill that would ban the use of solitary confinement in federal prisons, jails, and detention centers. The End Solitary Confinement Act proposed to limit the amount of time that inmates and detainees could be segregated alone to a maximum of four hours to de-escalate a crisis. The act also proposed to require staff to meet with those in solitary confinement at least hourly. A similar bill was introduced in the Senate that December.
Bibliography
Bates, Laura. Shakespeare Saved My Life: Ten Years in Solitary with the Bard. Sourcebooks, 2013.
"Bureau of Prisons: Additional Actions Needed to Improve Restrictive Housing Practices." GAO, U.S. Government Accountability Office, GAO-24-105737, 6 Feb. 2024, www.gao.gov/products/gao-24-105737. Accessed 29 Oct. 2024.
Browne, Angela, Alissa Cambier, and Suzanne Agha. “Prisons within Prisons: The Use of Segregation in the United States.” Federal Sentencing Reporter, vol. 24, no. 1, 2011, pp. 46–49.
Calculating Torture: Analysis of Federal, State, and Local Data Showing More Than 122,000 People in Solitary Confinement in U.S. Prisons and Jails. Solitary Watch and Unlock the Box Campaign, May 2023, solitarywatch.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/Calculating-Torture-Report-May-2023-R2.pdf. Accessed 29 Oct. 2024.
Caldwell, Maggie, and Josh Harkinson. "50 Days without Food: The California Prison Hunger Strike Explained." Mother Jones, 27 Aug. 2013, www.motherjones.com/politics/2013/08/50-days-california-prisons-hunger-strike-explainer/. Accessed 29 Oct. 2024.
Commission on Safety and Abuse in America’s Prisons. “Confronting Confinement.” Vera Institute of Justice,31 Mar. 2006, www.vera.org/publications/confronting-confinement. Accessed 29 Oct. 2024.
McGinnis, Kenneth, et al. Federal Bureau of Prisons: Special Housing Unit Review and Assessment. Federal Bureau of Prisons, Dec. 2014, bop.gov/resources/news/pdfs/CNA-SHUReportFinal‗123014‗2.pdf. Accessed 29 Oct. 2024.
“Growing Up Locked Down: Youth in Solitary Confinement in Jails and Prisons in the United States.” HRW.org. Human Rights Watch, 2013. Web. 16 Aug. 2013.
Guenther, Lisa. Solitary Confinement: Social Death and Its Afterlives. Minneapolis: U of Minnesota P, 2013.
Haney, Craig, and Mona Lynch. “Regulating Prisons of the Future: A Psychological Analysis of Supermax and Solitary Confinement.” New York University Review of Law and Social Change, vol. 23, 1997, pp. 478–558.
Jeffreys, Derek S. Spirituality in Dark Places: The Ethics of Solitary Confinement. New York: Palgrave, 2013. Content and Context in Theological Ethics.
Kassam, Ashifa. "Canada's Use of Lengthy Solitary Confinement in Jails is Unconstitutional -Judge." The Guardian, 17 Jan. 2018, www.theguardian.com/world/2018/jan/18/canadas-use-of-lengthy-solitary-confinement-in-jails-is-unconstitutional-judge. Accessed 4 Dec. 2018.
Lobel, Jules. “Prolonged Solitary Confinement and the Constitution.” University of Pennsylvania Journal of Constitutional Law, vol. 11, no. 115, 2008, pp. 2009–19.
Naday, A., J. Freilich, and Jeff Mellow. “The Elusive Data on Supermax Confinement.” Prison Journal, vol. 88, 2008, p. 69.
Ortiz, Erik. "Bill to Ban Solitary Confinement in Federal Prisons Introduced in House." NBC News, 27 July 2023, www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/bill-ban-solitary-confinement-federal-prisons-introduced-house-lawmake-rcna96016. Accessed 29 Oct. 2024.
"Restricted Housing." Federal Bureau of Prisons, 28 Oct. 2024, www.bop.gov/about/statistics/statistics‗inmate‗shu.jsp. Accessed 29 Oct. 2024.
Rhodes, Lorna A. Total Confinement: Madness and Reason in the Maximum Security Prison. U of California P, 2004. California Series in Public Anthropology.
Roberts, Same. "Thomas Silverstein, Killer and Most Isolated Inmate, Dies at 67." The New York Times, 21 May 2019, www.nytimes.com/2019/05/21/obituaries/thomas-silverstein-dead.html. Accessed 19 July 2019.
Shaley, Sharon. Supermax: Controlling Risk through Solitary Confinement. Willan, 2009.
Vasiliades, Elizabeth. “Solitary Confinement and International Human Rights: Why the US Prison System Rails Global Standards.” American University International Law Review, vol. 21, 2005, pp. 71–101.
Winerip, Michael, and Michael Schwirtz. "Rikers to Ban Isolation for Inmates 21 and Younger." The New York Times, 13 Jan. 2015, www.nytimes.com/2015/01/14/nyregion/new-york-city-to-end-solitary-confinement-for-inmates-21-and-under-at-rikers.html. Accessed 29 Oct. 2024.