Revised Sulfsted - Research Proposal

Sulfsted !
Emma Sulfsted
Professor Vicki Stalbird
English 1201
26 May 2019
The True Impact of Solitary Confinement
Long-term solitary confinement should be minimized in the United States prison because
it is mentally damaging, expensive, and counter-productive.
Growing up the daughter of a police sergeant, law enforcement and the justice system
have been topics familiar to me. As I’ve grown older, the climate in the US over justice has
become a great debate, through recent events such as shootings of unarmed black men, mass
shootings, and more. Now, my partner is a rookie police officer, but in his past he spent a short
time in jail, and we can both agree that while there are people doing great things in the justice
system, there are many potential problems with America’s justice system. He brought up the
system of solitary confinement in America’s prisons as a potential research topic, and we found a
few videos on YouTube about it. One in particular was a news story of the Secretary of
corrections for the State of New Mexico, who decided to go in solitary confinement himself to
experience what it was like, as he pushed for reform within these prisons. They stated over
80,000 people in the United States are in solitary confinement, an amount much greater than I
had imagined. If someone so high up in a prison’s structure is questioning how humane this
system is, it seems to be something that deserves further research, and it intrigued me to do so.
At this point, before even beginning my full research, I feel that this may be an
inhumane, and potentially unnecessary part of our justice system. Surely, being alone in a box for
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23 or more hours a day, every day, long-term, could make a person go insane. It hurts me to hear
that many of the people in these situations already are diagnosed with mental illness, and I
wonder how this type of punishment is really helping. I understand some of the reasons why
people would be put in solitary, such as for their protection, for the protection of other inmates,
and more. However, I can’t imagine keeping someone alone like that for months or years is
helping them grow into a better citizen. In fact the video I saw stated that studies show those kept
in solitary confinement during prison are actually more likely to reoffend when they get out of
prison. I’d like to look further into this, and see if that holds true. Some critics of solitary
confinement even call it “legalized torture,” and I wonder about the facts behind that statement.
Prisoners at this specific prison in the videos I’ve seen were kept in that small room alone for 23
hours a day, with only one hour outside a day - but not truly outside, still locked in a cage inside
a yard. As stated, it claims over 80,000 people in the US are in solitary confinement, and many of
those offenders are placed initially in solitary, with no chance in showing how they can behave in
the general population of the prison. This seems unfair to me, even considering the crimes some
of these people have committed. At this point, I feel as though it is inhumane to keep people in
solitary for such long periods of time, except for a few outliers who simply cannot be in the gen.
pop.
To fully understand this topic, I will need to learn quite a bit. I’d like to look at the cost of
solitary, as one source I’ve seen said it was 3 times as expensive. I’d also need to look into the
idea of it making people go insane. I’m hoping to read studies that show the impact on mental
illness and mental health of inmates. Does this increase rates of suicide? Do inmates come out
worse than they came in? I need to discover studies on these questions, as well as facts on
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exactly how these inmates are treated, such as how many hours they are locked in that room,
what their outside experiences are like, what they are allowed to keep in their rooms such as
books and magazines, and the comfort and livability of their situation. I also need to find
statistics on their likelihood to reoffend after being released as compared to those in general
population, to fully examine the success of a treatment like this. I’d also like to delve into the
reasons why people are placed in solitary, to examine if there are some rightfully placed there or
some that are maybe placed there unfairly. Altogether, this will provide a stable basis for
examining how humane the system of long-term solitary confinement in the US is, and perhaps
provide ideas for alternatives.

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Sulfsted !

Professor Vicki Stalbird

The True Impact of Solitary Confinement

it is mentally damaging, expensive, and counter-productive.

provide ideas for alternatives.

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