Buried Alive in Solitary Confinement

The Monkey Love Experiment: the illustrious psychological experiment now accessible with a simple flip through a psychology textbook. When Harry Frederick Harlow bought a vacant building to convert into his laboratory space out of college, he never aspired to be a key term students across the globe would write down on an index card to ingrain the pivotal research he conducted into their memory. Harlow was concerned with one mystery, one overarching, all consuming unanswered question: how significant is social dependency? To answer this question he controversially pried monkeys away from their families and into his laboratory giving them a new family. Harlow not only gave these monkeys wire constructed figures meant to be a maternal figure, but he also placed them in complete isolation and the effects.. were catastrophic. These monkeys were mentally debilitated in every sense of the word: screaming, crying, and experiencing aggressive outrages. Some even dying years later from the anguish of being left alone. Let me reiterate this. These monkey’s reached permanent irreversible mental damage or death just because they were left alone. (Herman) This experiment was not only deemed highly instrumental in the psychological field of social development, but also highly controversial. But, here’s the kicker. Complete social isolation or solitary confinement is precisely how we deal with 80,000 inmates in our modern prison systems today. That’s right. Isolating monkeys is deemed highly unethical, but isolating humans is deemed a necessity in extreme situations, so if we don’t start to reform the system of solitary confinement the long term effects will undoubtedly be detrimental and I’m afraid, irreversible.  

“It’s like being buried alive. You are some place alive but you are no place anyone wants to see.” Todd Fickett expressed this through a cement wall and a tiny glass window looking at six months in solitary confinement. (Locked up in America) For him a normal day looks like this:  he spends 23 hours in his 7 by 12 foot cell furnished with a bed, sink, and toilet with one hour for exercise in an equally sized outdoor cage. Furthermore, he has his meals delivered to him through a slot in the door demonstrating the most human contact he will experience. While, the amenities and privileges end there, nothing else seems to. This sentence Todd is facing is just beginning, and in the following months thoughts of suicide, attempts of body mutilation, and an increase of violence aren’t surprising outcomes. And here is the worst part -- these outcomes, these troubling behaviors: they are the horrifyingly predictable result of isolation. Inmates shove water and bodily fluids out of their cells in attempts to fight back. They cut themselves with razor blades until they are bleeding so profusely they have to be removed from the situation. They cover the windows of their cell so officers are forced to extricate them in fear they are being self abusive. They are violent, unstable, and trapped. Trapped in a vicious unforgiving cycle.

Todd is one of the over 80,000 inmates who are being buried alive. The painfully candid stories of inmates seem to be unending. An article, notably named “The Shame in Solitary Confinement” describes a 51 year old inmate who faced 999 days in isolation for threats that he never carried out in an assault. 999 days. In South Carolina Tyheem Henry received 37 and a half years in solitary confinement for posting on facebook with a contraband phone. This isn’t to suggest the use of an illegal phone isn’t highly dangerous, but is it worthy of 37 and a half years in isolation? Prior to the 21st century it was unheard of for inmates to spend more than a couple weeks in solitary confinement, but now it’s the first step in punishing any degree of misconduct. (Bazelon)

It’s more than apparent that the use of isolation is alarmingly widespread. And, this widespread usage has had devastating consequences. Not only is this the most inefficient  financial way to handle these prisoners, it is also the most psychologically detrimental. Inmates who spend extended periods of time in isolation experience no reduction in the amount of fighting they engage in (Bazelon), and have increased chances of being suicidal or obtaining mental illnesses by almost 50% according to Jason M. Breslow regarding “What does Solitary Confinement do to Your Mind?”. Furthermore, patients who are already mentally ill prior to their sentence in solitary confinement receive no reduced sentence. Rodney Jones, who tried to kill himself as early as 12 year old and had struggled with severe mental illness for the entirety of his life, found himself in and out of prison and juvenile detention from a young age. So, when he begged to be sent to a psychiatric facility he was denied and forced to stay in isolation. (Binelli) Similarly Jerome Laudman who was schizophrenic and intellectually disabled was transferred to an intense isolation unit, even though his counselor assured the officers he wasn’t aggressive or threatening. Laudman was found a week later, after refusing to eat or take his medication, laying in his own vomit, and when he was taken to the hospital he died from a heart attack. The horrors don’t end here, even if inmates are so lucky to avoid a fate like Landman's and make it out of isolation integrating back into society proves to be next to impossible. In an interview conducted by Lance Tapley, Bobby Dellelo, who spent time in solitary confinement and has recently been released, illustrated recent scenarios where when he speaks to people it as if they aren’t even talking. He loses focus and track of the conversations, and finds it difficult to concentrate on anything someone is attempting to voice to them. He has lost his social skills. But, perhaps even more alarming is Jones’s story in the period of time he was finding himself in and out of jail and isolation about how he purchased crack and called the cops on himself. And, when asked why, he retorted, “That’s the only world I know.” This is the vicious cycle that can’t continue. Integration, prosperity, and progress these have to be possible. But, how?

Surprisingly, or maybe not, some people think the progress being made through this system or lack there of is the only answer. These prisoner are deemed to have “no regard for human life.” (Locked up in America) The normal consequences that shake a normal person to the core aren’t effective. They are futile, pointless, and counterproductive. So, the pressing question becomes: is stripping these 80,000 inmates of their sense of self, worth the safety and peace of mind of other criminals?  Regardless of how you answer this question, there is no refuting one statement: Prisoners in solitary confinement are made into aggressive shells of a person, but are never sane individuals while they carry out their sentence, regardless of who they are keeping safe by being there. I am not suggesting solitary confinement be annihilated entirely, nor do I have a be all end all solution to end the stigma associated with isolated prisoners. However, these 80,000 men weren’t placed on death row. They weren’t classified as persons who no longer deserve to breath. They aren’t facing the ultimate punishment. We didn’t promise them a normal content life, but we also didn’t promise them no life. And, living in a world where you sometimes go weeks with only a few words spoken to you, or the most human contact you have is receiving food through a slot in a room, that seems to fight every inch of you that’s trying to find yourself, that isn’t living. The only way to end this is to educate our society on the horrors of this system in the hopes of seeing reforms that address the psychological toll of isolation making maximum security more flexible. Moreover, I am here urging you to advocate for psychological testing of inmates in isolation every six months because being “buried alive” is not only a sentence in desperate need of reform it’s a life no one, no matter what you have seen, knows how to live.

Bibliography

Bazelon, Emily. "The Shame of Solitary Confinement." The New York Times. The New York         Times, 18 Feb. 2015. Web. 02 July 2015.

Binelli, Mark. "Inside America’s Toughest Federal Prison." The New York Times. The New York Times, 28 Mar. 2015. Web. 02 July 2015.

Breslow, Jason M. "FRONTLINE." PBS. PBS, 22 Apr. 2014. Web. 13 Dec. 2015.

Herman, Ellen. "Adoption History: Harry Harlow, Monkey Love Experiments." Adoption History: Harry Harlow, Monkey Love Experiments. N.p., 24 Feb. 2012. Web. 13 Dec. 2015.

Locked Up In America. Dir. Dan Edge. Perf. Gordon Perry and Todd Fickett.PBS. N.p., 22 Apr. 2014. Web. 1 July 2015.

Shalev, Sharon. Supermax: Controlling Risk through Solitary Confinement. Cullompton, UK: Willan, 2009. Print.

"Solitary Confinement Interview." Interview by Lance Tapley. Youtube. N.p., 22 Nov. 2010. Web. 13

Dec. 2015. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ik1bln5udWY>.