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John Limongelli

Professor Ferrara

ENGL 1001

4 April 2024

The Effects of Solitary Confinement

Solitary confinement is not an effective form of punishment for any human being. What

is solitary confinement? Solitary Confinement is a punishment given to inmates that isolates

them from most to all social interactions. It has been used by many nations throughout many

years as an ‘effective’ form of punishment. This punishment is used to stop or reduce violence

that a person has been doing to either themselves or other people in the prison. This may seem

like a simple solution, but there are many side effects that cause harm to the person in this

confinement.

I have conducted a survey with simple questions to see how long the average person

thinks they could last in isolation. 100% of the people who took the survey said that human

beings need to interact with one another. 33% said that they could last in isolation for any time

between one and three days while the rest said they could only last hours within the first day of

isolation. These results back up my thesis that solitary confinement is not an effective form of

punishment for any human beings. The reason being that everyone needs some sort of interaction

with another person and depriving that person of that is not natural for a person. This continues

my reasonings that solitary confinement causes major side effects on people mentally and

physically.

After people have gone through long amounts of time in solitary confinement, some start

to get hallucinations and other perceptual changes. Some hallucinations people have dealt with
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include hearing people talk when they are in silence. The person might think someone on the

outside is talking to either them or someone else when really there is nobody speaking. In the

study, “Psychopathological Effects of Solitary Confinement” by Stuart Grassian, he provides a

good example of this when an inmate tells him, ““I hear sounds-guards saying, ‘They’re going to

cut it [his nerve-damaged leg] off.’ I’m not sure. Did they say it, or is it my imagination?” If they

did say it, the prisoner is suffering from derealization; if they said something else, or something

not directed at him, he is suffering a (paranoid) perceptual distortion; if they said nothing, he is

having a hallucination” (1452). This is an example of a side effect that is commonly thought of

when thinking of what happens to someone when they are alone for too long. Another perceptual

change that goes on with people in solitary confinement is getting irritated or sick of certain

food, actions, or sounds. For example, inmates will already be struggling with being alone for

too long, so they start to get sick of things that are repeated such as eating the same food every

day. Another example could be hearing a sound repeatedly such as a drop of water from a

leaking sink. These things would be considered minor inconveniences for most people but

because of the situation these people are in their reactions are heightened. Grassian supports this

by saying, ““Everything gets exaggerated. After a while, you can’t stand it. Meals-I used to eat

everything they served. Now I can’t stand the smells-the meat-the only thing I can stand to eat is

the bread.” …All 11 inmates denied ever having experienced such symptoms except during

confinement in isolation” (1452). This quote shows how people in solitary confinement go

through different perceptual changes. But people could counter this argument by saying these

people could already be dealing with these problems before solitary confinement, so this

isolation isn’t the cause of their changes. But since Grassian says that 11 inmates have never

experienced these symptoms outside of solitary confinement it is easy to infer that they only
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occur because of their isolation, disproving that counterargument. Hallucinations and perceptual

changes are reasons why solitary confinement is not an effective method. It is not intended for

people to have these problems occur.

After a certain amount of time of being isolated some people have gone through different

types of major anxiety attacks and symptoms. Since most of the time in solitary confinement you

are alone, different thoughts start to occur. After a while someone can become very anxious and

even go through an anxiety attack. Since it can be inferred that people can hallucinate and hear

people when nobody is talking it might also relate to people feeling anxious. Grassian supports

this by saying, “Ten prisoners described massive free-floating anxiety during their incarceration

in solitary, accompanied in eight cases by recurrent acute episodes of tachycardia, diaphoresis,

shortness of breath, panic, tremulousness, and dread of impending death” (1452). This quote can

help provide reasoning for why people who have never had anxiety feel these strong emotions

and reactions. Also, it can show how people who have already been diagnosed with anxiety have

their anxiety heightened when in solitary confinement. While anxiety is a common thought of

side effect when thinking of solitary confinement, people also think of claustrophobia because of

being in a small space all the time. It would be likely to assume that people would have this

reaction alongside anxiety, but this isn’t the case. As Weinstein studied, “80% felt anxiety at

some time during isolation…There was little evidence of claustrophobia.” This is interesting

because this study disproves what people commonly think about claustrophobia but supports the

idea of anxiety in solitary confinement. Weinstein’s study was also conducted with regular

people in isolation for 72 hours compared to inmates who have been in strict solitary

confinement for longer periods of time. This could affect the severity of anxiety or other side

effects. The reason for this is that the effects could be worse in a more strict and longer isolation.
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This ties back to my thesis that solitary confinement is not an effective form of punishment.

These studies help prove that anxiety can be a bad side effect of this form of punishment.

After being isolated for some time, people may experience violent episodes. Studies have

shown that people who have spent long amounts of time in solitary confinement have shown to

partake in acts of violence. People will follow through with these violent actions even when they

aren’t intentional. This is shown in Grassian’s study when he says, “One prisoner said, “I snap

off the handle over absolutely nothing. Have torn up mail and pictures, throw things around. Try

to control it. Know it only hurts myself”” This quote is an example of an inmate who out of their

own control had random acts of violence. Some inmates tend to become violent for no apparent

reason. Grassian continues this study by mentioning, “Three of these prisoners reported

impulsive self-mutilation; for example, “I cut my wrists-cut myself many times when in

isolation. Now, it seems crazy. But every time I did it, I wasn’t thinking-lost control-cut myself

without knowing what I was doing.”” This quote shows that inmates will even cause violence to

themselves when they don’t realize it. Even when they don’t want to cause any harm to

themselves it is too late to prevent what they have done. This inmate even goes to saying that

looking back it seems crazy and that they lost control of their own actions. This is another reason

why solitary confinement is not an effective method of punishment. These random acts of

violence make solitary confinement an even worse situation for the person and will not end up

learning from their mistakes but instead cause unnecessary harm to themselves or others.