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A few answers: As a concrete box, usually windowless and monotone, solitary confinement is a form of sensory deprivation. Studies of its effects on mental heal

A few answers: As a concrete box, usually windowless and monotone, solitary confinement is a form of sensory deprivation. Studies of its effects on mental health are similar to that of extended sensory deprivation. Some units like this offer books; many don’t. Fee to none offer radio or television. Inmates have been known to suffer hallucinations in solitary. Two, it renders prisoners even more vulnerable to abuse by officers than even regular inmates. There is no one to see what happens to you. The stress and its effects on your body are borne whether or not you are ultimately victimized. Three, Sartre can say what he likes, but humans are social creatures. By and large, cutting off social contact is a reliable way to induce depression and anxiety. Indeed, inmates in solitary often develop severe symptoms of depression and anxiety, which may become long-lasting or permanent. These inmates are at a massively increased risk of suicide. It has been argued that solitary doesn’t create mental disease, it just massively exacerbated underlying mental disease. But since some measure of depression and anxiety is extraordinarily common in inmates, I consider that a meaningless distinction. Four, just as an empirical matter, there are a pile of studies on the negative mental health effects of solitary confinement. Much like a math proof, “it’s true because it’s true.”

wolfgke 9y ago
> As a concrete box, usually windowless and monotone I did not know this (as a non-native speaker of English I just knew "solitary" - "alone"). It is well-known to me that lack of daylight cycle etc. for a longer time can cause medical conditions. > Two, it renders prisoners even more vulnerable to abuse by officers than even regular inmates. A really good argument. Accepted. > Four, just as an empirical matter, there are a pile of studies on the negative mental health effects of solitary confinement. Much like a math proof, “it’s true because it’s true.” This only shows that for the "average person" it causes problems.
- c3534l 9y ago
  > It is well-known to me that lack of daylight cycle etc. for a longer time can cause medical conditions. Some prisons have gotten around the requirement that prisoners be exposed to daylight by placing the windows where they cannot be seen, but some of the light can be from the cell. That way they can be say they're providing daylight, it's just that the prisoners cannot see a window. Sometimes it seems that the people who runs prisons are just as sick in the head as they people inside them.

wolfgke 9y ago

> As a concrete box, usually windowless and monotone I did not know this (as a non-native speaker of English I just knew "solitary" - "alone"). It is well-known to me that lack of daylight cycle etc. for a longer time can cause medical conditions. > Two, it renders prisoners even more vulnerable to abuse by officers than even regular inmates. A really good argument. Accepted. > Four, just as an empirical matter, there are a pile of studies on the negative mental health effects of solitary confinement. Much like a math proof, “it’s true because it’s true.” This only shows that for the "average person" it causes problems.

c3534l 9y ago
> It is well-known to me that lack of daylight cycle etc. for a longer time can cause medical conditions. Some prisons have gotten around the requirement that prisoners be exposed to daylight by placing the windows where they cannot be seen, but some of the light can be from the cell. That way they can be say they're providing daylight, it's just that the prisoners cannot see a window. Sometimes it seems that the people who runs prisons are just as sick in the head as they people inside them.