In 2020, United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture Nils Melzer raised concern about the overuse of solitary confinement in U.S. prisons, noting that his predecessor, Juan Mendez, had compellingly shown the extent to which such practices amounted to torture.
Melzer said that “the severe and often irreparable psychological and physical consequences of solitary confinement and social exclusion are well documented and can range from progressively severe forms of anxiety, stress, and depression to cognitive impairment and suicidal tendencies.”
This practice of isolation affects those who are not convicted but held in local jails awaiting trial, including at the Tulsa County jail. The U.S. justice system presumes people to be innocent until proven guilty, so jails should not be treating people as if they are guilty.
The U.S. prison system was also set up with the intention of rehabilitating criminals, not subjecting them to inhumane conditions and torture.
During the progressive era at the turn of the 20th century, prison officials introduced more liberalized prison regimens in order to live up to the ideals of the founding fathers, promoting vocational training and education, recreation and counseling, while allowing inmates to establish prison newspapers and have some say in prison management.
In the last decades, as prisons have become more overcrowded because of the war on drugs and other harsh, punitive laws, we have seen a reversal of the progressive spirit and growth of harsher prison regimens, which does not ultimately benefit society.
As many as 200,000 inmates are currently locked in some form of solitary confinement across the U.S. — by far the highest rate of any country in the world.
Some spend months or even years at a time in isolation, being allowed out only a few times a week for a 10-minute shower or a short exercise period in an outdoor dog run.
When PBS interviewed 100 inmates who had been subjected to solitary confinement for a book titled “Way Down in the Hole,” almost all the prisoners spoke about being stripped of their humanity.
One, an avid reader nicknamed Scholar, said: “All human privileges are gone; they treat you like a dog. They bring you food, they throw it to you, you shower in a cage; you exercise in a cage. Just because I'm wearing orange (the color of the jumpsuit) doesn't mean I'm not human.”
A woman confined in solitary for more than a decade said: “I'm treated like I'm in a zoo. … I'm being treated like an animal. I feel lost and forgotten.”
Stripping a person of their humanity and treating them like an animal does not benefit society in any way, as when they return to society these people will be angry and physically and psychologically scarred from their experience and prone to violence.
Even if some of the people in solitary have committed terrible crimes and are a genuine menace to society, mistreating them goes against basic morality, as two wrongs do not make a right.
The PBS study found that inmates who experience solitary confinement are more likely to end up back in prison than other inmates and die prematurely — and also that guards who work there have higher divorce rates because of the stress of their job.
The study found that the cost of holding someone in solitary confinement is around three times that of the general prison population.
That's another reason to do away with a practice that is inhumane and benefits no one.
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"One is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed,
but by the punishments that the good have inflicted."
— Oscar Wilde
but by the punishments that the good have inflicted."
— Oscar Wilde