Hamilton College Hamilton Digital Commons Student Scholarship Works by Type 5-16-2021 Collection of Solitary Confinement Witness estimonyT Brooke Kessler '22 Hamilton College Lynn Kim '21 Hamilton College Drew Frey '23 Hamilton College Percy Mixson '24 Hamilton College Tatum Barclay '22 Hamilton College Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.hamilton.edu/student_scholarship Citation Information Kessler, Brooke '22; Kim, Lynn '21; Frey, Drew '23; Mixson, Percy '24; and Barclay, Tatum '22, "Collection of Solitary Confinement Witness estimonyT " (2021). Hamilton Digital Commons. https://digitalcommons.hamilton.edu/student_scholarship/27 This work is made available by Hamilton College for educational and research purposes under a Creative Commons BY-NC-ND 4.0 license. For more information, visit http://digitalcommons.hamilton.edu/about.html or contact [email protected]. Brooke Kessler, Lynn Kim, Drew Frey, Percy Mixson, Tatum Barclay Professor Larson Literature of Witness 16 May 2021 Final Project: Collection of Solitary Confinement Witness Testimony Introduction The Cruel Injustice of Solitary Confinement Solitary confinement has many different forms. It can be a supermax prison, designed intentionally to hold people solely in solitary confinement, or restrictive housing, also known as “disciplinary segregation, administrative segregation, protective custody, control units, security housing units (SHU), special management units (SMU), or simply ‘the hole’,”1 which takes the form of separate isolated units within what is deemed to be a standard prison complex. It has been recognized since the mid 19th century as a dangerous practice with severe physiological and psychological effects on those confined. In 1984, the UN’s definition of torture detailed in the Convention Against Torture was near-identical to the inherent nature of solitary confinement, describing torture as “any act by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted on a person”2 for reasons of interrogation and punishment, and since the CAT, the UN’s official policy on solitary confinement has developed to the point of labelling any stint in solitary greater than 15 days to legally qualify as torture. The Mandela Rules, named for 1 ACLU. “Still Worse than Second Class: Solitary Confinement of Women in the United States.” ACLU. 2018. 2 United Nations. “Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment.” United Nations Human Rights, Office of the High Commissioner. Dec. 1984 Nelson Mandela, also dictate that the confinement of a mentally or physically disabled person in solitary or supermax housing “cannot be regarded as a lawful sanction.”3 Despite this statement regarding the nature of solitary confinement, the USA has been one of the most notable proponents of flouting those guidelines in favor of solitary confinement punishments that can last anywhere from multiple weeks to years and even decades, as we see in the case of the Angola 3, three black men who were convicted for murder and kept in solitary confinement for more than 40 years as both punishment and due to their political affiliations with the Black Panthers. Solitary confinement is occasionally employed as a supposed protective tactic (removing individuals who might be targeted from the general populace), but is most often used as a disciplinary measure following any infraction deemed worthy of such a severe response. There is no strict metric in place to determine what constitutes a solid reason to throw someone in solitary- it is never an explicit part of someone’s prison sentence, and is thus left entirely up to the discretion of the guards and the administration at the incarcerated individual’s specific prison. Given that the US refuses to abide by the UN’s guidelines, with few states legally restricting stays in solitary and none limiting the number of days to the 15 day rule, this often leads to situations where people who have done little to nothing wrong find themselves in solitary solely because someone in power took a disliking to them, and then were left to rot there until the people in charge decide to let them out. “Mental illness can contribute to behavioral infractions; untreated drug addiction can also lead to placement in solitary when prisoners with addictions gain access to narcotics in prison [and]...an officer’s bad day can easily turn into solitary confinement for a prisoner for retaliatory reasons, such as a prisoner filing a grievance.”4 3 United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. “The United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners.” UNODC. 4 ACLU. “Still Worse than Second Class: Solitary Confinement of Women in the United States.” ACLU. 2018. Their freedom then depends on the administration deciding that they deserve to be removed from solitary custody. For many, this time only comes when their actual court-mandated sentence ends. Although solitary confinement is often referred to in witness testimony under varying names the physical experience remains relatively constant. Most solitary confinement cells are similar six by ten foot rooms where the incarcerated are kept locked behind a steel door for 22 to 24 hours a day. These facilities are designed for long term isolation and the US has currently between 80,000-100,000 individuals being kept in solitary confinement.5 These individuals have severely limited contact with other individuals, are rarely allowed access to rehabilitative programming, and have little property of their own. Access to sunlight and fresh air is also scarce or nonexistent to enhance the sense of deprivation. In prisons where the incarcerated are allowed a short period of exercise it often occurs in another barren, concrete cell. The experience is designed so the incarcerated have nowhere to go, no one to speak with, and nothing to do for their entire stay. Prolonged isolation in solitary confinement causes erosion of an individual’s sense of identity with little evidence to support that the use of solitary confinement increases the safety of prisons. Widespread justification for solitary confinement’s efficacy has been from proponents arguing that it increases safety by removing dangerous or vulnerable incarcerated individuals from the general population. There is little evidence to support this justification and there is evidence to the contrary, that solitary, especially long-term confinement, fosters more disruptive behavior. Instead of offering any avenue towards rehabilitation and future reintegration, solitary confinement has frequently shown to increase the chance of recidivism. The dehumanizing 5 Manson, Joshua. “How Many People Are in Solitary Confinement Today?” Solitary Watch. isolation of solitary confinement robs the incarcerated of previous connections to family and friends, and denies them access to the rehabilitative programming that has been proven to decrease recidivism. The “uniquely harmful effects” of solitary confinement extend beyond the loss of self and isolation and have been well-documented by individual experts and large organizations, such as the ACLU, alike. The research pertaining to the mental toll that sort of housing results in goes back decades, illustrated in both scientific studies and in personal testimonies written and verbalized by the incarcerated individuals themselves. Prisoners held in solitary confinement for a period of time exceeding 10 consecutive days have shown rapid mental, physical, and emotional deterioration, “with elevated levels of depression and anxiety, a higher propensity to suffer from hallucinations and paranoia, and a higher risk of self-harm and suicide.”6 The impact of solitary confinement on stable individuals is difficult enough to stomach, but its effects on those who are more fragile are even more sinister, as the same atmosphere that damages healthy minds greatly exacerbates pre-existing conditions. The ACLU reports that “in less healthy [prisoners] there is psychosis, mania or compulsive acts of self-abuse or suicide”7 when solitary confinement is introduced as a punishment for prison infractions, or as a method of ill-advised containment for individuals considered to be a safety risk for either themselves or other incarcerated people within their prison. This correlation grows rapidly more severe when the subjects are women, as nearly 70% of incarcerated women experience mental illness, making those placed in solitary even more likely to experience extreme mental breaks than their male counterparts. 6 ACLU. “Still Worse than Second Class: Solitary Confinement of Women in the United States.” ACLU. 2018. 7 ACLU. “The Dangerous Overuse of Solitary Confinement in the United States.” ACLU. Aug. 2014. Feminine specific issues extend beyond mental illness into pregnancy and childbirth. The Department of Justice advises against putting pregnant or postpartum women in solitary confinement, and the use of restrictive housing on pregnant or nursing women is prohibited under the UN’s Bangkok Rules, but imprisonment of this nature still occurs, and the pregnant individuals in solitary confinement suffer extreme mental health issues and find themselves unable to access proper natal care while in custody, and are often “unable to request emergency medical care”8 while confined. Overall, the use of solitary confinement results in severe health issues, both mental and physical, and damages the very sense of self of the prisoners it is used against. It cuts them off from