Is Solitary Confinement A Form Of Torture?

As many as 80,000 inmates could be in solitary confinement cells in state and federal prisons across the U.S., a throwback to a 200-year-old, widely discredited practice, a group of researchers said.

In some cases prisoners are locked in tiny, windowless cells with virtually no sensory input for 20 years. The researchers said there is no scientific evidence that the practice does anything to pacify the prison environment, which is the main rationale for the practice. They do know that it does cause physical, emotional, and psychological damage to the prisoners. In fact, a large proportion of solitary confinement prisoners suffer from serious mental and physical disorders as a result of their isolation. For those reasons, many researchers call it a form of torture.

At a presentation at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Chicago last week, the researchers from the U.S. and Denmark said the U.S. is not the only country locking up prisoners in solitary but it is the one with the most prisoners in these conditions.

http://www.livescience.com/43594-is-solitary-confinement-a-form-of-torture.html

History of solitary conefinement

There are about 80,000 people being held in some sort of solitary-type confinement in the United States, Haney said.

Prisoners in solitary confinement tend to be restricted to cells of 80 square feet, not much larger than a king-size bed, Haney said. Sleeping, eating and defecating all take place inside that space. For exercise, prisoners in solitary confinement often get a short time in a cage rather than an outdoor yard — perhaps one hour per day.

About one-third of people in solitary confinement in this country are mentally ill, although some prison systems do not permit mentally ill inmates to be placed in solitary confinement.

Solitary confinement was used broadly in the 19th century, but the punishment was then largely abandoned because of the view that “it was doing more harm than good.”

Correctional practice began to reincorporate solitary confinement in the late 1970s and 80s, as prisons began to get overcrowded, Haney said. He believes prison systems turned to solitary confinement as a short-term solution to controlling disruptive or violent behavior, lacking the resources to provide positive incentives or programming.

But overcrowding in prisons turned out to be permanent and mostly increased each year.

Prison systems continued to struggle over what to do to resolve conflicts or stop violence or disruption in the institutions. They put more prisoners in solitary confinement and left them there for longer periods of time, Haney said.

“I think the cost of solitary confinement is now being critically examined and rethought, and prison systems are beginning to ask themselves whether this is worth it, and whether or not it does not create more harm than good,” he said. “Courts are pushing them to consider the inhumanity of the practice, as well.”

http://edition.cnn.com/2014/02/23/health/solitary-confinement-psychology/

Solitary confinement: 29 years in a box

Robert King still remembers well the dimensions of his cell: 6 x 9 x 12 feet. There was a steel bed and a sink that doubled as a toilet where he would also wash clothes.

King spent 29 years in solitary confinement in Louisiana. He has been free since 2001, but still has difficulty with geographical orientation.

“I get confused as to where I am, where I should be.”

…….

http://edition.cnn.com/2014/02/23/health/solitary-confinement-psychology/

A diary of solitary

A Diary Of Solitary

Confined behind these walls

Confined behind these bars

Confined in these halls

You know who we are…

 

We’re your kids

We’re your loved ones

We’re your friends

The young ones.

 

They confine us to our minds

24 hours a day

Step back from that line

They can’t understand why we lose our way

 

Correctional Facility

Confined punishment

C’mon, you’re killing me.

You cannot make that judgment

 

If we traded places

Looking out from our view

Then you’d see the hatred on their faces.

So you’d see we’re abused…

 

However if you got to know me

I’m only interested in expanding my mind.

See there’s no need for controlling –

‘Cause you’ve already got us confined!

Thomas P. USP

Themes

Some of the themes form the story include; Guilt, personal identity, isolation

The theme I have chosen to look into is isolation. In the story Gregor feels isolated from his own family after they refuse to accept him after his transformation, even his beloved sister gets fed up of looking after him in his new state and begins to wish he would disappear. The family tends to focus on how they are affected, and fail to even consider Gregors personal feelings.

ISOLATION:

human isolation

solidute: a state of seclusion or isolation, a lack of contact with people.

solitary confinement: a special form of imprisonment in which a prisoner is isolated from any human contact.

 

The Metamorphosis

Novella by Franz Kafka first published in 1915. The story begins with a travelling salesman, gregor samsa, waking to find himself transformed into a monstrous insect.

Task is to create a body of work based on one of the themes of the book. Once freed from the conventions of narrative or form, style or format….. where do you take it? what form will it assume? what will it be?

There are no restrictions, no conventions, no rules, no given formats.

Should identify the end user and ensure the solution is appropriate to the target audience.

National trust app

I found that the National trust do currently have a smartphone app. It is what they call a handbook for people when they visit. I found when I looked at it that it was quite a boring design and all you would really use it for is to look for somewhere to visit. There was nothing on their for people to get involved with and enjoy.

Natures Playground

National Trust also launched a campaign in the east of england where they were encouraging visitors to have fun. They used signs to advertise it with sayings including, ‘Please do touch the trees-or even hug them!’, ‘Reserved for fun and games’, and ‘Photographs from this spot look fantastic’.

http://www.creativereview.co.uk/cr-blog/2013/may/national-trusts-new-fun-campaign

“The new signs are a fun, tongue-in-cheek way to help people reconnect with nature and enjoy our outdoor spaces to the full. Some people still view us as being very formal with lots of rules and regulations. I would encourage those people to come along and see how we have changed over the years,” he says.

History Space app

Whilst on the NT website I found that they worked with the university of Ulster to create a new app that is used when visiting Downhill Demesne. The idea of it was to actually help you explore downhill demesne and it stories.

http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/article-1355798177523/

‘HistorySpace – Downhill Demesne’ is a free app available on iOS and Android which gives you the opportunity to go exploring with the help of GPS and motion gesture. This unlocks interactive games, challenges and activities based around the history of the Earl Bishop and his staff.

A great new way to uncover the rich story of Downhill, the new app brings history and heritage into the digital age. You can dip in and out of the challenges and it’s complete free to play with no set route. You simply explore the estate at your own pace and along the way discover the music, art, legends and stories of the people who lived there hundreds of years ago.

National trust campaign

I looked into some of the National Trusts recent campaigns they have done and found that one of them they collaborated with 18 feet and rising to try and promote the places that the public love.

They managed to also get celebrities involved with them tweeting their pictures in.

http://www.thedrum.com/news/2013/03/28/national-trust-unveils-new-campaign-18-feet-rising-promoting-places-loved-public

The National Trust has this week unveiled a print campaign to celebrate the places which are important to the public, with the National Trust oak leaf used as a symbol of love, in a way similar to the traditional ‘I heart NY’ imagery.

Created by 18 Feet & Rising, the campaign will run across press, OOH, and digital, and looks to entice the public to share their experiences of special places and to encourage people to return to places that hold happy memories.

Clare Mullin, director of brand and marketing at the National Trust, said: “This country is full of places that take your breath away and make you happy to be alive, be it stretches of coastline, gardens or historic houses. Our 2013 campaign will look to highlight this and provide people with the means to share their love of special places with us and the nation.”