rockin'robin
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Apr 22, 2007
- Messages
- 24,431
- Reaction score
- 549
In the United States, some inmates get put into solitary confinement. How does it affect your brain?
Solitary confinement is the brutal, psychologically damaging practice of holding inmates in a single cell for 22 or 23 hours a day for months or years on end with little to no contact to the outside world. Some think it makes prisons safer and reduces violence, but it also may make prisoners more at risk for mental health problems. In 1990 the UN called for the abolition of solitary confinement. In 2011, a UN expert said that, "the practice could amount to torture".
While it was originally supposed to be used only as a short-term punishment to crack down on violence as a last resort scenario, many prisons routinely use the practice, keeping some prisoners in solitary for years at a time. The typical solitary cell is about 6 x 10 feet with only a small bed, a sink, and a toilet. Prisoners receive their food through a slot in the door in order to keep social contact to a bare minimum. There's nothing to do but stare at the florescent lights on the ceiling that never turn off.
What are the long term mental effects? A study published in the journal Perspectives on Psychological Science found that loneliness and social isolation can be just as bad to health as obesity. Another study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences found it causes serious psychological effects, like inducing anxiety, aggression and memory impairment. The researchers think it has to do with production of 5-alpha-reductase type I in the brain, which is required for the production of the hormone allopregnanolone, which regulates stress. In socially isolated mice, the researchers found that the production of that enzyme was reduced by 50 percent.
One study found that a great majority of inmates in solitary suffered from serious psychological trauma: 91 percent of the prisoners sampled suffered from anxiety and nervousness, 80 percent suffered from headaches, lethargy and trouble sleeping, and 70 percent feared impending breakdown. Some inmates turn to self harm and lash out in other physically harmful ways. The lack of sunlight and exercise can lead to other kinds physical distress.
According to psychiatrist Terry Kupers, prisoners in isolation account for just 5 percent of the total prison population, but nearly 50 percent of its suicides.
"After 41 years in solitary confinement, Herman Wallace was freed last week. Three days later, he died from complications from liver cancer in his sleep."
The Horrible Psychology of Solitary Confinement (Wired)
"In the largest prison protest in California's history, nearly 30,000 inmates have gone on hunger strike. Their main grievance: the state's use of solitary confinement, in which prisoners are held for years or decades with almost no social contact and the barest of sensory stimuli."
The Science of Solitary Confinement (Smithsonian Magazine)
"Although the practice has been largely discontinued in most countries, it's become increasingly routine over the past few decades within the American prison system."
http://testtube.com/dnews/what-soli...medium=testtubewebsite&utm_campaign=watchmore
Solitary confinement is the brutal, psychologically damaging practice of holding inmates in a single cell for 22 or 23 hours a day for months or years on end with little to no contact to the outside world. Some think it makes prisons safer and reduces violence, but it also may make prisoners more at risk for mental health problems. In 1990 the UN called for the abolition of solitary confinement. In 2011, a UN expert said that, "the practice could amount to torture".
While it was originally supposed to be used only as a short-term punishment to crack down on violence as a last resort scenario, many prisons routinely use the practice, keeping some prisoners in solitary for years at a time. The typical solitary cell is about 6 x 10 feet with only a small bed, a sink, and a toilet. Prisoners receive their food through a slot in the door in order to keep social contact to a bare minimum. There's nothing to do but stare at the florescent lights on the ceiling that never turn off.
What are the long term mental effects? A study published in the journal Perspectives on Psychological Science found that loneliness and social isolation can be just as bad to health as obesity. Another study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences found it causes serious psychological effects, like inducing anxiety, aggression and memory impairment. The researchers think it has to do with production of 5-alpha-reductase type I in the brain, which is required for the production of the hormone allopregnanolone, which regulates stress. In socially isolated mice, the researchers found that the production of that enzyme was reduced by 50 percent.
One study found that a great majority of inmates in solitary suffered from serious psychological trauma: 91 percent of the prisoners sampled suffered from anxiety and nervousness, 80 percent suffered from headaches, lethargy and trouble sleeping, and 70 percent feared impending breakdown. Some inmates turn to self harm and lash out in other physically harmful ways. The lack of sunlight and exercise can lead to other kinds physical distress.
According to psychiatrist Terry Kupers, prisoners in isolation account for just 5 percent of the total prison population, but nearly 50 percent of its suicides.
"After 41 years in solitary confinement, Herman Wallace was freed last week. Three days later, he died from complications from liver cancer in his sleep."
The Horrible Psychology of Solitary Confinement (Wired)
"In the largest prison protest in California's history, nearly 30,000 inmates have gone on hunger strike. Their main grievance: the state's use of solitary confinement, in which prisoners are held for years or decades with almost no social contact and the barest of sensory stimuli."
The Science of Solitary Confinement (Smithsonian Magazine)
"Although the practice has been largely discontinued in most countries, it's become increasingly routine over the past few decades within the American prison system."
http://testtube.com/dnews/what-soli...medium=testtubewebsite&utm_campaign=watchmore
