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Essay / Research Paper Abstract
This 5 page paper considers the mental health effects of long term solitary confinement in prisons such as Pelican Bay. Bibliography lists 5 sources.
Page Count:
5 pages (~225 words per page)
File: D0_HVSolTry.rtf
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Unformatted sample text from the term paper:
offenders have to pay for their crimes, the idea of rehabilitating prisoners and returning them to society appears to have been abandoned in favor of simply inflicting punishment (Weinstein and
Cummins). Punishment includes long stretches in solitary confinement. This paper considers the mental health effects of long term solitary confinement in prisons such as Pelican Bay. Pelican Bay Prison
Pelican Bay is located in Crescent City, California, in the northwest corner of the state. It is a "high tech" facility but that very quality seems to increase
the inhumane quality of the place. Critics call it a dungeon. Within Pelican Bay and other similar prisons is another unit, the Security Housing Unit or SHU. The
California Department of Corrections opened the Pelican Bay SHU in 1989; its a 1,056 cell, X-shaped structure inside the main unit (Weinstein and Cummins). The cells are "bleak gray
torture chambers" [that] "are now showcased nationwide as a 21st-century prototype" [of state-of-the-art corrections facilities] (Weinstein and Cummins). The SHU is actually a throwback to 18th century prisons, with its
myriad of solitary confinement cells (Weinstein and Cummins). Further, the "key to control within the SHU is to minimize human contact and maximize sensory deprivation" (Weinstein and Cummins).
Prisoners spend as much as 22 hours a day in their cells, and the cells are now overcrowded (Weinstein and Cummins). The prisoners have almost no contact within anyone
except other prisoners: they are monitored by electronic surveillance devices, not guards; when the guards do communicate with prisoners, they do so via speakers (Weinstein and Cummins). The
cells are windowless and "furnished" with poured concrete slabs for the bed, stool and table (Weinstein and Cummins). A SHU prisoner never sees the light of day.
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