The Psychology of Solitary Confinement

Last Friday my boyfriend and I visited the world's first penitentiary in Philadelphia. Eastern State Penitentiary (right) was built in 1829 on the principal that solitary confinement would save prisoners from each other's evil influences and lead them to remorse and penitence (hence penitentiary) through reflection. Each prisoner's cell had its own exercise yard and a small hole in the door through which food would pass. Thus human contact was limited.

This system of isolation became known as the Pennsylvania System. Slowly, however, the logistics of isolation fell victim to overcrowding, and solitary confinement became a punishment rather than a systematic way to reform prisoners.

A new study published in the Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law highlights the psychological damage isolation can have on prisoners. It finds that solitary confinement in the US has increased anxiety, depression, anger, paranoia, and psychosis among prisoners. Even isolation as occasional punishment can be dangerous to a prisoner's psyche. The study also says isolation or segregation compounds these effects for mentally ill prisoners.

Segregation units are common in maximum security prisons for dangerous or disturbed prisoners, and mental health professionals are limited to providing psychotropic medication to combat the effects of isolation. Still, many of these prisoners spend years in 23 or 24 hour confinement. According to a recent survey, 15% of US prisoners are mentally ill, and this study suggests that mentally ill prisoners cannot be rehabilitated if kept in isolation.

Whether major US prisons intend to repeat the methods of Eastern State Penitentiary is uncertain. Psychiatrists, mental health professionals, and the authors of this study would have it banned. And although Benjamin Rush, "Father of American Psychiatry", was a major proponent of Eastern State Penitentiary, the psychological effects of its system of isolation continue to be discredited by modern studies. And studies of modern US prisons will continue to decry isolation as punishment.