Title: What Does Solitary Confinement Do To Your Mind? | Last Days of Solitary | FRONTLINE | PBS | Official Site
Headings: What Does Solitary Confinement Do To Your Mind?
What Does Solitary Confinement Do To Your Mind?
Does solitary confinement make you crazy?
What are the effects on prisoners?
Does solitary make prisoners more dangerous?
Are the mentally ill allowed in solitary?
Is it possible for inmates to adjust?
Jason M. Breslow, Digital Editor
Email:
Twitter:

Content: Inmates in solitary, for example, have been found to engage in self-mutilation at rates that are higher than the general prison population. Suicide is another major concern. In one study of California’s prison system, researchers found that from 1999 to 2004 prisoners in solitary confinement accounted for nearly half of all suicides. A 1995 study of the federal prison system found that 63 percent of suicides occurred among inmates locked in “special housing status,” such as solitary or in psychiatric seclusion cells. As one inmate cited in the study explained: The Hole and Segregation cells are depressing enough to drive many men to take their lives in order to escape. For some it would appear to be the only way out. After years of living in the cramped confines of a segregation cell with no hope of getting out, it is easy to see why a man would prefer death. Are the mentally ill allowed in solitary? Yes.