Talk:Solitary confinement

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Contents 1 Solitary Cells Are Solitary, Not Overheated 2 "cruel and unusual punishment" 3 Redirect from protective custody? 4 Witness

[edit] Solitary Cells Are Solitary, Not Overheated

Temperatures in solitary cells vary depending on latitude, cost of air conditioning, insulation, et cetera... Gopchristian

[edit] "cruel and unusual punishment"

(Not directed to anyone personally) Shut up! Shut Up! SHUT UP! I *prefered* solitary over general population! ...but because of whiney left-wing babies like you I had to go so far as to piss off the guards (whom I liked) just to get them to throw me in "the box". The cell seemed about 50 Degrees fahrenheit (it was cold in Winter, hot in Summer; go figure :-p), but I got used to it, and unlike general population, solitary was peaceful enough for me to read the Bible all day long without getting distracted by criminally insane idiots slamming poker cards on tables and stealing candy bars from people's bunks while teaching eachother how to commit new crimes! General population TEACHES people how to be criminals. The only way to fight crime is to pray for God to ISOLATE criminals with a King James Bible long enough to sober them up while their criminal contacts move to other cities. Gopchristian

Hi, I'm new to participating in wikipedia so i'm not going to venture to edit the page yet. However, I can say that I took a really long tour of my county jail/short-term prison recently, and learned there were MULTIPLE FORMS of solitary, from short-term cooling-down cells to "the hole". Also there were clearly some people (like the other commenter on this talk page) who preferred to be by themselves and would do stuff to get IN to solitary. So it's not ALWAYS cruel and unusual. Bottleman 02:33, 22 December 2006 (UTC)

I personally agree with the article text when it comes to labeling solitary confinement as cruel and unusual punishment. However, is this an NPOV comment suitable for a Wikipedia article? I assert that this statement is not NPOV. Does anyone else have any comments regarding this? --Takeel 17:55, 6 February 2006 (UTC)

I should clarify that I am asserting this according to the current wording: "Due to its severe effects on a prisoner's mental state, solitary confinement is a form of cruel and unusual punishment." My assertation relates to directly equating solitary confinement with cruel and unusual punishment without corroborating evidence. --Takeel 18:00, 6 February 2006 (UTC)

Having seen no comments here from anyone else, I have taken a "first stab" at moving this towards NPOV. --Takeel 21:57, 12 February 2006 (UTC)

I believe this has been fixed by someone, attributing the statement to opponents of solitary confinement. I move to have the NPOV flag released from the article, as it is no longer stated as a fact that it is cruel and unusual punishment.

It's always been a puzzle to me as to why solitary confinement is considered a "punishment", much less a cruel and unusual one. I've never been in prison but I've been around a few typical jailbirds and can only imagine a whole building full of them. Really, for the rare introverted criminal, solitary would seem like a serious blessing--basically, it would turn prison into a monastary-style environment. Being around criminals 24 hours a day would be seem to be the _real_ cruel and unusual punishment. And, yes, like the above poster, I imagine that if I ever went to prison, I would punch a guard on my first day, just to get away from the riff raff. ...has anybody else around here had any real-life experiences with solitary? In practical terms, why is getting a private room considered bad?

It really depends on how they're treated by the guards. Some people will get essentially no human contact AT ALL while in solitary. It is perhaps difficult to imagine if you haven't experienced it yourself, but being essentially totally alone for perhaps months or (in some cases) years is very bad for your mental health.

Solitary confinement is very easy to turn into sensory deprivation. Also, even introspective people do NEED human contact now and then. Ingolfson 08:30, 17 July 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Redirect from protective custody?

Why does the article protective custody redirect here? As I understand, solitary confinement is one form of protective custody for people who are already inmates of the prison system. What about people who are not convicted criminals, being held temporarily by law enforcement to protect them from organized crime, etc? I'm talking about something temporary, not witness protection. - LeaHazel 16:44, 17 September 2006 (UTC)

The cited article does not (or does not anymore) redirect here. Ingolfson (talk) 01:39, 10 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Witness

Sometimes, if there are separatee issues or the person is a WITSEC (federal witness), they are put in solitary to protect them.--Davidwiz (talk) 01:00, 10 May 2008 (UTC)