One of the main goals of the prison system is rehabilitation. The prison system claims to rehabilitate men and women who broke the law. Hopefully, when they leave prison they’re in a better state of mind than when they first got arrested. If that’s the case, the absolute worst thing prisons can possibly do is send inmates to solitary confinement.
Study after study shows that solitary confinement is ineffective, costly, and causes major mental health problems. If an inmate has a mental health disorder before solitary, that disorder will get substantially worse in solitary. Men and women who have no pre-existing mental health issues before solitary usually report some type of mental health issues after solitary, specifically if they spent more than 3 months in isolation.
What Are The Psychological Effects of Solitary Confinement?
- Anger
- Cognitive Disturbances
- Perceptual Distortions
- Sensory Deprivation
- Paranoia
- Manic Behaviors
- Depression
- Anxiety
- Obsessive Thoughts
- Psychosis
If an inmate suffers from any of these disorders prior to solitary, they will be magnified and become substantially worse in solitary. One of the major problems is these symptoms don’t stop as soon as the inmate leaves isolation. Many of these symptoms and disorders that were caused by extreme isolation persisted months and years after the inmate was released from solitary confinement.
Psychological Effects I Experienced In Solitary Confinement
All 5 of my trips to solitary confinement had similar psychological effects.
Days 1-4 – are filled with excessive sleep. During these first few days, I could not believe this was happening. I was in denial and couldn’t accept reality, I went into hibernation mode. My body shut down from denial and depression. I would sleep 16-18 hours a day. This period can be a major shock to a person’s body and mind. I was very active prior to solitary, these first few days my brain and body were confused from lack of movement, exercise, and interaction.
Days 4-8 – I would partially accept my circumstances that I’m going to be stuck here for 5 months because I smoked a joint. Coming to terms with the fact that I had to spend 5 months in this room was not a good thing. As soon as I accepted my reality the insanity began to creep in. All I would think about was spending months in this cage. “What time is it?” “How many days have gone by?” “Does my family know I’m ok?” “How can I get out of here?” “Suicide is the only way out” “Is someone talking to me?” “Is the room smaller than yesterday?”
Day 8-9 – was usually the time for me that the major psychological effects would start to kick in. I suffer from depression due to the 5 concussions I got In high school and college football. My depression would hit a low I didn’t know was possible at this point. Sleep is the only relief in solitary, but my body had stopped allowing me to sleep 16 hours a day like I did the first few days. I wanted to sleep for the next 5 months, but it wasn’t possible. At this point, the lack of exercise and stimuli began to affect even my normal 8 hours of sleep. I would be lucky to sleep 2 hours straight at any point in time, the nagging level of anxiety was crippling.
Sensory Deprivation
When solitary was first put into effect the goal was sensory deprivation as a form of punishment. What they didn’t know and expect were the extremely negative effects this would cause. Humans are social creatures, we thrive on some form of connection. Taking a human and locking them inside a room with no human interaction and no stimuli, their senses will dull and reality will begin to fade.
I was put in a cell that was roughly 6ft wide by 10 ft long by 8 ft tall, for months on end. A king-size bed would not fit in this cell. During this time my senses began to dull. I didn’t fully understand the depth of how bad it was until I got released from solitary the first time.
What Does It Feel Like After Being Released From Solitary?
In mid-November 2015 I was released from solitary after being held for 113 days straight. When I was walking out of the cell my vision was very foggy. The light from the sun and snow were blinding my eyes so I had to keep them covered for about 20 minutes until they were able to adjust. My senses were trying to deal with all these stimuli. My brain and body had been dulled over the past 4 months. Normal stimuli that I had never thought about such as the snow, the wind, and the sun were all blindingly bright, and freezing cold, everything was magnified. It felt like it was the first time I had ever been outside.
When I finally got to general population I had to run and hide in a bathroom stall. The noise of 40 guys going about their daily routine was unbearable. The noise in the regular unit was not loud, it was the normal hum of 40 guys reading, cleaning, or talking, but I could not handle it.
“We see solitary confinement as nothing less than a death penalty by social deprivation”
-Stephanie Cacioppo, an assistant professor of psychiatry and behavioral neuroscience at the University of Chicago
What Are The Physical Effects Of Solitary Confinement?
- Hypertension
- Dizziness
- Hallucinations
- Headaches
- Migraines
- Profuse Sweating
- Heart Palpations
- Extreme Weight Loss
- Hair loss (stress)
- Back and Neck Pain
- Muscle Atrophy
Extreme weight loss is common for inmates in solitary confinement. This is due to a combination of stress, digestive issues, abdominal pain, and poor nutrition. In many cases, inmates spend up to 23 hours sitting or laying on their bunk or bed. A prolonged lack of exercise and movement can have serious long-term physical effects. Psychological effects such as depression and stress can manifest in physical form for inmates in solitary confinement. Back pain, extreme headaches, and loss of appetite are some of the common physical symptoms caused by depression.
My first trip to solitary confinement was 113 days. Prior to solitary I worked out 4-5 times a week and was 250Lbs with a solid build of muscles and a layer of fat on the outside. Imagine one of the smaller linemen on a football team, that’s was my build. I was very strong but still had that layer of fat on the outside. My parents came to visit me around the 40th day. They thought I had contracted some type of disease. I had lost 20 lbs in that first month, and it wasn’t a good 20 lbs. I had lost a ton of muscle mass and looked sickly. After 113 days I lost 48 lbs in solitary confinement!
This massive weight loss is common for inmates in solitary regardless of their body type. The combination of stress, depression, lack of appetite, the extremely small portions of food, and the time’s food is served (7:30 am, 11:15 am, 4:15 pm) all create an environment that forces the body to drastically drop weight.
Combined Effects of Solitary Confinement
Many times the psychological effects of solitary manifest in physical form just like how depression can cause back pain. But that is just one of the less dangerous examples. The stress and insanity of solitary have caused inmates to:
- Scratch the walls until fingers bleed, bite fingernails off
- Bite their wrists in a suicide attempt
- Cut their wrists
- Bash their heads against the walls or floors
- Physically attempt to break bones
- Jump off their beds on their neck in a suicide attempt
On my 3rd trip to solitary, I was able to sharpen a plastic dinner fork. I used this fork to cut my wrist and attempt to commit suicide. When the guards caught me doing this, I was reprimanded and punished for having a fork against orders.
The officers that found these cuts on my wrists gave me some bandaids and asked me if I was suicidal? I said “No” because I didn’t want to spend the next 3-4 days naked in the suicide cell. They said, “alright this never happened, I don’t feel like doing paperwork anyway”. I do believe they should have pushed more for me to get help, I wasn’t in a sain state of mind and they clearly saw I was bleeding at the wrists. I also recognize that I downplayed the situation to them to avoid the suicide cell. In general, suicide protocol needs to be looked at in our prison system.
How Long Can A Person Last In Solitary Confinement?
The extreme effects of isolation can begin to manifest in as little as one day. Within the first 3-4 days, most inmates will experience a range of negative psychological effects. These negative effects will intensify each consecutive day. The majority of people start to lose their grip on reality around day 10-12. People with prior mental illnesses will begin to show serious damaging effects within days. Numerous high-ranking prison officials have attempted to stay in solitary for a few days to see how it feels. Almost all have cut their time short due to the extreme effects of isolation.
Rick Raemisch is the executive director of the Colorado Department of Corrections. He spent 20 hours in a solitary cell when he took over this job and was extremely troubled by the effects.
I became convinced this practice was a contradiction of our mission of public safety and felt even more so after I spent 20 hours in solitary confinement myself. Experiencing solitary firsthand, I thought, would better position me to change our culture. If I was troubled by the experience after such a relatively short time, then I had to say, “Enough.”
– Rick Raemisch – Excusitve director of the colorado department of corrections
Instead of “How long can a person last in solitary?” The better question to ask is “What damage will be caused by locking people in solitary confinement?” When an inmate is placed in solitary they’re forced to be there against their will. There is no escape. They may go insane on day 20 but they’re still locked in that room for another 90 days or however long their sentence is. How long they can last until they go insane is irrelevant, because nothing changes even when they do go insane.
– Kyle Ruggeri
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Kyle Ruggeri Has Been In solitary Confinement 5 Times and Spent 12 Months and 25 Days In Isolation In NY State Prison.