Full Description
The use of solitary confinement in prisons became common with the rise of the modern penitentiary during the first half of the nineteenth century and his since remained a feature of many prison systems all over the world. Solitary confinement is used for a panoply of different reasons although research tells us that these practices have widespread negative health effects. Besides the death penalty it is arguably the most punitive and dangerous intervention available to state authorities in democratic nations. Nevertheless, in the United States there is currently an estimated 80-100,000 prisoners in small cells for more than 22 hours per day with little or no social contact and no physical contact visits with family or friends. Even in Scandinavia, thousands of prisoners are placed in solitary confinement every year and with an alarming frequency. These facts have spawned international interest in this topic and a growing international reform movement, which includes researchers, litigators and human rights defenders as well as prison staff and prisoners.
This book is the first to take a broad international comparative approach and to apply an interdisciplinary lens to this subject. In this volume neuroscientists, high level prison officials, social and political scientists, medical doctors, lawyers and former prisoners and their families from different countries will address the effects and practices of prolonged solitary confinement and the movement for its reform and abolition.
Contents
Contributors
Acknowledgments
Chapter 1: Solitary Confinement-from Extreme Isolation to Prison Reform
Jules Lobel and Peter Scharff Smith
PART ONE: Two Centuries of Solitary Confinement
Chapter 2: Solitary Confinement-Effects and Practices from the Nineteenth Century until Today
Peter Scharff Smith
Chapter 3: Global Perspectives on Solitary Confinement-Practices and Reforms Worldwide
Manfred Nowak
Chapter 4: Solitary Confinement Across Borders
Sharon Shalev
Chapter 5: The Rise of Supermax Imprisonment in the United States
Keramet Reiter
Chapter 6: Not Isolating Isolation
Judith Resnik
Chapter 7: Torture, Solitary Confinement and International Law
Juan E. Mendez
PART TWO: Mind, Body and Soul - The Harms and Experience of Solitary Confinement
Chapter 8: Solitary Confinement, Loneliness, and Psychological Harm
Craig Haney
Chapter 9: First Do No Harm: Applying the Harms-to-Benefit Patient Safety Framework to Solitary Confinement
Brie Williams and Cyrus Ahalt
Chapter 10: Mythbusting Solitary Confinement in Jail
Homer Venters
Chapter 11: Social Isolation, Loneliness, and Health
Louise Hawkley
Chapter 12: The Brain in Isolation
A Neuroscientist's Perspective on Solitary Confinement
Huda Akil
Chapter 13: Use of Animals to Study the Neurobiological Effects of Isolation: Historical and Current Perspectives
Michael J. Zigmond and Richard Jay Smeyne
Chapter 14: Sharing Experiences of Solitary Confinement-Prisoners and Staff
Robert King, Dolores Canales, Jack Morris, Lieutenant Armondo Sosa
PART THREE: Prison reform, prison litigation and human rights
Chapter 15: The Management of High Security Prisoners: Alternatives to Solitary Confinement
Andrew Coyle
Chapter 16: Resisting Supermax: Rediscovering a Humane Approach to the Management of High Risk Prisoners
Jamie Bennett
Chapter 17: Prisoners Association as an Alternative to Solitary Confinement-Lessons Learned From a Norwegian High Security Prison
Are Høidal
Chapter 18: Colorado Ends Prolonged, Indeterminate Solitary Confinement
Rick Raemisch
Chapter 19: Reflections on North Dakota's Sustained Solitary Confinement Reform
Leann Bertsch
Chapter 20: Solitary Confinement in Canada
Joseph J. Arvay, and Alison M. Latimer
Chapter 21: "Loneliness is a destroyer of humanity."
Jesse Wilson, Held in Solitary Confinement at United States Penitentiary, Administrative Maximum Facility (ADX) in Florence, Colorado
Amy Fettig and David C. Fathi
Chapter 22: Litigation to End Indeterminate Solitary Confinement in California: The Role of Inter-Disciplinary and Comparative Experts
Jules Lobel
