Man Alone

It has been said that it isn’t good for man [or woman] to be alone. In fact, the Bible makes several references to it but yet, sometimes, man needs to be alone to gather his thoughts and find his soul. Mankind and its associated ideology have long been established as being either ethically right or wrong. Their moral values and their basic views on human rights and humane treatment of prisoners has always been a controversy among many with no end to the conflict and less reasons to change the practices that have been established by modern penologist in the United States. Thus we have a concept called “solitary confinement” that is most harmful to human beings and their body, spirit and mind.

Ethically based individuals struggle daily on the subject of isolating men from mankind. The practice of incarceration was designed to separate the good from the evil. It has always been a practice that the worst of those in society should be locked up and those locked up and still misbehaving or incorrigible in their conduct must be isolated to prevent harm either to others or themselves. Hence the concept of solitary confinement was designed to handle those who required such isolation and control from others even while incarcerated within the tall prison walls and sharp razor wire.

 This is a reflection of modern penology and obviously a conscious decision among many prison administrators to decide how long they remain isolated; under what conditions they must live and survive and for reasons justified to segregate and treat them different than other populations less restrictive and much more humane in nature and operations.  There must be exception to this penology theory for the mentally ill. There must be accommodations made that are different from those identified to be anti-social or anti-personality disorder in manner. Segregation of the mentally ill is unfair to the disabled persons who is already stressed and in crisis mode dealing with the incarceration within a predatory world and confusion with rules and regulations that may be easier to follow by those not identified to be disabled or confused in state of mind or manner.

 This is where the humane and preservation of humanity must step in and plea for chances that will allow better coping opportunities and better functional decision making conditions that allows these conditions of confinement to be rational and reasonable given their disabilities and coping abilities within such a hostile world. Segregating the mentally ill from the behaviorally disruptive and manipulative anti social persons will allow them an opportunity to manage their lives better with their individual handicaps and allow progress to be made in their treatment, their programming and their eventual release back into society once their term or sentence has been completed.

 Correctional staff and support services employees, whether intentionally or unintentionally contribute to the continuation of harm and damage to those mentally ill persons isolated for security reasons beyond comprehension or justification. Here through the legitimization of isolation practices, they must realize the harm that is being done while such a person is kept there for any prolonged period of time.  

It is fair to say that such a condition could in fact be cruel and unusual punishment for those mentally disabled as their access to services, care and treatment are severely limited by concept and design. Correctional administrators must make allowances for such limitations and review their practice of placing mentally ill persons inside these isolation areas or cells. They must do what is appropriate to keep staff and the public safe but it is reasonable that such a mission can be fulfilled without the use of isolation practices or confinement conditions.

 What they must do is step out of the box and recognizes this paradigm of human rights violations and constructs another plan to rectify this condition and reverse the trend today inside maximum custody prisons. They must treat these mentally ill prisoners with dignity and provide ethical and decent treatment standards of care in order to provide whatever services they are entitled to under our standards of care and civil rights laws.  As an advocate for the severely mentally ill persons, I realize that publically exposing this isolation practice as well as urging change is most difficult and sometimes too many, a significant waste of time. It is also reasonable to say that nobody from within such an entity e.g. the prison management components, whether an administrator, correctional officer or nurse, case manager or department head, will step up to the plate and report such atrocities for the fear of losing their jobs or in fear of falling out of favor for future career opportunities and promotions.

If there is to be a change in prison management it must come from public servants that are true rightful leaders, and individual professional practitioners within the system that have to deal with these violations of human rights daily but are afraid to report them for reasons already discussed.

It must be delivered via the media with credible and reliable information and come from community organizations, associations and supportive networks that can carry the message with ethically defensible grounds to make change of the way prisons treat our severely mentally ill persons incarcerated today inside our prisons and kept inside isolation cells in a practice that is now called “solitary confinement.”