Solitary Confinement and Institutionalization
In the reading, “Discipline and Punish,” by Michel Foucault, he mentions that punishment has transformed into something less torturous and that it now targets the soul of the condemned. This seems plausible when we look at punishment in a seemingly less torturous way like solitary confinement. This sort of punishment might not be violent as those conducted in the past, however, solitary confinement proves to be extremely psychologically damaging. This can be just as torturous as a person being hanged or beheaded. How is this possible? Well, imagine being left in a cold, dark, and isolate room where you are enclosed to recite lingering thoughts. It’s not only for a couple of days that inmates are left in these rooms, but weeks, months even years!
For instance, it was reported that a Louisiana state penitentiary held three high-profile prisoners in solitary confinement that where involved in the murder of a guard during a prison riot. Two of the prisoners, Robert King and Herman Wallace, were released in separate dates — 2001 and 2013 — after committing the crime in 1972. Albert Woodfox, the third prisoner, was just released in 2015 making him the longest convicted felon in solitary confinement. He served almost forty three years in a “6x8in cell” where he spent twenty three hours and only got an hour in an exercise court yard. To make things even worst, it was reported that Albert was claustrophobic and in a statement revealed he says, “I feel like I am being smothered, it is very difficult to breathe, and I sweat profusely…I try to cope by pacing, or closing my eyes and rocking myself”. This involved no physical violence impose upon a person, yet it psychologically tortured this claustrophobic man. It is as if the walls were obtaining justice for the crime committed.
A justice that Albert fought against that was “persecuting him out of mixed racism, politics and his willingness to speak out against prison abuses.”
We are social human beings and to have the privilege to communicate removed can cause great torture and pain. Of course, it would not be physical torture and pain like what Foucault mentions in the reading; for instance, there is a section that talks about a man being severed in half by to executioners while also pulled apart by two horses. This form of punishment is what Foucault talks about that has transformed into something less tortuous yet soul tormenting. This is true in today’s society with both solitary confinement and institutionalization. Both inflict no physical torture, but it is the psychological illnesses that leave many prisoners extremely damaged.
Many prisoners suffer lack of independence, depression, dehumanization, and alienation once they are released after years in prison.
Additionally, within these years prisoners are conditioned to a life inside of the prison. Foucault talks about this when he mentions the rules that need to be followed by prisoners. For instance, prisoners are told when the day begins, when to dress, when to pray, when to eat etc. Once released they might find it difficult to communicate with the outside world when all they know is what’s inside the concrete walls that imprisoned them for years.
Foucault’s idea, therefore, proves pervasive in many of today’s state prisons. We see how solitary confinement stripped the liberty of Albert Woodfox and the other two inmates by simply storing them behind isolated cells. This form of punishment is not intended to inflict physical damage, but rather target the individual soul of inmates. It creates psychological issues that can torment them for the rest of their lives. This also pertains to institutionalization when inmates are dehumanized with no idea on how to cope with the outside world. Therefore, it is credible that physical torture has lessened over the years, and it is now the soul that is targeted rather than the body.
