Psychological Effects of Solitary Confinement INTRODUCTION This study investig

INTRODUCTION This study investigated the psychological effects on prison inmates of the use of solitary confinement. The major goal of the study was to assess the desirability of a continuation of the use of solitary confinement as a means of maintaining control over a prison population, in light of adverse psychological effects on prisoners of such confinement.

From the mid1970s through the mid1980s, the American prison population increased by 84 percentfrom approximately 285 thousand to around 524,000 (Bureau of Justice Statistics, 1988). Per 100 thousand population, the increase was from 129 to 216. Since the mid1980s, the prison population has continued to climb, however, at a slightly reduced rate (Bureau of Justice Statistics, 1990).

During this same time periodsince the mid1970s, the rate of both violent crime and property crime in the United States has escalated (Federal of Bureau of Investigation, 1990). While the crime rate has increased, and the demand for prison space has increased, prison capacity has remained relatively steady (Bureau of Justice Statistics, 1990). One effect of the interaction of these three trends has been a shift in the prison population toward a much higher proportion of violent crime offenders (Bureau of Justice Statistics, 1990).

For the correctional officers responsible for the administration of prisons, and the maintenance of prisoner welfare, the increase in the proportion of vi

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duces in prisoners suicide attempts, social withdrawal, and increasingly aggressive behaviors (Kaplan and Sadock, 1985). Depression in prisoners is often accompanied by anxiety borne of repressed resentment and rage (Blackburn, Bishop, Glen, Whalley, and Christie, 1981). Depression in prisoners also results from a sense of powerlessness on their part (Goldfarb and Singer, 1988). A sense of powerlessness is often induced by solitary confinement. Thus, the most effective coping strategy for prisoners in combatting depression is one which incorporates (1) the development of a sense of personal worth, and (2) the gaining of a sense of control over one's own life. Each of these factors is inhibited by solitary confinement. Both psychoanalytic and cognitive approaches are useful in the establishment of communication between prisoners and corrections personnel. Psychoanalysis involves the separation of the psyche into its constituent elements. Psychoanalytic therapy investigates mental processes by means of freeassociation, dreaminterpretation, and interpretation of resistance and transference manifestations (Hinsie and Campbell, 1984). The cornerstones of psychoanalytic theory are (1) an assumption of unconscious ment

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