THE ORIGINS OF
SOLITARY
CONFINEMENT
By Jane Brox
Solitary confinement began as a Quaker-inspired experiment in silence and moral reform in early American prisons, but over time its redemptive intent gave way to harsh, isolating punishment that remains in use today.
Characterized today by the noise of banging, buzzers, and the cries of inmates, solitary confinement was originally developed from Quaker ideas about the redemptive power of silence, envisioned as a humane alternative to the punitive violence of late- 18th-century jails. Revisiting Pennsylvania’ s Eastern State Penitentiary, Jane Brox discovers the spiritual origins and reformist ambitions of solitary confinement’ s early advocates. She sees their supposedly progressive desires come to ruin by the 20th century.
On any given day in the United States, of the more than one million men and women incarcerated in jails and prisons, more than 120,000 are locked in solitary confinement. None has been sentenced by a court to their isolation. They are serving a punishment within punishment, having been placed in solitary by prison officials for a variety of reasons: violent crime, petty theft, speaking out, gang involvement, political activism. Some are in protective custody; others have mental health issues and are considered too difficult to control. A disproportionate percentage are people of color. Their sentence might last weeks or months and is subject to extension. More than a few spend years, even decades, in cells whose dimensions are commonly compared to the size of a parking space, but which are often smaller— six-by-nine feet, or eight-byten. Reading material is sparse. Confined prisoners don’ t participate in educational or rehabilitation programs. Other than meals— which are often more meager than those provided to the general prison population— and an hour of exercise a day, little exists to distract them from the heaviness of time, and nothing at all suggests that the historic roots of such punishment can be traced to the concept of redemption.
The Trial Lawyer 97