Ethics Question Blog

Research Question:
Should prisoners be locked away from other prisoners, or should they all be able to have contact with each other?

Johnson, Kevin. "From Extreme Isolation, Waves of Felons Are Freed." USA Today Dec 2002: 1A+. SIRS Researcher. SIRS Knowledge Source. Edina High School. 5 Dec 2008 http://www.sirs.com.

Kevin Johnson is a writer whose article showed up in USA Today. He talks about the sole confinement of prisoners and their separation from other prisoners. A term more likely known as solitary confinement. Johnson speaks of how confinement does not help the behavior of prisoners but instead it enrages them and makes them as humanly violent as possible. He also argues that the 95% of people who will come out of jail sometime should not be confined by them self, because since that is creating what could be a psychotic killer, once they come out of prison they may be an even greater threat to society then what they should have been or were. Johnson also states that along with the separation, we also deny the prisoners the chance of education for rehabilitation. He disagrees with solitary confinement solely on the belief that this will create a more violent person.

Tyre, Peg. "Trend toward solitary confinement worries experts." CNN Interactive. 5 Dec 2008. http://www.cnn.com/US/9801/09/solitary.confinement/.

Peg Tyre a writer for CNN writes an article on the rising issue of the effects of solitary confinement on the prisoners. She argues that solitary confinement causes death more by psychological problems then physical. She also argues that the people in solitary confinement will develop many mental issues and if they are to get out of prison one day, then they will leave in a worse condition then they entered. The isolation from other people will slowly drive the prisoners crazy and they will eventually become severely depressed and it may even cause suicide. This will create a being that is more likely to hurt another she says. Her stance on solitary confinement is clearly against it. Her arguments of how people's minds will slowly deteriorate clearly shows