Thoughts on solitary confinement?

[AlucardNoir]

There are places where solitary means you're locked in a small room that has 24h/day light turned on. There are places where solitary still is a small metal box in the yard of the prison. Solitary is different from prison to prison and in some cases it is literal torture.

[Yukaphile]

The criteria I laid out is not torture. It's punishment, difference. I don't agree with the bleeding hearts who feel, "Oh, well, these people are monsters, broke the rules, so we should just let them get away with it, only take away their loss of liberty (in theory since some jails a nicer than a lot of Third World countries), they're victims of the system that made them this way, let's give 'em a chance." You don't have to go too far into this, sink into utter barbarism, but a penalty should always be exacted.

[AlucardNoir]

The criteria you laid out are irrelevant. What's relevant is reality and in reality a good part of what counts as solitary confinement is torture.

[BridgeConsoleMasher]

I would define it as a very small space, with lighting, of course, a bathroom, but no more. Three meals a day, and time outside every so often. That's my view on it.

People don't want isolation to be a corrective procedure within a prison system. Like, if someone breaks a rule then they're subject to a punitive measure of isolating people with intent of breaking them down psychologically. The argument is that that shouldn't be a part of the overall system. The measure is specifically designed to break people down emotionally or psychologically and that effect isn't just some random byproduct that might happen to affect sensitive people.

A crux of your argument is that some of the people might deserve it (by your own personal decree). That really doesn't have any bearing on anything.