Solitary Confinement: Lived Experiences and Ethical Implications

ISBN-13: 9781447337539 / Angielski / Twarda / 2017 / 112 str.

David Polizzi

Opis

Why is solitary confinement still used in today's world? Does it help in the rehabilitation of offenders? And how does our justification of its use affect policy? Answering these questions and posing many others, this is the first volume to consider both the developmental history of solitary confinement and the lived experience of those in confinement. Using philosopher Maurice Merleau-Ponty's concept of embodied subjectivity, this book provides firsthand accounts of the inhumane practice of solitary confinement, deepening our appreciation of the relationship between penal strategy and its effect on human beings. David Polizzi draws on his own experiences as a psychological specialist in the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections and interviews conducted in connection with the Guardian's 6x9 project--a virtual reality solitary confinement experience--to explore what the intentional aspect of this almost uninhabitable type of imprisonment says about any democratic society that continues to justify it. Aimed at policy makers, Solitary Confinement challenges the social attitudes that uncritically condone its use.

Spis treści

The experience of solitary confinement: some beginning reflections A very brief history of solitary confinement and the supermax penitentiary The developmental history of solitary and supermax confinement: toward a phenomenology of the state of exception The Supreme Court, solitary confinement, and the prohibition of cruel and unusual punishment From the other side of the door: the lived experience of solitary confinement Some closing reflections