Solitary Confinement and Mental Illness in US Prisons - Assignment Example

Secondary Source Critique Metzner, Jeffrey L. and Fellner, Jamie. “Solitary Confinement and Mental Illness in US Prisons: A Challenge for Medical Ethics”. Journal of American Academy of Psychiatry And Law. 38.1 (2010): 104-108. Web. 7 Mar. 2014. < http://www.jaapl.org/content/38/1/104.long>. Summary The solitary confinement of offenders has become an increasingly common practice in the USA prisons, with many prison officials resulting to this practice, especially when handling the cases of offenders who are perceived as dangerous and aggressive. While the practice is known to cause psychological harm more so to prisoners with mental illnesses, especially when it is used for long period of time of between 23-24 hours per day for some years, the prisons have not stopped the practice. The extended solitary confinement of such prisoners may exacerbate the occurrence of serious mental illnesses, or even provoke their recurrence, where this practice is not addressed in good time. Further isolated confinement of prisoners also restricts the nature of health services that the prisoners can access, thus worsening their conditions even more. The ethical dilemma faced by prison physicians that include the conflict of loyalties to patients or to the prison as the employer, the poor working conditions, and the conflict that results between the principle of reasonable and meaningful healthcare offering to patients on the one hand and the prison rules and cultures that restrict the health care practice to necessity on the other hand, affects the resolution of the problem of isolated confinement. The prison physicians are restricted access to the segregation units holding the solitary confinement of prisoners. The American Psychiatric Association (APA) has observed that mental health services offered in prison are inadequate, while adding that the mentally ill are more prone to stress and depression that impairs their thinking and judgment. This way, their isolation is causing the mentally ill prisoners even more harm. While some psychiatrists who work in prisons may concur with the prison argument that it is necessary to confine such prisoners for security reasons, experience has shown that prisons and correctional facilities can operate effectively without necessarily confining the mentally ill prisoners to segregation units. However, professional organizations are under duty to ensure that the mentally ill prisoners are treated well, while also advocating for the change of the segregation policies that provides for the solitary confinement of the mentally ill prisoners. In this respect, it is necessary for the medical professional organizations to advocate for a change in the segregation policy, since they are best suited to address this subject. Evaluation 1:Arguments of the article The article begins by assessing the ethical challenges faced by mental health physicians working in prisons, who are often torn between offering quality treatment services to the prisoners and adhering to the restrictive rules of the prisons. The argument advanced by this article is that it is both ethically and morally wrong to subject prisoners to segregation units, due to the potential of the isolated confinement environment to either cause mental problems, or exacerbate the problems for the prisoners who are already suffering from mental illnesses. The relevant question addressed by the article is whether it is necessary to confine the prisoners deemed aggressive and dangerous, in full knowledge of the negative implications that such confinement has on the prisoners. The discussion then defends the position that there is a need to have the current system of treating mentally ill prisoners changed. The article asserts that it is possible to address the security concerns raised by the prison officials in relation to such prisoners, even without necessarily subjecting them to isolated confinement. The major argument in support of this assertion is that; the prison and correctional facilities have restricted the access to the prisoners confined in the segregation units by the mental health specialist. This, according to the article is against the ethical principles guiding the mental health professionals, who should offer reasonable treatment to the patients, regardless of their status as prisoners. While this argument holds, there is a major gap that has not been addressed effectively by the article. The fact that dangerous and aggressive prisoners are segregated and isolated into the segregated confinement units is not without sufficient cause. The fact that such prisoners pose a potential security threat to mental health professionals, the prison officials and the other inmates is adequate concern to have them confined in the segregation units. Nevertheless, the need to address the negative influence of this isolated confinement cannot be ignored. Thus, while the article advocates for the change in the policy that provides for the isolated confinement of such prisoners, there is also a need to seek an alternative policy which will address the security risk posed by the prisoners, once the policy to confine them has been scrapped. Finally, the article recommends the cause of action by the mental profession organizations, to advocate for the change of the policy allowing isolated confinement for prisoners. Evaluation 2: Relationship of the article to my essay Wayne demonstrates the role of women in the traditional southern states during the early 19th century, as either that of slaves or mistresses, manipulated to do everything the way men wanted (Wayne 26). This observation has also been echoed by Jane, the narrator of the story in my essay, who narrates that under all circumstances, she just had to do everything as her husband wanted. She had no room to make any decision by herself, and all the time she had to agree that she was wrong and her husband was right. It is this situation that put Jane in a state of chronic depression, not essentially caused by clinical factors, but merely by the restrictive environment where she lived, that had no freedom at all. This is the point where this article becomes significantly valuable to the analysis of the character of the narrator in the story discussed in my essay, since the article explains the implications of a restrictive environment on the mental health of the affected individual. The narrator explains that it is the requirements to conform to the social norms that drove her insane. This argument is echoed by the article, which postulates that the restrictive environment, under which solitary confined prisoners are subjected, is the basis of developing mental illnesses, or exacerbating the condition, where the prisoner is already suffering from the condition. Therefore, the restrictive environment observed by Wayne to have characterized the position of woman in the early 19th century society, which is apparently the same that Jane lives in according to the essay narration, has its negative implications explained by this article. In this respect therefore, all the three sources speak to the same subject, and their similarity is in their portrayal of restrictive environment context, and its negative implications on an individual’s mental health. Evaluation 3:Assessment of the credibility of the article The both authors of the article Jeffrey L. Metzner and Jamie Fellner are experts in the field of psychiatry, and this article has been written as a commentary to address the issue of the solitary confinement of prisoners. Despite the fact that it is not a scientific study that is based on any data, the article has drawn the experiences of both the psychiatric authors and the organizations of professional mental health, to discuss the restrictive environment in the segregation units for prisoners, and its effects on the mental health of the individuals. Further, the article was published in 2010 in the Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and Law, thus giving it the credibility of reliability as well the sense of an assessed and analyzed article that meets the requisite standards for publication. Rather than just discussing a skewed analysis of a single study, the article has offered a comprehensive coverage of the whole issue of solitary confinement of prisoners, targeting to advance a better argument than a mere study would present. Thus, the article does not only cover the subject comprehensively, but also broadly. Works Cited Metzner, Jeffrey L. and Fellner, Jamie. “Solitary Confinement and Mental Illness in US Prisons: A Challenge for Medical Ethics”. Journal of American Academy of Psychiatry And Law. 38.1 (2010): 104-108. Web. 7 Mar. 2014. < http://www.jaapl.org/content/38/1/104.long>. Wayne, Tiffany K. Womens Roles in Nineteenth-century America. Westport, CT: Greenwood, 2007. Print. Read More