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Prisoners of solitude : bringing history to bear on prison health policy
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Charleroy, Margaret Lynn and Marland, Hilary (2016) Prisoners of solitude : bringing history to bear on prison health policy. Endeavour, 40 (3). pp. 141-147. doi:10.1016/j.endeavour.2016.07.001 ISSN 0160-9327.
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Official URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.endeavour.2016.07.001
Abstract
Season two of the popular prison drama Orange is the New Black opens in a small concrete cell, no larger than a parking space. The cell is windowless and sparsely furnished; it holds a toilet, a sink and a limp bed. The only distinguishing feature we see is a mural of smeared egg, made by the cell's resident, the show's protagonist Piper Chapman. When a correctional officer arrives at this solitary confinement cell, he wakes her, and mocks her egg fresco. “This is art,” she insists. “This is a yellow warbler drinking out of a daffodil.” Her rambling suggests the confusion and disorientation associated with inmates in solitary confinement, who often become dazed after only a few days in isolation. As the scene continues, we see Piper exhibit further symptoms associated with both short- and long-term solitary confinement—memory loss, inability to reason, mood swings, anxiety—all indicating mental deterioration and impaired mental health. In this and other episodes, we begin to see solitary confinement as the greatest villain in the show, more villainous than any character a writer could create. The new and growing trend of television prison dramas like Orange is the New Black brings the issue of solitary confinement, along with other issues related to incarceration, to a more general audience, exposing very real problems in the failing contemporary prison system, not just in America, but worldwide. The show's success leads us to ask how history, alongside fictional dramas and contemporary case reports, can draw attention to the issue of solitary confinement.
| Item Type: | Journal Article | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Subjects: | H Social Sciences > HV Social pathology. Social and public welfare | ||||||||
| Divisions: | Faculty of Arts > History | ||||||||
| Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH): | Imprisonment -- Mental health -- United States, Imprisonment -- Mental health -- England, Imprisonment -- History -- United States, Imprisonment -- History -- England, Solitary confinement -- Mental health -- United States, Solitary confinement -- Mental health -- England, Solitary confinement -- History -- United States, Solitary confinement -- History -- England, Prisoners -- Mental health -- United States, Prisoners -- Mental health -- England, Prisoners -- History -- United States, Prisoners -- History -- England | ||||||||
| Journal or Publication Title: | Endeavour | ||||||||
| Publisher: | Pergamon | ||||||||
| ISSN: | 0160-9327 | ||||||||
| Official Date: | September 2016 | ||||||||
| Dates: |
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| Volume: | 40 | ||||||||
| Number: | 3 | ||||||||
| Page Range: | pp. 141-147 | ||||||||
| DOI: | 10.1016/j.endeavour.2016.07.001 | ||||||||
| Status: | Peer Reviewed | ||||||||
| Publication Status: | Published | ||||||||
| Access rights to Published version: | Open Access (Creative Commons) | ||||||||
| Date of first compliant deposit: | 30 August 2016 | ||||||||
| Date of first compliant Open Access: | 30 August 2016 | ||||||||
| Funder: | Wellcome Trust (London, England) | ||||||||
| Grant number: | Senior Investigator Award, grant number 103341/Z/13/Z. |
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