In 1890, the U.S. Supreme Court said of solitary confinement essentially what Dickens had said: "A considerable number of the prisoners fell, after even a short confinement, into a semi-fatuous condition, from which it was next to impossible to arouse them, and others became violently insane; others, still, committed suicide." Americans should be roused against this by decency — and prudence.
Mass incarceration is expensive (California spends almost twice as much on prisons as on universities) and solitary confinement costs, on average, three times as much per inmate as in normal prisons. And remember: Most persons now in solitary confinement will someday be back on America's streets, some of them rendered psychotic by what are called correctional institutions.
George Will's email address is georgewill@washpost.com.
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George F. Will is one of the most widely recognized, and widely read, writers in the world. With more than 450 newspapers, his biweekly Newsweek column, and his appearances as a political commentator on ABC, Will may be more ..
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@ Pragamtistferlife. Yes and at Waco,Texas and at Ruby Ridge too! Roe v Wade is perhaps the most evil of them all! Calling it a "choice" doesn't make it less evil!
This article rings true. We worry about water boarding 3 people while in the meantime we are actively torturing our citizens in prison.
Neither is humane. We are not a humane society, we may have humane people in our society, but they are not More..
What a sad, confused society we have become in America. We worry about felons "rights" but think nothing of killing unborn children by the millions! We worry about waterboarding terrorist thugs but think killing innocent people by collateral More..