Aliyah Abdulmalek

9/5/17

English 101

Prof. John M.

Summary of The Living Death of Solitary Confinement

In The Living Death of Solitary Confinement an editorial by Lisa Guenther published

August 2012, the author argues that solitary confinement is of the worst things that can be

inflicted upon a human being, amongst jail itself, and that it is detrimental to both the prisoners

and society. The author contends that because solitary confinement closes a person off from all

other people, inmates lose touch with reality (Guenther, para. 10). As a result, Guenther claims

solitary confinement takes the rehabilitation aspect out of jail.

Firstly Guenther looks at concerns that can arise in a person's life who has been in

solitary, claiming that they may experience, intense anxiety, paranoia, depression, memory loss,

hallucinations and other perceptual distortions which are all symptoms of SHU, otherwise

called Security Housing Units by psychiatrists (Guenther, para. 1). Guenther also makes note on

how it doesn't take much for a prisoner to be put in solitary confinement and up to 81,622 were

isolated in 2005, therefore, proving that the risk of someone experiencing problems later in life is

not amongst a small sum of people who enter jail (Guenther, para. 3). Guenther points out that

such prisoners will one day, most likely, be released from jail and have to rejoin society. The

author then further illustrates the mental state that solitary confinement causes by quoting several

prisoners in an interview conducted by psychiatrist Stuart Grassian. Of the four people quoted,

she showcases prisoners speech that are interrupted, disorganized, and disturbed.
 Finally the author explains how isolating a person in solitary confinement provides no

chance of rehabilitation, saying that confinement deprives them of both support of other and

critical challenge that others pose which are essential for rehabilitation (Guenther, para. 14).

Guenther concludes the editorial by posing a different thought. She suggests that solitary

confinement is actually asking too little of prisoners; it allows for them to not be forced nor have

a reason to change from their previous, criminal ways (Guenther, para. 15). Guenther once again

stimulates readers to think about solitary confinement from another perspective where sympathy

can be gained for prisoners.

Word count: 340

Works Cited
Guenther, Lisa. "The Living Death of Solitary Confinement." The New York Times. The New

York Times, 26 Aug. 2012. Web. 07 Sept. 2017.

My first draft helped me significantly write my final draft. I believe that is because I took

the rough seriously as if I were turning it in for a grade. So when I was finalizing my final draft it
was mainly just revising the rough. The revision workshop helped me because it allowed for a

fresh pair of eyes to read my work and add a second opinion. I think I gave an overall objective

summary well. I did that by condensing what the author originally said and using author tags to

cite them as well as using my own words to describe what they said without giving it a new

meaning. I feel as though my use of quotes and paraphrasing was successful because it was a

good balance between the two. It was challenging for me not to add every detail in the original

text and summarize the whole text in a 300ish word essay. It was challenging to decipher what

was necessary to understand the author's main points and what was not so much. Honestly I

worked on the strategy of author tags in my summary through just writing. There was no exact

formula. Whenever it felt like I had went a while without quoting/author tags I thought the

readers dont believe me anymore and added the quotes/author tags as a way to show receipts.

Im not sure this works but its how I managed the balance. I would like feedback on if I

portrayed the originals author's argument right and objective from the claim I made in my thesis

statement to my conclusion. I would also like to hear about my conclusion as it was not super

clear how it was to be done. Lastly I would like to hear if I pulled out the necessary info to

summarize the author's argument or did I go to specific/miss important details.