A man who spent nearly 43 years in solitary confinement in a U.S. prison could soon be set free. But questions remain about whether longtime inmate Albert Woodfox (now 68 years old) will ever escape the effects of spending so much time locked up and alone.
The effects of solitary confinement on a prisoner's well-being is a subject that has been debated since the first half of the 20th century, according to Peter Scharff Smith, a senior researcher at the Danish Institute for Human Rights in Copenhagen. While several studies have downplayed the negative effects of isolating prisoners for long periods of time, many more have concluded that this practice is quite harmful on both a physiological and psychological level, Scharff Smith told Live Science.
"When you look at all of the available research, it's pretty clear that solitary confinement is dangerous. There's clearly a risk of negative effects on health," he said. [7 Absolutely Evil Medical Experiments]
Though the specific conditions of solitary confinement differ from one institution to the next, most prisons use "solitary" as a form of disciplinary punishment or to help keep order, according to Scharff Smith, who wrote an extensive review of studies on the effects of this imprisonment practice for the journal Crime and Justice in 2006.
[For more of this story, written by Elizabeth Palermo, go to http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...ealth_n_7637496.html]
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