Quote Originally Posted by Idaho
Although not entirely without merit, I think there are three problems with the solitary confinement approach.

Firstly it would be impractically expensive. The amount of staff and cell space required to keep everyone in their cells would be huge.

Secondly I am not sure if it would do much good psychologically - although I am prepared to have my mind changed on this.

Thirdly, and most importantly though; I think that this process would make the prisoners dependent and institutionalised. I think prison should, for 90% of cases - be looking forward to release and what kind of person is being released.
Permanent solitary confinement has been tried and was pretty much a total failure- read up on Eastern State Penitentiary. I think prison needs to be hard- very hard. This obviously serves as a deterrent, but as an added benefit, it helps keep costs down. They don't need air conditioning, cable TV, tasty meals, ect. A good example might be Maricopa county, Arizona where inmates are housed and fed in a 'tent city' in the desert for only a couple dollars a day. In addition, it's also important that prisoners do have an opportunity to learn something- if they're willing to do so. I think prisons should provide opportunities for inmates to earn their GEDs or even a HS diploma along with some basic vo-tech type job skills.