Abstract

This project aimed to reveal the physical and psychological effects of short term solitary

confinement. The hypothesis is: after staying in solitary confinement for one hour, subjects’

psychological wellness will deteriorate and subjects’ vitals will become more unhealthy

reflecting stress. These questions were answered by placing four subjects in an 8x10 all white

room for one hour. Each subject took a psychological wellness evaluation scored out of 76 points

before and after staying in solitary confinement. Their blood pressure and heart rate were also

recorded before and after their stay in solitary confinement. Contrary to the hypothesis, subjects’

psychological wellness was narrowly affected, the average score went down by .75 of a point

after solitary confinement. Subjects’ blood pressure was similar before and after solitary

confinement with the average systolic blood pressure changing 29 mmHg and the average

diastolic blood pressure changing 4.5 mmHg, both of these numbers are much lower than what

was expected. Subjects’ heart rates also changed very little with the average rising only 1bpm

from 79.5 bpm to 80.5 bpm. The disparity between the results and the hypothesis could be due to

a number of things. First, the research used to inform this hypothesis is from long term solitary

confinement and this study was on short term solitary confinement. Second, exact conditions of

realistic solitary confinement could not be reproduced, producing potentially different results.

Third, the psychological wellness evaluation was created by someone without a degree and

experience in psychology. Studies similar to this one would be informative and helpful to the

criminal psychology field and potentially help the 80,000 U.S prisoners in solitary confinement

(Nolan & Amico, 17).