Solitary Confinement Philosophical Perspectives

This book journeys into the dark territory of solitary confinement. It examines its practice in prisons, jails, immigration detention facilities, and even schools. It looks at international ethics codes such as that of the World Medical Association, the World Health Organization, and the Declaration of Tokyo, all of which describe the prolonged use of solitary confinement as akin to torture. The author shows how the philosophical theories of Jeremy Bentham, John Stuart Mill, Aristotle, Immanuel Kant, John Rawls, and others provide an ethical framework for examining solitary confinement. With the aid of contemporary ethicists like Tom Beauchamp, Michael Boylan, Michel Foucault, Claudia Card and Nel Noddings, it also shows how we have the tools for dismantling a practice long overdue for reform. Students, faculty, and the general public will find Solitary Confinement: Philosophical Perspectives a call for change of an urgent human rights issue. Given that thousands of people have been subjected to such extreme isolation and sensory deprivation, this quest warrants our utmost consideration.

Part I . Introduction to the Text.- 1. Introduction.- Part II . The Practice.-  2. Overview.-  3. Hoods and Sandbags.- Part III. Historical Perspectives.- 4. Jeremy Bentham The Panopticon.- 5. John Stuart Mill On Societal Benefits.- 6. Immanuel Kant On Punishment.- 7. Aristotle: On Reformation and Rehabilitation.- 8. John Rawls On Justice.- Part 4.  Contemporary Perspectives.- 9. Michel Foucault  Punishment and Power.- 10. Tom L. Beauchamp and James F. Childress Principles of Biomedical Ethics.- 11. Michael Boylan The Impact of Worldviews.- 12. Nel Noddings The Components of Evil.- 13. Claudia Card The Atrocity Paradigm.- Part 5. Principles and Recommendations.- 14. Principles and Ethics Codes.- 15. Recommendations.

Wanda Teays, Phd.  is a Philosophy Professor Emerita at Mount Saint Mary’s University, Los Angeles. She has written in the areas of Bioethics, Human Rights, Critical Reasoning, and Ethics and Film. She is the author of a number of books, including Business Ethics Through Movies: A Case Study Approach, Seeing the Light: Exploring Ethics Through Movies, and Doctors and Torture: Medicine at the Crossroads.Her edited volumes include Analyzing Violence Against Women as well as The Ethical University and Global Bioethics and Human Rights: Contemporary Perspectives (co-edited with Alison Dundes Renteln) and Ethics in the AI, Technology, and Information Age (co-edited with Michael Boylan).