Solitary confinement

===Ethics===

The harsh effects of solitary confinement on the individuals who experience it, particularly those diagnosed with mental illness, have led many to view the practice as cruel and [[Ethics|unethical]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Polizzi |first1=David |title=Solitary Confinement: Lived Experiences and Ethical Implications |date=2017 |publisher=Policy Press |location=Bristol, United Kingdom |isbn=9781447337539}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Winters |first1=Ali |title=The Ethical Conflicts of Working in Solitary Confinement |journal=Journal of Social Work Values and Ethics |date=2019 |volume=16 |issue=2 |pages=18–27 |url=https://jswve.org/download/fall_2019_volume_16_no._2/articles/18-Ethical-conflicts-in-solitary-confinement-16-2-Fall-2019-JSWVE.pdf}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Doshi |first1=Riya |title=An Ethical Analysis of Solitary Confinement in U.S. Prisons |journal=Scaffold: A Showcase of Vanderbilt First-Year Writing |date=Spring 2020 |volume=2 |url=https://ejournals.library.vanderbilt.edu/index.php/UWS/article/view/4986/2785 |access-date=29 June 2023}}</ref> 

In an article for ''Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law'', Jeffrey Metzner and Jamie Fellner write that solitary confinement may constitute a violation of [[medical ethics]]. As the authors note, healthcare professionals are "ethically obligated to refrain from countenancing, condoning, participating in, or facilitating torture or other forms of cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment," yet human rights experts have stated that solitary confinement may amount to such treatment. "It is not ethically defensible for health care professionals to acquiesce silently to conditions of confinement that inflict mental harm and violate human rights," they write.<ref name = metzner2010 />

Metzner and Fellner call on physicians not only to provide adequate medical services to individuals in isolation, but to advocate for changes to segregation policies in the facility in which they are employed and to undertake public advocacy to raise awareness of the harms of solitary in society as a whole.<ref name = metzner2010 />