Solitary Confinement and the 8th Amendment

I recently read an article from Scientific American about solitary confinement in prisons, which got me thinking about how it relates to the 8th amendment about cruel and unusual punishment. Placing prisoners in solitary does nothing for rehabilitation and can increase or create mental illness and trauma. Some prisoners aren't even placed in solitary in response to misbehavior, but for their protection (For example victims of sexual assault, gang members, or targeted individuals) Scientific American states that half of all suicides happen in isolated cells. There is no proof that solitary works. The article shows that prisoners released from solitary have a 69% recidivism rate compared to the national 46%.

Our prison system is extremely old fashioned and hasn't been modified in response to the advent of criminal psychology.

Is it because our system is more focused on retribution than rehabilitation, or because the government simply does not care.


https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/solitary-confinement-cruel-ineffective-unusual/