Law Commons^™

On July 8, 2013, 30,000 prisoners in California joined a hunger strike organized by gang members kept in Pelican Bay’s Security Housing Unit and argued that solitary confinement constituted cruel and unusual punishment. As a result of his confinement, one inmate involved in the hunger strike stated that he felt as if all his ties to humanity had been severed. Every country, in some form or another, imprisons and isolates individuals for two common reasons: to punish or to protect society from the person’s anticipated future conduct. This article examines the relationship between crime and punishment and evaluates the four …