Inmates are helpless and really do not have anyone to go to. They are basically treated like animals and most guards do it to intimidate prisoners. At one time, prisoners were treat as if they were subhuman. "Prisoners would work – and work hard but in public, on the street, and highway. As a form of public humiliation." (Friedman pg. 78).
Prison's solitary confinement causes psychological problems. Solitary confinement is also know as the "hole" and is used as a form of punishment where a prisoner spends up to 23 hours a day in a cell with no human contact (Crystal). The hole is a cruel punishment and it slowly starts to mentally break a person. Imagine sitting in a room with a bed and a toilet and starring at the wall for hours and hours. It can drive a person insane especially those serving months and even years in solitary. As Reyes wrote, "I understand I broke the law, and I have lost liberties because of that. But no one, no matter what they've done, should be denied fundamental human rights, especially when that denial comes in the form of such torture." (Kahn). Prisons are here to punish people who did wrong by taking away their freedom, not mentally destroy them. It is sadistic and a high percentage of prisoners already have mental issues and diagnosed, medicated issues, so solitary just makes it worst. The first experiment was tried in New York from 1821 to 1823 at Pennsylvania system when one prisoner tried killing himself by throwing himself off the fourth gallery and another inmate beat his head against the wall until he destroyed one eye (Friedman). People started to kill themselves because many people were suffering mentally and emotionally that death could end just the pain. According to The Stanford Prison Experiment, a normal prisoner that knew it was an experiment started going crazy when prisoners were not able to step out there cell. He would scream wildly to the point where he had a mental breakdown and they were forced to release him from the experiment.