Prisoners are being abused  to the brink of death. This is not okay because there is no way to help change yourself if you're being abused constantly. This should stop by banning torture methods in prison including solitary confindment, working them to death, etc.

Prison guards will torture prisoners by withdrawing certain privilages, like seeing visitors, buying items, and earning wages. These can be really bad for the prisoners because they won’t have any chance to get access to the outside world. Other things that will happen is solitary confinement, sweatboxing, hog-tying, pole-schakeling, white room torture, and unsanitary conditions (Center for Contitutional Rights).  These are all horrible punishments because they treat people like animals and not like their lives matter. These can also have really negative effects on the prisoners on their physical and mental health.

These “punishments” hurt the prisoners more than they should. They can lead to things like blurred vision, amputations, low blood sugar, dizziness, and pain. It causes them to be at risk for blindness, kidney failure, nervous system failure, pneumonia, strokes, heart attacks and death (American Friends Service Committee). Punishments should not lead to death or get anywhere close enough to that. And wouldn’t being in prison be punishment enough? They can also lead to mental issues like difficulty concentrating, nightmares, insomnia, memory loss, fatigue, anxiety, depression and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) (American Friends Service Committee). It’s not okay to do this because the point of prison should be to look back at yourself and change, not be traumatized and beaten to the brink of death.

Prison guards will also ignore the prisoners medical needs or just needs in general. There was a story of a man named Raymond Johns who had cataracts and needed medicine for his eyes (American Friends Service Committee). The prison guards refused to give him his medicine. That resulted in him going blind in both of his eyes. This is just messed up because if someone needs medicine it could save their life or important parts of their bodies. But if they don’t get it they could die or severely damage their bodies. 

Some people believe that prisons are too soft, and don’t do enough to keep prisoners in line. The Express News states that “People now don’t see prison as a place of punishment'' “Prisoners can now take pictures with their visitors. Things like this are making prisons soft”. This is wrong in so many ways because prisons are places of punishments. Prisoners getting to take pictures with their visitors should be allowed because social interactions are essential to staying sane in a place like prison. They aren’t making prisons “soft” because there is no way being stuck in a small cell and being tortured is soft. 

Torture in prisons is stopping around the world. amnesty.org/en/ has a fundraiser to help stop torture in Syrian prisons. dignity.dk/ shows that different prisons from all around the world and how they’re stopping torture. 

Torture in prisons is in no way okay. It’s been happening for so many years that it will be hard to stop, but with the new generation, like me, we can change the prison system for the better.