I generally thought of it in an abstract way, or in which I thought the prisoners "deserved it". That's what I believed when I first walked through the doors of the Department of Corrections classroom, although I never made my opinion known. However, it only took one class for my entire outlook on the subject to change. Solitary confinement is a terrible place for any prisoner, no matter what people consider their crime. It's a place that could drive a person crazy, deprivation of human contact and, if fully analyzed, could be considered sensory deprivation. Four white walls in a small room, with or without a window, giving only the sensation of the bed, the floor and the walls (if they are not given the luxury of a book), and so on. If these conditions were imposed on a person who had never committed a crime in their life, it would be considered cruel and unusual, almost inhumane, punishment. But for a prisoner, it's just normal. It is considered a punishment for being a bad criminal, this punishment being normal even for prisoners. It only harms its victims, and can be seen as a deterrent, if it doesn't drive people crazy (or maybe that was what the correctional system wanted to do).