Seven Days in Solitary [4.20.13]

April 20, 2013 By Leave a Comment

solitaryThe following roundup features noteworthy news, reports, and opinions on solitary confinement from the past week that have not been covered in other Solitary Watch posts.

•  According to a piece by Susan Greene in the Colorado Independent, the “Colorado ACLU reports young people are being forced to spend lengthy stints in cement isolation rooms referred to as ‘reflection cottages’” at the El Pueblo treatment facility. “People need to know what’s going on in there. They need to know that they’re torturing kids,” said the father of a 14-year-old who spent a month in solitary at one of the cottages.

•  The Associated Press reports that a man serving a 10-year sentence in a North Carolina prison died after swallowing multiple objects. The prisoner “had been cited by prison staff at least 25 times for infractions related to attempts to harm himself.  He was in solitary confinement when he died.”

•  According to a radio piece by WKUT in Austin, “An estimated 25 percent of Texas inmates in solitary confinement suffer from mental health issues. A bill in the Legislature would create a task force to find out more about these prisoners and provide them with safer alternatives.”

•  In a powerful commentary, CNN’s John Sutter argues that “No kid should be in solitary confinement.” The piece links to an online petition drive launched by the ACLU, urging U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder to “ban the solitary confinement of youth held in federal custody.”

•  The Guardian reports on the European Court of Human Rights’ decision to block the extradition of a UK-based terrorism suspect who suffers from paranoid schizophrenia. It did so on the grounds that removing him to an American supermax prison would constitute “inhuman or degrading treatment” under international law. (Other British suspects, including Asberger’s sufferer Talha Ahsan, were extradited and are now in extended pre-trial solitary confinement.)

•  The Pennsylvania-based Human Rights Coalition launched a month-long campaign to have Russell Maroon Shoats released from isolation. Shoats has spent a total of 30 years in solitary, including the last 22 consecutive years.

•  The Other Death Penalty Project, an organization led by life-sentenced prisoners, launched a campaign to print and distribute a collection of writing by lifers, aimed at “raising awareness nationwide that life without parole sentences are the death penalty and must be abolished.”

•  California’s Stop the Torture Campaign, described as “in support of the prisoner-initiated human rights movement to end long term solitary confinement in California,” ramped up its activism with a series of events in the Los Angeles area featuring a model of a cell from the Pelican Bay SHU.

•  As the week began, hunger-striking detainees at Guantanamo Bay were violently forced from their communal cellblocks into solitary confinement cells. According to Carol Rosenberg in the Miami Herald, “The pre-dawn operation took place hours after delegates of the International Committee of the Red Cross left the remote island prison and during a blackout of news media access to the crisis in the prison camps.” And the resultant “scenario described by the military—individual men locked one to a cell, maximum-security style, in a facility designed for communal medium-security confinement—returned the prison camps to an austere detention approach dating back to the Bush administration.”

Filed Under: civil liberties/civil rights, federal prisons, human rights, international, juveniles, legislation, life without parole, mental illness, psychological effects, solitary confinement, suicide, supermax prisons, torture Tagged With: , , ,

Thirty Days in Solitary

March 30, 2013 By 9 Comments

solitarySolitary confinement is in the news on a daily basis nowadays, though just a few years ago it was a rarity to find any mention of it outside of Solitary Watch. What follows is a roundup of noteworthy stories that came out in the past month but didn’t make it into our posts. We will be running these roundups once a week from now on.

• PRI radio reports that at Guantanamo, the “Hunger Strike Grows As Despair Sets In“–and interviews one of the few reporters who have been inside Gitmo since the strike began.

• Al Jazeera presents a documentary and roundtable discussion on “The Ethics of Solitary Confinement.”

• From Citizen Radio’s Marc Kilstein, a powerful hour-long radio documentary on the history and practice of solitary confinement.

• A bill introduced in Massachusetts aims to limit time in solitary confinement in the state’s prisons and jails. So does a similar bill in Nevada.

• Ted Koppel, on NBC’s Rock Center, reports on the “Criminal justice system’s ‘dark secret’: Teenagers in solitary confinement.”

• The Toronto Globe and Mail reports that solitary confinement is on the rise in Canadian prisons.

• The Atlantic‘s Andrew Cohen writes, “Enough Is Enough—Time for the Feds to Investigate Prison Abuse“–especially prisoners with mental illness held in solitary confinement in federal prisons.

• Individuals with mental illness are held in solitary confinement in strip cells at a Virginia jail.

• Chris Hedges writes about solitary confinement (and about the inspiring Bonnie Kerness and Ojore Lutalo) in “The Shame of America’s Gulags.”

• Despite opposition, Arizona plans to build 500 more supermax prison beds.

• New York Advocacy groups, survivors of solitary, and families of the incarcerated unite to form the Campaign for Alternatives to Isolated Confinement in New York’s prisons and jails.

• The sister of a man imprisoned at Pelican Bay writes of her brother’s 23 years in solitary confinement, calling it “beyond cruel and unusual.”

• The ACLU and other advocacy groups testify on solitary confinement before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.

• Courthouse News Service reports that a “scathing study” on solitary confinement in Illinois was buried amid local politics.

• A Maryland family says that their son, who suffers from autism and mental illness, has been held in solitary confinement for four years, and denied visits and phone calls for two.

• More than 100 men imprisoned at Guantanamo Bay launch a hunger strike to protest conditions at the camp and the hopelessness of their situation.

• The ACLU releases a comprehensive–and inspiring–report on solitary confinement reform in the state of Maine.

• The New York Civil Liberties Union files a civil rights lawsuit on behalf of people in solitary in New York State prisons became a class action suit.

• “Solitary Confinement: Punishment Or Cruelty?“, a segment on NPR, traces the history and current controversies. (Can’t it be both?)

• Advocates from the New York City Jails Action Committee protest recent increases in solitary confinement and brutality on Rikers Island.

• Representatives of the men in Pelican Bay’s Security Housing Units send an Open Letter to the California State Legislature.

• “Death at Dawson: Why Is Texas’ Worst State Jail Still Open?“, from the Texas Observer, tells the story of a woman who gave birth prematurely in a holding cell, and was sent to solitary on a “suicide watch” when her infant died.

Filed Under: civil liberties/civil rights, federal prisons, human rights, juveniles, lawsuits/litigation, legislation, mental illness, politics of punishment, prison health care, psychological effects, solitary confinement, suicide, supermax prisons, torture Tagged With: ,

Florida Bill Would Limit Use of Solitary Confinement on Children

March 14, 2013 By Leave a Comment

When asked to describe his experience in solitary confinement in a Florida jail at the age of 16, Henry R. (pseudonym) stated:

The only thing left to do is go crazy—just sit and talk to the walls… I catch myself [talking to the walls] every now and again. It’s starting to become a habit because I have nothing else to do. I can’t read a book. I work out and try to make the best of it. But there is no best. Sometimes I go crazy and can’t even control my anger anymore… I can’t even get [out of solitary confinement] early if I do better, so it is frustrating and I just lose it. Screaming, throwing stuff around… I feel like I am alone, like no one cares about me sometimes I feel like, why am I even living?

The quote comes from the 2012 report Growing Up Locked Down, which covers the use of solitary confinement on children and teens under the age of 18 in U.S. jails and prisons. The comprehensive report, prepared by the ACLU and Humans Rights Watch, calls for an end to the isolation of young people, based on evidence of the profound psychological damage such isolation can cause.

Now, Florida legislators are considering a bill that would help prevent kids like Henry R. from being subjected to the abusive use of solitary confinement. Filed last month by State Senator Audrey Gibson, the bill, called the Youth in Solitary Confinement Reduction Act (SB 812), seeks to reduce the detrimental impact of solitary confinement on young persons by prohibiting the use of the practice except under specific circumstances.

The proposed legislation requires that the confinement be “the least restrictive to maintain the safety of the youth prisoner and the institution.” The bill further imposes time limits on the use of confinement by situation, restricting emergency confinement and disciplinary confinement to 24 and 72 hours, respectively, also requiring time out of solitary cells to lessen the effects of psychological damage.

[Read more...]

Filed Under: civil liberties/civil rights, Florida, human rights, juveniles, legislation, psychological effects, solitary confinement Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Montana Legislature Considers Solitary Confinement Reform

February 25, 2013 By 2 Comments

893100_102050_6aa20db4b3_pOn Friday, February 22nd, the Montana House Judiciary Committee held a hearing on House Bill 536, entitled the “Montana Solitary Confinement Act,” sponsored by legislator Franke Wilmer. The bill, which the National Religious Campaign Against Torture calls a “critical opportunity to lead the way nationally in increasing access to rehabilitation and reducing harm,” would place limits on the use of solitary confinement in the Montana prison system.

Under the bill, juveniles and prisoners diagnosed as “seriously mentally ill” would not be held in solitary confinement for more than three consecutive days. In addition, prisoners within one year of their release would not be subject to solitary confinement beyond three consecutive days unless the director of the Department of Corrections provides written permission.

According to the ACLU of Montana, Montana currently has two “locked housing units” at Montana State Prison, which consist of 80 cells each, in which inmates may be held in solitary confinement for 23-24 hours a day.

The hearing can be viewed at this link (Session Year: 63rd ; Committee Type: House; House Committees: Judiciary ; February 22nd; 2 hours in).

Bill sponsor Wilmer spoke first, arguing that solitary confinement represents a form of sensory deprivation that harms prisoners with mental health problems. She argued that mental health problems are similar to cancer, in that both have physiological sources, and that to place prisoners diagnosed with mental health problems in isolation is to effectively punish people for having a disease.

Patty Jacques told of her son, who has a long record of mental health problems, who spent four months in isolation at Montana State Prison upon his transfer from a psychiatric institution. He was placed in isolation “as a way to stabilize him,” Jacques recalls the warden telling her, who told her the prison was taking ‘really good care of my son.’

“He has never been the same, extreme high anxiety, PTSD, it has made his mental health worse,” Jacque told the committee.

Montana State Prison Warden Leroy Kirkegard told the committee that: “Solitary confinement is not a tool employed today…nor will it be in the future.” Warden Kirkegard dismissed the use of the term “solitary confinement” as dated, as prisoners in segregation units do receive regular contact from correctional and mental health workers. This dismissal of the concept of “solitary confinement” received a tongue in cheek blog post by the ACLU of Montana.

Writes Anna Conley in the post: “Wait a minute… as I recall, there are two ‘locked housing’ units at Montana State Prison with more than 80 single cells each in which inmates are locked down in isolation 23 hours a day. Isn’t this ‘solitary confinement’?

Kirkegard had more specific critiques of the bill. “It defines long-term as longer than three days,” he said, arguing that investigations of prison rules violations often take longer than that. Further, he critiqued the language of the bill that leaves a definition of “severe mental illness” different than current law defines it.

Kirkegard stated that there were, respectively, 51 and 63 prisoners in the two locked housing units. When asked how many juveniles were held in segregation, he stated he believed the number was “less than ten.”

Colleen Ambrose, Legal Services Bureau Chief of the Montana Department of Corrections, argued that prisoners in segregation receive 1 hour of outdoor exercise, “limited visitation and mail privileges,” library books. Further, she noted that the bill defines pre-hearing detention as solitary confinement, which may hinder investigations. The bill does not, she argued, differentiate between disciplinary hearing time periods for murder or possession of pruno (prison wine).

The hearing revealed a lack of capacity in the prison to handle prisoners with mental health problems. While there are 300 prisoners deemed to have a “serious mental illness”, there only 25 mental health beds in the Montana State Prison.

In 2009, the ACLU successfully filed suit against the Montana Department of Corrections on behalf of juvenile prisoner Raistlen Katka. Katka was at the time a  17-year old who spent 10 months in solitary confinement and twice attempted suicide by biting his wrist to puncture veins. In a settlement, in 2012, the Department of Corrections agreed to limit the use of solitary confinement against both juveniles and prisoners with mental health problems, with written approval by the Director of the Department of Corrections required for keeping prisoners in segregation longer than 72 hours.

According to the National Religious Campaign Against Torture, which supports the bill, a committee vote can be expected as early as the beginning of this week.

Filed Under: juveniles, legislation, mental illness, Montana, psychological effects, solitary confinement Tagged With: , , , , ,

Pennsylvania Lawmakers Hear Testimony on the Torture of Solitary Confinement

September 22, 2012 By 5 Comments

Well over one hundred people filled a conference suite at Temple University in Philadelphia on Tuesday, September 18, to hear testimony on the effects of solitary confinement. They included survivors of solitary, family members, community members, advocates, and lawmakers. The hearing was held by the Democratic Policy Committee of Pennsylvania at the request of Representative Ronald G. Waters (D-Delaware/Philadelphia), a member of the committee. It comes in the wake of the first ever Congressional hearing on solitary confinement, held by a subcommittee of the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee in June, and serves as yet another marker of how the widespread practice of solitary confinement in American prisons and jails is quickly becoming a mainstream human rights issue.

The hearing also followed a rally on Monday at Philadelphia’s Love Park, organized by the Human Rights Coalition. About 150 participants listened to speakers describe their experiences in solitary confinement, while holding signs and banners that read “Jobs Not Jails,” “Fund Schools Not Prisons,” and “End Torture in Pennsylvania.” One banner listed the names of a group of prisoner who have been held in extreme isolation for from ten to thirty years.

All twenty-seven Pennsylvania state prisons have solitary confinement units, called Restricted Housing Units, and collectively they hold around 2,500 of the country’s 80,000 solitary confinement prisoners–about 5 percent of Pennsylvania’s total prison population of approximately 50,000. Stays in these RHUs can last for months, years or even decades. In general solitary confinement units in Pennsylvania look much like those across the country: units of tiny cells, lit 24-hours a day, with only food tray slots as portals to the outside world, that are used as warehouses for the mentally ill and politically active. These units have seen three suicides in the last two years as well as the death of John Carter in April of this year, allegedly at the hands of guards who used pepper spray and stun guns on him during a violent ”cell extraction.”

The Pennsylvania Department of Corrections has a specific designation for those prisoners that are placed in solitary confinement for indefinite periods of time: the Restricted Release List, a program that grew out of what used to be known as the Long Term Isolation Unit.  Those on the list can only be released from solitary confinement with the approval of the department secretary; they often have not committed any offense in years, and are given no notice of their grave designation.

The hearing consisted of four panels: mental health experts, legal experts, survivors of solitary confinement, and family members with loved ones in solitary confinement. The first panel consisted of Dr. Terry Kupers and Dr. Craig Haney. Both men are psychologists who have done extensive research on the topic of solitary confinement, and Haney testified at the Senate Judiciary subcommittee hearing in June.

[Read more...]

Filed Under: civil liberties/civil rights, featured posts, human rights, legislation, mental illness, Pennsylvania, psychological effects, solitary confinement, torture Tagged With: , ,

“New York’s Black Sites”: New Article About Solitary Confinement in State Prisons

July 12, 2012 By 2 Comments

The latest issue of The Nation, which went up on the web today and hits newsstands in a week or so, includes a long story by us on solitary confinement in New York State prisons. The article includes information on how, in this “blue” state, the system works to maintain the highest level of “disciplinary confinement” in the country, and one of the highest levels of isolated confinement overall. It includes interviews with current and former prisoners, a former corrections officer, lawyers, and advocates. Be sure to read through to the end for some remarkable writing by an inmate who has been in solitary in New York for close to 25 years. The piece begins this way:

Johnny Tremont’s trip to solitary confinement started with having too many postage stamps. Until then, he’d been a model prisoner. When Tremont (whose name in this article has been changed at his request) entered the New York prison system at age 20, he was a well-spoken kid from an upstate college town who excelled at pretty much anything he put his mind to. In high school, he’d put his mind to dealing cocaine. Once he was sent to Five Points Correctional Facility, a maximum-security prison in the Finger Lakes region, he put his mind to keeping his nose clean and getting what he could out of his fifteen-year sentence. He enrolled in every program available, quickly earned his GED and then started tutoring other prisoners working toward theirs.

To relieve the monotony, Tremont sometimes bet on sports with other inmates, using the common prison currency of postage stamps. “I was on my way to pay the guy who won a pool between a few friends,” he recalls, when he was caught with 200 stamps, well over the allowable number. This earned him a month in “keeplock”—round-the-clock confinement to his own cell. His cellmate was also on keeplock, and when Tremont could no longer stand the crowding and idleness, he talked a guard into letting him out to go to his prison job. Caught playing basketball instead, he was sent to twenty-eight days in “the Box.”

“The Box” is how New York prisoners refer to solitary confinement. Less colloquially, it’s the SHU (pronounced “shoe”), for Special Housing Unit, the state’s euphemism for its isolation cells. Officially, New York places prisoners in “disciplinary” or “administrative” segregation, but regardless of the label, the conditions are the same as in prisons across the country: twenty-three hours a day in a cell the size of the average suburban bathroom.

A common misconception is that solitary confinement is a punishment of last resort, reserved for inmates who present a threat of violence or escape. The reality—especially in New York, which has the highest rate of “disciplinary segregation” in the country—is that it’s very much a punishment of first resort, doled out for minor rule violations as well as major offenses. In New York, the most common reason for a stint in solitary is creating a “disturbance” or “demonstration.” This can mean anything from mouthing off to guards to fomenting a riot, and it often involves inmates with psychoses or other psychiatric problems. Second is “dirty urine”—testing positive for drugs of any kind. In a prison system where 85 percent of inmates are in need of substance-abuse treatment, drug use alone can get you up to ninety days in solitary, and a year if it happens multiple times. Other infractions include refusing to obey orders, “interfering with employees,” being “out of place” and possession of contraband—not only a shiv but a joint, a cellphone or too many postage stamps.

With some 80,000 prisoners in solitary, the United States leads the world in isolating its citizens as well as incarcerating them. Though growing local and national movements are fighting solitary confinement as costly, dangerous and fundamentally inhumane—and though states from Maine to Mississippi have taken steps to reduce its use—in this bluest of states, the prison system is in effect rigged to keep its plentiful isolation cells filled, and thousands of inmates spend weeks, months, years, even decades in solitary. On any given day, there are about 4,500 men, women and children in some form of isolated confinement in New York State prisons. (In New York City’s jails, run under a separate system, there are close to 1,000 more.) [Read more...]

Filed Under: civil liberties/civil rights, corrections industry, cost/budget issues, due process, featured posts, juveniles, lawsuits/litigation, legislation, mental illness, New York, politics of punishment, psychological effects, race, retaliation, solitary confinement, suicide, supermax prisons, torture Tagged With: , , ,

Report from Senate Hearing on Solitary Confinement

June 19, 2012 By 6 Comments

Our report on today’s hearing was published by Mother Jones. It starts out this way:

The cell placed at the back of the hearing room in the Dirksen Senate Office Building was a pretty accurate replica of a real isolation cell—the kind that exists in supermax prisons and solitary confinement units all over the country. It measured about 7 feet by 10 feet, with a tiny covered window too high to see out of and nothing inside but a bunk and a toilet. The door contained a slot through which a guard slides a food tray; for many prisoners, this represents their only human contact for the day. These are the conditions in which some 80,000 inmates live on any given day in American prisons and jails. They spend at least 23 hours a day in their cells, and some remain in solitary for years or even decades.

Solitary confinement in our prisons and jails may be the most pressing domestic human rights problem to which most Americans remain largely oblivious. But today, supporters and foes of the practice descended on Capitol Hill for a hearing of the Senate Judiciary Committee Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Human Rights, convened by subcommittee chairman Dick Durbin. An overflow crowd of some 200 spectators came there to witness what was—somewhat amazingly—the first-ever congressional hearing on solitary confinement.

Durbin opened the proceedings with a surprisingly strong indictment of  solitary confinement as it is practiced in US prisons. The senator, who  had visited the notorious Tamms supermax in his home state of Illinois  and was apparently much-affected by the experience, called on his  colleagues to visit prisons in their states and witness the conditions  for themselves. “America has led the way with human rights around the  world,” Durbin said. But “what do our prisons say about our American  values?”

You can read the rest on MotherJones.com.

A full transcript of the hearing has been added to our Resources section, along with an archive of over 70 pieces of written testimony submitted before the hearing.

Opponents of solitary confinement are urging concerned citizens to follow up on this historic hearing by writing to Chairman Durbin and other members of the subcommittee to thank them for holding the hearing and urge them to further investigate and institute reforms of solitary confinement in U.S. prisons and jails. For more information, see “Petitions and Letter Writing” on our Action page.

Filed Under: civil liberties/civil rights, Constitution, corrections industry, cost/budget issues, death row, Eighth Amendment, featured posts, federal prisons, human rights, legislation, mental illness, politics of punishment, psychological effects, solitary confinement, suicide, supermax prisons, torture Tagged With: , , ,

Now Available: Collection of Written Testimony for Senate Judiciary Subcommittee Hearing on Solitary Confinement

June 18, 2012 By 6 Comments

Solitary Watch is building an archive of written testimony submitted to the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Human Rights, in connection with the hearing on solitary confinement to be held on Tuesday at 10 am. You can access the archive (still a work-in-progress) by clicking here, or by going through our Resources page.

We know we are still missing some submissions. If you are not included and would like to be, please email your testimony (as a Word or PDF file) to solitarywatchnews@gmail.com. We will add the testimony of the witnesses testifying at the hearing once it becomes available.

James Ridgeway and Sal Rodriguez will be live tweeting the hearing for Solitary Watch and Mother Jones — tune in at @solitarywatch or @motherjones. The hearing will also be webcast live on the Judiciary Committee’s website, here.

Filed Under: civil liberties/civil rights, Constitution, cost/budget issues, human rights, legislation, solitary confinement Tagged With: , ,

California Bill Would Lift Media Ban on Access to Prisons

June 13, 2012 By 5 Comments

This important story was put out yesterday from Californians United for a Responsible Budget, via San Francisco Bay View. If legislation like this were passed in other states, as well as in California, it would go a long way toward exposing to the public the truth about supermax prisons and solitary confinement units–which are not only torture chambers, but also virtual domestic “black sites.” See our earlier post for more background on the bill.

Today, residents throughout the state celebrate as AB1270, a bill to lift the media access ban in California prisons, passed the Senate Committee on Public Safety in a 4-2 vote. AB1270 will now go to a vote in Senate Appropriations. A rally on the north steps of the Capitol was held at noon as calls for transparency in California’s troubled prison system spread. Since 1996, media have been prohibited from choosing their interview subjects inside prisons, and nine versions of this bill have been vetoed by three different governors.

Supporters of AB1270 note that the Supreme Court ruling on overcrowding and unconstitutional medical and mental health conditions and last year’s massive prisoner hunger strike demonstrate the need for California taxpayers to have full information about what goes on inside California’s prisons. Testifying on behalf of the bill, a spokesperson for the California Newspaper Publishers Association said: “With the scrutiny and limited resources now being directed to prison facilities, this bill could not be any more timely … Most newspapers have forgone these beats … because there are so many limitations. It’s very difficult for reporters to get in and do their jobs.” A steady stream of supporters from dozens of organizations throughout the state added “me too’s” to the bill…

Assemblymember Tom Ammiano, D-San Francisco, sponsored the bill, citing the need for more transparency and public accountability from the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR). “Independent media access to prisoners is critical for ensuring transparency and accountability,” said Ammiano. “Despite the thousands of prisoners who participated in a statewide hunger strike last year over conditions in the prisons, it was near impossible to get unbiased information about what was happening due to these restrictions. Today’s vote is an important step towards providing the public with balanced and necessary information about our prisons.”

Read the full piece, which includes a list of the organizations supporting the bill, here.

Filed Under: California, civil liberties/civil rights, legislation, media, solitary confinement, supermax prisons Tagged With: , , , , ,

First Congressional Hearing on Solitary Confinement to Be Held June 19

June 8, 2012 By 7 Comments

The Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Human Rights, chaired by Illinois Democrat Dick Durbin, has announced that it will hold a hearing later this month on solitary confinement in U.S. prisons and jails–the first-ever Congressional hearing on this subject. The subcommittee released the following information today:

Reassessing Solitary Confinement: The Human Rights, Fiscal, and Public Safety Consequences

Hearing Before the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Human Rights

Date:               Tuesday, June 19, 2012

Time:               10:00 a.m.

Location:         Dirksen Senate Office Building Room 226

Description:  U.S. Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL), the Senate’s Assistant Majority Leader, will chair a hearing on the human rights, fiscal, and public safety consequences of solitary confinement in U.S. prisons, jails, and detention centers.  This is the first-ever Congressional hearing on solitary confinement.  Over the last several decades, the United States has witnessed an explosion in the use of solitary confinement for federal, state, and local prisoners and detainees.  The hearing will explore the psychological and psychiatric impact on inmates during and after their imprisonment, the higher costs of running solitary housing units, the human rights issues surrounding the use of isolation, and successful state reforms in this area.

This hearing is open to the public.  The list of witnesses will be announced on a future date.

Chairman Durbin invites interested advocates and experts to submit written testimony to be included in the hearing record.  Statements should be less than 10 pages, and should be emailed to Nicholas Deml at Nicholas_Deml@judiciary-dem.senate.gov as early as possible, but no later than Friday, June 15, 2012 at 5:00 PM.

Senator Dick Durbin is Chairman of the Senate Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Human Rights.  The Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Human Rights was formed by merging the Constitution Subcommittee and the Human Rights and the Law Subcommittee, which Senator Durbin previously chaired.  The Subcommittee has jurisdiction over all constitutional issues, and all legislation and policy related to civil rights, civil liberties and human rights.  The Ranking Member of the Subcommittee is Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC).

Advocates are urging colleagues to submit statements and attend the hearings. David Fathi, who heads the ACLU’s National Prison Project, called the hearing a “huge opportunity” for those who support reform to make their voices heard.

Filed Under: civil liberties/civil rights, cost/budget issues, human rights, legislation, politics of punishment, psychological effects, solitary confinement, supermax prisons Tagged With: , , ,
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