US Supreme Court Justice Kennedy reprehends solitary confinement

U.S prisons and jails have been criticized for their excessive use of solitary confinement.

Research still confirms what this Court suggested over a century ago: Years on end of near-total isolation exacts a terrible price. – Anthony Kennedy Supreme Court justice

Kennedy criticized solitary confinement on June 18. His comments suggested the court should rule if it violates the constitutional ban on cruel and unusual punishments. He cited the case of Kalief Browder, a teenager kept in solitary for two years without a conviction and who eventually committed suicide.

• Browder's case: Mental Illness At Rikers

The U.S. Dept. of Justice in March accused the Baltimore City Detention Center of violating federal and state laws by subjecting juveniles to solitary confinement for "extraordinary" periods of time, up to 143 days in one case. Extended isolation can be psychologically damaging, a highly-critical federal review said.

Teens accused of violating rules are held in solitary for up to 14 days followed by a wait of 80 days for a disciplinary hearing, which the review said was "grossly excessive and violates basic principles of Due Process." In three cases juveniles were kept in solitary for 36, 42 and 53 days each, accounting for 50% of their total incarceration.

The advocacy group Vera Institute of Justice said on March 24 that it would work with the Nebraska, Oregon and North Carolina corrections systems to reduce the use of solitary confinement. A day prior, conservative Justice Anthony Kennedy and liberal Justice Stephen Breyer both criticized solitary confinement, which Kennedy said "literally drives men mad."

The conditions in which these people live impose such severe deprivations that they leave prison mentally damaged; as a group, people released from solitary are more likely to commit more new crimes than people released from the rest of the prison system. – American Civil Liberties Union of Texas

The report published in early February found that the Texas Dept. of Criminal Justice houses 4.4% of its prison population, roughly 146,000 people, in solitary confinement. Prisoners spend an average of nearly four years in solitary confinement and more than 100 have spent 20 years or more.

Although these conditions may not appear overtly degrading… it is the subtle torture of the day-to-day, month-to-month, and year-to-year passing of precious time under these oppressive, alienated conditions that truly makes confinement here such a dehumanizing experience. – prisoner testimony from "Still Buried Alive: Arizona Prisoner Testimonies on Isolation in Maximum-Security"

A Dec. 2014 investigation on solitary confinement in Arizona found some 3,300 Arizona inmates were being kept in isolation. Arizona's Dept. of Corrections also opened a new facility in 2014 exclusively designed for single-cell, long-term prisoner isolation.

Arizona's ACLU chapter settled a lawsuit against the Arizona Dept. of Corrections on behalf of 33,000 prisoners in Oct. 2014. The lawsuit alleged excessive use of solitary confinement and inadequate mental health and medical care. Arizona agreed to reforms, including overhauling rules for prisoners with serious mental illnesses.

• Mississippi prisons case: Barbaric Mississippi Prison Conditions Lawsuit

Colorado became the second state to ban solitary confinement for prisoners with serious mental illness in June 2014, following the 2013 murder of state prisons chief Tom Clements at the hands of prisoner Evan Ebel, who spent much of his eight years in prison in solitary confinement.

• Learn more: CO Corrections Chief Killing Case

The numbers are staggering but even worse is the length of terms… It is not uncommon for people to spend 25, 30 years and even more in solitary confinement. – Juan Mendez UN special rapporteur on torture

Mendez accused U.S. officials on March 11 of delaying and denying visits to U.S. prisons. He was told federal prisons were "unavailable," while authorities did not reply to requests to visit state prisons. He was also allowed only limited access to Guantanamo Bay.

• UN review: US Torture and Human Rights Policies

Our Sources For This Story

• Senate limits solitary confinement, enforces charity health care | The Colorado Independent
  http://www.coloradoindependent.com/146979/senate-limits-solitary-confinement-enforces-charity-healthcare
• Colorado Senate approves solitary confinement curb | KOAA.com |
  http://www.koaa.com/news/colorado-senate-approves-solitary-confinement-curb/
• Limit on solitary advances in Colorado Senate
  http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_25567244/limit-solitary-advances-senate