Solitary confinement in the United States
[2] Solitary confinement first arose in the United States in the 1700s among religious groups like the Quakers, who thought isolation with a Bible would lead to repentance and rehabilitation.
[3] Today, solitary confinement is a controversial form of punishment that studies suggest has long-lasting detrimental effects on inmates' psychological health.
Court cases arguing that solitary confinement violates the Eighth Amendment to the United States Constitution's ban on cruel and unusual punishment have had mixed success, with solitary confinement found to constitute cruel and unusual punishment when applied to mentally ill inmates but deemed permissible for sane adults.
In 1818, New York reformer and Friend, Thomas Eddy, lobbied for inmate labor and solitary confinement in place of other forms of punishment such as hanging.
[16] A May 2013 report on California's Pelican Bay State Prison in Mother Jones magazine also cites one inmate there who "recently marked his 40th year in solitary".
In light of the serious, long-lasting psychological effects solitary confinement can have, inmates have argued that the mental injuries they suffer qualify as "cruel and unusual punishment."
The Prison Litigation Reform Act (PLRA) further complicates inmates' ability to claim that solitary confinement's psychological damage constitutes cruel and unusual punishment.
[18] Court cases made on these bases do not necessarily address any "underlying problems" of solitary confinement, but they do call for increased monitoring, hearing, and reviews.
John F. Cockrell, a recent graduate from the University of Alabama School of Law, suggests that those who challenge solitary confinement do so in context of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA).
[19] Additionally, the US Department of Justice found multiple violations of the Constitution and ADA after investigating the use of solitary confinement for mentally ill inmates in two Pennsylvania prisons.
[19] These rulings do not guarantee that the mentally ill will not be put in solitary confinement; although they are considered a vulnerable group, these prisoners still have "limited" recourse to the Eighth Amendment.
[21] One landmark case, Madrid v. Gomez, challenged the conditions of the Security Housing Unit (SHU) in the Pelican Bay State Prison.
[21] However, in regard to SHU's isolation of the mentally ill and the conditions of their solitary confinement, the court found that the prison had violated the Eighth Amendment.
[28] The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and Human Rights Watch created a report that incorporated the testimony of some juvenile inmates.
Many spoke of harming themselves with staples, razors, even plastic eating utensils, having hallucinations, losing touch with reality, and having thoughts of or attempting suicide – all this while having extremely limited access to health care.
[28]: 29–35 [29] Juveniles in solitary confinement are routinely denied access to treatment, services, and programming required to meet their medical, psychological, developmental, social, and rehabilitative needs.
While this can be partly attributed to voluntary reforms instituted by prison administrators, much of this progress has taken place due to legislation passed at the state and local levels.
[30] In states where such laws are in effect, corrections agencies have continued to hold people in solitary for days or months beyond the legal limit, pointing to the need for ongoing monitoring and enforcement.
[33] Unlock the Box is a national coalition of advocacy groups with the goal of ending prolonged solitary confinement in the United States within the next ten years.
[35] Individuals held in the Pelican Bay SHU organized a series of hunger strikes in 2011 and 2013, which have been described as the "backbone of the anti-solitary movement" in the United States.
[37] In 2012, the Center for Constitutional Rights partnered with the lead organizers of the strike on a class action lawsuit, Ashker v. Governor of California, representing individuals housed in the Pelican Bay SHU.
As a result of the litigation, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) agreed to end indefinite solitary confinement in its facilities and implement due process for placements in SHU.
[42] The Massachusetts Department of Corrections has attempted to circumvent the solitary confinement reforms codified in the CJRA, for example by creating Secure Adjustment Units where people are held in isolation for 21 instead of 22 hours a day.
The most progressive anti-solitary legislation that had been passed up to that date, the HALT Act was the first to bring a state's use of solitary confinement in line with the 15-day limit mandated by the United Nations' Mandela Rules.
[47] The Correctional Association of New York, a prison oversight nonprofit, has released a report documenting additional "numerous departures" from the law in the early months of HALT implementation.
[50] This latter policy change was motivated in part by the death of Kalief Browder, who had spent more than 700 days in solitary confinement on Rikers as a teenager before committing suicide two years after his release.
These environmental risks include but are not limited to hypersensitivity to stimuli, distortions and hallucinations, increased anxiety and nervousness, diminished impulse control, severe and chronic depression, appetite loss and weight loss, heart palpitations, talking to oneself, problems sleeping, nightmares, self-mutilation, difficulties with thinking, concentration, and memory, and lower levels of brain function.
[54] Researchers at McGill University paid a group of male graduate students to stay in small chambers that were to replicate solitary confinement cells.
[56] King, Steiner, and Breach question the effectiveness of these institutions and claim the violent reputation of American prisons stems from this departure from the treatment model.
To substantiate this conclusion, she cites two quantitative research based studies that support this nexus and counters those who argue that solitary confinement deters recidivism.
