Shifting Away from Solitary
More states have passed solitary confinement reforms this year than in the past 16 years.
A number of events pushed solitary confinement onto the agenda, said Jean Casella of the advocacy group Solitary Watch, including a seminal New Yorker article describing solitary as a form of torture, the ACLU taking up the issue in 2011 and a 2013 anti-solitary hunger strike in the Pelican Bay State Prison in California.
Below, a closer look at every solitary reform measure implemented in the United States. The list does not include pending legislation, such as the three solitary reform bills that were introduced in Congress in the span of five months this year, and New Jersey’s much-discussed solitary reform legislation, which was introduced this month.
Solitary Confinement Reforms by State, 1998-2014
2014 - The biggest year for reform
includes the response to a highly publicized hunger strike, two corrections
commissioners sleeping in solitary, and a New York Times exposé.
ARIZONA
Oct. 14: The ACLU files a settlement
agreement with the Arizona Department of Corrections, resolving a class-action
lawsuit on behalf of more than 33,000 prisoners. Among other reforms, the
settlement provides mentally ill prisoners in solitary confinement with more
access to mental health treatment and time outside their cells.
CALIFORNIA
After a nationally publicized hunger strike
by prisoners in Pelican Bay State Prison's Security Housing Unit, the
Department of Corrections makes permanent a 2012 pilot program for releasing
prisoners previously held in solitary confinement into general population. Over
four hundred prisoners have qualified for release, of which over 150 have been
moved so far. In addition, new regulations are introduced regarding who may be
placed in isolation.
COLORADO
Under the leadership of Tom Clements
(who was murdered in March 2013 by a man who'd been released directly from
solitary confinement) and then Rick Raemisch (who this January famously spent a night in solitary confinement himself), the Department of Corrections has reduced the number of
prisoners in solitary confinement by two-thirds, from 1,500 in 2011. Raemisch
has testified that he wants to see that number reduced by another 100 prisoners
by next summer. Colorado now has a limited number of permissible reasons for
placing inmates in solitary confinement, though some advocates believe the
state has reduced its numbers simply by no longer calling solitary confinement
"solitary confinement." On June 6, Gov. John Hickenlooper codifies
many of Colorado's already-implemented reforms, signing legislation banning the
solitary confinement of the seriously mentally ill.
INDIANA
February: Mike Dempsey, head of the
Indiana Department of Corrections Division of Youth Services, reports to a
group of corrections professionals that Indiana has reduced the number of
juveniles in solitary confinement from 48 beds to five to 10, with a maximum
stay of 24 hours.
MICHIGAN
Since 2011, the Department of
Corrections has cut the number of "dedicated solitary" beds from
1,400 to 1,100. In addition, MDOC is expanding its “Incentives in Segregation” program — which expands social programming for prisoners in
solitary confinement as a way of encouraging positive behavior — from one
facility to five.
NEBRASKA
Dec.15: After hearing testimony from
experts from around the country, a bipartisan legislative commission makes 16 recommendations
to the state's Corrections Department, including the firing of three prison
officials and "significant reduction in the use of segregated confinement,
beginning with removing the mentally ill and the cognitively impaired."
NEW MEXICO
The New Mexico Corrections
Department, responding to the recommendations of a Vera Institute-led
"working group" convened in 2011 by the state legislature, commits on
Feb. 12 to reducing its reliance on solitary confinement. The department plans
to emphasize alternative disciplinary measures, build new general population
units, and develop social programming for the prisoners who remain in solitary.
On May 2, after spending two days in solitary confinement himself, state
Secretary of Corrections Gregg Marcantel challenges judges who hear
disciplinary cases to consider alternatives before isolation; several inmates
are released from solitary confinement into the general population. The corrections
department has pledged to reduce the percentage of state prisoners in solitary
confinement from 9.6 percent to 5 percent by next year.
NEW YORK
As a result of a settlement
agreement with the NYCLU in Peoples v. Fischer, on Feb. 19, New York's becomes
the largest prison system to ban the solitary confinement of juveniles for
disciplinary reasons. (Pregnant women and prisoners with developmental
disabilities are also largely protected from the punishment.) The agreement
imposes unprecedented sentencing guidelines, specifying the maximum terms of
solitary confinement that may be handed down for various disciplinary
infractions. In a Sept. 28 memo to Mayor
Bill De Blasio, Corrections Commissioner Joseph Ponte (who previously
spearheaded solitary confinement reform in Maine) says solitary confinement of
16- and 17-year-olds at Riker's Island will be eliminated by the end of the year.
New York City has been under pressure to do so from a U.S. Department of
Justice investigation, as well as the investigative reporting of The New York
Times. On Oct. 17, the Department of Corrections resolves Cookhorne v. Fischer,
updating its policies to prohibit juveniles from being held in solitary
confinement. Correctional officers will be trained in dealing with juveniles,
and more social workers will be hired.
OHIO
May 21: The U.S. Department of
Justice reaches an agreement
with the state, under which the Department of Youth Services must reduce the
frequency and duration of (and ultimately eliminate) solitary confinement for
juveniles. Many commentators have suggested that the deal is a warning sign
from the Justice Department, indicating to states who haven't acted that
solitary confinement reform for juveniles is a federal priority.
WISCONSIN
March-April: Corrections Secretary
Ed Wall releases a memo to DOC
employees articulating his vision for reforming the use of solitary
confinement. New rules are proposed and quickly approved by the Legislature,
and are set to go into effect in January.
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2013
2013 - Several states limit the
amount of time inmates spend in isolation.
FEDERAL
Sept. 4: U.S. Immigration and
Customs Enforcement issues a directive limiting the solitary confinement of
detainees to extreme circumstances.
ILLINOIS
Jan. 4: Following years of
legislative debate surrounding solitary housing practices at the notorious
supermax facility, Tamms Correctional Center, Gov. Pat Quinn closes the facility.
NEVADA
June 1: After a legislative review
of the issue, Gov. Brian Sandoval approves a bill restricting solitary
confinement in juvenile facilities, including a ban on isolation over 72 hours.
The law also mandates the keeping of comprehensive monthly records of when and
where solitary confinement is used. Meanwhile, Ely State Prison continues to
have some of the worst solitary confinement practices in the country.
NEW YORK
September-December: Under pressure
from the Jails Action Coalition, the New York City Board of Corrections
initiates rule-making on the issue of solitary confinement, and begins
reassigning mentally ill prisoners to facilities with therapeutic resources.
OKLAHOMA
Oklahoma establishes an apparent
statutory ban on the solitary confinement of juveniles, though the code remains
vague about emergency conditions in which such isolation may be allowed.
VIRGINIA
Virginia reduced the number of
prisoners in segregation by 62 percent since 2011, and is implementing a “step-down” program allowing inmates to earn their way out of solitary
confinement.
- Collapse
2012
2012 - The movement takes hold. Six
states implement reforms.
ALASKA
Oct. 15: Alaska's delinquency rules
are changed to include a regulation banning the solitary confinement of
juveniles for punitive reasons. However, the state's definition of "secure
confinement" is vague, and it's not clear how (or whether) the regulation
is being implemented.
COLORADO
Jan. 1: Partly as a result of a 2011
legislative review,
the Department of Corrections begins reclassifying hundreds of prisoners from
solitary confinement into the general population. The bar is raised for putting
prisoners into isolation, and new procedures for re-entry and mental health
care are developed. On March 19, after a unanimous vote in the General
Assembly, the state closes State Penitentiary II, a facility of entirely
single-inmate solitary confinement cells. Excessive costs and reduced demand
for "administrative segregation" are the reasons cited.
CONNECTICUT
April 25: Connecticut establishes a
statutory ban on the solitary confinement of juveniles. However, the new
statute's language doesn't define "solitary confinement," and a
subsequent 2014 statute seems to allow the "seclusion" of
post-adjudicated juveniles if it's officially authorized. Reports of juveniles
being placed in isolation have continued.
MASSACHUSETTS
April 12: As a result of a
settlement with the Disability Law Center, the Department of Corrections begins
rewriting its policies to exclude severely mentally ill prisoners from solitary
confinement. Additionally, two new maximum-security mental health treatment
facilities are designed.
MISSISSIPPI
Feb. 27: As a result of a federal
class-action lawsuit filed by the ACLU and the Southern Poverty Law Center,
juveniles are prohibited from being housed in solitary confinement.
WEST VIRGINIA
April 26: As a result of a lawsuit in
which two inmates claimed their treatment violated a 1998 law, Division of
Juvenile Services Director Dale Humphreys announces he has ordered an end to the practice of punishing
juveniles with solitary confinement.
2010
2010 - Maine and Mississippi: Two
very different models for change.
MAINE
Under the leadership of Corrections
Commissioner Joseph Ponte, Maine’s Department of Corrections revamps its Special Management Unit, cutting the population of prisoners in solitary
confinement in half. Now, placing a prisoner in the SMU for longer than 72
hours requires the personal approval of the commissioner of Corrections.
Placement in “the hole” has been replaced with informal punishments, and social
programming has been expanded.
MISSISSIPPI
June 4: After the ACLU files a
lawsuit, Department of Corrections Commissioner Christopher Epps shuts down
Parchman Farm’s notorious Unit 32, a solitary confinement unit. A “Step-Down”
system is introduced, returning inmates to Parchman’s general population. Under
Epps, the number of prisoners in solitary confinement drops from 1,300 to 300.
(However, some of the prisoners are moved from solitary confinement at Parchman
into private facilities operated by companies from which Epps would later be
indicted for taking bribes.)
- Collapse
2008 - New York follows up by
enacting legislation.
2007
NEW YORK
Jan. 16: New York passes the first
solitary confinement reform bill of its kind, the SHU Exclusion Law. The law,
which took effect in 2011,
requires the Department of Corrections and Community Supervision to review and
report its solitary confinement policies, remove mentally ill prisoners from
isolation, ensure that those prisoners' standard of care is higher than that of
other inmates, and build a new therapeutic, non-disciplinary prison unit.
- Collapse
2007 - Court orders New York to curb
solitary for the mentally ill.
NEW YORK
April 17: As part of the settlement
in Disability Advocates Inc. v. New York State Office of Mental Health,
seriously mentally ill prisoners are required to receive opportunities for
out-of-cell time, as well as improved mental health screening and programming.
1998
1998 - West Virginia is the first
state to pass a law banning solitary for juveniles. (In 2012 two juveniles sued
saying the state was not following its own law.)
WEST VIRGINIA
April 1: Gov. Cecil Underwood
approves legislation prohibiting the solitary confinement of juveniles, though
the prohibition only applies to solitary confinement lasting longer than 10
days. It is not clear that the law is enforced in practice until 2012, when a lawsuit
from two juvenile prisoners forces the Division of Juvenile Services to comply.
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