The ‘boxcar’ style door on the cell is solid except for a shutter and a trap door that opens into the dead space of a vestibule through which a guard may transfer items to the inmate without interacting with him. The cells are illuminated 24 hours a day. Inmates receive no outdoor exercise. Their personal possessions are severely restricted: one religious text, one box of legal materials and 25 personal letters. They are permitted no clocks, radios, watches, casettle players or televisions. The temperature fluctuates wildly, reaching extremely high and low temperatures depending on the season. A video camera rather than a human eye monitors the inmate’s movements. Visits other than with lawyers are conducted through video screens” (ACLU, 2019).

 

 

• By 1999 more than 30 states were operating a supermax facility (ACLU, 2019).
• There is a minimum of 20,000 people being held in solitary confinement in the United States (ACLU, 2019).
• 54 prisoners have been held in solitary confinement for more than 10 consecutive years (ACLU, 2019).
• Prisoners are often held for indefinite periods of time, spending 23 hours a day in total isolation (ACLU, 2019).
• Many inmates left in solitary confinement, even for short periods of time, fell into a semi-fatuous condition (nearly impossible to be roused from) and others became violently insane or commited/attempted to commit suicide. Few were reformed following being confined, and most did not recover from the ordeal (ACLU, 2019).
  “In 2002, a California prison psychiatrist told Human Rights Watch: “It’s a standard psychiatric concept, if you put people in isolation, they will go insane… Most people in isolation will fall apart” (ACLU, 2019).
• More often than not, those who are placed in solitary confinement have some sort of mental illness. 10 to 20 percent of prisoners in the United States have a mental illness, but it is much higher in supermax facilities (well over half in some cases). Solitary confinement often leads to their conditions deteriorating rapidly (ACLU, 2019).
• There is a much higher risk of physical abuse and use of excessive force in solitary confinement. Misuse of chemical agents, physical restraints and stun guns is especially common. Due to the isolation of these cells, mistreatment often goes unnoticed, especially because many turn a blind eye due to the stigma surrounding those who are placed in solitary confinement. The mentally ill are at higher risk of suffering these abuses, as their symptoms are often misinterpreted as unruly (ACLU, 2019).

 

ACLU makes the following recommendations surrounding solitary confinement:

• Solitary confinement should be used only in very exceptional cases, for as short a time as possible and only as a last resort.
• Segregation of prisoners for their own protection should take place in the least restrictive setting possible.
• Decrease extreme isolation by allowing for in-cell programming, supervised out-of-cell exercise, face-to-face interaction with staff, and access to television, radio, telephone calls, correspondence, and reading material.
• Decrease sensory deprivation by limiting the use of auditory isolation, deprivation of light and reasonable darkness, and punitive diets.
• Allow prisoners to gradually earn more privileges and be subjected to fewer restrictions, even if they continue to require physical separation from others.
• Prohibit solitary confinement of prisoners with mental illness, children under age 18, and death row and life-sentenced prisoners by virtue of their sentence.
• Prohibit the intention use of solitary confinement to apply psychological pressure to prisoners.
• Carefully monitor prisoners in solitary confinement for signs of mental illness and promptly remove them from solitary confinement if such signs appear.
• Invite United Nations special rapporteur on torture to conduct a fact finding mission and facilitate access to prisons and inmates victims of prolonged solitary confinement.

 

 

 

References

 

ACLU. (2019). Abuse of the human rights of prisoners in the United States: Solitary confinement. Retrieved from https://www.aclu.org/other/abuse-human-rights-prisoners-united-states-solitary-confinement.

 

Media retrieved from https://www.themarshallproject.org/2016/11/30/a-new-report-gives-the-most-detailed-breakdown-yet-of-how-isolation-is-used-in-u-s-prisons