Seven Days in Solitary [1/17/2016]

Our Weekly Roundup of News and Views on Solitary Confinement

by | January 17, 2016

• RH Reality Check published an article about trans people in prison “suffer[ing] rape, coercion, denial of medical treatment.” The piece also discusses the frequency with which trans people are placed in solitary confinement, ostensibly for their own protection.

• San Francisco is considering placing limits on the time incarcerated youth can spend in solitary confinement. The use of “room confinement” is currently not limited by policy or state law.

• The Discovery Channel published a video entitled, “How Solitary Confinement Impacts the Mind.”

• The American Correctional Association (ASA) is developing new accreditation standards when it comes to the use of solitary confinement. “The punishment that we give to Americans is deprivation of their liberty, but it doesn’t mean that we try to punish them more while their liberty is deprived,” said ASA executive director James Gondles.

• People held at Waupun Correctional Institution were not told that Wisconsin had decreased sentences for time spent in the box. One individual, Markell Simon, agreed to serve 180 days in disciplinary segregation because he was not aware that the DOC had cut maximum sentences by 75% – from 360 days to 90 days – for individual offenses.

• MinnPost published an op-ed calling for the end of solitary confinement of children in Minnesota. Authors Jason Sole and Rachel Wannarka write, “Minnesota should pass legislation defining confinement practices that amount to solitary confinement and then prohibiting it for juveniles, except for strictly limited intervals under legitimate emergency conditions.”

• The Yale Law Journal published a collection of essays on solitary confinement, in response to the ASCA-Liman 2014 National Survey of Administrative Segregation in Prison:

 

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