Seven Days in Solitary [01/01/2017]

Our Weekly Roundup of News and Views on Solitary Confinement

by | January 1, 2017

•  The Charlotte Observer published a series of articles about the placement of youth in solitary in North Carolina’s jails, including one article that focused on the isolation of 16 and 17 year olds in Mecklenburg County, another article that outlined Mecklenburg County commissioner opposition to the practice, and a third article that examined the nationwide shift away from holding children in solitary. The head of North Carolina’s NAACP subsequently announced that his organization will conduct “a statewide investigation into the use of solitary for juveniles – and will push for an end to the practice.”

•  The Hill published a blog that examined the case against solitary confinement. “This year we learned that solitary confinement — keeping prisoners in their cells for 22 hours or more per day for long durations — is a harmful practice, and one that is widely overused in this country.” The post was written by Bianca Clark, the executive director of the non-profit Prison Lives.

•  Staff from the American Civil Liberties Union of Connecticut, along with the state’s corrections commissioner Scott Semple, are working to draft a bill that would codify changes made to the use of solitary confinement in Connecticut prisons. Policies said to be included in the legislation included a cap on the number of days people could be placed in administrative segregation, and restrictions the use of solitary for prisoners with mental illness or developmental disabilities.

•  Vice News highlighted how prisons across the US “routinely flout the Americans With Disabilities Act.” Journalist Erika Eichelberger writes, “the alleged violations include a case in Washington state where an inmate with neuropathy, a nerve condition that can cause numbness in the hands and feet, ended up living on the floor of his cell in solitary confinement.”

•  The mother of a recently incarcerated sheriff has pleaded for her son to be removed from solitary confinement. Sheriff Robert Arnold and two others have been accused of illegally profiting from a scheme to sell electronic cigarettes in the jail. “Imagine spending 23 hours a day in solitude in a windowless, 50-foot-square room for more than 80 days,” said the mother in a letter to US District Judge Kevin Sharp.

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