NY Civil Liberties Union Report Blasts Inhumane Use of Solitary Confinement
A report by the New York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU) issued on this day blasted the “inhumane, arbitrary use of solitary confinement in the New York State prison system.
The report, Boxed In, based on a year-long study, found that the use of solitary confinement is “arbitrary and unjustified,” and its often used as a “disciplinary tool of first resort.” Additionally, “extreme isolation harms prisoners and corrections staff,” causing “grave emotional and psychological harm even to healthy and mentally stable inmates.” Among corrections staff, the adverse consequences “affect their lives at work and home.”
Finally, the use of extreme isolation “negatively impacts prison and community safety.” It leads to unpredictable violent incidents that endanger both prisoners and staff, and also endangers community safety as released prisoners carry the adverse effects home with them.
The NYCLU filed a suit challenging the use of solitary confinement in the New York state prison system two months later, on December 6, 2012
Read the NYCLU report, Boxed In.
Learn more about solitary confinement from the ACLU.
Read: Michelle Alexander, The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness, 10th Anniversary edition (2020)
Learn more at Solitary Watch