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| California lawmakers hold hearing on prison solitary confinement policy |
| By news.yahoo.com - Sharon Bernstein |
| Published: 10/10/2013 |
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SACRAMENTO, California (Reuters) - California lawmakers concerned about solitary confinement in the state's troubled prison system promised at a hearing on Wednesday to seek to reform the state's practice of keeping inmates in near-isolation for decades. The hearing took place amid increasing attention to California's prison policies by human rights organizations, which say solitary confinement for such long periods of time is torture. "An 8-by-10 foot cell, no human contact, no chance to see the moon or the stars or the sun, or hear the birds for years and decades? That's torture," said prisoner advocate Keith James of Los Angeles. Of the roughly 120,000 inmates in the California system, 4,054 are held almost 24 hours a day in poured concrete rooms no larger than 100 square feet (9.3 square meters), according to testimony at the hearing. About 100 inmates have been in the units for more than 20 years, and an undisclosed number have been kept there for 30 years or more, officials said. Inmates protested the indefinite detention by starting a hunger strike in July that lasted two months and at its peak attracted 30,000 prisoners. The hunger strike prompted the hearings held on Wednesday. Democratic Assemblyman Tom Ammiano, who co-chaired the hearing, nodded his assent when a speaker said solitary confinement should be "wiped off the face of the earth." California is already struggling with other issues in its 34-prison system, including compliance with an order by a panel of federal judges to reduce severe overcrowding. A federal receiver oversees medical care, and mental health care is watched by a court-appointed monitor. It was not immediately clear what the lawmakers would be able to achieve, in part because Democratic Governor Jerry Brown has taken a relatively conservative stance on prison issues. Read More. |
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