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| Keeping prisoners in solitary confinement isn’t just cruel, it’s ineffective |
| By nationalpost.com- Helen Vera |
| Published: 02/28/2014 |
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Last week, the New York State Department of Corrections announced an agreement to dramatically limit solitary confinement in its prisons. New York’s prison system will now be the largest in the country to stop using solitary as a punishment on prisoners younger than 18. Officials have also vowed to begin removing pregnant women and the developmentally disabled from extreme isolation and to begin cutting back the length of time prisoners may spend in solitary confinement. The agreement is just a first step toward reform in New York, but it’s still a human-rights victory. It’s also smart policy. As we know from human-rights advocates, medical professionals and psychiatrists — not to mention journalists — the human psyche cannot easily bear being locked in a cell the size of a bathroom for 22 to 24 hours a day. People in solitary confinement spend months, years, even decades of their lives with almost no social interaction. Prisoners with mental illness and young people in solitary confinement are much more likely to try to kill or harm themselves when they are held in solitary. Across the country, 80,000 people are held in these conditions, not because of extraordinary situations or major threats, but as a matter of course. It’s become standard correctional policy. Read More. |
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