Solitary confinement has many euphemisms: administrative segregation, restrictive housing unit, security management unit, secure housing unit.
No matter what you call it, the practice remains the same: for months, years or even decades, a single human being is confined in a bathroom-sized cage for 23 hours a day.
Their single hour of respite is taken alone in a tiny outdoor cage, insufficiently spacious for any recreational activity other than pacing. Even that meager privilege is denied on weekends; sometimes withdrawn completely. Those in solitary confinement have little or no opportunity to talk to, or otherwise meaningfully interact with, other human beings. With the exception of incidental contact accompanying the placing or removing of shackles, they go years or decades without experiencing human touch. In short, they are utterly alone.
Irrespective of the precise set of restrictions, the outcome is unvarying: prisoners condemned to solitary confinement endure grave and permanent psychological and physiological harm. As Justice Kennedy has written, it is a practice that brings prisoners “to the edge of madness, perhaps to madness itself.”
It is time to put an end to solitary confinement.
Key Cases
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Reyes v. Clarke
Solitary Confinement
The MacArthur Justice Center partnered with ACLU of Virginia filed a lawsuit alleging violations of Mr. Reyes, who has been kept in extreme solitary confinement for over 12 years. He remains in solitary solely because he cannot speak or read English and therefore cannot complete the Step-Down Program, requiring reflective journaling and other lessons, mandated the Virginia Department of Corrections.
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Gay v. State of Illinois
Solitary Confinement
Lawsuit against Illinois Department of Corrections on behalf of Anthony Gay who was held in solitary for almost 20 years. The state's action not only compounded his torture, but prolonged it and caused him to take erratic and irrational actions, which included cutting himself hundreds of times and lashing out at guards.
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Lee v. Virginia Department of Corrections
Solitary Confinement
Mr. Lee has suffered from mental illness since childhood, having been hospitalized several times prior to his incarceration. His mental history makes him extremely vulnerable to solitary confinement. Within two months of isolation, he began to exhibit symptoms of severe mental illness, including speaking only in numbers and losing the ability to sign his own...
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Wallace v. Baldwin (Seventh Circuit)
Solitary Confinement
Mr. Wallace, who suffers from mental illness, has been in solitary confinement since 2006. Mr. Wallace sued, charging that his solitary confinement and the process accompanying its imposition violated the constitution. The district court dismissed the case after concluding that Mr. Wallace was not under imminent danger of serious physical injury and, accordingly, could not...
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Mason v. Schaefer et al.
Solitary Confinement
The MacArthur Justice Center represents Delarren Mason in a lawsuit seeking compensation for solitary confinement he experienced as a 17-year-old pre-trial detainee at the St. Clair County Juvenile Detention Center in St. Clair County, Illinois. Mr. Mason was detained for eight months for a crime he did not commit. Mr. Mason alleges that during this...
Key Facts
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80,000 - 100,000
Today, between 80,000 and 100,000 people endure solitary confinement in state and federal prisons. -
First Resort
Far from being a last-resort measure reserved for the “worst of the worst,” solitary confinement has become a control strategy of first resort in many prisons and jails. -
6×9 to 8×10 Feet
Solitary confinement cells generally measure from 6×9 to 8×10 feet -
Leading Cause of Prison Suicide
Suicides among people held in isolation account for almost 50% of all prison suicides.