Solitary Confinement

Long-term solitary confinement is cruel, expensive and ineffective. Isolation creates and exacerbates symptoms of mental illness in prisoners, undermining successful re-entry into society and jeopardizing public safety. Meanwhile, states that have reduced their solitary populations have saved millions and seen violence plummet.

05/25/2012
Solitary Confinement

Solitary Confinement: “More broken than when they went in”

By Alisa Roth, ACLU at 10:54am
Joe Giarratano is hardly a typical prisoner: he’s been involved in two Supreme Court cases; he’s been published in the Yale Law Journal; and he’s ... Read More
05/15/2012
Solitary Confinement

16 and Solitary: Texas Jails Isolate Children

By Amy Fettig, National Prison Project & Matt Simpson, ACLU of Texas at 3:06pm
Imagine locking a teenager in a bathroom for an entire day, a week, a month, six months, a year, or longer. What would happen to that child? She would miss school. ... Read More
05/03/2012
Solitary Confinement

Too young to shave, but old enough for solitary

By David Fathi, National Prison Project at 5:24pm
As any parent knows, teenagers are different than adults. This common-sense observation is backed by hard scientific evidence; we know that an adolescent’s ... Read More
04/30/2012
Private Prisons

Private Prisons Are the Problem, Not the Solution

By Margaret Winter, National Prison Project & Gabriel Eber, National Prison Project at 4:38pm
For the past two years, the ACLU and the Southern Poverty Law Center have been investigating and exposing a horrifying pattern of abuse against juveniles and the ... Read More
04/25/2012
Connecticut

CT Ends Death Penalty! One Big Step for a Small State; One Giant Step for our Society

By Tanya Greene, ACLU at 2:36pm
Connecticut has finally wiped its hands of that messy and sorrowful task of killing its own citizens. Today, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy signed legislation to repeal the ... Read More
04/09/2012
Overincarceration

Breaking the Addiction to Incarceration: Weekly Highlights

By Alex Stamm, Center for Justice at 9:52am
Today, the U.S. has the highest incarceration rate of any country in the world. With over 2.3 million men and women living behind bars, our imprisonment rate ... Read More
04/04/2012
Solitary Confinement

Solitary Confinement: Torture in Your Backyard

By Rev. Richard Killmer Seeing and hearing prisoners who have experienced prolonged solitary confinement is not easy. The emotional and physical damage done to ... Read More
04/02/2012
Solitary Confinement

ACLU Calls for Tamms Closure

By Rachel Myers, ACLU at 1:29pm
In a new podcast, former Tamms prisoner Brian Nelson talks about the 23 years he spent in solitary confinement. Read More
03/30/2012
This Week in Civil Liberties

This Week in Civil Liberties (3/30/2012)

By Rekha Arulanantham, ACLU at 7:01pm
In which state did doctors try to force a pregnant woman to have a c-section against her wishes? What group can no longer be held in solitary confinement in ... Read More
03/29/2012
Solitary Confinement

"A Picture of Such Horror as Should Be Unrealized Anywhere in the Civilized World"

By Margaret Winter, National Prison Project at 1:27pm
A federal court judge has put a stop to the state of Mississippi's practice of putting kids convicted as adults in solitary confinement. Read More

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