Christopher Zoukis's Blog - Posts Tagged "solitary-confinement"
U.S. treatment of Chelsea Manning spits on Mandela Rules
Not three months have passed since the United States loudly trumpeted its resounding support for the adoption of the new United Nations’ “Mandela Rules” for the treatment of prisoners, and already, we’re treating it as though it’s not worth the paper it’s printed on.
chelsea manning faced indefinite solitary confinement, in contravention of the mandela rules
This week whistleblower Chelsea Manning, who is serving a 35-year sentence in Fort Leavenworth, was sentenced to 21 days of restrictions in the maximum security facility. Listed amongst her offences were disrespect and disorderly conduct (when she requested to see her lawyer after a cafeteria incident), as well as “medicine misuse” (for having expired toothpaste), and possession of copies of I am Malala, Out Magazine, the Caitlyn Jenner issue of Vanity Fair, and other titles.
For these offences, Manning faced the possibility of indefinite solitary confinement. To those have followed the development of the Mandela Rules and the US’ involvement in its creation, you will remember that the document clearly sets out that solitary confinement is never to last beyond 14 days, but that it is also only to be used as a last resort—how a toothpaste offence constitutes anything meriting such measures is beyond me.
Manning was spared isolation, but the mere fact that she was threatened with indefinite confinement speaks volumes as to the level of commitment American prisoners have in adhering to the rules set out in the document.
We do not get to extol to the world the virtues of our criminal justice system and declare us to be the harbingers of global justice when we so flippantly disregard the practices we preach to others. We do not get to proudly declare to the world that we have authored the seminal document on prisoners’ rights while trampling on those same rights the moment the public’s back is turned.
chelsea manning faced indefinite solitary confinement, in contravention of the mandela rules
This week whistleblower Chelsea Manning, who is serving a 35-year sentence in Fort Leavenworth, was sentenced to 21 days of restrictions in the maximum security facility. Listed amongst her offences were disrespect and disorderly conduct (when she requested to see her lawyer after a cafeteria incident), as well as “medicine misuse” (for having expired toothpaste), and possession of copies of I am Malala, Out Magazine, the Caitlyn Jenner issue of Vanity Fair, and other titles.
For these offences, Manning faced the possibility of indefinite solitary confinement. To those have followed the development of the Mandela Rules and the US’ involvement in its creation, you will remember that the document clearly sets out that solitary confinement is never to last beyond 14 days, but that it is also only to be used as a last resort—how a toothpaste offence constitutes anything meriting such measures is beyond me.
Manning was spared isolation, but the mere fact that she was threatened with indefinite confinement speaks volumes as to the level of commitment American prisoners have in adhering to the rules set out in the document.
We do not get to extol to the world the virtues of our criminal justice system and declare us to be the harbingers of global justice when we so flippantly disregard the practices we preach to others. We do not get to proudly declare to the world that we have authored the seminal document on prisoners’ rights while trampling on those same rights the moment the public’s back is turned.
Obama Orders Curbs on Solitary Confinement of Juveniles, Other Reforms
President Barack Obama on Jan. 25 announced he was ordering an end to most solitary confinement of juvenile prisoners in federal prisons and implementing other reforms recommended by a Department of Justice (DOJ) working group.
In a speech last July to the NAACP national convention, the president had announced he had asked Attorney General Loretta Lynch to lead a review of what he said was overuse of solitary confinement, and to develop strategies for reducing its use.
The newly-released DOJ report concludes corrections facilities may occasionally need to use solitary confinement for safety reasons, but adds the practice should be subject to reasonable limits and employed fairly and only rarely, as a last resort, not the default response. The Bureau of Prisons has reduced by almost 25% the number of federal prisoners in solitary, DOJ notes (using the term “restrictive housing”).
DOJ’s new restrictions on subjecting juvenile prisoners in the federal prison system to solitary confinement were taken from a section of a broader criminal law reform bill (S. 2123) introduced last October with bipartisan backing. Other reforms ordered by the president include: disallowing solitary confinement as a punishment for minor inmate misconduct; reducing maximum and minimum time limits on its use for more serious behavior; increasing the capacity of secure mental health facilities, so more inmates suffering from serious mental illness can be sent there for treatment; ordering wardens to draw up plans to maximize prisoners’ out-of-cell time; developing less restrictive housing units for prisoners nearing release; and publishing system-wide statistics on restrictive housing monthly on the Bureau of Prisons website.
To explain his actions, the president also contributed an op-ed article to the next day’s issue of the Washington Post. It began by recounting the story of Kalief Browder. Starting shortly before his 17th birthday, Browder spent three years in New York City’s Rikers Island jail, two of those years in solitary confinement. While a high school sophomore, he was arrested on charges of stealing a backpack – which he denied – but was never tried.
Unable to post bail, Browder languished at Rikers, where he claimed he was often mistreated by guards and inmates. In jail, he several times attempted suicide. After being released when prosecutors finally dropped charges, he returned home to the Bronx and began attending a community college, but within a few years, hanged himself at his mother’s apartment. The president noted solitary confinement “doesn’t make us safer” but stands as an “affront to our common humanity.”
The changes announced by the president are welcome and overdue, but will directly reach just a small part of the problem. Only a few dozen federal prison inmates are younger than 18; as of last December, the entire federal prison system had fewer than 10,000 inmates in restrictive housing. While the president notes American jails and prisons may hold 100,000 inmates in solitary confinement at any given time, most of them are in state or local facilities.
The real test will be whether the new White House action is followed by greater interest and action by states and localities, and whether DOJ and the Bureau of Prisons perform needed follow-up. Legislators and corrections officials in a growing number of areas have in recent years - whether prodded by litigation or by discovering its inhumaneness and ineffectiveness – begun to seek alternatives to solitary confinement. To help that effort, the latest DOJ report contains numerous examples of general principles and specific policy recommendations they would do well to consider.
Similarly, at the federal level, good intentions at the top are not a practical substitute for effective scrutiny of how well or poorly federal prison officials are carrying out the president’s new directives, and some parts of the plan will require new Congressional funding. Let’s all work for greater progress at both levels.
In a speech last July to the NAACP national convention, the president had announced he had asked Attorney General Loretta Lynch to lead a review of what he said was overuse of solitary confinement, and to develop strategies for reducing its use.
The newly-released DOJ report concludes corrections facilities may occasionally need to use solitary confinement for safety reasons, but adds the practice should be subject to reasonable limits and employed fairly and only rarely, as a last resort, not the default response. The Bureau of Prisons has reduced by almost 25% the number of federal prisoners in solitary, DOJ notes (using the term “restrictive housing”).
DOJ’s new restrictions on subjecting juvenile prisoners in the federal prison system to solitary confinement were taken from a section of a broader criminal law reform bill (S. 2123) introduced last October with bipartisan backing. Other reforms ordered by the president include: disallowing solitary confinement as a punishment for minor inmate misconduct; reducing maximum and minimum time limits on its use for more serious behavior; increasing the capacity of secure mental health facilities, so more inmates suffering from serious mental illness can be sent there for treatment; ordering wardens to draw up plans to maximize prisoners’ out-of-cell time; developing less restrictive housing units for prisoners nearing release; and publishing system-wide statistics on restrictive housing monthly on the Bureau of Prisons website.
To explain his actions, the president also contributed an op-ed article to the next day’s issue of the Washington Post. It began by recounting the story of Kalief Browder. Starting shortly before his 17th birthday, Browder spent three years in New York City’s Rikers Island jail, two of those years in solitary confinement. While a high school sophomore, he was arrested on charges of stealing a backpack – which he denied – but was never tried.
Unable to post bail, Browder languished at Rikers, where he claimed he was often mistreated by guards and inmates. In jail, he several times attempted suicide. After being released when prosecutors finally dropped charges, he returned home to the Bronx and began attending a community college, but within a few years, hanged himself at his mother’s apartment. The president noted solitary confinement “doesn’t make us safer” but stands as an “affront to our common humanity.”
The changes announced by the president are welcome and overdue, but will directly reach just a small part of the problem. Only a few dozen federal prison inmates are younger than 18; as of last December, the entire federal prison system had fewer than 10,000 inmates in restrictive housing. While the president notes American jails and prisons may hold 100,000 inmates in solitary confinement at any given time, most of them are in state or local facilities.
The real test will be whether the new White House action is followed by greater interest and action by states and localities, and whether DOJ and the Bureau of Prisons perform needed follow-up. Legislators and corrections officials in a growing number of areas have in recent years - whether prodded by litigation or by discovering its inhumaneness and ineffectiveness – begun to seek alternatives to solitary confinement. To help that effort, the latest DOJ report contains numerous examples of general principles and specific policy recommendations they would do well to consider.
Similarly, at the federal level, good intentions at the top are not a practical substitute for effective scrutiny of how well or poorly federal prison officials are carrying out the president’s new directives, and some parts of the plan will require new Congressional funding. Let’s all work for greater progress at both levels.
Bureau of Prisons Acts to Cut Back on Solitary Confinement
While prison systems and corrections officer unions are often reluctant to discuss the ills of solitary confinement, following pressure from various advocacy groups and even President Obama's stated policy goals of reducing such restrictive confinement, the Bureau of Prisons (BOP) has recently released information detailing just how common the practice of solitary confinement, or what BOP calls "Special Housing Units."
The most recent report, “Restricted Housing Data,” appeared in mid-May. It shows 8,228 inmates, or approximately 5.2%, of the 159,432 inmates housed in BOP custody – i.e., those in Bureau-operated prisons, not in privately managed or other types of facilities -- were in restricted confinement. In 2011, the figure was about 11,000.
Of them, 6,924 were housed on administrative detention status, while 1,304 were housed on disciplinary segregation status, only available as a formal sanction from a discipline hearing officer for misconduct. Inmates can be housed on administrative detention status for various reasons, including being under investigation for potential rule violations, awaiting transfer, protective custody, and pending transfer, and others.
In descending order of populations, the BOP data shows these reasons for its inmates being held in special housing units:
Pending investigation for a BOP violation (2,884 inmates)
Pending transfer or holdover (1,746 inmates)
Pending hearing for a BOP violation (1,217 inmates)
Inmate requested protective custody (407 inmates)
Pending classification (209 inmates)
Terminating disciplinary segregation, ordered to administrative detention (201 inmates)
Pending investigation for a criminal trial (141 inmates)
Awaiting administrative detention order (95 inmates)
Involuntary protective custody (24 inmates)
The BOP-released data also shows the amount of time federal prisoners are spending in restricted confinement. According to the data, 7,418 prisoners had been in the SHU for less than or equal to 90 days, 810 for over 90 days, 292 for over 180 days, and 65 for over 364 days. Of these, the Bureau clarifies 49 prisoners have been in the SHU for more than 30 days under protective custody status (often requested by inmates seeking isolation to avoid gang-related violence).
In January, six months after ordering the Department of Justice to examine federal uses of solitary confinement as part of a broader criminal justice reform project, the Obama administration announced executive actions designed to reduce use of restricted housing in federal prisons. Federal agencies, including BOP and Justice, were ordered to put the changes into effect within six months.
The revisions banned juvenile prisoners being placed in solitary confinement in federal prisons (only about a dozen juveniles were in solitary at the time), or for low-level offenses. The initiative also adopted over 50 detailed “Guiding Principles” for correctional facilities, devised by the Justice Department.
Despite these new federal policies, state prisons – not covered by the new federal changes -- have by far more prisoners, and prisoners in solitary confinement. But the Justice Department recently reached a major settlement of civil rights charges against a Mississippi county, Hinds County, home to the state’s largest city, Jackson, based on how prisoners there are treated. The proposed settlement, which must still be approved by a judge, would require the county to adopt many of the Justice Department’s new principles.
The most recent report, “Restricted Housing Data,” appeared in mid-May. It shows 8,228 inmates, or approximately 5.2%, of the 159,432 inmates housed in BOP custody – i.e., those in Bureau-operated prisons, not in privately managed or other types of facilities -- were in restricted confinement. In 2011, the figure was about 11,000.
Of them, 6,924 were housed on administrative detention status, while 1,304 were housed on disciplinary segregation status, only available as a formal sanction from a discipline hearing officer for misconduct. Inmates can be housed on administrative detention status for various reasons, including being under investigation for potential rule violations, awaiting transfer, protective custody, and pending transfer, and others.
In descending order of populations, the BOP data shows these reasons for its inmates being held in special housing units:
Pending investigation for a BOP violation (2,884 inmates)
Pending transfer or holdover (1,746 inmates)
Pending hearing for a BOP violation (1,217 inmates)
Inmate requested protective custody (407 inmates)
Pending classification (209 inmates)
Terminating disciplinary segregation, ordered to administrative detention (201 inmates)
Pending investigation for a criminal trial (141 inmates)
Awaiting administrative detention order (95 inmates)
Involuntary protective custody (24 inmates)
The BOP-released data also shows the amount of time federal prisoners are spending in restricted confinement. According to the data, 7,418 prisoners had been in the SHU for less than or equal to 90 days, 810 for over 90 days, 292 for over 180 days, and 65 for over 364 days. Of these, the Bureau clarifies 49 prisoners have been in the SHU for more than 30 days under protective custody status (often requested by inmates seeking isolation to avoid gang-related violence).
In January, six months after ordering the Department of Justice to examine federal uses of solitary confinement as part of a broader criminal justice reform project, the Obama administration announced executive actions designed to reduce use of restricted housing in federal prisons. Federal agencies, including BOP and Justice, were ordered to put the changes into effect within six months.
The revisions banned juvenile prisoners being placed in solitary confinement in federal prisons (only about a dozen juveniles were in solitary at the time), or for low-level offenses. The initiative also adopted over 50 detailed “Guiding Principles” for correctional facilities, devised by the Justice Department.
Despite these new federal policies, state prisons – not covered by the new federal changes -- have by far more prisoners, and prisoners in solitary confinement. But the Justice Department recently reached a major settlement of civil rights charges against a Mississippi county, Hinds County, home to the state’s largest city, Jackson, based on how prisoners there are treated. The proposed settlement, which must still be approved by a judge, would require the county to adopt many of the Justice Department’s new principles.
