"A Call to Reform Federal Solitary Confinement"

The title of this post is the title of this effective new report authored by Ilanit Turner and Noelle Collins with the Texas Public Policy Foundation.  Here is part of its executive summary (with cited removed):

Federal solitary confinement is in desperate need of repair. After a 40-year spike in federal incarceration rates beginning in 1980 has tapered off, a bipartisan consensus for solitary confinement reform is finally starting to crystallize.

What was once considered a last-resort disciplinary practice in federal prisons has morphed into a default option when other correctional and administrative protocols fail on their first try.  This paper is the latest installment in the Texas Public Policy Foundation’s series of publications entailing prescriptions for local, state, and federal prison reform. Our research is especially timely as prison officials continue to misuse segregated housing units for medical isolation to combat COVID-19.  Because prison officials know they have limited alternatives to curb transmission, improperly using COVID-19 as a justification for solitary confinement is apparently a tempting option.  Warehousing sick inmates poses a unique challenge as those who report symptoms are unjustifiably forced to endure an experience known to cause mental and physical harm.

The current landscape of solitary confinement data released on the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) website is insufficient.  The information on the precise order of operations for the types of infractions that land inmates in solitary is vague, publications of hearings considered for segregation are unavailable, and it is nearly impossible to determine the total length of time served in solitary confinement by each inmate.  Holding BOP accountable for this information should be emphasized if change is to be effected.

Any information that is known about solitary confinement reaches the outside world a day late and a policy short.  Charles Dickens (1842), a notable critic of the American penitentiary system, alluded to the effect of ignorance of solitude in his prescient observation a century and a half earlier, “this slow and daily tampering with the mysteries of the brain, [is] immeasurably worse than any torture of the body… and therefore I denounce it, as a secret punishment which slumbering humanity is not roused up to stay”. Little has changed. The prolonged effects of solitary confinement take the form of irreversible physical and mental health disorders.  When isolated inmates are granted the long-awaited second chance for release right after solitary confinement, they reoffend in rates disproportionately higher than the general prison population. Long durations in segregation exacerbate mental illnesses, leading to bouts of psychosis.  This prevents inmates from integrating back into the labor market, much less society in general, and is correlated with higher rates of criminal episodes.

The Foundation offers a list of policy solutions to improve the status quo of federal solitary confinement.  First and foremost, data transparency is essential. Pulling back the bureaucratic curtain of the federal prison system will reinforce administrative rectitude when deciding to use solitary confinement. Enhancing due process and ongoing review is another way to redirect prison officials to alternative punitive measures.  The BOP should also consider expanding educational and rehabilitative programming for inmates in isolation, as these changes will reduce occupancy and recidivism rates with a single policy adjustment.  Lastly, the BOP system owes it to the public to reduce violence and suicide for inmates in solitary by improving mental health assessments.  Addressing these issues can also reveal areas of endemic corruption that lead to further misuse of this practice.