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EGACY Yesterday. Today. Tomorrow.
WEDNESDAYS • Jan. 4, 2017
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INSIDE
Examining new Va. election map - 2 Scandal? Black woman as God - 8 A report on Va. mental health - 10 Pres. Obama reflects on legacy - 14
Richmond & Hampton Roads
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Initiative to examine solitary confinement in Va. The Virginia Department of Corrections (VADOC) is one of five selected across the country to participate in an initiative aimed at reducing the use of solitary confinement. The other departments of corrections, selected through a competitive process, include those in Louisiana, Minnesota, Nevada and Utah. The Vera Institute of Justice recently announced the Safe Alternatives to Segregation Initiative, through which the institute will work with participating states to assess their use of solitary confinement and develop viable strategies to safely reduce it, and assist with implementing changes. The states also will receive guidance from the initiative's advisory council, which includes practitioners of corrections systems that have successfully reduced their reliance on solitary confinement, as well as experts in the mental health and correctional reform fields. The Vera Institute will release a report in 2017 detailing findings and recommendations from its work with the five jurisdictions that joined the initiative last year — including North Carolina, which has banned the use of solitary confinement for juveniles, and Nebraska, which has ended the use of solitary confinement as a punishment for all disciplinary violations. While the use of solitary confinement is common in U.S. prisons and jails, especially among youth, research over the decades has underscored its harmful impact on the mental and physical health of those confined in isolation, as
well as emerging concerns about the potentially harmful effects on prison staff. It also is costlier than general population housing, and there is no evidence that it improves the overall safety of detention facilities. 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. Today, incarcerated men and women can be placed in complete isolation for months or years not only for violent acts but for possessing contraband, testing positive for drug use, ignoring orders, or using profanity. Others have ended up in solitary because they have untreated mental illnesses, are children in need of “protection,” are gay or transgender, are Muslim, have unsavory political beliefs, or report rape or abuse by prison officials. Virginia has been known for its tough stance on solitary confinement. For example, all death row inmates have beeen automatically isolated until their executions, a practice that state officials defend as necessary because condemned prisoners have less to fear from causing trouble, if given the opportunity. Also, a group of Rastafarian men were once placed in solitary–some for more than a decade–because they refused to cut their hair on religious grounds. Red Onion State Prison, a supermax complex in the southwest corner of Virginia near the Kentucky border, has long had a reputation as one of the harshest prisons in the nation.
VADOC has since reduced its use of solitary confinement, a move that has been celebrated not only by the department itself, but also by state and even federal officials Now, those awaiting execution get an extra half-hour of recreation each day, and a new yard with a basketball court and exercise equipment allows prisoner activity. They can hang out with up to three other death row inmates for an hour daily, and the state is building a room where they can watch TV, make phone calls, play games and send emails. They can hug and hold hands with relatives when they visit. “Those kinds of things are meaningful when so very little is granted to the inmates,” said Victor Glasberg, an attorney who represents several condemned men who challenged Virginia’s restrictions. The Vera Institute is using a $2.2 million matching grant from the Justice Department. It is working to reduce the use of solitary confinement especially on young wards. The corrections departments will undergo a Vera-led assessment to identify ways in which policy shifts can lower solitary use, and then develop alternative strategies for de-escalating the sort of conflicts that often lead to segregation. This is the second wave of sites Vera has worked with through its Safe Alternatives to Segregation Initiative, which began in 2015. The first slate included Nebraska, North Carolina, Oregon, New York City, and Middlesex County, New Jersey. Among the resources on Vera’s
Safe Alternatives website is a decent webinar on alternatives to segregation that focuses on juvenile facilities. The use of solitary confinement has been connected to all kinds of negative psychological impact. The issue of solitary confinement, particularly of young offenders, has garnered attention since 2014, when investigative journalists Trey Bundy and Daffodil Altan exposed the use of solitary at New York City’s Rikers Island. Earlier in 2016,, President Barack Obama took the largely symbolic step of banning solitary for juveniles in the federal prison system (there aren’t any juveniles housed by the Bureau of Prisons). While the scope of Safe Altneratives includes juvenile and adult facilities operated by corrections departments, a group of advocacy organizations formed a coalition focused on juvenile solitary confinement last April. Stop Solitary for Kids was started with a short- and long-game strategy: roll up victories in helping systems reduce solitary use in juvenile facilities, then eventually mount a constitutional challenge against the practice. Solitary Watch, an advocacy group against solitary confinement, defines solitary confinement as the practice of isolating people in closed cells for 22-24 hours a day, virtually free of human contact, for periods of time ranging from days to decades. Few departments of corrections and prison systems use the term “solitary confinement,” instead referring to prison “segregation” or placement in “restrictive housing.”