A Strong Argument for Curbing Solitary

Podcast by Kindra Cooper

Prisoner rights advocates estimate that, on any given day, 4,000 inmates are held in solitary confinement in New York State prisons.

That number is expected to decrease to 3,000 under a settlement reached in December in a class action lawsuit bought against the state by inmates. The suit, prepared by the New York Civil Liberties Union, sought to reform the practice of using solitary confinement as punishment for nonviolent prison infractions.

The punishment, the inmates alleged in their lawsuit, was imposed arbitrarily and caused psychological and physical harm.

A federal judge in New York approved the settlement in April, and reforms — including limits on why and for how long inmates can be placed in solitary confinement — are now to be implemented by state prison officials.

In one case that drew national attention, Kalief Browder was kept in solitary confinement in a New York City jail on Rikers Island for about two of the three years he awaited his trial on a robbery charge. In interviews before he committed suicide in June 2015, Browder said he was scarred by his time in solitary.

Nationally, the number of inmates in solitary confinement is estimated to range from 80,000 to 100,000, according to a 2015 report by the Association of State Correctional Administrators and the Arthur Liman Public Interest Program at Yale Law School.

In this podcast, prison reform experts and former and current inmates discuss why they believe solitary confinement should be curbed.