Torture of solitary confinement draws pressure for reform in U.S.

Damon Thibodeaux spent 15 years in solitary confinement in a Louisiana prison, waiting for an execution that never happened thanks to an exoneration in 2012 that released him from his tiny cell and back into society.

Imprisoned for the murder and rape of his cousin, Thibodeaux lived in a cell measuringeight feet by 10 feet and was allowed out for one hour a day. Three times a week he was allowed to breathe fresh air outside, but still within a cage. The winters were freezing cold, the summers boiling hot, human contact was fleeting andthe food rotten. He witnessed men lose their minds.

Thibodeaux would hear inmates screaming at all hours of the night, while others stared blankly at the wall. Among the prisoners whowere heavily medicated, some tried to save their pills so they could commit suicide. Feces were smeared around cell walls.

To escape what he calls a hopeless existence, Thibodeauxalmost gave up on his legal fight to prove his innocence and was prepared to face execution because he couldnt bear the conditions. His lawyer convinced him to keep going.

In solitary, theres nothing to live for, Thibodeaux told a hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., in February. Its torture pure and simple no matter what else we want to call it.

Thibodeaux said its hard to put into words the mental, physical and emotional damage that the conditions of solitary confinement cause.

If you treated animals this way, you would get arrested and prosecuted, he noted in his written testimony.

Some studies indicate that half of all prison suicides happen in solitary confinement units. A disproportionate number of inmateskept there have a mental illness that isexacerbated by solitary. In some cases inmates go in healthy and come out with serious mental health problems.

Advocates see progress

What does it say about us as a nation that even before the law allows a state to execute a person were willing to let it kill them bit by bit and day by day by subjecting them to solitary confinement? Thibodeaux told the group of senators.

He wasnt the only former inmate to testify that day before a Senate subcommittee Piper Kerman, author of Orange is the New Black, was also there, urging Congress to reform solitary confinement practices. Kerman, whose book was turned into a popular Netflix series, is pushing for a ban on putting pregnant women in isolation.

Appealsfor reform from human rights, religious, mental health and justice organizations are finally being heard. Change is brewing in the U.S., the country with the highest incarceration rate per capita in the world, when it comes to how prisoners are locked up.

Theres progress, said Jamie Fellner, a senior adviser at Human Rights Watch, in an interview. Things are bubbling up.

A hearing about solitary confinement on Capitol Hill in itself wasviewed as a big step forward. It was the second look at solitary confinement, after an initialhearing in 2012. That first hearing prompted the Federal Bureau of Prisons to launch an independent reviewthe findings are expected later this yearand to implement multiple changes to reduce the number of inmates in whats called restrictive housing and administrative segregation in corrections parlance.

About 215,000 Americans are in the federal prison system, and since the 2012 hearing the department has reduced the number in restrictive housing from 13.5 per cent to six per cent. Roughly 9,400 inmates are currently segregated. Thousands more are in solitary confinement in state and local prisons.

The reasons for separating an inmate from the general prison population typically include disciplinary reasons, if theyve broken the rules, or if theyve been deemed the worst of the worst and pose a safety threat to guards or other inmates. Suspected gang members are often separated and in some cases isolation is the option for an inmates own safety.

Advocates for change say solitary confinement is too often used for illegitimate reasons, and for too long, and there is little oversight and review of why someone is in there in the first place. The conditions and restrictions are often referred to as "inhumane."

'National discussion' is underway

The head of the Federal Bureau of Prisons, Charles Samuels, told the Senate hearing in February that he is committed to ensuring that it is used appropriately and to reducing its use even further. He said he has consulted with his counterparts in states that are considered progressive in this area and hes learning from their experiences.

This is a national issue, this is a national discussion, Samuels said.

Maine, Mississippi, Colorado and Ohio are among the states that are actively tackling the solitary confinement issue, and a few weeks ago New Yorks state prison system agreed to a new set of rules. The reforms, which include curbing its use with pregnant women, mentally ill inmates and juveniles, were the result of a lawsuit.

Lawsuits in other states are driving some of the changes, but so aregrowing public awareness, advocacy and changes in leadership of corrections systems.

Rick Raemisch, director of Colorados corrections system, told the Senate subcommittee that solitary confinement is overused, misused and abused. He spent a night in jail to better understand it and wrote about it in the New York Times, drawing even more attention the issue. He felt "twitchy and paranoid" within hours of his 20-hour stay, he wrote.

Colorado has reduced its number of inmates in solitary from 1,451 in 2011 to 597 in January and has saved lots of money about $15,000 per inmate in the process.

Raemischtold the hearing he sees an evolution happening across the U.S. and that reform will make for safer communities.

There is a growing recognition that releasing someone who has had little or no access to rehabilitative programs, job training, and social contact in general, and who is likely to be angry about what theyve endured, is perhapsnot a wise idea. Some prisons are now introducing step-down programs to help with what some call a nearly impossible transition.

Advocates are cautiously optimistic the tide is turning and that the federal governmentwill follow the examples of Colorado and the other jurisdictions.

Theyre progress along a road to reform which I think is very long and has a long way to go, said Jean Casella, who co-founded the website Solitary Watch, about the efforts so far. Solitary confinement is nowhere near being abolished, she said. Its here to stay for quite a long time.

Senator Dick Durbin, chair of the subcommittee examining solitary confinement, said at the hearing that safety and cost are good reasons to review the effectiveness of solitary confinement, but beyond that, its a human rights issueand more needs to be done to overhaul the system. Hes promising more hearings to keep the pressure on.

By reforming our solitary confinement practices the United States can protect human rights, improve public safety and be fiscally responsible. It is the right and smart thing to do and the American people deserve no less, he said.