(ProsperNews.net) – Democrats in the House of Representatives introduced a bill on July 27 to abolish solitary confinement in the nation’s prisons. Under the End Solitary Confinement Act, inmates could not be detained alone in a cell for more than four hours, and only in an emergency. Corrections officers would also have to check on the prisoner every hour.
Rep. Cori Bush of Missouri introduced the proposal and said, “Someday, we will look back and ask why we ever subjected people to prolonged solitary confinement and expected anything other than trauma, violence, and death as a response.” The legislation is co-sponsored by Reps. Sydney Kamlager-Dove (D-CA), Rashida Tlaib (D-MI), Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-NJ), Adriano Espaillat (D-NY), and Jamaal Bowman (D-NY).
The lawmakers say the purpose of the bill is to reduce mental health deterioration, substance abuse, and violence inside correctional facilities.
Known formally as “restrictive housing,” solitary confinement means a prisoner is locked in a cell alone for 22.5 hours or more daily. Psychiatrists and physicians’ groups largely agree that its effect on mental health can be catastrophic. In the Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law, Jeffrey L. Metzner and Jamie Fellner state, “Solitary confinement is recognized as difficult to withstand; indeed, psychological stressors such as isolation can be as clinically distressing as physical torture.”
They add that even short periods of solitary confinement can cause cognitive disturbances and hallucinations, as well as obsessive thoughts, psychosis, paranoia, and perceptual distortion.
The Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) says that around 20% of convicts will experience solitary confinement at some point during their detention, and current estimates say approximately 122,000 US prisoners are serving time in isolation.
Albert Woodfox from Louisiana holds the record for the longest time spent in solitary confinement in America. Convicted of murder, but later exonerated, Woodfox spent 44 years in a 6ft by 9ft cell. When released, he told reporters he stayed sane by writing lists of things he would do if he were free.
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