New York State Agrees to Overhaul Solitary Confinement in Prisons

For me, this is a gut-wrenching statistic. Solitary confinement is a horrendously brutal form of punishment and if used at all, I believe it must be used very sparingly.

>The agreement establishes a maximum sentence of three months for most disciplinary violations, except assaults, and 30 days for almost any prisoner who has committed a nonviolent infraction for the first time. Isolation will no longer be imposed for first-time violations for drug use or possession, which in the past accounted for as much as one-fifth of the solitary population.

>The number of infractions punishable by solitary confinement will be cut in half, and violations that once gave corrections officers wide discretion to impose long sentences, such as “disobeying orders,” will now have a maximum of 30 days.

These are significant improvements and those responsible should feel very proud.

If a person is dangerous for others or some extra punishment is needed, put them in a single cell, but in the same place as the other cells and just don't let them get out (for the restaurant, exercise yard, etc.) for the confinement period.

Unless they scream or something, there's no need to be a totally isolated room.

  For 23 hours a day, 4,000 inmates are locked in concrete 6-by-10-foot cells, sometimes for years, with little if any human contact, no access to rehabilitative programs and a diet that can be restricted to a foul-tasting brick of bread and potatoes known at the prisons as “the loaf.”