Solitary confinement does not make prisons safer, say correctional heads in December senate letter

From corrections to correcting the record, twelve prison and jail officials and administrators pushed back against Congressional narratives connecting solitary confinement to safety in a letter obtained by the AmNews penned to Sen. Dick Durbin last December.

- By TANDY LAU Amsterdam News Staff, Report for America Corps Member

They maintained that alternative practices providing “meaningful human interaction” are safer for incarcerated people, correctional staff and the general public in response to an April 2024 U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee hearing that the Illinois senator chaired on potentially eliminating solitary confinement in federal facilities. In fact, the letter’s authors—which include a former head of New York State prisons — argue the practice creates, rather than resolves, safety issues.

“During that hearing, several senators on both sides of the aisle perpetuated the myth that solitary is necessary for safety in their comments and questions to the witnesses,” they wrote. “As people with extensive experience and expertise supporting the operations of prisons, jails, and related facilities, we write to correct the record.”

The United Nations’ Mandela Laws defines solitary confinement as 22 hours or more a day “without meaningful human contact.” The bylaws mandate the practice as a last resort “for as short a time as possible and subject to independent review, and only pursuant to the authorization by a competent authority.”

In practice, incarcerated individuals are typically held alone or in pairs behind cell walls, with food and medicine often passed through a slot.

Prolonged solitary confinement, defined by more than 15 consecutive days, is considered torture by the U.N. Additionally, a person's crime or conviction should not dictate whether they should be confined.

“A lot of correctional officials will just assume that even if solitary confinement is harmful, it's still something that’s really needed,” said Maria Morris, a senior staff attorney with the ACLU’s National Prison Project. “And it was very important to us to bring out the recognition that a lot of the time it’s not needed [and] done because it’s easier.