les on staff training and programming to reform the use of restrictive housing for young adults (ages 18-24). These principles track very closely with the JDAI and PbS Standards and the Stop Solitary for Kids Position Statement. The President adopted the Department of Justice’s recommendations in this report, banning solitary confinement of juveniles in federal prisons and setting a model for state and local corrections systems.”
In October 2015 the law firm of Lowenstein Sandler released an updated 51-jurisdiction survey on juvenile solitary confinement. The survey provides an overview of the laws and policies in each state as well as best practice recommendations. It focuses largely on safeguards for the use of non-punitive confinement.
This report documents the harms of solitary confinement on children, the reasons why it is still used, regulations governing the use of isolation, protections provided to children through human rights laws, and an appendix on the statutory landscape for solitary confinement in juvenile facilities.
The Arthur Liman Public Interest Program at Yale Law School and the Association of State Correctional Administrators (ASCA) released a report outlining data on both the numbers and the conditions in restricted housing nationwide, excluding juvenile facilities. The report also provides information on rules and practices on the use of restricted housing in state and federal correctional systems.
Solitary confinement of youth violates the Convention on Rights of the Child, and international treaty that protects the human rights of individuals under the age of 18. In a report to the United Nations General Assembly in 2011 and later report in 2015, United Nations Special Rapporteur Juan Mendez called for a ban on solitary confinement for youth under age 18, describing it as torture. A 2014 report by the United Nation’s Committee Against Torture specifically called on the U.S. to “prohibit any use of solitary confinement against juveniles.” Click here to read more.
The Department of Justice’s Bureau of Justice Statistics released data on the use of segregation and solitary confinement in adult prisons and jails. This report, is based on data from the National Inmate Survey conducted in 233 state and federal prisons and 357 local jails, with a sample of 91,177 adult inmates nationwide. The report found that younger inmates, inmates without a high school diploma, and lesbian, gay, and bisexual inmates were more likely to have spent time in restrictive housing than older inmates, inmates with a high school diploma or more, and heterosexual inmates. The use of restrictive housing was also linked to inmate mental health problems.