“Growing Up Locked Down”: New Report on Teens in Solitary

WASHINGTON - Young people are held in solitary confinement in jails and prisons in Florida, and across the United States, often for weeks or months at a time, the American Civil Liberties Union and Human Rights Watch said in a report released today.

The report, “Growing Up Locked Down: Youth in Solitary Confinement in Jails and Prisons Across the United States,” is based on research in both US jails and prisons in five states, Florida, Colorado, Michigan, New York and Pennsylvania, and correspondence with young people in 14 others. The isolation of solitary confinement causes anguish, provokes serious mental and physical health problems, and works against rehabilitation for teenagers, Human Rights Watch and the ACLU found.

“Locking kids in solitary confinement with little or no contact with other people is cruel, harmful and unnecessary,” said Ian Kysel, Aryeh Neier Fellow with Human Rights Watch and the ACLU and author of the report. “Normal human interaction is essential to the healthy development and rehabilitation of young people; to cut that off helps nobody.”

Florida houses more young people under age 18 in its prisons than any other state.  In Florida, researchers communicated with 38 individuals who had been subjected to solitary confinement while under age 18 in jails in Bay, Citrus, Clay, Duval, Escambia, Highlands, Hillsboro, Jackson, Lee, Leon, Miami, Okaloosa, Okeechobee, Orange, Palm Beach, Pinellas, Polk, and St. Lucie Counties; and in a number of state prisons. 

“Young people are not miniature adults; they have rights and needs that are different,” said Julie Ebenstein, Staff Attorney with the ACLU of Florida.  “Jail and prison practices should reflect those differences and promote their ability to grow and change – we should invest in young people, not banish them."

The Florida prison system warehouses hundreds of young people, many with mental illnesses, in small barren cells for 23-24 hours a day indefinitely, often for years," said Cassandra Capobianco, attorney with Florida Institutional Legal Services, a non-profit civil rights organization that represents institutionalized and other vulnerable people.  "These conditions cause young people to suffer agonizing mental stress, and ultimately hurts the community as many of these people will be released from prison into society."

Human Rights Watch and the ACLU estimate that in 2011, more than 95,000 young people under age 18 were held in prisons and jails. A significant number of these facilities use solitary confinement—for days, weeks, months, or even years—to punish, protect, house, or to treat some of the young people held there.

Because young people are still developing, traumatic experiences like solitary confinement may have a profound effect on their chance to rehabilitate and grow, the groups found. Solitary confinement can exacerbate short and long-term mental health problems or make it more likely that such problems will develop. Young people in solitary confinement are routinely denied access to treatment, services, and programming required to meet their medical, psychological, developmental, social, and rehabilitative needs.

"Isolation has devastating consequences for everyone, but especially for children.  This inhumane practice is the hallmark of a system that is ill-equipped to handle children."  Tania Galloni, Managing Attorney, Southern Poverty Law Center-Florida Office.

Young people interviewed for the report repeatedly described how solitary confinement compounded the stress of being in jail or prison. They spoke about cutting themselves with staples or razors while in solitary confinement; having hallucinations, and losing touch with reality. Several said they had attempted suicide multiple times in solitary confinement.

Those allowed outside described only being allowed to exercise in small metal cages, alone, a few times a week. Several said they could not get books, magazines, paper, pens, or pencils, or attend any classes or programming. For some, the hardest part about solitary confinement was being denied visits and not being able to hug their mother or father.

The solitary confinement of young people under age 18 is itself a serious human rights violation and can constitute cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment under international human rights law, Human Rights Watch and the ACLU said. Conditions that compound the harm of solitary confinement, such as denial of educational programming, exercise, or family visits, often constitute independent, serious human rights violations. A number of corrections officials have begun to recognize and speak against the use of solitary confinement, saying that it is costly, ineffective, and harmful.

There are alternative ways to address the problems that officials typically cite to justify using solitary confinement, while taking into account the rights and special needs of adolescents, Human Rights Watch and the ACLU said. Youth could be housed in specialized facilities organized to encourage positive behavior. And punishment should be proportional to the infraction, using any short-term isolation as a rare exception.

The federal and state governments should ban placing youth in solitary confinement, Human Rights Watch and the ACLU said. They should also prohibit housing adolescents with adults or in jails and prisons designed to house adults, and strictly regulate and monitor all forms of isolation of young people.

“Growing Up Locked Down,” as well as additional materials including a video, podcast and multimedia feature, can be found online at: www.aclu.org/growinguplockeddown.