California could lead the way in banning long-term solitary confinement for juveniles in jail, ending a practice that experts say severely harms mental health and increases the risk of suicide.
A newly introduced bill, which has support from both criminal justice reform advocates and state probation officials, would bar youth detention centers from placing juveniles in isolation for more than four hours and says facilities could only use “room confinement” as a last resort after exhausting all less-restrictive options.
If the legislation becomes law, sponsors say it would create the most progressive state-level limits on juvenile solitary confinement in the country and could serve as a model for other states looking to improve conditions in youth jails and protect vulnerable minors from a cruel form of punishment.
“This practice is incredibly inhumane and deadly, and we think it’s really important that it end,” said Kim McGill, organizer with Youth Justice Coalition, a co-sponsor of the proposal, which state senator Mark Leno, a Democrat from San Francisco, put forward this week.
California’s bill comes on the heels of Barack Obama’s decision in January to ban the use of solitary confinement to punish juveniles in US federal jails. He cited the long-term psychological damage that young people and mentally ill people suffer due to isolation behind bars.
But because the population of youth in federal prisons is a tiny fraction compared to juveniles in state and county detention facilities across the country, activists say it’s critical that state legislatures restrict and eliminate dangerous confinement tactics that have the opposite effect of rehabilitating minors caught up in the criminal justice system.
A handful of states and local governments across the country have dramatically limited juvenile solitary confinement, generally as a part of lawsuit settlements. But Jennifer Kim, director of programs at the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, a nonprofit that has repeatedly pushed versions of this legislation, said no other state has gone so far as creating a four-hour maximum.
“California is proactively setting these standards into law in a way that isn’t waiting for another tragedy to force us to do something about it,” said Kim, who has co-authored four different unsuccessful versions of this bill in recent years.
This time, however, the legislation is much more likely to pass, since it has the backing of the Chief Probation Officers of California (CPOC), which represents jail officials who run juvenile facilities. Probation and prison representatives have previously opposed similar bills, arguing that the proposals went too far in prohibiting confinement in situations in which it would be essential for the safety of staff and juveniles.
“We only want to do room confinement when it’s necessary,” said Mark Bonini, chief probation officer for Amador County and president of the CPOC. “Anytime somebody is isolated for long periods of time, that’s never good.”
The proposal defines “room confinement” as the placement of a youth in a “locked sleeping room or cell” with minimal contact with people other than staff and attorneys. This practice could not be used for “punishment, coercion, convenience, or retaliation by staff,” according to the bill and is prohibited if it “compromises the mental and physical health of the minor”.
If a juvenile is subject to confinement, after four hours, he or she must return to the general population or have a consultation with mental health or medical staff. If staff want to extend the isolation, officials would have to develop an individualized plan for reintegration back into the general population and would require written authorization from a superintendent or director.
Because California’s 58 counties have different juvenile jail systems, there’s no reliable data on how frequently minors end up in solitary and what justifications are most commonly cited.
Probation officials have often insisted that they rarely use the practice and only isolate youth as a last resort. But lawsuits have alleged that in some facilities, minors have been routinely locked up, sometimes for up to 23 hours a day, and advocates say they regularly hear from families across the state who say youth have experienced unjustified and harmful periods of solitary punishment.
In 2011, court documents in California revealed 249 incidents of solitary confinement during a 14-week period at five juvenile facilities, according to Leno’s office. The senator has also cited a 2009 national survey that found that roughly half of youths in the juvenile justice system who killed themselves were isolated and alone when they died.
“It’s still a very pervasive problem,” said Kim, noting that two-thirds of juvenile inmates in the country have mental health struggles. “If you put them in long-term isolation, you’re exacerbating existing mental health conditions or you’re creating new ones.”
Tanisha Denard, a youth organizer with Youth Justice Coalition, said she briefly experienced confinement while incarcerated at a Los Angeles county detention facility at age 16.
“It kind of makes you feel like you have no purpose, like they don’t care about you,” said Denard, now 21. “It should be limited to a certain amount of time. You can’t just … put somebody in a cell and let them out three days later and expect them to be a better person.”
