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California to Move Thousands of Prisoners out of Solitary Confinement
Joseph Sohm / Shutterstock
Finally, some better news from our nation’s prison-industrial complex: On Tuesday, California announced that thousands of inmates in the state’s prisons would be shifted out of solitary confinement.
The Los Angeles Times brought more details that day:
Ending years of litigation, hunger strikes and contentious debate, California has agreed to move thousands of prison inmates out of solitary confinement.
A legal settlement filed Tuesday between the state and a core group of inmates held in isolation for a decade or more at Pelican Bay State Prison calls for ending the use of solitary confinement to control prison gangs.
Instead, the state agreed to create small, high-security units that keep its most dangerous inmates in a group setting where they are entitled to many of the same privileges as other prisoners: contact visits, phone calls and educational and rehabilitation programs.
California’s reliance on solitary confinement has been challenged since a panel of experts told the state corrections department that the high numbers of inmates in lengthy isolation did little to improve prison security.
For an in-depth analysis of this issue, check out Truthdig columnist and legal expert Bill Blum’s recent column about Pelican Bay, in which he also calls out California Attorney General Kamala Harris to confront the problem, here.
Truthdig recently tapped the inmates at Pelican Bay who went on strike in protest of the state solitary confinement practices, along with the lawyers who rallied for their cause, to be Truthdiggers of the Week. Read about them here.
—Posted by Kasia Anderson
Related Entries
- August 31, 2015 Trump’s War on ‘Anchor Babies’
- August 22, 2015 Truthdiggers of the Week: Inmates and Lawyers Against Solitary Confinement
Source: http://www.truthdig.com/eartotheground/item/california_to_move_thousands_of_prisoners_20150901/
