New look at solitary

[SandraJane]

New look at solitary


Legal aid sources, monitoring group say New York prisons overuse "box"


By Alysia Santo | Updated 10:37 a.m., Monday, August 13, 2012


http://www.timesunion.com/local/article/New-look-at-solitary-3783214.php



This cell replica was placed in the hearing room of a Senate panel on solitary confinement. (U.S. Senate)


A chorus of prison watchdog groups is describing New York's solitary confinement practices as some of the worst in the nation.

Reams of testimony were submitted earlier this summer for a U.S. Senate hearing on solitary confinement, an extreme form of isolation used in prisons and jails around the country — generally the most severe disciplinary measure in American correctional institutions. Inmates remain in a cell about the size of a bathroom for 23 hours a day with little to no human contact.