Seven Days in Solitary [12/28/2014]
by Aviva Stahl
The
following roundup features noteworthy news, reports and opinions on
solitary confinement from the past week that have not been covered in
other Solitary Watch posts.
• The Marshall Project published an article outlining the
significant shifts in the legal landscape of solitary confinement over
the course of recent years. In 2014, “as a result of legislation or
lawsuits, ten states adopted 14 measures aimed at curtailing the use of
solitary, abolishing solitary for juveniles or the mentally ill,
improving conditions in segregated units, or gradually easing isolated
inmates back into the general population.”
• The New York Law Journal published an opinion piece about solitary confinement entitled, “We Shouldn’t Allow Eight Amendment to Be Undermined,”
• Ruth Marcus of The Washington Post published a column
about Reginald Latson, a 23-year-old diagnosed with autism; he is
currently facing assault charges that resulted from a mental health
crisis he experienced when he was held in isolation. The ACLU of
Virginia submitted a letter
to Governor McAuliffe asking him to grant clemency to Latson and
facilitate his transfer to a secure treatment facility in Florida.
• Writing for CNN,
Raphael Sperry - the president of Architects/Designers/Planners for
Social Responsibility- condemned the American Institute of Architects
for refusing to add language to its code of ethics that would prohibit
participation in “the design of torture chambers in US prisons and
around the world,” including “prisons intended for prolonged solitary
confinement.”
• KGNU, a community radio station, interviewed
Colorado Independent journalist Susan Greene about her recent story
focusing on a transgender woman held in solitary confinement at ADX
Florence.
• The Buffalo News
reports that the first of two lawsuits related to prisoner deaths in a
solitary confinement unit at Niagara County Jail have gone forward.
Daniel Pantera, 46, had a mental health diagnosis and was arrested for
shoplifting a cup of coffee in 2012; his cell was so cold that the main
cause of his death was cited in a state report as hypothermia.
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