UN: Solitary Confinement in the US Can Be Torture, Force-Feeding Unacceptable
by Lisa Dawson
The
use of solitary confinement in California prisons, can amount to "cruel
punishment, even torture." This is according to a recent news release from the Office of the United Nations (UN) High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), in which the UN Special
Rapporteur on torture, Juan Méndez, addresses the issue of solitary
confinement in US prisons and specifically those in California.
The statement came as nearly 100 people in three California state prisons were engaged in day 47 of a prison hunger strike.
The hunger strike began on July 8, with more than 30,000 prisoners in
two thirds of California prisons refusing food in protest of long-term
solitary confinement and inhumane conditions.
Méndez,
who is a former political prisoner, asserts that prolonged isolation is
cruel and inhumane, stating that "[e]ven if solitary confinement is
applied for short periods of time, it often causes mental and physical
suffering or humiliation, amounting to cruel, inhuman or degrading
treatment or punishment, and if the resulting pain or sufferings are
severe, solitary confinement even amounts to torture."
The
UN rights expert urges the US government to place restrictions on the
application of solitary confinement to ensure that "solitary confinement
is only imposed, if at all, in very exceptional circumstances, as a
last resort, for as short a time as possible and with established
safeguards in place."
Méndez further
calls for an unconditional ban on solitary confinement of any length on
children, people with disabilities, women who are pregnant or
breastfeeding, and those serving life sentences or on death row.
Honing
in on California's continuing prison crisis, the UN expert expresses
concern about about the brutal conditions at Pelican Bay State Prison,
where "more than 400 prisoners have been
held in solitary confinement for over a decade, and the average time a
prisoner spends in solitary confinement is 7.5 years." Of
particular concern are the approximately 4,000 people who are held in
Security Housing Units (SHU) on an indefinite or prolonged basis.
People
held in SHU at Pelican Bay are isolated in 8 x 12-ft cells with no
natural light and poor ventilation. (Photo: North Coast Journal)
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