UN Committee Against Torture Says U.S. Must Reform Its Use of Solitary Confinement
by Sridevi Nambiar
The report is a follow up to the Committee’s meeting
with United States government officials on November 12 and 13 in
Geneva. As a state party to CAT, the United States is expected to submit
a “Periodic Report” detailing its adherence to the Convention, as well
as respond to questions, observations, and recommendations for change
issued by the Committee. Over the two days, the United States delegation
presented its latest periodic report for a ten-member Committee to review, after almost an 8 year gap since the last such review.
The
U.S. government’s periodic report discusses some 55 separate issues of
concern to the Committee Against Torture ranging from the treatment of
immigrants in detention, the death penalty, police brutality, and sexual
abuse of people in prison to the rendition and secret detention of
terror suspects and their continued presence at Guantanamo Bay. In all
cases, the United States insists that it is in compliance with CAT, even
as several human rights and civil liberties organizations submitted
shadow reports telling otherwise. (Access them here: American Civil Liberties Union; Center for Constitutional Rights, Legal Services for Prisoners with Children and California Prison Focus; American Friends Service Committee; NY CAIC; the Correctional Association of NY; NRCAT; T’ruah; Victorious Black Women, and the Midwest Coalition for Human Rights.)
The
U.S. periodic report also attempts to dismiss the Committee on
Torture’s concerns on solitary confinement--which the UN Special
Rapporteur on Torture defines as
“physical and social isolation of individuals who are confined to their
cells for 22 to 24 hours a day,” and to which some 80,000 people are
being subjected to every day in the United States. As per the U.S.
report, there is “no systemic use of solitary confinement in the United
States.”
However,
in Geneva, members of the Committee Against Torture raised multiple
questions and concerns about solitary confinement in U.S. prisons and
jails. Committee Vice-Chairperson George Tugushi questioned
the American delegation about measures taken to limit the use of
solitary confinement, especially on children and other vulnerable
individuals. Another Committee member, Alessio Bruni, asked about
prolonged solitary confinement such as is being used in Louisiana, where
individuals have been isolated for 30 years, and noted that such
treatment caused “anxiety, depression and hallucinations until their
personality is complete destroyed.”
Both
in its periodic report and during the hearings, the United States
government sought to assure the Committee on Torture that sufficient
restrictions on the imposition of solitary confinement are already in
place. At the hearings, David Bitkower, the Deputy Assistant Attorney
General at the Department of Justice maintained
that “U.S. courts have interpreted the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments
of the U.S. Constitution as prohibiting the use of solitary confinement
under certain circumstances.” The U.S. periodic report further claims
that The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA) and the
Rehabilitation Act of 1973 (Rehabilitation Act) limit the use of
solitary confinement against persons with mental illnesses and other
disabilities, while the PREA [Prison Rape Elimination Act] offers
protection from the same for children.
But
in its “Concluding observations” released last week, the UN Committee
reaffirms that “it remains concerned about reports of extensive use of
solitary confinement and other forms of isolation in US prisons, jails
and other detention centres for purpose of punishment, discipline and
protection, as well as for health-related reasons” even as the United
States denies any “systemic use.” In the report, the Committee once
again raises concerns on the use of solitary confinement for indefinite
periods of time, its use against children and persons with mental
disabilities, and the general lack of pertinent statistical data. The
report also states that the isolation of prisoners for 22 – 23 hours a
day as used in super-maximum security prisons is “unacceptable.”
The
Committee lays forth several recommendations for the United States to
ensure its policies on solitary confinement are in better compliance
with CAT. It asks the U.S. government to restrict the use of solitary
confinement “as a measure of last resort, for as short time as possible,
under strict supervision and with the possibility of judicial review.”
Further it reasserts the need to ban the imposition of solitary
confinement on “juveniles, persons with intellectual or psychosocial
disabilities, pregnant women, women with infants and breastfeeding
mothers in prison.” It also stresses that “regimes of solitary
confinement such as those in super-maximum security detention
facilities” need to be banned. Finally, the Committee once again brings
attention to the lack of detailed information on the use of solitary
confinement. It asks the United States to “compile and regularly publish
comprehensive disaggregated data on the use of solitary confinement,
including related suicide attempts and self-harm.”
Asked
how he believes the U.S. government might respond to these
recommendations, David Fathi, Director of the ACLU’s National Prison
Project said: “We shouldn’t hope for dramatic change. Even if the
federal government were highly motivated, it has limited authority to
affect conditions in state and local facilities, where ninety percent of
prisoners are held.” However, he hopes that the Committee’s report “may
give an added push to states and localities that are already
considering solitary reform.”
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