Inmates Credited for 'Effectively Ending' Solitary in California
Marking a significant victory in the struggle to end solitary confinement in the United States, a landmark legal settlement filed in federal court on Tuesday effectively ends the practice of indeterminate, long-term isolation of inmates in the state of California.
The settlement comes in Ashker v. Governor of California, a federal class action lawsuit brought on behalf of prisoners held in the Security Housing Unit (SHU) at California’s Pelican Bay State Prison who have spent a decade or more in solitary confinement. Many were sent into isolation without any violent conduct or serious rule infractions, purely based on gang affiliation, and all without any meaningful process for transfer out of isolation and back to the general prison population.
“This settlement represents a monumental victory for prisoners and an important step toward our goal of ending solitary confinement in California, and across the country,” those plaintiffs said in a statement following the settlement. “California’s agreement to abandon indeterminate SHU confinement based on gang affiliation demonstrates the power of unity and collective action.”
The Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR), which argued on behalf of the plaintiffs, said the settlement would “fundamentally alter… all aspects of this cruel and unconstitutional regime.”
The New York Times noted that “the settlement is expected to sharply reduce the number of inmates held in the state’s isolation units, where inmates are often kept alone for more than 22 hours a day inside cells that sometimes have no windows, and cap the length of time prisoners can spend there.”
Beyond that, the Times continued, the lawsuit’s outcome “marks a major shift in corrections practices in the state, one that prison reform advocates hope can serve as a model for other states.”
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