By Marc Schindler
Executive Director of JPI
Originally Posted on Huffington
Post's Blog
As Father’s Day approached, and I watched my kids excitedly make
plans to celebrate, I couldn’t help but reflect on my juvenile justice reform
work. As a former youth corrections administrator, I noticed their excitement
is so different than the isolation we know is too often experienced by kids in
facilities.
Based on my experience working with incarcerated youth, I know
that many families do not get to enjoy Father’s Day. Across the country, too
many families are torn apart by our criminal and juvenile justice systems, with
loved ones locked away in facilities, often far away from their families. In
particular, I think about kids in solitary confinement. Stuck in isolation, all
alone in a cell, I know kids in solitary confinement are having a very
different Father’s Day than my own children.
Solitary confinement is the involuntary placement of youth alone
in a room or cell, for any reason other than a temporary response to behavior.
Solitary is often used when there are insufficient staff or resources in
facilities, particularly critical mental health services and appropriate
training for all staff. This means that solitary confinement often prevents
kids from getting the treatment and services they need. It can have
long-lasting and devastating effects on youth, including trauma, psychosis,
depression, anxiety, and increased risk of suicide and self-harm. In fact, over
half of all suicides in juvenile facilities occur in solitary confinement.
That’s why my organization, the Justice Policy Institute, is
working on a national campaign to end the use of solitary confinement for
youth. Along with the Center for Children’s Law and Policy, the Center for
Juvenile Justice Reform at Georgetown University, and the Council of Juvenile
Correctional Administrators, we launchedStop Solitary for Kids, with a
focus on ending solitary confinement of youth at the local, state and national
level. Through this campaign, research experts, advocates, correctional
administrators, parents of incarcerated youth, medical professionals, and
elected officials have all come together in an effort to end solitary
confinement of youth.
At the Stop Solitary for Kids campaign launch on April 19th, US
Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ) spoke about the need to end solitary confinement, in
order to do better for our kids. “We are engaging in a practice that human
rights activists, and other countries, consider torture,” said Booker. He
highlighted the growing consensus among activists, experts, and corrections
administrators that solitary confinement is a harmful practice. The Senator
also showed why this damaging practice is so harmful and counterintuitive in a
juvenile justice system intended to rehabilitate youth, stating, “we’re being
robbed of their beauty and their glory because we are punishing them and
torturing them, harming them and traumatizing them.”
Our campaign builds off the momentum of the action of President
Obama, who made history by calling for a ban on solitary confinement for youth
in federal facilities. Obama wrote an op-ed in the Washington Post that
rightly called solitary confinement “an affront to our common humanity.” Though
few youth are in federal custody, Obama’s Executive Action is influential in
raising the bar across our country. The President is using the bully pulpit to
spread the message that solitary confinement of youth is not only
counterproductive, but inhumane, providing strong leadership to encourage the
end of this practice.
Even in my own community, here in Washington, D.C., great
strides are being made towards ending the solitary confinement of youth. DC
Councilmember Kenyan McDuffie introduced the Comprehensive Youth Justice Act of
2016, proposing sweeping reforms to juvenile justice in the District. One of
these reforms includes limiting the use of solitary confinement for all youth
under the age of 18, whether held in a juvenile or adult facility, and
requiring stringent reporting when it is used. These are the types of
approaches we need in working with our young people. At the end of the day, it
will make our kids healthier and our communities safer.
Altogether, these efforts show a growing consensus in America
that we must stop solitary for kids. From national elected officials such as
President Obama and Senator Cory Booker, to local decision makers like DC
Councilmember Kenyan McDuffie, reforms are being advanced to end solitary
confinement. The campaign also includes important supporters such as
corrections administrators from Ohio, Massachusetts, Oregon, and Indiana who
are doing this in their own facilities and setting an example for facilities nationwide.
Dozens of organizations across America, from the ACLU to the American
Correctional Association, have also joined in support of the campaign. With
such a wide variety of groups coming together, we know that true reform is
possible.
This movement gives me hope that we can truly Stop Solitary for
Kids. As a dad, I’m grateful for a day to celebrate my relationship with my
kids, and I’m even more grateful that there will soon be a day where no kids
will have to endure the harms of solitary confinement.
