ACLU Comment on President Obama’s Reforms to Solitary Confinement in Federal Prisons

WASHINGTON, DC – The U.S. Department of Justice today released its first-ever guidance on solitary confinement, Report and Recommendations Concerning the Use of Restrictive Housing, and President Obama announced in a Washington Post op-ed that he has adopted the report’s recommendations to overhaul the use of solitary in the federal prison system, including ending solitary for juveniles, reducing the use of solitary for prisoners needing protective custody, and diverting prisoners with serious mental illnesses away from solitary and into treatment.

David Fathi, director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s National Prison Project, had this comment:

“The sweeping changes endorsed today by President Obama will put critical limits on solitary confinement in our federal prisons, restrictions that will save thousands of prisoners from needless suffering and permanent psychological damage. With these reforms, the president has added the full weight of the United States government to the movement to end our jails and prisons’ addiction to solitary and its cruelty. We have lost too many to a punishment that hurts us all.”

For more information about the ACLU’s Stop Solitary campaign:

https://www.aclu.org/issues/prisoners-rights/solitary-confinement