The use of seclusion and restraint for children with special
needs in our nation’s schools has received national attention. These practices have been deemed as cruel and
dangerous, and various pieces of legislation have been proposed to eliminate
their use. Yet, these practices are
being used on an ongoing basis on our nation’s incarcerated youth. Up to 81,000 teens are incarcerated in
juvenile facilities on any given night, and an additional 10,000 teens are in
adult prisons. According to the ACLU, which released a report on
solitary confinement in October, a significant number of these facilities
isolate youth for days, weeks, months, or even years. The use of solitary confinement, according to
the ACLU, causes “anguish, provokes serious mental and physical health
problems, and works against rehabilitation for teenagers.”
One of the most tragic outcomes for incarcerated youth is
suicide, and half of teen suicides occur while youth are placed in solitary
isolation. A position paper published
by the National Commission on Correctional Health Care, which expresses
concern about the high rate and potential underreporting of teen suicides in
jails, states that further research is needed to delineate better the
relationship between suicide and isolation.
Yet, according to the American Academy of Child & Adolescent
Psychiatry (5), the research is in already.
The potential psychiatric consequences of prolonged use of solitary
confinement on these “developmentally vulnerable” adolescents are “well
recognized” and include depression, anxiety, and psychosis.
Historically, the Quakers introduced the concept of
solitary confinement in prisons they built in the 1820’s believing that
solitary confinement, when accompanied by a Bible, would encourage the prisoner
to self-reflect and repent. Their
efforts had to be abandoned when it became clear that prisoners in solitary
went insane, committed suicide, or were unable to re-join society once their
sentences ended. Solitary confinement
was re-introduced in this country some 50 years ago as a solution to increasingly
violent inmates, lack of staff to control prison populations, and overcrowding. In the case of youth who are incarcerated in
adult facilities, solitary confinement affords them “protection” from the other
inmates.
Incarcerated youth are already battered and traumatized
before they even enter juvenile facilities.
Up to 70% of these youth have diagnosable mental health disorders;
another 60% have substance abuse issues.
Additionally, many of these youth are the victims of abuse. Hayes examined 110 suicides of
incarcerated teens that occurred between 1995 and 1999. Of these youth, 44.3%
had been emotionally abused, 34.2% were physically abused, and another 27.8%
were sexually abused. Of these victims,
85% died during waking hours.
According to Hayes, almost half of the youth (47.3%) who
committed suicide were placed in isolation not for threats or actual abuse of
other inmates or staff (42.1%) but for failure to follow rules or
“inappropriate behavior.” Others have
highlighted the concern about what constitutes “appropriate” use of seclusion
in juvenile lock-ups. The Center for
Children’s Law and Policy testified last June before a Senate Judiciary
Committee, which was reviewing the use of solitary confinement in juvenile
facilities. According to the Center,
solitary confinement is appropriate only when an adolescent poses a threat of imminent
harm to himself or others and should last no longer than it takes him to regain
self-control and no longer pose a threat to himself or others.
Many juvenile correctional facilities are voluntarily attempting
to reduce the use of solitary confinement.
In 1995 the Council of Juvenile Correctional Administrators (CJCA)
developed a program called “Performance-based Standards,” which was
implemented to improve conditions of youth in confinement. PbS has set national standards (up to 100) for
participating facilities (ie; correction facilities, detention facilities, and
assessment centers) and then collects data twice a year from these facilities. The PbS criteria for appropriate use of
isolation of adolescents is absolutely explicit: youth should be isolated or confined to their
rooms “only to protect the youth from harming himself or others, and if used,
should be brief and supervised.” Any
incidents longer than 15 minutes are considered “reportable” according to PbS. Facilities that use PbS standards are
reporting successes. Since 2008, the use
of isolation has decreased in all facilities.
From October 2008 to April 2012, the average time youth spent in
isolation was cut in half, from 32 hours in 2008 to 14 hours in 2012.
The ACLU, in their October report titled “Too Many Teens
in Solitary Confinement,” urges a complete ban of solitary confinement for all
youth under age 18, prohibition of housing teens in adult facilities which are
unequipped to meet their developmental needs, and strict limits on all forms of
isolation and development of discipline “proportional to the infraction.” Given that Ned Loughran, executive
director of the Council of Juvenile Correctional Administrators, called “zero
segregation” unrealistic, participation in the PbS program seems like an
extremely constructive approach to addressing this issue. To date, 162 facilities in 29 states and
DC are participating in the program.
These facilities have 10,450 youths in their custody. This is a tremendous start, yet approximately
80,000 youth are currently incarcerated in more than 2000 non-PbS facilities. Participation in the program is not
mandatory.
No one is arguing that youth offenders should not be held
accountable for their actions. But it
must happen in humane, fair, and effective ways. Incarcerated youth have an extraordinarily
high rate of mental health issues as well as special needs. What they need is treatment, appropriate
education, and effective rehabilitation.
None of these things can happen while a youth is in isolation.