With bipartisan momentum for change in Congress, presidential attention, and the Association of State Correctional Administrators calling for a reduction in its use, the time is now for addressing the overuse of solitary confinement and its adverse effects on individuals and public safety. Join the Vera Institute of Justice and members of the advisory council for its Safe Alternatives to Segregation Initiative to hear about critical “on the ground” change strategies and reform efforts being tested and implemented by correctional leaders around the country—and the reasons behind them.
Common Misconceptions and Emerging Safe Alternatives
While the precise number of people held on any given day in what’s commonly called solitary confinement—though also known as segregated or restricted housing—is not known with any certainty, estimates run between 80,000 to 100,000 in state and federal prisons. However, evidence mounts that the practice produces many unwanted and harmful outcomes—fo ...
Last fall, the John Jay College of Criminal Justice, with support from the Jacob and Valeria Langeloth Foundation, convened a colloquium including 15 corrections agency heads and a like number of experts from the community of those seeking to reform the use of social isolation, often called “solitary confinement,” in U.S. prisons and jails. The pur ...
Millions of incarcerated people remain trapped by the 13th Amendment’s exception clause. But recent wins in California and Colorado show how states can lead the way to ending prison slavery.
This year marks the fifth anniversary of Juneteenth becoming a federal holiday, and the 161st anniversary of the event it commemorates: General Order No. 3, which Union General Gordon Granger delivered to Galveston, Texas, on June 19, 1865, bearing the belated news that “all slaves are free” following the January 1863 Emancipation Proclamation. By ...