Growing Up Locked Down
Youth in Solitary Confinement in Jails and Prisons Across the United States

H U M A N
R I G H T S
W A T C H

Growing Up Locked Down
Youth in Solitary Confinement in Jails and Prisons
Across the United States

Copyright © 2012 Human Rights Watch
All rights reserved.
Printed in the United States of America
ISBN: 1-56432-949-6
Cover design by Rafael Jimenez
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OCTOBER 2012

ISBN: 1-56432-949-6

Growing Up Locked Down
Youth in Solitary Confinement in Jails and Prisons Across the United States
Summary ........................................................................................................................................... 1
Key Recommendations...................................................................................................................... 6
Methodology ..................................................................................................................................... 7
I. Background: Kids in an Adult System ............................................................................................ 11
II. How Solitary Confinement Harms Youth ...................................................................................... 20
Psychological Harm ................................................................................................................23
Trying to Cope .................................................................................................................. 25
Anxiety, Rage, and Insomnia ........................................................................................... 26
Cutting and Self-Harm ..................................................................................................... 29
Suicidal Thoughts and Attempts: “The death-oriented side of life” ....................................30
Struggling with Mental Disabilities and Past Trauma .........................................................32
Barriers to Accessing Care ................................................................................................ 35
Physical Harm ........................................................................................................................ 37
Lack of Adequate Exercise ................................................................................................ 37
Physical Changes and Stunted Growth..............................................................................39
Social and Developmental Harm ............................................................................................. 41
Denial of Family Contact ................................................................................................... 41
Denial of Adequate Education ..........................................................................................42
Struggling with Intellectual Disabilities.............................................................................44
Failure to Provide for Rehabilitation or Social Development ............................................. 46
III. Youth in Solitary Confinement in Adult Facilities: Corrections Practices, Numbers,
and Duration ................................................................................................................................... 48
Solitary Confinement to Punish Inmates................................................................................. 48
Solitary Confinement to Manage Inmates ................................................................................ 53
Protective Solitary Confinement........................................................................................ 53
Administrative Solitary Confinement................................................................................. 57
Solitary Confinement to Treat Inmates.................................................................................... 60
Quarantine ...................................................................................................................... 62
Seclusion and SAMHSA ................................................................................................... 62
Rates of Solitary Confinement .................................................................................................63
Length of Time Spent in Solitary Confinement ......................................................................... 65

IV. Violations of Fundamental Rights................................................................................................ 70
International Law and Standards ............................................................................................70
Human Rights Violations ........................................................................................................76
US Law ...................................................................................................................................78
V. Alternatives to the Solitary Confinement of Youth ........................................................................ 81
Getting Kids Out of Adult Facilities .......................................................................................... 81
Reviewing and Reforming....................................................................................................... 82
Borrowing from Juvenile Facilities .......................................................................................... 86
Limited Appropriate Uses of Segregation and Isolation .......................................................... 88
Recommendations ........................................................................................................................... 91
Acknowledgments .......................................................................................................................... 99
Appendix 1: Mapping Youth in Adult Jails and Prisons .................................................................... 101
Appendix 2: State Case Studies ..................................................................................................... 112

Summary
Being in isolation to me felt like I was on an island all alone[,] dying a slow
death from the inside out.
—Letter from Kyle B. (pseudonym), from California to Human Rights Watch,
May 3, 2012.
Every day, in jails and prisons across the United States, young people under the age of 18
are held in solitary confinement.1 They spend 22 or more hours each day alone, usually in a
small cell behind a solid steel door, completely isolated both physically and socially, often
for days, weeks, or even months on end. Sometimes there is a window allowing natural
light to enter or a view of the world outside cell walls. Sometimes it is possible to
communicate by yelling to other inmates, with voices distorted, reverberating against
concrete and metal. Occasionally, they get a book or bible, and if they are lucky, study
materials. But inside this cramped space, few contours distinguish one hour, one day,
week, or one month, from the next.
This bare social and physical existence makes many young people feel doomed and
abandoned, or in some cases, suicidal, and can lead to serious physical and emotional
consequences. Adolescents in solitary confinement describe cutting themselves with
staples or razors, hallucinations, losing control of themselves, or losing touch with reality
while isolated. They talk about only being allowed to exercise in small metal cages, alone,
a few times a week; about being prevented from going to school or participating in any
activity that promotes growth or change. Some say the hardest part is not being able to
hug their mother or father.
The solitary confinement of adults can cause serious pain and suffering and can violate
international human rights and US constitutional law. But the potential damage to young

1 In the United States, and throughout the report, the term ”jail” refers to a facility that generally holds individuals awaiting

trial in the criminal justice system or sentenced to less than a year of incarceration; “prison” refers to a facility that generally
holds individuals sentenced to one or more years of incarceration. This report uses various terms, including “youth,”
“teenagers,” “children,” “young people,” and “adolescents,” interchangeably to refer to youth under the age of 18.
Throughout the report, the term “solitary confinement” is used to describe physical and social isolation for 22 to 24 hours
per day and for one or more days, regardless of the purpose for which it is imposed. While solitary confinement is apparently
used in juvenile facilities on occasion, this report focuses only on its use in adult jails and prisons.

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people, who do not have the maturity of an adult and are at a particularly vulnerable,
formative stage of life, is much greater.
Experts assert that young people are psychologically unable to handle solitary
confinement with the resilience of an adult. And, because they are still developing,
traumatic experiences like solitary confinement may have a profound effect on their
chance to rehabilitate and grow. Solitary confinement can exacerbate, or make more likely,
short and long-term mental health problems. The most common deprivation that
accompanies solitary confinement, denial of physical exercise, is physically harmful to
adolescents’ health and well-being.
Human Rights Watch and the American Civil Liberties Union estimate that in 2011, more
than 95,000 youth were held in prisons and jails. A significant number of these facilities
use solitary confinement—for days, weeks, months, or even years—to punish, protect,
house, or treat some of the young people who are held there. Solitary confinement of youth
is, today, a serious and widespread problem in the United States.
This situation is a relatively recent development. It has only been in the last 30 years that a
majority of jurisdictions around the country have adopted various charging and sentencing
laws and practices that have resulted in substantial numbers of adolescents serving time
in adult jails and prisons. These laws and policies have largely ignored the need to treat
young people charged and sentenced as if adults with special consideration for their age,
development, and rehabilitative potential.
Young people can be guilty of horrible crimes with significant consequences for victims,
their families, and their communities. The state has a duty to ensure accountability for
serious crimes, and to protect the public. But states also have special responsibilities not
to treat young people in ways that can permanently harm their development and
rehabilitation, regardless of their culpability.
This report describes the needless suffering and misery that solitary confinement
frequently inflicts on young people; examines the justifications that state and prison
officials offer for using solitary confinement; and offers alternatives to solitary confinement
in the housing and management of adolescents. The report draws on in-person interviews
and correspondence with more than 125 individuals who were held in jails or prisons while
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under age 18 in 19 states, and with officials who manage jails or prisons in 10 states, as
well as quantitative data and the advice of experts on the challenges of detaining and
managing adolescents.
This report shows that the solitary confinement of adolescents in adult jails and prisons is
not exceptional or transient. Specifically, the report finds that:
•

Young people are subjected to solitary confinement in jails and prisons nationwide,
and often for weeks and months.

•

When subjected to solitary confinement, adolescents are frequently denied access
to treatment, services, and programming adequate to meet their medical,
psychological, developmental, social, and rehabilitative needs.

•

Solitary confinement of young people often seriously harms their mental and
physical health, as well as their development.

•

Solitary confinement of adolescents is unnecessary. There are alternative ways to
address the problems—whether disciplinary, administrative, protective, or
medical—which officials typically cite as justifications for using solitary
confinement, while taking into account the rights and special needs of adolescents.

Adult jails and prisons generally use solitary confinement in the same way for adolescents
and adults. Young people are held in solitary confinement to punish them when they break
the rules, such as those against talking back, possessing contraband, or fighting; they are
held in solitary confinement to protect them from adults or from one another; they are held
in solitary confinement because officials do not know how else to manage them; and
sometimes, officials use solitary confinement to medically treat them.
There is no question that incarcerating teenagers who have been accused or found
responsible for crimes can be extremely challenging. Adolescents can be defiant, and hurt
themselves and others. Sometimes, facilities may need to use limited periods or forms of
segregation and isolation to protect young people from other prisoners or themselves. But
using solitary confinement harms young people in ways that are different, and more
profound, than if they were adults.
Many adolescents reported being subjected to solitary confinement more than once while
they were under age 18. Forty-nine individuals—more than a third—of the seventy-seven

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interviewed and fifty with whom we corresponded described spending a total of between
one and six months in solitary confinement before their eighteenth birthday.
Adolescents spoke eloquently about solitary confinement, and how it compounded the
stresses of being in jail or prison—often for the first time—without family support. They
talked about the disorientation of finding themselves, and feeling, doubly alone.
Many described struggling with one or more serious mental health problems during their
time in solitary confinement and of sometimes having difficulty accessing psychological
services or support to cope with these difficulties. Some young people, particularly those
with mental disabilities (sometimes called psychosocial disabilities or mental illness, and
usually associated with long-term mental health problems), struggled more than others.
Several young people talked about attempting suicide when in isolation.
Adolescents in solitary confinement also experienced direct physical and developmental
harm, a consequence of being denied physical exercise or adequate nutrition. Thirty-eight
of those interviewed said they had experienced at least one period in solitary confinement
when they could not go outside. A few talked about losing weight and going to bed hungry.
The report finds that young people in solitary confinement are deprived of contact with
their families, access to education and to programming, and other services necessary for
their growth, development, and rehabilitation. Twenty-one of the young people interviewed
said they could not visit with loved ones during at least one period of solitary confinement.
Twenty-five said they spent at least one period of time in solitary confinement during which
they were not provided any educational programming at all. Sixteen described sitting
alone in their cell for days on end without even a book or magazine to read.
But as a number of jail and prison officials recognize, solitary confinement is costly,
ineffective, and harmful. There are other means to handle the challenges of detaining and
managing adolescents. Young people can be better managed in specialized facilities,
designed to house them, staffed with specially trained personnel, and organized to
encourage positive behaviors. Punitive schemes can be reorganized to stress immediate
and proportionate interventions and to strictly limit and regulate short-term isolation as a
rare exception.

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Solitary confinement of youth is itself a serious human rights violation and can constitute
cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment under international human rights law. In addition,
the conditions that compound the harm of solitary confinement (such as lack of
psychological care, physical exercise, family contact, and education) often constitute
independent, concurrent, and serious human rights violations. Solitary confinement
cannot be squared with the special status of adolescents under US constitutional law
regarding crime and punishment. While not unusual, it turns the detention of young people
in adult jails and prisons into an experience of unquestionable cruelty.
It is time for the United States to abolish the solitary confinement of young people. State
and federal lawmakers, as well as other appropriate officials, should immediately embark
on a review of the laws, policies, and practices that result in young people being held in
solitary confinement, with the goal of definitively ending this practice. Rather than being
banished to grow up locked down in isolation, incarcerated adolescents must be treated
with humanity and dignity and guaranteed the ability to grow, to be rehabilitated, and to
reenter society.

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Key Recommendations
To the US Federal Government and/or State Governments
•

Prohibit the solitary confinement of youth under age 18.

•

Prohibit the housing of adolescents with adults, or in jails and prisons designed to
house adults.

•

Strictly limit and regulate all forms of segregation and isolation of young people.

•

Monitor and report on the segregation and isolation of adolescents.

•

Ratify human rights treaties protecting young people without reservations.

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Methodology
This report is the product of a joint initiative—the Aryeh Neier fellowship—between Human
Rights Watch and the American Civil Liberties Union to strengthen respect for human rights
in the United States.
This report is based on interviews and correspondence undertaken between December
2011 and July 2012 with 127 individuals who were detained in jail or prison while under age
18 in Alabama, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Illinois, Kansas, Louisiana,
Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Texas,
Utah, Wisconsin, and Virginia. Of those, Human Rights Watch and the American Civil
Liberties Union interviewed in person 77 individuals who, collectively, had been held at
more than 50 jails and prisons in Colorado, Florida, Michigan, New York and Pennsylvania
while under age 18. Of these, 66 were male and 11 were female; 57 of them were between
18 and 25 years old at the time of the interviews; 20 were under age 18. Of the 50 with
whom Human Rights Watch corresponded, all were male; 24 were between the ages of 18
and 25, and 10 were under age 18.
In selecting jurisdictions for focused research, Human Rights Watch and the American Civil
Liberties Union prioritized states that consistently report holding youth under age 18 in
adult jails and prisons, and charging young people as if they are adults. Human Rights
Watch and the American Civil Liberties Union identified individuals who had been
subjected to solitary confinement in those jurisdictions through outreach to family
members; contact with defense attorneys and advocacy networks; and through an
advertisement in Prison Legal News (which has broad circulation in jails and in prisons).
Human Rights Watch and the American Civil Liberties Union also identified some
individuals by writing to or seeking to interview all adolescents under age 18 at a particular
facility or within a particular Department of Rehabilitation or Correction; all young people
convicted of certain offenses likely to be associated with isolation (such as battery by a
prisoner, assault on a corrections officer, or throwing or expelling bodily fluids at or
towards a public safety worker); or young people serving particularly long sentences, such
as life without parole.

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Human Rights Watch and the American Civil Liberties Union were not able to conduct
interviews in every state that confines adolescents in adult jails and prisons, nor in every
county in the states visited. Human Rights Watch and the American Civil Liberties Union
did not seek individual administrative, disciplinary, or medical records for most
individuals interviewed.
All individuals interviewed about their experience provided informed consent to
participate in this research. Interviews in jails and prisons were conducted in private, with
no jail or prison staff within earshot; interviews outside of jails and prisons were also
conducted in private. For some of the interviews, the Human Rights Watch/American Civil
Liberties Union researcher in charge of the project was accompanied by an attorney
(including sometimes the individual’s defense attorney), social worker, or NGO partner
whose presence as an observer was explained to the interviewee. When accompanied by
others, the Human Rights Watch/American Civil Liberties Union researcher led the
questioning, using substantially the same semi-structured questionnaire for all interviews
with those who had been held in jail or prison. The researcher repeatedly assured
interviewees that they could end the interview at any time or decline to answer any and all
questions. Also, the researcher gave no incentives to interviewees and took great care to
avoid re-traumatizing them. One individual declined to be interviewed, and one individual
refused to allow his or her testimony to be used for this research.
Some interviewees asked that their names be used in this report so they could more directly
participate in bringing attention to their personal experience. But due to concerns over the
safety of the many interviewees who did not want their identity disclosed, Human Rights
Watch and the American Civil Liberties Union decided to use pseudonyms to disguise the
identity of all interviewees who were held in jail or in prison, and of individuals whose cases
Human Rights Watch and the American Civil Liberties Union learned of through attorneys or
family members. In most cases, Human Rights Watch has also withheld certain other
identifying information to protect an individual’s privacy and safety.
Human Rights Watch sent surveys regarding the challenges of detaining and managing
youth and the use of isolation to more than 590 county jail facilities and received
responses from or interviewed, collectively, more than 98 county jail officials in Colorado,
Florida, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Michigan, New York, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, and

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Wisconsin. Human Rights Watch also interviewed or corresponded with state prison
officials in Colorado, Florida, Michigan, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin.
The Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction refused Human Rights Watch’s
request to interview young people under their care due to the department’s “long-standing
practice not to provide media access to [the department’s] incarcerated juveniles” and
because “there [were] legal concerns about whether the juveniles can consent to
interviews.”2 It also refused to allow us to privately interview inmates who had entered its
care while under age 18 who were now adults, stating that it would only allow interviews of
inmates who were screened “to determine if they are eligible and appropriate for
participation” if “the Public Information Officer at [each] facility [were] to be present during
th[ose] interviews.”3 Following our standard research methodology in situations of
confinement, we declined to submit to official monitoring or selection of interviews.
The Wisconsin Department of Corrections also denied Human Rights Watch’s request to
interview individuals in their care. It cited concerns that interviewing young people
identified through defense counsel and public records, “may introduce bias” in the results;
that, if the intent was to obtain information about county facilities, interviews should be
conducted “when the subject is in a county jail facility”; that the department would not
permit questioning about experiences in county facilities without “written approval from the
respective Jail Administration or Sheriff”; and that it would not permit interviews without
prior approval of questions to be asked (about prolonged isolation) and any other
“information necessary to take into account possible issues that could lead to any possible
negative effects that the interview may have on the subject’s mental health status.”4
Human Rights Watch interviewed officials at the US Department of Justice and state
officials charged with collecting data and monitoring compliance with federal law, such as
the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act.
Finally, Human Rights Watch and the American Civil Liberties Union interviewed dozens
(and had background discussions with scores) of third parties with relevant expertise or

2 Human Rights Watch email correspondence with the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Corrections, January 10, 2012.
3 Human Rights Watch email correspondence with the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Corrections, March 9, 2012.
4 Human Rights Watch email correspondence with the Wisconsin Department of Corrections, March 5, 2012.

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experience dealing with the consequences of the solitary confinement of adolescents,
including prisoner’s family members; victims of crime and their family members; attorneys;
as well as medical, corrections, educational, and psychological experts.
This report, especially Appendix 1, contains substantial statistical data. Most of the
descriptive statistics utilized in this report were extracted from three Bureau of Justice
Statistics (BJS) data sources: the annual Prisoners in [Year] reports; the annual Jail Inmates
at Midyear reports; and the raw Survey of Jails data files, which are used to generate the
Jail Inmates at Midyear report. Further information on the statistical methodology used
may be found in Appendix 1.

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I. Background: Kids in an Adult System
[C]hildren are constitutionally different from adults … [J]uveniles have
diminished culpability and greater prospects for reform … [and] are less
deserving of the most severe punishments … [C]hildren have a lack of
maturity and an underdeveloped sense of responsibility[;] … [c]hildren are
more vulnerable . . . to negative influences and outside pressures[;] …
[a]nd … a child’s character is not as well formed as an adult’s.
—Miller v. Alabama, United States Supreme Court, 2012 (No. 10‐9646, slip op. at 8 (2012)).

For much of the last century, people under the age of 18 who came into conflict with the
law in the United States were detained (when necessary), tried or adjudicated, and held
accountable in the juvenile justice system. In rare cases, and if in the best interests of the
child and the public, juvenile court judges could waive a delinquency case into the adult
criminal justice system. But this was far from common.5
Though they have since declined, in the late 1980s and through the mid-1990s, rates of
some categories of juvenile crime, particularly serious violent crime, increased
significantly.6 Concern about this development led to a proliferation of new legal
mechanisms for subjecting children to criminal trial and punishment as if they were
adults.7 The stated goal of most of these policies was deterrence through retributive
punishment: “adult time for adult crime.”8
5 Even when youth crime rates were at their highest, in the early 1990s, judicial waiver never exceeded 2 percent of all

delinquency cases. United States General Accounting Office, “Juvenile Justice: Juveniles Processed in Criminal Court and
Case Dispositions,” August 1995, http://www.gao.gov/assets/230/221507.pdf (accessed June 7, 2012), p. 10. It is also
important to note that for many years, some advocates actually pushed to have some youth in conflict with the law tried in
the adult system to ensure the availability of constitutional protections that were unavailable in juvenile court.
6 Many commentators warned against the rise of the so-called “‘super-predator” youth. John DiIulio, How to Stop the Coming

Crime Wave (New York: Manhattan Institute, 1996), p. 1. The analysis of data on crime rates is complicated. See, for example,
James P. Lynch, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, US Department of Justice, “Trends in Juvenile Violent
Offending: An Analysis of Victim Survey Data,” October 2002, https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/ojjdp/191052.pdf (accessed
June 7, 2012).
7 For more information about the variety of mechanisms to try youth, see Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency

Prevention, US Department of Justice, 1999 National Report Series, “Challenging the Myths,”
https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/ojjdp/178993.pdf (accessed June 7, 2012).
8 “P.A. Legislature: House to Weigh Bill on Violence,” The Vindicator, October 24, 1995. In the summer of 1993, for example,

Colorado legislators wrote, debated, and passed a broad overhaul of criminal laws in just 10 days during an extraordinary
session, and radically transformed the state’s criminal justice system as it related to youth. This was dubbed the “summer of
violence.” “Young Guns: Growing Number of States Get Tough,” Associated Press, October 21, 1993; “Summer of Violence

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As a result, each year tens of thousands of adolescents are now treated as adults. How
young people come to be charged, detained, and punished as adults, however, is a
function of a complex thicket of state and federal law and policy. There is no single
approach within or among states. Yet the consequences for young people treated the same
as adults are profound.

Youth Charged as if Adults
Nationally, young people held in adult facilities are charged and convicted of offenses
ranging from drug and property crimes to the most serious violent crimes. The most common
mechanisms for imposing “adult time for adult crime” include offense-based exclusion from
the juvenile justice system, prosecutorial “direct-file” of youth cases in the adult system,
and “once an adult always an adult” laws.9 For many young people, entering the adult
criminal justice system is a path of no return, as not all states have mechanisms to transfer
or waive jurisdiction back to the juvenile system, or to impose a blended sentence of
punishments in both the juvenile and adult systems.10 Yet some evidence suggests that
many adolescents charged as if adults are not actually sentenced to time in prison.11

Leaves Denver Demanding Answers,” Associated Press, July 29, 1993. Wisconsin and New Hampshire lowered the upper age
of juvenile court jurisdiction, deeming adulthood to begin at 17, not 18, for purposes of criminal prosecution. Patricia Torbet
et al., Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, US Department of Justice, “Juveniles Facing Criminal Sanctions:
Three States that Changed the Rules,” April 2000, https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/ojjdp/181203.pdf (accessed June 7,
2012), pp. xi-xii. By 1997, all states but three (Nebraska, New York, and Vermont) had changed their laws to make it easier
and more likely that child offenders would stand trial and be sentenced in adult criminal courts. Howard N. Snyder and
Melissa Sickmund, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, US Department of Justice, “Juvenile Offenders and
Victims: 1999 National Report,” September 1999, http://www.ncjrs.org/html/ojjdp/nationalreport99/toc.html (accessed
June 7, 2012), p. 15.
9 Patrick Griffin et al., Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, US Department of Justice, “Trying Juveniles As
Adults: An Analysis of State Transfer Laws and Reporting,” September 2011,
https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/ojjdp/232434.pdf (accessed June 7, 2012). Offense-based exclusion laws subject youth to
the original jurisdiction of the adult criminal justice system on the basis of the charged offense (sometimes but not always
with an additional age minimum). For example, Pennsylvania charges all homicide cases in adult criminal court, regardless
of the age of the offender. Prosecutorial direct-file laws usually give charging officials the (sometimes unlimited) discretion
to decide whether to file charges in juvenile court or in adult court (sometimes with age restrictions). Colorado recently
raised the age minimum for direct-file eligible offenses (such as homicide) from 14 to 16, but other states, such as Florida,
have no minimum age for a broad range of offenses. Finally, in some states, like Florida, once a youth has been convicted of
an offense in adult criminal court, all subsequent offenses (even minor ones) are treated as if committed by an adult; for
many offenses over which the juvenile court retains original jurisdiction, states have reduced the discretion of judges to
prevent the case from being transferred to adult court.
10 Pennsylvania just created an avenue to transfer youth back to the juvenile justice system; Michigan allows “blended”

sentencing of youth.
11 Campaign for Youth Justice, “Jailing Juveniles: The Dangers of Incarcerating Youth in Adult Jails in America,” November 2007,

http://www.campaignforyouthjustice.org/documents/CFYJNR_JailingJuveniles.pdf (accessed August 27, 2012), pp. 20-21.

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Many of the young people interviewed for
Racial and socioeconomic disparities are

this report were accused, tried, or convicted

pervasive within the criminal justice system. As

for serious crimes, even homicide. Human

Human Rights Watch has documented, in

Rights Watch and the American Civil

California, Connecticut, and Pennsylvania, black

Liberties Union interviewed more than a

adolescents are significantly more likely to be
serving a sentence of life without parole than

dozen young people serving life without

white adolescents.12 Other studies have found

parole for murder or felony murder. But

that minority adolescents receive harsher

Human Rights Watch and the American Civil

treatment than similarly-situated white

Liberties Union also interviewed young

adolescents at every stage of the criminal justice

people arrested, tried, or convicted of non-

system.13 Within the juvenile and adult criminal

17

justice systems, young people of color are

violent offenses, drug, and property crimes.

disproportionately represented at every stage,

For example, of the 26 young people

from arrest to sentencing.14

interviewed in Florida prisons, five were
convicted of non-violent offenses, such as

People with scant financial means are also often

burglary or drug possession.18

unable to afford bail, and as a result end up
spending lengthy periods in pre-trial detention.15
Consequently, economically disadvantaged

Yet, regardless of their conduct, it is well

adolescents, including those who are never

established that adolescents have a

convicted, can endure substantial adult jail time.

potential for development and rehabilitation

These racial and socioeconomic disparities are
interconnected: in New York City in 2010, blacks

that is distinct from that of adults. In

and Hispanics constituted 89 percent of all

addition, adolescents deprived of their

pretrial detainees held on bail of $1,000 or less.16

12 Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, The Rest of Their Lives, p.5.
13 Alex R. Piquero, “Disproportionate Minority Contact,” The Future of Children, vol. 18, no.2 (2008), p. 66, citing National

Council on Crime and Delinquency, And Justice for Some: Differential Treatment of Youth of Color in the Justice System
(Oakland: National Council on Crime and Delinquency, 2007); Neelum Arya and Ian Augarten, Campaign for Youth Justice,
“Critical Condition: African-American Youth in the Justice System,” September 2008,
http://www.campaignforyouthjustice.org/documents/CFYJPB_CriticalCondition.pdf (accessed August 27, 2012).
14 Piquero, “Disproportionate Minority Contact,” The Future of Children, p. 62, citing National Council on Crime and

Delinquency, And Justice for Some: Differential Treatment of Youth of Color in the Justice System.
15 Human Rights Watch, The Price of Freedom: Bail and Pretrial Detention of Low Income Nonfelony Defendants in New York

City, December 3, 2010, http://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/reports/us1210webwcover_0.pdf, p. 20.
16 Ibid., p. 48.
17 As Human Rights Watch has documented elsewhere, some youth convicted of felony murder serving life without parole

played a minor role in the crime. Indeed, in some jurisdictions, as many as half of youth offenders serving life without parole
were convicted without having physically committed the underlying offense. See Human Rights Watch and Amnesty
International, The Rest of Their Lives: Life without Parole for Child Offenders in the United States, October 12, 2005,
http://www.hrw.org/reports/2005/10/11/rest-their-lives-0, pp. 27-28.
18 A total list of crimes of conviction for these

five youth (some of whom were convicted of a combination of these offenses)
include burglary, grand theft, property damage/criminal mischief, attempted armed burglary, drug possession, and
possession of a concealed weapon.

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HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH/ACLU | OCTOBER 2012

liberty have significant developmental needs and rights that are distinct from those of
adults.

Youth Are Different
The cornerstone principle of the juvenile justice system in the United States is the idea
that young people are different from adults. This is a reflection of psychological and
physiological facts about how adolescents and their needs grow and change, as they
become adults; it is also a principle of international and domestic law. The juvenile justice
system seeks to rehabilitate young people and facilitate their development so that they
may be reintegrated into society. The adult criminal justice system, with its focus on
punishment, does not unequivocally prioritize rehabilitation, though the law of some
states and international human rights law mandate it.19
Young people have needs that differ in nature and degree from those of adults because
they are still developing physically and psychologically. These include specific physical
needs for exercise and a balanced diet; as well as special psychological, social, and
emotional needs. “As a transitional period,” reports one study, “adolescence is marked by
rapid and dramatic [individual] change in the realms of biology, cognition, emotion, and
interpersonal relationships and by equally impressive transformations in the major
contexts in which children spend time.”20

19 Human Rights Watch has documented the broad failure of adult jails and prisons (as well as shortcomings in the US

juvenile justice system) to care for youth and other vulnerable populations, such as the elderly or persons with mental or
intellectual disabilities. For examples see: Human Rights Watch, No Minor Matter: Children in Maryland’s Jails, November 1,
1999, http://www.hrw.org/legacy/reports/1999/maryland/; Human Rights Watch and American Civil Liberties Union,
Custody and Control: Conditions of Confinement in New York’s Juvenile Prisons for Girls, September 25, 2006,
http://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/reports/us0906webwcover.pdf; Human Rights Watch, The Rest of Their Lives: Life
without Parole for Child Offenders in the United States, October 11, 2005,
http://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/reports/TheRestofTheirLives.pdf; Human Rights Watch, No Escape: Male Rape in U.S.
Prisons, April 1, 2001, http://www.hrw.org/legacy/reports/2001/prison/report.html; Human Rights Watch, Old Behind Bars:
The Aging Prison Population in the United States, January 28, 2012,
http://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/reports/usprisons0112webwcover_0.pdf; Human Rights Watch and American Civil
Liberties Union, Deportation By Default: Mental Disability, Unfair Hearings, and Indefinite Detention in the US Immigration
System, July 25, 2010, http://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/reports/usdeportation0710webwcover_1_0.pdf; Human
Rights Watch, Against All Odds: Prison Conditions for Youth Offenders Serving Life without Parole Sentences in the United
States, January 4, 2012, http://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/reports/us0112ForUpload_1.pdf.
20 Laurence Steinberg et al., “The Study of Developmental Psychopathology in Adolescence: Integrating Affective
Neuroscience with the Study of Context,” in Dante Cicchetti and Donald Cohen, eds., Developmental Psychopathology
(Oxford: John Wiley & Sons, 2006), p. 710.

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Physiological Differences and Needs
During adolescence, the body changes significantly, including through the development of
secondary sexual characteristics. Boys and girls gain height, weight, and muscle mass, as
well as pubic and body hair; girls develop breasts and begin menstrual periods, and boys’
genitals grow and their voices change.21 The American Academy of Pediatrics therefore
recommends a spectrum of age-differentiated examinations and assessments for
adolescents related to physical, dental, and vision care.22 This includes developmental
screenings (and health care needs) that differ from early, middle, to late adolescence.23

Psychological Differences: Impulsivity, Capacity for Change, and Developmental Needs
Recent scientific findings revealing that the human brain goes through dramatic structural
growth during teen years have overturned earlier assumptions regarding the completion of
brain development at early adolescence.24 These findings have significant implications for
our understanding of teenagers’ volition and culpability, their capacity to change and
develop, and their psychological needs.
The most dramatic difference between the brains of teens and young adults is the
development of the frontal lobe.25 The frontal lobe is responsible for cognitive processing,
such as planning, strategizing, and organizing thoughts and actions. Researchers have
determined that one area of the frontal lobe, the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, is among
the last brain regions to mature, not reaching adult dimensions until a person is in his or
her twenties.26 This part of the brain is linked to “the ability to inhibit impulses, weigh

21 Sedra Spano, Research Facts and Findings, ACT for Youth Upstate Center for Excellence, “Stages of Adolescent
Development,” 2004, http://www.actforyouth.net/resources/rf/rf_stages_0504.pdf (accessed August 27, 2012); National
Institutes of Health, Medline Plus, “Adolescent Development,”
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/002003.htm (accessed August 27, 2012).
22 American Academy of Pediatrics, “Recommendations for Preventive Pediatric Care,” 2000,

http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/105/3/645.full.pdf+html (accessed August 27, 2012). The Academy also has
issued a detailed set of guidelines for addressing physical and mental health in the context of detention in juvenile facilities.
American Academy of Pediatrics, Policy Statement, “Healthcare for Youth in the Juvenile Justice System,” 2011,
http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/128/6/1219.full.pdf+html (accessed August 27, 2012).
23 American Academy of Pediatrics, “Bright Futures: Guidelines for Health Supervision of Infants, Children, and Adolescents,”
2008, http://brightfutures.aap.org/pdfs/Guidelines_PDF/1-BF-Introduction.pdf (accessed August 27, 2012).
24 National Institute of Mental Health, National Institutes of Health, “Teenage Brain: A Work in Progress,” 2001,
http://wwwapps.nimh.nih.gov/health/publications/teenage-brain-a-work-in-progress.shtml (accessed November 25, 2007).
25 Steinberg et al., “The Study of Development Psychopathology in Adolescence,” p. 710.
26 Jay N. Giedd, “Structural Magnetic Resonance Imaging of the Adolescent Brain,” Annals of the New York Academy of

Science, vol. 1021 (2004), p. 83.

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HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH/ACLU | OCTOBER 2012

consequences of decisions, prioritize, and strategize.”27 As a result, teens’ decisionmaking processes are shaped by impulsivity, immaturity, and an under-developed ability
to appreciate consequences and resist environmental pressures.
The malleability of an adolescents’ brain development implies that teens through their
twenties may be particularly amenable to change and rehabilitation as they grow older and
attain adult levels of development.28 This malleability also raises questions about the
effects of stress and trauma on adolescent development during this formative period.
As detailed in section II, the particular physical and psychological characteristics of
adolescents make solitary confinement particularly detrimental to healthy development
and rehabilitation.

Adult Detention Regimes
In the United States, many of those accused or convicted of criminal offenses are held in
jails or prisons. Prisons generally hold only those convicted of crimes and sentenced to
more than a year of incarceration. Based on the available data, Human Rights Watch and
the American Civil Liberties Union estimate that in the last 5 years, more than 93,000
young people under age 18 were held in adult jails and that more than 2,200 young people
under age 18 were held in adult prisons every year (see Appendix 1 for detailed information
and additional numbers). While some young people turn 18 before they enter prison,
others are not sentenced to spend time in prison, making the high numbers of young
people held in jail particularly alarming.29

State Law and Practice - Jails
Once charged in the adult criminal justice system, adolescents in many states are taken to
adult jails.30 Some states, such as Wisconsin, mandate that all individuals charged in
criminal court be detained in adult jail pre-trial.31 Once detained in adult facilities, some

27 Ibid.
28 Steinberg et al., “The Study of Development Psychopathology in Adolescence,” p. 710.
29 Campaign for Youth Justice, “Jailing Juveniles,” pp. 20-21.
30 Ibid.
31 Wis. Stat. Ann. § 938.18(8) (“When waiver is granted, the juvenile, if held in secure custody, shall be transferred to an
appropriate officer or adult facility”); 938.183(1m) (providing for the detention in adult facilities of youth subject to original

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states require that young people under 18 be kept separate from adults in pre-trial
facilities (often mandating separation by “sight and sound”).32 Other states leave it to
individual facilities to sort out how and whether young people need to be protected. Some
facilities separate young people of certain ages from adults. In some jails in Michigan
(where 17 year olds are considered adults in the criminal justice system), for example, 16
year olds are generally separated from adults while 17 year olds are held with adults.33
Federal law—the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act (JJDPA)—creates financial
incentives for states to treat young people differently from adults, including by diverting
young people subject to the jurisdiction of the juvenile justice system (and certain
categories of misdemeanants) from adult facilities.34 Adolescents who are protected by the
federal law must either never be held in adult facilities (in the case of status offenders35) or
be moved from adult facilities within 6 hours (and must be sight and sound separated from
adult inmates while there).36 However, this law is not currently interpreted to cover
adolescents who are charged with felonies in the adult system, leaving youth protected
only by state law.37

State Law and Practice - Prisons
In most states, young people who are convicted as if adults and sentenced to more than a
year of incarceration are then sent to prison.38 Some state prison systems have special
“youthful offender” facilities that serve some proportion of the youth admitted to prison

criminal jurisdiction); 938.209(3). But see Wis. Stat. Ann. § 938.183(1m) (“If the juvenile is under 15 years of age, the juvenile
may be held in secure custody only in a juvenile detention facility or in the juvenile section of a county jail.”).
32 Michigan’s Code of Criminal Procedure, Mich. Comp. Laws Ann. § 764.27a(3); Ohio’s Revised Code, Rev. Code Ann. §
2152.26(f)(1).
33 Mich. Comp. Laws Ann. § 764.27a(3); Human Rights Watch telephone interview with Ann Russell, Corrections

Administrator, Oakland County, Michigan, March 23, 2012; Human Rights Watch telephone interview with Michelle M.
Sanborn, Jail Administrator, Macomb County, Michigan, March 9, 2012.
34 Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act, 42 USC 5633(a)(11).
35 Status offenses

are those that are based solely on a person’s age at the time of certain conduct, such as a curfew violation.

36 Human Rights Watch email correspondence with Elissa Rumsey, Compliance Coordinator, US Department of Justice Office

of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, June 28, 2012; Substantive Requirements, Code of Federal Regulations, 28
CFR 31.303(d)(1)(i).
37 Human Rights Watch email correspondence with Elissa Rumsey, June 28, 2012; Definitions, US Code, 42 USC 5602 (26)
(“the term ‘adult inmate’ means an individual who (A) has reached the age of full criminal responsibility under applicable
State law; and (B) has been arrested and is in custody for or awaiting trial on a criminal charge, or is convicted of a criminal
charge offense”).
38 As noted above, in most states those sentenced to less than one year of incarceration often serve out their sentences in

jails.

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HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH/ACLU | OCTOBER 2012

who are under a certain age (such as under the age of 22 in Pennsylvania).39 In some states,
such as Florida, judges and corrections officials can designate young people as “youthful
offenders” for the purposes of admission to these specialized programs; in other states,
young people convicted of some serious offenses are sometimes excluded from
eligibility.40 In some states, a portion of young people under age 18 in the prison system
are held in the general adult population.
In some states, adult criminal courts have the authority to blend the sentences of young
people convicted of crimes such that they begin their sentence in the state system
designed to house juveniles, but can be transferred into adult prison in certain
circumstances. The federal government, by contrast, makes arrangements to hold all
adolescents post-conviction in facilities overseen by the relevant juvenile justice system.41

Risks and Harm to Youth in Adult Facilities
Doing time in jails and prisons is hard for anyone. Jails and prisons are often tense and
overcrowded facilities in which all prisoners struggle to maintain their self-respect and
emotional equilibrium in the face of violence, exploitation, extortion, and lack of privacy;
stark limitations on family and community contacts; and few opportunities for meaningful
education, work, or other productive activities. But doing time in jail or prison is particularly
difficult for young people, who often constitute a very small proportion of the population.
Adult jails and prisons that house adolescents face significant obstacles to keeping
adolescents safe and ensuring that they receive developmentally appropriate services—
even the limited services that some states mandate by law—when using staff trained and
facilities designed to manage adults. Jail and prison recreation yards are designed for
adults; doctors and mental health professionals are rarely specialized to treat children.
The lack of age-appropriate services and facilities is further compounded by the limited
availability of education or rehabilitative programming available in jails and prisons.

39 Human Rights Watch telephone interview with Eric Bush, Superintendent, Secure Correctional Institution Pine Grove,

Pennsylvania Department of Corrections, Pine Grove, Pennsylvania, June 21, 2012.
40 Youthful Offenders, Florida Statute, Title 47, Ch. 958. 03-04,

http://www.flsenate.gov/Laws/Statutes/2012/Chapter958/All (accessed August 27, 2012).
41 Federal Bureau of Prisons, “Statement of Work, Contract Secure Juvenile Facility,” amended February 2004, revised July

2011, http://www.bop.gov/locations/cc/SOW_Secure_Juvie.pdf (accessed August 27, 2012).

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Young people held in the same facility as adults face a very high risk of physical or sexual
abuse.42 Studies suggest that adolescents who enter adult prison while they are still below
the age of 18 are “five times more likely to be sexually assaulted, twice as likely to be
beaten by staff and fifty percent more likely to be attacked with a weapon than minors in
juvenile facilities.”43 Some have argued that the increased exposure of young people to
violence in adult facilities may increase the likelihood that they will exhibit violent
behavior upon release.44 While causation is difficult to establish, some data suggests that
recidivism rates are significantly higher when young people are held with adults. A report
published by the Centers for Disease Control found that “[a]vailable evidence indicates
that transfer to the adult criminal justice system typically increases rather than decreases
rates of violence among transferred youth.”45

42 In 2005, for example, youth under the age of 18 made up less than 1 percent of all inmates in US jails, yet comprised 21

percent of all victims of substantiated incidents of sexual abuse involving inmates. National Prison Rape Elimination
Commission, “National Prison Rape Elimination Commission Report,” June 2009,
https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/226680.pdf (accessed August 27, 2012), p. 42, citing Howard N. Snyder and Melissa
Sickmund, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, US Department of Justice, Juvenile offenders and victims:
2006 National report (Washington, D.C.: US Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, 2006) and Allen J. Beck and
Paige M. Harrison, Bureau of Justice Statistics, US Department of Justice, “Sexual Victimization in Prisons and Jails Reported
by Inmates, 2008-09,” August 2010, http://bjs.ojp.usdoj.gov/content/pub/pdf/svpjri0809.pdf (accessed August 27, 2012).
Youth under 20 experience the highest rates of sexual abuse by staff of any prison age demographic, and the highest rates of
sexual abuse by other inmates of any jail age demographic. Beck and Harrison, “Sexual Victimization in Prisons and Jails
Reported by Inmates, 2008-2009”; In contrast, approximately 2.6 percent of youth in juvenile facilities reported a sexual
incident involving another youth, while 10.3 percent reported an incident involving facility staff. Allen J. Beck, Paige M.
Harrison and Paul Guerino, Bureau of Justice Statistics, US Department of Justice, “Sexual Victimization in Juvenile Facilities
Reported by Youth, 2008-2009,” January 2010, http://bjs.ojp.usdoj.gov/content/pub/pdf/svjfry09.pdf (accessed August 27,
2012), p. 1 (analyzing statistics gathered by the Bureau of Justice Statistics).
43 Jeffrey Fagan, Martin Forst, and T. Scott Vivona, “Youth in Prisons and Training Schools: Perceptions and Consequences of

the Treatment-Custody Dichotomy,” Juvenile and Family Court, vol. 40 (1989), p. 9. See also Jason Ziedenberg and
Vincent Schiraldi, “The Risks Juveniles Face When They Are Incarcerated with Adults,” Justice Policy Institute,
July 1997, http://www.justicepolicy.org/images/upload/97-02_REP_RiskJuvenilesFace_JJ.pdf (accessed August 27, 2012).
44 Fagan, Forst, and Vivona, “Youth in Prisons and Training Schools,” Juvenile and Family Court, p. 10.
45 Robert Hahn et al., Centers for Disease Control, “Effects on Violence of Laws and Policies Facilitating the Transfer of Youth
from the Juvenile to the Adult Justice System: A Report on Recommendations of the Task Force on Community Preventive
Services,” vol. 56, no. RR-9, November 30, 2007, http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/rr5609a1.htm (accessed
August 27, 2012).

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HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH/ACLU | OCTOBER 2012

II. How Solitary Confinement Harms Youth
Jails and prisons across the United States commonly respond to prison or inmate
management challenges by segregating individuals from the general population, often
through prolonged physical and social isolation, for hours, days, weeks, or even years.
Isolation for 22 hours per day or more, and for one or more days, fits the generally
accepted definition of solitary confinement, and this term is used throughout this report.46
Solitary confinement is not a practice that jails and prisons restrict to adults; the solitary
confinement of young people is not exceptional or transient. On the contrary, it is a serious
and widespread problem.
Jail or prison officials frequently subject young people to solitary confinement to achieve
one of three goals: to punish young people (this is often called disciplinary segregation);
to manage them, either because their classification is deemed to require isolation (often
called administrative segregation) or because they are considered particularly vulnerable
to abuse (often called protective custody); or to treat inmates, such as after a threatened
or attempted suicide (this is often called seclusion).
The conditions that inmates experience in solitary confinement vary little between different
forms of segregation, and from county to county, prison to prison, or state to state. 47 The
different forms of solitary confinement are discussed in more detail in section III.

46 UN Human Rights Council, Interim Report of the Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading

treatment or punishment, Juan Mendez, U.N. G.A. Doc. A/66/268, August 5, 2011, http://daccessddsny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/N11/445/70/PDF/N1144570.pdf?OpenElement (accessed August 27, 2012). Jail and prison
officials do not generally use the term “solitary confinement” to refer to the range of segregation and isolation practices they
employ to manage inmates. They are correct in noting that conditions are not exactly like those used in the earliest facilities
to employ the practice. But because the conditions and effects of various segregation practices are substantially the same,
Human Rights Watch and the American Civil Liberties Union use a single definition based on the degree of deprivation. At the
same time, this report’s focus on solitary confinement should not be read to endorse segregation and isolation practices that
do not fit this definition. Any use of physical and social isolation, including if it is for a shorter duration, can raise serious
human rights concerns. The same is true for the practice of holding two inmates in conditions that would otherwise
constitute solitary confinement (Human Rights Watch and mental health professionals have raised serious concerns about
this practice). Similarly, this report’s focus on youth under age 18 should not be read to minimize the developmental
differences between, for example, an 18 or a 24 year old and a 40 year old, and the corresponding vulnerability to solitary
confinement.
47 Solitary confinement in general has a long history, and Human Rights Watch has done extensive research on the isolated—

and solitary—confinement of adults. See, for example: Written Statement from Human Rights Watch to the Senate Committee on
the Judiciary, Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Human Rights, “US: Look Critically at Widespread Use of

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While outside of the scope of this report, public and press reporting suggests facilities in the
juvenile justice system also use a range of segregation and isolation practices to detain and
manage adolescents, including solitary confinement.48 Segregation and isolation practices in
juvenile facilities are sometimes divided between short-term, immediate sanctions to interrupt
what officials deem to be juveniles’ “acting out” behavior and longer-term, administrative or
disciplinary isolation. All best practice standards for juvenile facilities propose maximum
limits on various forms of isolation that are far below the durations of solitary confinement
experienced by young people in adult jails and prisons interviewed by Human Rights Watch
and the American Civil Liberties Union.49
Yet lengthy solitary confinement still occurs in juvenile facilities. An audit of one California
Division of Juvenile Justice facility, completed in 2011, found that of 93 young people placed in
restricted housing, 16 were held for a total of 78 days, during which they were only provided an
average of 74 out-of-room minutes each day.50 The segregation and isolation of young people
in juvenile facilities, particularly when it constitutes solitary confinement, also raises serious
human rights concerns.51

Solitary Confinement,” June 2012, http://www.hrw.org/news/2012/06/18/us-look-critically-widespread-use-solitaryconfinement. The earliest form of solitary confinement involved complete isolation, including hooding prisoners, so that during
their incarceration inmates never saw (and rarely heard) another human being. Stuart Grassian, “Psychiatric Effects of Solitary
Confinement,” Journal of Law and Policy, vol. 22 (2006), p. 340. Such complete isolation fell out of favor as a jail or prison
management technique for many decades, but a range of similar practices are now used worldwide. Interim Report of the Special
Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, Juan Mendez, August 5, 2011.
48 A detailed description of the use of isolation in juvenile facilities can also be found in Sandra Simkins et al., “The Harmful

Use of Isolation in Juvenile Facilities: The Need for Post-Disposition Representation,” Washington University Journal of Law
and Policy, vol. 38 (2012), http://digitalcommons.law.wustl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1019&context=wujlp (accessed
September 26, 2012).
49 The Juvenile Detention Alternatives Initiative suggests that best practices for juvenile facilities include prohibiting room
confinement as a response to current acting out behavior in excess of four hours and prohibiting disciplinary room
confinement in excess of 72 hours. “Juvenile Detention Alternatives Initiative (JDAI) Facility Site Assessment Instrument,”
May 2006, http://www.cclp.org/documents/Conditions/JDAI%20Standards.pdf (accessed August 27, 2012). The American
Bar Association Task Force on Youth in the Adult Criminal Justice System proposed that room confinement for any purpose
should never exceed ten days. American Bar Association (ABA), Youth in the Criminal Justice System: Guidelines for Policy
Makers and Practitioners (American Bar Association, 2001),
http://www.campaignforyouthjustice.org/documents/natlres/ABA%20%20Youth%20in%20the%20Criminal%20Justice%20System%20Guidelines%20for%20Policymakers.pdf (accessed August
27, 2012). The 1980 American Bar Association Guidelines for Juvenile Facilities suggests that best practices for juvenile
facilities should include limiting room confinement for suicide risk or protective custody to eight hours; and limiting
disciplinary confinement to five days for minor infractions and ten days for major infractions.
50 California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation: Office of Audits and Court Compliance, “Review of Identified

Concerns: Ventura Youth Correctional Facility,” March 2011,
https://s3.amazonaws.com/s3.documentcloud.org/documents/203430/djj-audit.pdf (accessed August 27, 2012), p. 5.
51 Human Rights Watch and the American Civil Liberties Union, Custody and Control, pp. 105 - 113.

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HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH/ACLU | OCTOBER 2012

Young people repeatedly described their experience in solitary confinement in the most
haunting of terms, as in the case of one young woman in Michigan:
I think [the cell] would … look like any other cell. You know, a box. There
was a bed—the slab. It was concrete.… There was a stainless steel
toilet/sink combo…. The door was solid, without a food slot or window…. It
looked like a basement because all I could see was brick walls. There was
no window at all … I couldn’t see a clock … the only way I really associated
any kind of time—I broke down time: morning, afternoon, evening. I broke it
down: breakfast, lunch, and dinner.… [I felt] doomed, like I was being
banished … like you have the plague or that you are the worst thing on
earth. Like you are set apart [from] everything else. I guess [I wanted to] feel
like I was part of the human race—not like some animal.52
Another, in Florida, said,
The only thing left to do is go crazy—just sit and talk to the walls.… I catch
myself [talking to the walls] every now and again. It’s starting to become a
habit because I have nothing else to do. I can’t read a book. I work out and
try to make the best of it. But there is no best. Sometimes I go crazy and
can’t even control my anger anymore.… I can’t even get [out of solitary
confinement] early if I do better, so it is frustrating and I just lose it.
Screaming, throwing stuff around.… I feel like I am alone, like no one cares
about me—sometimes I feel like, why am I even living?53
Solitary confinement, and many of the deprivations that are typically associated with it,
has a distinct and particularly profound impact on young people, often doing serious
damage to their development and psychological and physical well-being. Because of the
special vulnerability and needs of adolescents, solitary confinement can be a particularly
cruel and harmful practice when applied to them.

52 Human Rights Watch interview with Molly J. (pseudonym), Michigan, March 2012.
53 Human Rights Watch interview with Henry R. (pseudonym), Florida, April 2012.

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While subjected to solitary confinement, young people reported to Human Rights Watch
and the American Civil Liberties Union that they were deprived of a significant level of
access to: physical and mental health care services; recreation or physical exercise;
education, reading, or writing materials; visits, calls, correspondence, or contact with
family members and loved ones; and other rehabilitative and developmentally-appropriate
programming. Young people reported very similar experiences regardless of the purpose
for which solitary confinement was imposed.

Psychological Harm
The use of solitary confinement risks causing or exacerbating mental disabilities or other
serious mental health problems in adolescents. 54
Studies have found that numerous adults who have no history of mental health problems
develop psychological symptoms in solitary confinement.55 While many of those studies
are open to questions about the mental health status of individuals before entering
solitary confinement, there is agreement that solitary confinement can cause or exacerbate
mental health problems.56

54 Mental health problems refers to a broad spectrum of mental, behavioral, or emotional symptoms described by youth,
including both youth with and without identified mental disabilities, as well as experiences and symptoms that may be due
to psychological immaturity.
55 Craig Haney, “Mental Health Issues in Long-Term Solitary and ‘Supermax’ Confinement,” Crime & Delinquency, vol. 49,

no.1 (2003), pp. 124-156; Holly A. Miller and Glenn R. Young, “Prison Segregation: Administrative Detention Remedy orMental
Health Problem?” Criminal Behaviour and Mental Health, vol. 7, no. 1 (1997), p. 85; Hans Toch, Mosaic of Despair: Human
Breakdown in Prison (Washington DC: American Psychological Association, 1992); Richard Korn, “The Effects of Confinement
in the High Security Unit at Lexington,” Social Justice, vol. 15, no. 1 (1988), p. 8; Stanley L. Brodsky and Forrest R. Scogin,
“Inmates in Protective Custody: First Data on Emotional Effects,” Forensic Reports, vol. 1, no. 4 (1988), p. 267; Stuart
Grassian, “Psychopathological Effects of Solitary Confinement,” American Journal of Psychiatry, vol. 140 (1983), p. 1450.
56 The results of and debate regarding a one-year longitudinal study in Colorado suggest the complexities inherent in

measuring and understanding the psychological effects of solitary confinement. Maureen L. O’Keefe et al., Colorado
Department of Corrections, “One Year Longitudinal Study of the Psychological Effects of Administrative Segregation,”
October 31, 2010, https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/nij/grants/232973.pdf (accessed August 27, 2012); Peter Scharff Smith,
National Institute of Corrections, “The effects of solitary confinement: Commentary on One Year Longitudinal Study of the
Psychological Effects of Administrative Segregation,” June 2011, www.community.nicic.gov/cfsfilesystemfile.ashx/_key/CommunityServer.CommunityServer.Components.PostAttachments/00.00.05.95.22/Supermax_2D00_-T-_2S00_-Smith.pdf (accessed August 27, 2012). In addition to increased mental health problems generally, suicide
rates and incidents of self-harm are much higher for prisoners in solitary confinement. In California, for example, although
less than 10 percent of the state’s prison population was held in isolation units in 2004, those units accounted for 73 percent
of all suicides. Expert Report of Professor Craig Haney at 45-46, n. 119, Coleman v. Schwarzenegger/ Plata v. Schwarzenegger,
Eastern Federal District Court of California/Northern Federal District Court of California, 2008 (Civ S 90-0520 LKK-JFM P, C011351 THE (E.D. Cal/N.D. Cal. 2008)).

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Human Rights Watch and the American Civil Liberties Union are not aware of any studies
that look specifically at the effects of prolonged solitary confinement on adolescents. But
many experts on child and adolescent psychology said that prolonged isolation, including
in conditions as restrictive as solitary confinement, can cause or exacerbate mental
disabilities or other serious mental health problems.57
Solitary confinement is stressful.58 It “engender[s] significant levels of anxiety and
discomfort.”59 And young people have fewer psychological resources than adults do to
help them manage the stress, anxiety and discomfort they experience in solitary
confinement. 60 For many adolescents in prison, developmental immaturity is compounded
by mental disabilities and histories of trauma, abuse, and neglect. These factors, though
experienced differently by different individuals, can exacerbate the mental health effects
of solitary confinement.
Many of the young people interviewed spoke in harrowing detail about struggling with one
or more of a range of serious mental health problems during their time in solitary. They
talked about thoughts of suicide and self-harm; visual and auditory hallucinations;
feelings of depression; acute anxiety; shifting sleep patterns; nightmares and traumatic
memories; and uncontrollable anger or rage. Some young people, particularly those who
reported having been identified as having a mental disability before entering solitary
confinement, struggled more than others. Fifteen young people described cutting or
harming themselves or thinking about or attempting suicide one or more times while in
solitary confinement.

57 Human Rights Watch telephone interviews with Louis Kraus, Chief of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Rush University

Medical Center, and Co-Chair of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Committee on Juvenile Justice
Reform, June 14, 2012; with Richard Barnum, forensic child psychiatrist, May 30, 2012; and with Deborah DePrato, Director,
Institute for Public Health and Justice, Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center, and Associate Clinical Professor,
School of Public Health, June 6, 2012.
58 Congressional Quarterly, “Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Constitution, Civil Rights, and Human Rights Holds Hearing

on Reassessing Solitary Confinement,” June 19, 2012, http://solitarywatch.files.wordpress.com/2012/06/transcript-of-thehearing.pdf (accessed August 27, 2012), panel 1, transcript (“We would say that individuals placed in restricted housing, I
would say the stress level is obviously higher.”).
59 Human Rights Watch telephone interview with Louis Kraus, June 14, 2012.
60 Human Rights Watch telephone interview with Deborah DePrato, June 6, 2012.

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Not all young people reported experiencing significant mental health problems in solitary
confinement. However, these accounts vividly portray the psychological pain and suffering
that can be brought on by time in solitary confinement.

Trying to Cope
Many young people described wishing they could mentally escape from solitary
confinement, and using a variety of mechanisms to dissociate from their experience. Some
developed imaginary friends; some used make-believe or other imaginings to dissociate.
Alyssa E. spent four months in protective solitary confinement when she was sixteen. She
said,
It may sound weird but I had a friend in there that I would talk to. She
wasn’t there, but it was my mind. And I would talk to her and she would
respond.… She [would tell] positive things to me. It was me, my mind, I
knew, but it was telling me positive things.… It was a strange experience.61
Carter P., who entered prison at 14, described using make-believe and games to help
himself through the first of many times he was held in punitive solitary confinement:
I felt like I was going mad. Nothing but a wall to stare at. This was my tenth
wall to stare at in my detention. I started to see pictures in the little bumps
in the walls. Eventually, I said the hell with it and started acting insane. [I]
made little characters with my hands and acted out [video] games I used to
play on the out[side]—Dragon Ball Z, Sonic, Zelda—stuff like that. The
[corrections officers] would stare at me—looking at me like I’m crazy.… I
started talking to myself and answering myself. Talking gibberish. I even
made my own language—[corrections officers] didn’t know what I was
talking about.62

61 Human Rights Watch interview with Alyssa E. (pseudonym), Florida,

April 2012.

62 Human Rights Watch interview with Carter P. (pseudonym), Michigan, March 2012.

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Another common strategy to escape solitary confinement was sleep. Jordan E., who
reported spending nearly a year in protective solitary confinement when he was 15,
described his focus on trying to sleep:
I daydreamed, I slept a bunch. That’s how I would handle 20, 18 hours a
day. If I wasn’t sleeping, I was in bed trying to sleep. Get up, eat, back to
bed—lay there and lay there, trying to sleep.63
In spite of their best efforts, many felt that in the struggle to cope with solitary confinement,
they faced a losing battle with themselves. As Marvin Q., who spent a week in protective
solitary confinement when he was 17, described it,
I wish I had better words—I was really, really lonely.… I [would] try to put
covers on my head—make … like it’s not there. Try to dissociate myself … I
don’t think they should do that to a juvenile. It’s impossible for any person
to cope with anything like that. I couldn’t help myself.64

Anxiety, Rage, and Insomnia
Young people described a variety of mental health problems associated with their solitary
confinement. Some said they had their first anxiety attack in solitary confinement; others
said they lost themselves to an uncontrollable rage. Several had trouble sleeping. For
some, these problems were all experienced simultaneously. Phillip J., who spent
approximately 113 days in solitary confinement (including a single period of 60 days)
before his eighteenth birthday, said,
I was stressed. At first I would sleep all day. I would feel myself getting
angry or aggressive. I would try to work out or do something, but I was
literally going insane in that little spot. The claustrophobia set in and I
would feel I was having anxiety attacks and would go over and get water
and try and calm down. I would hear the slightest noise and be on guard.65

63 Human Rights Watch interview with Jordan E. (pseudonym), Colorado, February 2012.
64 Human Rights Watch interview with Marvin Q. (pseudonym), Colorado, February 2012.
65 Human Rights Watch interview with Phillip J. (pseudonym), Florida, April 2012.

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Another young person described mood swings while in solitary confinement. Rafael O. said,
“I [would] get depressed, if anything, then have extreme anxiety and feel like I [was] hyperactive, and then get depressed again.”66
Parents explained that their loved ones’ struggle was visible during visits (when they were
allowed). One woman described visiting her grandchild, whom she identified as having a
mental disability, while he was in solitary confinement:
His mind is going and coming when he is locked up by himself all the
time.… He is jumpy. He is startled when you talk to him.… He can’t be still—
like a nervous person!… He [wa]s always biting on his hands and wrist the
whole time I talked to him. Biting his fingers and wrists [and] both hands.
He was also grinding his teeth. You can [sic] see his jaw constantly moving.
He never did that before.67
Some youth experienced anger or rage that they could not control. As one said, “All I would
want to do is fight.”68 Another said, “I couldn’t sleep. I was having anger. My anger was
crazy. I was having outbursts.”69 And a third said, “It makes you worse. It really brings the
beast out of you to be in there stressing. You start saying, ‘Fuck everything.’ … [It] makes
you more wild; makes you feel like a lion in a cage.”70 Kyle B. wrote,
The loneliness made me depressed and the depression caused me to be
angry [sic], leading to a desire to displace the agony by hurting others. I felt
an inner pain not of this world.… I allowed the pain that was inflicted upon
[me] from [my] isolation placement build up while in isolation. And at the
first opportunity of release (whether I was being released from isolation or
receiving a cell-mate) I erupted like a volcano, directing violent forces at
anyone in my path.71

66 Human Rights Watch interview with Rafael O. (pseudonym), Colorado, February 2012.
67 Human Rights Watch interview with Effie H. (pseudonym), Florida, April 20, 2012.
68 Human Rights Watch interview with Isaac P. (pseudonym), Colorado, February 2012.
69 Interview with Jacob L. (pseudonym), New York, April 2012.
70 Interview with Alex A. (pseudonym), Florida, April 2012.
71 Letter from Kyle B. (pseudonym), from California, to Human Rights Watch, May 3, 2012.

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HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH/ACLU | OCTOBER 2012

Adolescents who had trouble coping or sleeping were sometimes identified by mental health
staff and prescribed medication. A number of young people described being prescribed
sleeping medication. Mason P., who had spent the four days before he was interviewed in
administrative solitary confinement, said,
I don’t sleep. They gave me sleeping pills ‘cause I can’t sleep. I worry a lot.... I
started taking them three days ago. They asked if I felt like killing myself or
hurting somebody, I said, “Naw,” but they told me if I was worrying they said
they were going to give me something.72
A Philadelphia County Prison Official observed that many youth held in solitary confinement in
the county jail were prescribed sleeping aids and other prescription medications while in
isolation: “It was a way [for them] to cope and reduce anxiety.”73
But some experts question the practice of treating sleep problems directly. Dr. Cheryl Wills, a
child psychiatrist who has diagnosed youth in juvenile and adult facilities, argues that poor
sleep patterns are often indicative of another underlying problem:
I am not a proponent of medicating sleep … the question is, what is it related
to—a symptom of depression? Post-traumatic stress? ADHD? So you figure out
what is going on and treat sleep as a part of the picture.… There are
medications that help youth if they have issues, but you must treat it as a
whole package, as part of a treatable diagnosis.… You don’t want to medicate
a youth unless he or she really needs it.74
Treating sleeplessness associated with mental health problems or disabilities is particularly
complicated when those problems may themselves be caused or exacerbated by being held in
solitary confinement.

Being alone with their thoughts, and especially thoughts of home, made it difficult for
them to sleep:

72 Human Rights Watch interview with Mason P. (pseudonym), Florida,

April 2012.

73 Human Rights Watch interview with a Philadelphia County Prison (jail) Official, Pennsylvania, February 23, 2012.
74 Human Rights Watch telephone interview with Dr. Cheryl Wills, independent medical evaluator and director of child and

adolescent psychiatric services, Case Western Reserve University, Ohio, May 24, 2012.

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I don’t even want to sleep here because I can’t wait till I get home. Every
night before I go to sleep I think about home and can’t sleep. I’m up until at
least 5 a.m. which causes other outbursts because I’m just thinking.75
Inability to sleep can itself cause or exacerbate other mental health problems, and can
also indicate an underlying mental disability.

Cutting and Self-Harm
In addition to the psychological pain and suffering that young people reported
experiencing while in solitary confinement, some young people reported that they cut or
otherwise physically harmed themselves. Among youth in jails and prisons, evidence
suggests that this problem affects girls at an even higher rate than boys.76 We found both
young men and young women who reported harming themselves in solitary confinement.
Melanie H., who spent three months in protective solitary confinement when she was
fifteen years old, described how cutting helped her cope with feelings of loss she
experienced when alone with her thoughts:
I became a cutter [in solitary confinement]. I like to take staples and carve
letters and stuff in my arm. Each letter means something to me. It is
something I had lost. Like the first one was a [letter], which is the first letter
in my mother’s name. And every day I would apologize to her. I don’t
know—I felt like I had a burden I couldn’t carry and it made me feel good.77
Other young women described using self-harm as a way to call for help or get the attention
of officials. Alyssa E. said,
Me? I cut myself. I started doing it because it is the only release of my pain.
75 Human Rights Watch interview with Henry R. (pseudonym), Florida, April 2012.
76 Summer J. Robins, Candice L. Odgers, and Michael A. Russell, “Incarcerated Girls’ Physical Health: Can the Juvenile Justice

System Help to Reduce Long-Term Health Costs,” Court Review, vol. 46 (2009),
http://aja.ncsc.dni.us/publications/courtrv/cr46-1and2/CR46-1-2Robins.pdf (accessed August 27, 2012), p. 30; Bruce
Jacobs, New Mexico State University, “Adolescents and Self-Cutting (Self-Harm): Information for Parents, Guide I-104,” June
2005, aces.nmsu.edu/pubs/_i/i-104.pdf (accessed August 27, 2012). Researchers in the United Kingdom found that while
women make up approximately 5 percent of the prison population in the UK, they account for 52 percent of reported
incidents of self-harm. SP Inquiry, “An independent public inquiry into the treatment of young women in custody,”
http://www.howardleague.org/self-injury/ (accessed August 27, 2012).
77 Human Rights Watch interview with Melanie H. (pseudonym), Florida, April 2012.

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I’d see the blood and I’d be happy.… I did it with staples, not razors. When I
see the blood and it makes me want to keep going. I showed the officers
and they didn’t do anything.… I wanted [the staff] to talk to me. I wanted
them to understand what was going on with me.78
Psychological experts with experience monitoring health care in adult and juvenile
facilities described self-harm as a typical reaction to isolation and an effort to force
interaction with others. One psychological expert said,
I think the biggest detriment [in solitary confinement] is lack of interaction.
So typically youth become desperate for any interaction. So you see the
incidents of self-harm increase. They find ways to hurt themselves or hurt
somebody else. Because it is more difficult to withstand longer periods of
isolation than an adult … they are going to find ways to hurt themselves or
somebody else or cause problems.79

Suicidal Thoughts and Attempts: “The death-oriented side of life”
Twelve young people told Human Rights Watch and the American Civil Liberties Union in
detail about times that they thought about or attempted suicide while in solitary
confinement. Experts with experience advising jails and prisons on suicide prevention
argue that it is uncontroversial that suicide and solitary confinement are correlated:
[N]o one disagrees that the suicide rate is higher for youth in both juvenile
facilities, adult jails, and adult prisons.… I think it is safe to say that youth
in an adult jail and prison are at higher risk for suicide and youth in
isolation in those facilities would also be at higher risk.80
Paul K., who spent 60 days in protective solitary confinement when he was 14, described
how he came to want to end his life:

78 Human Rights Watch interview with Alyssa E. (pseudonym), Florida,

April 2012.

79 Human Rights Watch telephone interview with Deborah DePrato, Louisiana, June 6, 2012.
80 Human Rights Watch telephone interview with Lindsay Hayes, Project Director, National Center on Institutions and

Alternatives, Massachusetts, June 13, 2012.

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The hardest thing about isolation is that you are trapped in such a small
room by yourself. There is nothing to do so you start talking to yourself and
getting lost in your own little world. It is crushing. You get depressed and
wonder if it is even worth living. Your thoughts turn over to the more deathoriented side of life.… I want[ed] to kill myself.81
Twelve young people told Human Rights Watch and the American Civil Liberties Union
about having either thought about or attempted suicide while in solitary confinement;
some had attempted suicide before they were in jail or prison; some described witnessing
attempted or successful suicides. Luz M. said suicidal thoughts came immediately after
she went into solitary confinement:
I just felt I wanted to die, like there was no way out—I was stressed out. I
hung up [tried to hang myself] the first day. I took a sheet and tied it to my
light and they came around.… The officer, when she was doing rounds,
found me. She was banging on the window: “Are you alive? Are you alive?” I
could hear her, but I felt like I was going to die. I couldn’t breathe.82
Some young people have committed suicide while in solitary confinement.83 According to a
national expert on suicides in juvenile facilities, jails, and prisons, the evidence suggests

81 Human Rights Watch interview with Paul K. (pseudonym), Michigan, March 2012.
82 Human Rights Watch interview with Luz M. (pseudonym), New York, April 2012.
83 Media reports discuss at least six suicides of youth under 18 in solitary confinement in adult jails or prisons in recent

years, including James Stewart (Colorado): Hector Gutierrez, “Family sues city for $5 million in teen's jail death: They say
their son fought depression after fatal crash,” Rocky Mountain News, November 25, 2008,
http://m.rockymountainnews.com/news/2008/nov/25/family-sues-city-5-million-troubled-teens-suicide/, Joseph Boven,
“Colorado criminally failing youth suspects,” The Colorado Independent, March 10, 2010,
http://coloradoindependent.com/48181/colorado-criminally-failing-youth-suspects; Robert Borrego, Jr. (Colorado): Jeff
Tucker, “Kin of teen suicide victim sue Pueblo County sheriff,” The Pueblo Chieftain, July 10, 2010,
http://www.chieftain.com/news/local/article_8eb6efbc-8bf6-11df-b7e2-001cc4c03286.html; Jonathan McLard (Missouri):
Orlando Campbell, The W. Haywood Burns Institute for Juvenile Justice Fairness & Equity, “A Son's Suicide Inspires Mother To
Fight For Juvenile Justice,” April 26, 2010, http://www.burnsinstitute.org/article.php?id=216, Bridget DiCosmo, “Tracy
McClard given award by Campaign for Youth Justice and the National Juvenile Justice Network,” Southeast Missourian, May 5,
2009, http://www.semissourian.com/story/1536332.html; Kirk Gunderson (Wisconsin): Jo Anne Killeen, “Onalaska mother
still pushing on juveniles in jail issue,” Onalaska Holmen Currier News, July 7,
2011, http://lacrossetribune.com/courierlifenews/news/local/article_fbe60666-a8c6-11e0-88a4-001cc4c002e0.html;
Rodney Hulin (Texas): Testimony of Ms. Linda Bruntmyer, Hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee on The Prison Rape
Reduction Act of 2002, July 31, 2002,
http://www.judiciary.senate.gov/hearings/testimony.cfm?id=4f1e0899533f7680e78d03281fe329f3&wit_id=4f1e0899533f7
680e78d03281fe329f3-2-1, Wikipedia, “Suicide of Rodney Hulin,” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suicide_of_Rodney_Hulin;
and Jasper Simmons (Arizona): Elizabeth Banicki, “Jail Not Liable for Teen's Suicide, Circuit Says,” Courthouse News Service,

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that most suicides in juvenile (not adult) facilities occur while youth are confined alone to
their room.84

Struggling with Mental Disabilities and Past Trauma
Many adolescents face the additional challenge of coping with a mental disability while in
solitary confinement.85
Studies suggest that youth under age 18 enter the adult criminal justice system with high
rates of mental disabilities.86 Approximately 48 percent of adolescents between the ages
of 16 and 18 in New York City Department of Corrections custody in FY2012, for example,
had a diagnosed mental disability.87 But some mental disabilities do not manifest until
youth reach their teen years.88
Some young people in solitary confinement likely struggle to cope simultaneously with the
psychological vulnerabilities associated with their developing brains and the onset of
mental disabilities, such as schizophrenia or bipolar disorder. As one expert, Dr. Cheryl

June 24, 2010, http://www.courthousenews.com/2010/06/24/28353.htm, Simmons v. Navajo County, Ariz., Fifth Circuit
Federal Court of Appeals, 2010 (609 F.3d 1011 (5th Circ. 2010)),
http://www.leagle.com/xmlResult.aspx?xmldoc=in%20fco%2020100623177.xml&docbase=cslwar3-2007-curr (all accessed
September 27, 2012).
84 Human Rights Watch telephone interview with Lindsay Hayes, Project Director, National Center on Institutions and

Alternatives, Massachusetts, June 13, 2012.
85 As used in this report, mental disabilities include diagnosable mental, behavioral, or emotional conditions that

substantially interfere with or limit one or more major life activities; some refer to mental disabilities as “mental illnesses.”
Persons with mental disabilities also refer to themselves as having psychosocial disabilities, a term that reflects the
interaction between psychological differences and the social/cultural limits for behavior as well as the stigma that society
attaches to persons with mental impairments. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders defines a mental
disorder as a “clinically significant behavioral or psychological syndrome or pattern that occurs in an individual” which is a
“manifestation of a behavioral, psychological, or biological dysfunction in the individual.” American Psychiatric Association,
Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders DSM-IV-TR Fourth Edition (Arlington, Virginia: American Psychiatric
Association, 2000), p. xxxi. The current revised edition of the DSM-IV, known as the DSM-IV-TR, organizes psychiatric
diagnoses into five levels (axes) that include serious clinical disorders like schizophrenia or bipolar disorder (Axis 1), serious
personality disorders such as paranoia (Axis 2), and traumatic brain injuries (Axis 3).
86 Jason Washburn et al., “Psychiatric Disorders Among Detained Youths: A Comparison of Youths Processed in Juvenile
Court and Adult Criminal Court,” Psychiatric Services, vol. 59, no. 9 (2008),
http://ps.psychiatryonline.org/data/Journals/PSS/3857/08ps965.pdf, p. 965 (accessed August 27, 2012).
87 That is, a diagnosis of a mental health condition defined by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders of
the American Psychiatric Association. Human Rights Watch email correspondence with Sharman Stein, Deputy Commissioner,
New York City Department of Corrections, July 27, 2012; Human Rights Watch email correspondence with Robin Campbell,
Deputy Commissioner, New York City Department of Corrections, September 26, 2012.
88 Human Rights Watch telephone interviews with Deborah DePrato, June 6, 2012; and with Dr. Cheryl Wills, May 24, 2012.

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Wills, a child psychiatrist with experience diagnosing youth in juvenile and adult facilities,
described,
Sometimes youth will have psychosis in flashes. It will come out in the
stress of being in [isolation] but not with other youth. I have personally
seen youth who were not psychotic and you put them in [isolation] and they
are psychotic. Was it going to happen? Yes. Did it happen faster in
[isolation]? Possibly.89
It is not often possible for young people themselves or corrections professionals to identify
adolescents with mental disabilities before they are subjected to solitary confinement
because some serious mental disabilities do not manifest until late adolescence.90 Some
of the young people interviewed by Human Rights Watch and the American Civil Liberties
Union had been identified as having a mental disability at an early age. Others reported
experiencing various mental health problems throughout their youth and while in solitary
confinement, without having been identified as having a mental disability. Some
experienced mental health problems and were identified as having a mental disability for
the first time during or after a period of solitary confinement.
Landon A., who struggled with auditory and visual hallucinations before going to jail,
described his experience in solitary confinement: “I would hear stuff. When no one was
around it was harder to control. When I was by myself, I would hear stuff and see stuff

more.”91 He said he was usually awake between 10 p.m. and 3 a.m., trying to manage the
hallucinations. “I hear the most stuff at night,” he said, “so it’s the hardest time to sleep.”
Young people with mental disabilities interviewed by Human Rights Watch and the
American Civil Liberties Union repeatedly described the pain and suffering associated with
attempting—and failing—to cope with the mental health problems they experienced in

89 Human Rights Watch telephone interview with Dr. Cheryl Wills, May 24, 2012.
90 For example, one study found that the mean age for the onset of the mental health problems associated with a diagnosis

of schizophrenia was 19 years old. Nitin Gogtay et al., “Age of Onset of Schizophrenia: Perspectives from Neuroimaging
Studies,” Schizophrenia Bulletin, vol. 37 (2011), http://schizophreniabulletin.oxfordjournals.org/content/37/3/504.short
(accessed September 26, 2012), p. 504.
91 Human Rights Watch interview with Landon A. (pseudonym), Florida, April 2012.

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HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH/ACLU | OCTOBER 2012

solitary confinement. Asked about struggling into the night with his hallucinations, Landon
A. said solitary confinement is “not a place that you want to go. It’s like mind torture.”92
Some also reported that solitary confinement triggered memories of past trauma, making it
yet more difficult to cope with the experience. Youth in the criminal justice system have
histories of trauma and abuse at much higher rates than the general population.93 And
there is significant evidence to suggest that girls enter the criminal justice system having
suffered physical or sexual abuse at much higher rates than boys, and therefore struggle
disproportionately with past trauma.94 Melanie H., for example, was held in protective
solitary confinement for three months when she was 15 years old. She said, “When I was
eleven, I was raped. And it happened [again] in 2008 and 2009.”95 When she was isolated,
the memories came back: “I was so upset … and a lot was surfacing from my past.… I don’t
like …feeling alone. That’s a feeling I try to stay away from. I hate that feeling.”96
As one defense attorney opined,
If you isolate a kid [for whom] isolation was a form of child abuse, the jail
doesn’t know how to deal [with that]. I have represented clients who have
locked [their] kids in a closet and go[ne] out all night long—closets are cheap
baby sitters. [I] don’t think anyone explores those issues with those kids—
there is no difference in protocols, no accommodation [of past trauma].97
Thirty-five interviewees spent more than one period in solitary confinement before they
turned 18. This repeated isolation, according to experts, “leaves [youth] with a potential for

92 Ibid.
93 Washburn et al., “Psychiatric Disorders Among Detained Youths: A Comparison of Youths Processed in Juvenile Court and
Adult Criminal Court.”
94 Meda Chesney-Lind, The Female Offender: Girls, Women and Crime (Thousand Oaks, California: SAGE Publications, 1997),

pp. 25-26; Cathy S. Wisdom and Michael G. Maxfield, National Institute of Justice, US Department of Justice, “An Update on
the ‘Cycle of Violence,’” 2001, https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/nij/184894.pdf (accessed August 27, 2012); National Mental
Health Association, “Mental Health and Adolescent Girls in the Justice System,” 1999; National Council on Crime and
Delinquency, Center for Girls and Young Women, “Getting the Facts Straight about Girls in the Juvenile Justice System,”
February 2009, http://www.nccdglobal.org/sites/default/files/publication_pdf/fact-sheet-girls-in-juvenile-justice.pdf
(accessed August 27, 2012); Robins, Odgers, and Russell, “Incarcerated Girls’ Physical Health,” Court Review, p. 30.
95 Human Rights Watch interview with Melanie H. (pseudonym), Florida, April 2012.
96 Ibid. Melanie H. also reported more than one experience of double-celled isolation.
97 Human Rights Watch interview with Shauna Geiger, Defense Attorney, Colorado, February 5, 2012.

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a post-traumatic reaction.”98 Phillip J., for example, who was first held in solitary
confinement for 36 days when he was 16, described how isolation itself became a trigger
for traumatic memories of solitary confinement:
Once you are confined the way I was, then any other confinement just
triggers that experience—loss of sleep, all these different flashbacks of
different bad events. You try to harness it, but you don’t know how or
what’s going on or what’s happening.99

Barriers to Accessing Care
Young people in solitary confinement do not get the help they need to cope or adequate
access to treatment for mental health problems, whether preexisting or newly developed.
Because of this lack of adequate care or access, their suffering can be worse than it may
otherwise have been.
Human Rights Watch has elsewhere documented the widespread failures of state prison
systems to provide access to care for adults experiencing mental health problems, including
those with mental disabilities.100 On the contrary, prison systems sometimes react to
prisoners experiencing a crisis by punishing them. Isaiah O., who entered jail at 17, told us,
Sometimes, when I cut, having a razor or using it against myself, they would
give me a [disciplinary violation] for making the room unsanitary or, two, for
having a weapon.… It felt like I was going against myself and they was [sic]
going against me. That’s when I started going crazy. I mean, I felt with the
depression and them going against me, that’s when I started catching
assaults. I guess I was fighting two wars—myself and then the officers.101

98 Human Rights Watch interview with Louis Kraus, Illinois, June 14, 2012.
99 Human Rights Watch interview with Phillip J. (pseudonym), Florida, April 2012.
100 Human Rights Watch, Ill-Equipped: U.S. Prisons and Offenders with Mental Illness, October 22, 2003,

http://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/reports/usa1003.pdf.
101 Human Rights Watch interview with Isaiah O. (pseudonym), Florida, April 2012.

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While some young people, like Isaiah O., described being punished for conduct related to
mental health problems, others reported being diverted from one form of solitary
confinement to another to protect them from self-harm.102
In some facilities, young people felt that the only way to get mental health care was
through self-harm:
Sometimes you have to [cut yourself] to go to [medical solitary confinement
for suicide watch]… get psychological attention … because if you have a
psychological emergency or you need to talk to somebody they won’t let
you. [So I] cut myself on my arm … [when] I be thinking in my head I need to
talk to somebody before I do something I don’t want to do.103
A few young people described corrections staff telling them that they did not believe their
cries for help or their requests for mental health care. An extremely complicated and toxic
atmosphere can develop when corrections staff feel they need to be gatekeepers to mental
healthcare. It is too easy for overworked and under-resourced medical and corrections
staff to dismiss as malingering a cry for help. Indeed, some may exaggerate their
symptoms precisely because the solitary confinement is unbearable.
But, as one expert psychiatrist who evaluates mental healthcare in detention, Dr. Cheryl
Wills, said, mental health crises must be taken seriously:
[Youth] need to be taken seriously whether or not they are malingering. I
have heard youth and adults say that [staff told them] that if they were
going to do it [kill themselves], don’t do it on that staff member’s shift. The
security staff is not expert in suicide risk assessment and some malingerers
also are mentally ill. The psychiatric interview includes an assessment of
suicide risk that is used to formulate a treatment plan. All threats of
suicide should be assessed, especially in incarcerated individuals who lack

102 See Section III for a fuller discussion of medical solitary confinement.
103 Human Rights Watch interview with Graciela N. (pseudonym), Florida, April 2012.

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the flexibility to leave the facility and to seek mental health services at a
local emergency room.104

Physical Harm
Solitary confinement, and practices associated with it, can cause serious physical harm to
youth.
Young people held in adult jails and prisons are frequently far from full-grown. Many of the
young people we interviewed entered jail or prison inches and pounds away from
adulthood. One young man described being unable to fit in his orange jumpsuit: “I believe
I was 5’4” or 5’5” … I weighed maybe 140 … in [solitary confinement] they gave you the
[orange uniform]. It was too big for me. It kept falling off my waist and everything.”105
Jails and prisons are rarely equipped to appropriately manage or provide for those who are
physically immature. Our research showed that solitary confinement in adult facilities
resulted in a deprivation of exercise and adequate nutrition.

Lack of Adequate Exercise
One of the defining experiences for youth held in solitary confinement in many facilities is
the hour out: one hour, each day, during which adolescents are permitted, whether in a
hallway, dayroom, or metal cage, to walk around or exercise. Some facilities allow a few
minutes more or less than an hour, but an hour out is standard practice. However, Human
Rights Watch and the American Civil Liberties Union found that few facilities actually
provide for or encourage physical exercise for youth in solitary confinement. Of the 77
young people we interviewed on their experience in solitary confinement, 15 reported
spending at least one period in solitary confinement during which they were allowed no
recreation at all. Young people in Florida prisons, for example, reported being denied
recreation for the first thirty days spent in disciplinary solitary confinement, pursuant to
Department of Corrections (DOC) policy.106

104 Human Rights Watch email correspondence with Dr. Cheryl Wills, independent medical evaluator and director of child and

adolescent psychiatric services, Case Western Reserve University, Ohio, August 13, 2012.
105 Human Rights Watch interview with Carter P. (pseudonym), Michigan, March 15, 2012.
106 See Appendix 2 for a discussion of Florida.

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Even when held in facilities that allowed outdoor recreation, some adolescents in solitary
confinement reported that they were not always able to exercise. Jacob L. described having
to wake, without a clock or alarm, to ask to go to recreation:
You go to rec[reation] for an hour, but you have to be up at six in the
morning to catch the yard. Before they serve breakfast—you got to catch
them before breakfast and [then] they take you after breakfast. So if you
don’t know how to wake up, you can’t go outside. That’s supposed to be
mandatory [but] they don’t ask you—you have to tell them.107
Due to reduced staffing on weekends, some facilities only offer recreation during the week.
The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and the US Department of Health and Human
Services both recommend that youth between the ages of six and seventeen engage in one
hour or more of physical activity each day.108 Both agencies recommend that youth regularly
do a combination of activities, including vigorous aerobic activity, like running, at least
three days a week; muscle-strengthening activity, such as gymnastics, at least three days a
week; and bone-strengthening activity, such as jumping rope, at least three days a week.109
Most young people who did get to exercise outdoors, like Jacob L., did so in a small,
individual, fenced-in cage, often barely larger than their cell. Almost all young people
spent their out-of-cell time alone. It is hard to imagine that these conditions would permit
adequate aerobic or muscle-strengthening exercise, let alone an adequate contrast from
time in one’s cell.
Human Rights Watch and the American Civil Liberties Union did not interview any young
people who described a jail or prison recreation regime that ensured or encouraged
strenuous aerobic physical activity. Many young people described working out in their

107 Human Rights Watch interview with Jacob L. (pseudonym), New York,

April 2012.

108 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, “How much physical activity do children need?,”

http://www.cdc.gov/physicalactivity/everyone/guidelines/children.html (accessed August 27, 2012); US Department of
Health and Human Services, “Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans,”
http://www.health.gov/paguidelines/factsheetprof.aspx (accessed August 27, 2012).
109 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, “How much physical activity do children need?”; US Department of Health

and Human Services, “Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans.”

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cells to cope with their time in confinement. Jason L. described pacing his cell until he was
exhausted:
I kind of talked myself through it. Pace[d] the room. I learned that walking
and talking takes you outside. So I would walk and talk for about the first
four days until I was dead tired, then sleep for about three and do it over.110

Physical Changes and Stunted Growth
Youth who are physically growing and changing need age-appropriate attention and care.
Human Rights Watch and the American Civil Liberties Union found that young people in
solitary confinement are sometimes denied access to this care in facilities that provide it,
and are denied it altogether in those that do not. A number of young people reported going
to sleep hungry night after night. Some told Human Rights Watch and the American Civil
Liberties Union that they experienced (or witnessed in other adolescents) other physical
changes as a result of the stress of solitary confinement, such as hair or weight loss.
Several facilities reported that there are no differences between the physical health and
dental services available for youth and adults.111 As one facility reported, “[A youth is]
treated as an adult for medical, dental, mental health issues.”112

Inadequate Nutrition
One of the most common complaints of young people held in solitary confinement was
that the food and meal schedule were nutritionally inadequate, and that they were denied
the opportunity to supplement their nutrition by purchasing food items from the facility’s
commissary or canteen. Some young people described losing weight as a result.
Caroline I., who spent approximately 41 days in punitive solitary confinement while she
was under 18, said, “They only give you a little food, so that’s hard. You lose weight…. I

110 Human Rights Watch interview with Jason L. (pseudonym), Florida April 2012.
111 For example, in Michigan and Wisconsin. Letter from Scott Lamiman, Jail Population Coordinator, Muskegon County,
Michigan, to Human Rights Watch, January 24, 2012; and letter from Brian Puent, Trempealeau County Sheriff’s Department,
Wisconsin, to Human Rights Watch, January 10, 2012.
112 Letter from Kathy

Beauer, Deputy Sheriff, Iron County Sheriff’s Department, Wisconsin, to Human Rights Watch, January 10,

2012.

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went in 150 and came out 132. That’s more than 15 pounds!”113 A grandmother who visited
her grandson in solitary confinement observed that he “definitely lost weight—he’s so little
[now].” She estimated that he lost 15-20 pounds after he entered solitary confinement.114
Some young people said that, during their time in punitive solitary confinement, their diet
was changed to a baked nutritional loaf as a form of additional punishment. Others
described being fed a diet that consisted mostly of beans and processed foods.
The US Department of Agriculture and the National Institutes of Health both recommend a
balanced diet of nutrient-dense foods, including vegetables, fruits, and whole grains.115
While the overall nutritional needs of youth and adults are similar in regards to caloric
intake, youth physical development, including bone development, requires additional
amounts of some nutrients to ensure healthy growth.116

Other Physical Effects
Young people interviewed by Human Rights Watch and the American Civil Liberties Union
described experiencing other physical changes in solitary confinement. One young person
reported, “I saw a guy who lost his hair in [solitary confinement]. He wasn’t like that before
he got locked up.”117
One female interviewee described that, during the months she was in solitary confinement,
she stopped menstruating. She recalled that she didn’t start again until after she was
transferred out of solitary confinement and to a juvenile facility:
You know it is funny to say. I know I was having periods at that time of my
life. But I don’t have any memories of having one at the jail. I remember I
went through a long period of time at the juvenile facility where I didn’t
have them. That was right when I came back [from jail]. I knew it was a

113 Human Rights Watch interview with Caroline I. (pseudonym), New York, April 2012.
114 Human Rights Watch interview with Effie H., Florida,

April 20, 2012.

115 Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion, United States Department of Agriculture, “Dietary Guidelines for Americans,”

2012, http://www.cnpp.usda.gov/dietaryguidelines.htm (accessed August 27, 2012).
116 Ibid.; Aglaee Jacob, Demand Media, “Adult Vs. Teen Nutrition,” SFGate,

http://healthyeating.sfgate.com/adult-vs-teen-

nutrition-1083.html (accessed August 27, 2012).
117 Human Rights Watch interview with Ernesto D. (pseudonym), Pennsylvania, January 2012.

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number of months because for a long time I was wondering why I wasn’t
having them. I remember because most women complain about them but
when I got mine again I was glad. It made me feel human—or at least
functioning the way things were supposed to be.118
Studies have linked changes in menstruation to stress and trauma.119

Social and Developmental Harm
Young people in solitary confinement are frequently deprived of contact with their families
and their own children, access to education, and to programming or services necessary for
their growth, development, and rehabilitation.

Denial of Family Contact
Limitations on family visits are a common feature of all forms of solitary confinement.
Many facilities deny adolescents contact with their families while they are in solitary
confinement. For some, this means no visits, no phone calls, and no letters. Facilities often
view these things as privileges that young people in solitary confinement can be denied as
a result of their classification, or to punish them.
Twenty-one teenagers told us they were denied the ability to visit with loved ones during a
period of solitary confinement. Nineteen spent at least one period in solitary confinement
during which they were only allowed to visit with loved ones while in a cage, behind glass,
or by video-conference. Eleven spent at least one period in solitary confinement during
which they were not allowed to write letters to loved ones, having been denied access to
pen or pencil and paper.
For some young people, family is the only thing that gives them hope:
I catch myself in the moment, attempting [suicide]. But then I think about
my family and everyone on the outs[ide] and I think, if I chose to do that, I
118 Human Rights Watch interview with Molly J. (pseudonym), Michigan, March 2012.
119

Some researchers have identified a link between a range of factors and interruptions of hormonal homeostasis in various
contexts. Katarzyna Bisaga et al., “Menstrual Functioning and Psychopathology in a Country-Wide Population of High School
Girls,” Journal of the Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, vol. 41, no. 10 (October 2002).

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can never come home. I think if it weren’t for my family, I would have
chosen to commit suicide.120
Jeffrey J., whom Human Rights Watch and the American Civil Liberties Union interviewed in
administrative solitary confinement while he was awaiting a disciplinary hearing, feared
losing contact if placed in punitive solitary confinement:
I hope they don’t take my visits or call away. Today is going to make the
third day I haven’t got a call.... My mom really, really cares about me so she
wants to know what is going on.... As long as I can talk to my family, I’ll be
okay. I could be in a room all day if I could talk to my family.121
In some facilities, young people were allowed visits when in solitary confinement, but
denied physical contact with their family members, forced to talk through glass or a metal
screen. For some, this was as painful as solitary itself: “The hardest part is being behind
glass when your family visits and you can’t hold your family.”122 Young people cited the
denial of hugs and kisses as a source of pain and suffering. Another teenager said, “It was
very depressing not to be able to give them a hug. I would cry about that.”123 Again and
again, young people stressed the importance of physical touch. One young woman said,
“[Visits] behind glass … [were] torture—I couldn’t touch my family.”124 A few young parents
reported that they were also prevented from receiving visits from their own children while
in solitary confinement.

Denial of Adequate Education
Young people in solitary confinement, including adolescents with intellectual disabilities,
commonly reported being denied access to adequate education. Youth in some facilities
were regularly provided with a packet of educational materials for in-cell self-study, but
often their completed work went ungraded and their questions unanswered.

120 Human Rights Watch interview with Henry R. (pseudonym), Florida, April 2012.
121 Human Rights Watch interview with Jeffrey J. (pseudonym), Florida, April 2012.
122 Human Rights Watch interview with Craig G. (pseudonym), Pennsylvania, March 2012.
123 Human Rights Watch interview with Sean F. (pseudonym), Michigan, March 2012.
124 Human Rights Watch interview with Lauren C. (pseudonym), Florida,

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April 2012.

For some jails and prisons, access to education ends the moment the solitary confinement
cell door slams shut, regardless of the age of the inmate inside.125 As Darrell E., who spent
approximately 20 days in protective solitary confinement in jail when he was 15, stated
bluntly, “No, there was no school for inmates in isolation and there were no exceptions for
me.”126
Only 31 young people reported receiving educational programming of any type during a
period of solitary confinement. Fourteen young people reported spending a period of time
in solitary confinement during which they were provided only with a packet of materials to
complete in their cell. Twenty-five young people reported spending a period of time in
solitary confinement during which they were not provided any educational programming at
all; sixteen described spending periods of time in solitary confinement without even a
book or magazine to read.
In a few states, education in jails is provided in consultation (or even directly by) state or
local departments of education (or school boards). In some of these jurisdictions, the law
only provides for limited education, such as four hours per week in Colorado, and allows
security exceptions that are applied to youth in solitary confinement.127 In other
jurisdictions, youth in solitary confinement are taught through “cell study,” packets of
materials dropped off at their cells.128 Some young people reported eagerly—and quickly—
completing any work packets provided by jails or prisons. Others said they refused to
study in their cells. Jeremiah I. said,
If you are enrolled in school, they slide a packet under your door. I don’t do
it. I don’t feel like doing work in my cell. If they would take me to school I
would do it, but … they just keep giving you work.129

125 Human Rights Watch telephone interview with Daryl Tyus, Operations Lieutenant, Jackson County Correctional Facility,

Florida, April 3, 2012 (“They do not attend [school]—they lose that”). For youth in some facilities, this is true whether or not
youth are in solitary confinement.
126 Letter from Darrell E. (pseudonym), from Wisconsin,

to Human Rights Watch, May 14, 2012.

127 Colorado State Division of Criminal Justice, “SB 10-054 Annual Report—2nd Revision,” January 23, 2012.
128 Human Rights Watch telephone interviews with Jeff Dunmire, School Principal, Secure Correctional Institution Pine Grove,

Pennsylvania Department of Corrections, Pennsylvania, June 21, 2012; and with Dora B. Schriro, Commissioner, New York City
Department of Corrections, July 6, 2012.
129 Human Rights Watch interview with Jeremiah I. (pseudonym), New York, April 2012.

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Some facilities take no further steps after an adolescent, like Jeremiah, refuses education.
Sometimes, those who received cell-study materials were able to consult with a teacher.
However, usually this was either through the cell door or by phone. One young woman
described how “the officer who does cell-study asks if you have anything and want to talk
to your teacher and then you talk on the phone.”130 Some young people reported
interrupted or infrequent contacts with educators.
As discussed above, a number of young people reported experiencing serious mental
health problems in solitary confinement. Some of those young people described
diminished reasoning and learning abilities as a result of solitary confinement. Jordan E.
described feeling mentally slower after solitary confinement:
[Solitary confinement] absolutely slowed down my thinking skills. I would
come out of [solitary] and be demonstrably slower. Following conversations,
doing math work, my brain slowed down quite a bit. I was far more
depressed. There were no real mental health services [in the jail].131

Struggling with Intellectual Disabilities
While adult facilities, especially jails, struggle to provide any educational programming for
youth, specialized programming for youth with intellectual disabilities is even rarer.132
Human Rights Watch and the American Civil Liberties Union interviewed 11 young people
who reported that before entering jail or prison they had either been taught in special
classes, having been identified as having a learning disability, or had an individual
education plan.133 Some facilities are unable to identify adolescents with intellectual
disabilities, relying on records provided by parents or schools in the community. One
prison official reported,
130 Human Rights Watch interview with Laura F. (pseudonym), New York,

April 2012.

131 Human Rights Watch interview with Jordan E. (pseudonym), Colorado, February 2012.
132 Intellectual disabilities, as used in the report, are permanent developmental limitations. The American Association on
Intellectual and Development Disabilities defines intellectual disabilities as “characterized by significant limitations both in
intellectual functioning and in adaptive behavior, which covers many everyday social and practical skills. This disability
originates before the age of 18.” Intellectual functioning refers to the ability to learn, reason, and problem-solve. American
Association on Intellectual and Development Disabilities, “FAQ on Intellectual Disability,”
http://www.aaidd.org/content_100.cfm?navID=21 (accessed August 27, 2012).
133 An individual education plan is a tailored plan for meeting educational goals and requirements, developed by educators

with input from individuals and their families.

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We are not allowed to identify [learning disabilities]. As a department, we
don’t identify those types of issues. If we get an individual and we think
they might be [in need of] special education—if a parent has paperwork—
we can do that process. But as far as someone coming in off the street? If
we don’t have paperwork, we can’t do that.134
The provision of educational programming to young people with intellectual disabilities
can also be complicated by the checkered educational history of many adolescents, even
though they may never have been identified as having an intellectual disability.

The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) is a federal law that governs the
provision of appropriate special education and related services for youth with disabilities. IDEA
was signed into law in 1990 and was significantly amended in 2004. All states receive IDEA
funds and are therefore subject to its provisions.135 IDEA requires the provision of a free and
appropriate public education to youth with disabilities, in the least restrictive environment,
according to their individual needs through age 21.136 In defining the “least restrictive
environment,” IDEA states,
To the maximum extent possible, children with disabilities, including children
in public or private institutions or other care facilities, are educated with
children who are not disabled, and special classes, separate schooling, or

other removal of children with disabilities from the regular educational
environment [emphasis added] occurs only when the nature or severity of the
disability of a child is such that education in regular classes with the use of
supplementary aids and services cannot be achieved satisfactorily.137
With regard to detention facilities, IDEA states that governors or other appropriate state
officials may assign to any public agency in their state the responsibility of ensuring that

134 Human Rights Watch telephone interview with Jeff Dunmire, School Principal, Secure Correctional Institution Pine Grove,

Pennsylvania Department of Corrections, Pennsylvania, June 21, 2012.
135 Office for Civil Rights, US Department of Education, “Free Appropriate Public Education for Students With Disabilities:

Requirements Under Section 503 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973,” August 2010,
http://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ocr/docs/edlite-FAPE504.html (accessed August 27, 2012).
136 US Code, State Eligibility, 20 U.S.C. § 1412(a).
137 US Code, State Eligibility, 20 U.S.C. § 1412(a)(5)(A) (emphasis added).

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particular requirements are met with respect to youth with disabilities who are convicted as
adults and are incarcerated in adult prisons.138
But state law exemptions for adult facilities leave many adolescents with disabilities without
the basic educational guarantees set forth in IDEA. Florida, for example, allows for young
people with disabilities who are convicted as adults and incarcerated in adult prisons to be
exempted from certain IDEA provisions regarding assessment and transition planning.139 In
addition, for young people with disabilities in Florida’s adult prisons, the team devoted to a
student’s Individualized Education Program (IEP) may modify that youth’s program or
placement based on certain security or penal interests beyond the restrictions set forth in
IDEA.140 Youth with disabilities in solitary confinement are often prevented from receiving
proper educational services, such as basic out-of-cell instruction.

Failure to Provide for Rehabilitation or Social Development
Some of the deprivations that young people confront in solitary confinement differ little
from the normal conditions of incarceration. Jails and prisons spend few resources on
programming or services, with jails spending even fewer resources than prisons. Human
Rights Watch and the American Civil Liberties Union found that it was exceedingly rare that
facilities provided programming or services aimed at rehabilitation or social development
to young people under age 18 in solitary confinement. While this is a problem for
adolescents in adult facilities generally, the problem is acute for those in solitary
confinement. Youth enter jails and prisons—and solitary confinement—in the midst of a
transition to adulthood.
As one expert with experience in juvenile and adult facilities told Human Rights Watch and
the American Civil Liberties Union,
We are raising these kids. We need to teach them.… What we are doing is
putting young men [and women] who are forming their identity in a
situation where they are learning to do things—not in a good way.… So if we

138 US Code, State Eligibility, 20 USC. § 1412(a)(11)(C).
139 Provision of Free Appropriate Public Education (FAPE) and Development of Individual Educational Plans for Students with

Disabilities, Fla. Admin. Code r. 6A-6.03028(3)(l).
140 Ibid.

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are going to send young men [and women] to prison, we need truly
specialized units where they can learn and grow. Because I think we all
want them to be better off when they come out. The other thing they need is
skills that will help them on the outside.141
Young people who have not had the same life experience as adults need programming to
facilitate their development. Those who have been convicted of a crime also require
rehabilitative programming. All youth deprived of their liberty need programming aimed at
reentry into society. The longer young people are held in solitary confinement, the more
egregious the deprivation becomes.
Almost all adolescents charged or convicted in the adult criminal justice system are
eventually released into the community. Young people, as well as corrections and
psychological experts, expressed concerns about the long-term implications for youth, and
public safety, of failing to adequately provide for youth development and rehabilitation.
Todd D., who entered jail when he was 17, said this about his own experience,
I can’t speak for everybody but I know if I was given that opportunity I would
be different right now. The good changes in my life, I had to learn by myself.
But that road, it scars you in ways—it’s bad.142

141 Human Rights Watch telephone interview with Deborah DePrato, Louisiana, June 6, 2012.
142 Human Rights Watch interview with Todd D. (pseudonym), Colorado, February 2012.

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III. Youth in Solitary Confinement in Adult Facilities:
Corrections Practices, Numbers, and Duration
Jails and prisons generally use solitary confinement for one of three reasons: to punish
inmates; to manage them (either to protect others from them, or them from others); or to
treat them. Yet the conditions that young people in solitary confinement experience are
essentially the same, regardless of the purpose for which it is being used. Young people
held in adult facilities across the United States are subjected to all forms of solitary
confinement, without accommodation for their age or developmental needs, and often for
weeks and months.

Solitary Confinement to Punish Inmates
Jails and prisons often maintain internal order through a system of discipline, with solitary
confinement among the most serious in a range of sanctions for violating facility rules.
Facilities across the United States—whether they hold youth with adults, with other
adolescents, or in isolation—frequently subject young people under age 18 to the same
disciplinary rules as adult inmates.143 Human Rights Watch and the American Civil Liberties
Union have found that jails and prisons impose terms of solitary confinement of 15, 30, 60,
90 days, or longer for each infraction committed within a facility, and frequently punish a
range of inmate behaviors within isolation with additional terms of solitary confinement.144
Corrections officials in many county jails reported that youth who violate facility rules can
be placed in separation, or segregation, or special management cells.145 Human Rights
143 See Appendix 2; Colorado Department of Corrections, Code of Penal Discipline, IV(B)

http://www.doc.state.co.us/sites/default/files/ar/0150_01_09012011.pdf (accessed August 27, 2012) (“All offenders in the
custody of the executive director of the DOC should be subject to this code. All violations of this code should be punishable
as disciplinary violations.”).
144 For example, one official stated, “[Isolation] [c]ould be up to 30 days. Depends on what they did. If they have many

disciplinary reports in that 30 day span, then it could be extended.” Human Rights Watch telephone interview with Daryl Tyus,
Operations Lieutenant, Jackson County Correctional Facility, Florida, April 3, 2012.
145 We used a range of terminology in corresponding with jail and prison officials to ensure that we obtained information

about all practices involving significant levels of isolation. Of the 80 jail officials who responded to Human Rights Watch
correspondence on detaining and managing youth, 34 responded to a question about whether youth can be held in
separation, segregation, or special management cells; 30 of them indicated that youth could be held in such cells (four said
they could not). Officials in this limited sample reported holding 44 youth in separation, segregation, or special management
cells in the past year. Human Rights Watch cannot confirm the precise conditions of confinement for these youth, or whether
the youth were held in solitary confinement. Letter from Liz O’Neal, Special Management Coordinator, El Paso County

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Watch and the American Civil Liberties Union interviewed young people who had been
subjected to several— often prolonged—periods of punitive solitary confinement. Of the
individuals interviewed by Human Rights Watch and the American Civil Liberties Union, 41
had spent time in at least 1 period of punitive solitary confinement while under age 18; 22
of those young people had spent a total of 2 months or longer in punitive solitary
confinement before they turned 18.
One young man who was held in punitive solitary confinement in New York said,
The cell was hell. Hell.… Can’t talk to nobody.… I counted the bricks. There
was a bed, a desk, a toilet, a sink, and a window. It was small because all
the stuff was in there … [you can] see outside—busses, birds, fields, people
in the yard. You could see freedom, but you can’t get out. It makes your
time hell.… [The] first thing I thought was, damn, I’m going to be here for 60
days.… I felt like shit. Damn! No contact with anyone for 60 days?146
Following an alleged infraction, placement in punitive solitary confinement frequently
begins with a notice describing the charges and a hearing.147 At this hearing, individuals
are generally entitled to call witnesses. However, it was almost unthinkable, among the
young people interviewed by Human Rights Watch and the American Civil Liberties Union,
to actually call a witness, even when young people asserted their innocence in the

Criminal Justice Center, Colorado, to Human Rights Watch, January 5, 2012 (reporting that one youth was punished in this
way in 2011); Letter from Sherry Stanford, Lieutenant, Lewis County Jail, New York, to Human Rights Watch, January 7, 2012
(reporting that the discipline and management policies are the same for youth and adults and that two youth were punished
in this way in 2011); Letter from David Hetman, Program/Support Lieutenant, Correction Bureau, Rensselaer County Office of
the Sheriff, New York, to Human Rights Watch, April 19, 2012 (reporting that the discipline and management policies are the
same for youth and adults and that 12 youth were punished in this way in 2011); Letter from Ken Kochevar, Director of
Corrections, Cuyahoga County, Ohio, to Human Rights Watch, January 4, 2012 (reporting that the discipline and management
policies are the same for youth and adults and that 28 youth were punished in this way in 2011); and Letter from Louise
Hackel, Sergeant, Clark County Jail, Wisconsin, to Human Rights Watch, February 6, 2012 (reporting that the discipline and
management policies are the same for youth and adults and that one youth was punished in this way in 2011).
146 Human Rights Watch interview with Jacob L. (pseudonym), New York,

April 2012.

147 Some youth, however, did not recall having been given any legal or administrative process before being disciplined. On

the other hand, disciplinary solitary confinement is often preceded by a period of short-term administrative solitary
confinement. In some facilities, Human Rights Watch and the American Civil Liberties Union found that such confinement is
automatic, but others require a consideration of risk to other inmates before an individual can be placed in administrative
solitary confinement pending a hearing for a disciplinary infraction. In some facilities, time spent in short-term
administrative solitary confinement is “credited” when assessing a disciplinary sanction; in other facilities, youth do not
receive credit for time spent in administrative confinement. One youth told Human Rights Watch and the American Civil
Liberties Union, “They gave me 10 days… [but] there is no credit for time served [and] you have to wait 5 days for your
hearing.” Human Rights Watch interview with Mason P. (pseudonym), Florida, April 2012.

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matter.148 One of the rare young men who said he would have liked to call witnesses, told
Human Rights Watch and the American Civil Liberties Union, “I could have had witnesses,
but you have to know their first and last names and [inmate] numbers.”149 More commonly,
young people reported that it was unsafe to speak out against others to facility staff, so
they had no choice but to appear alone. Some young men and women told Human Rights
Watch and the American Civil Liberties Union that they had admitted the charges against
them during their hearing.150
Hearings almost always result in a finding of guilt based on the testimony of officials alone,
and some interviewees described being punished on the basis of minimal evidence.151 For
example, a young man in one facility in Florida described officials punishing a group of
inmates for banging on their cell doors because officials could not determine which
inmates were responsible:
People were kicking the[ir] door[s] and yelling. Then [the officials] said, “We
are going to put you on lockdown! We are going to put you on lockdown!”… I
[later] asked the [corrections officer] why we [were] on lockdown if we didn’t
kick the door. He said, “Man, you know how it is. There is [sic] a thousand
of you in here—I can’t tell who is kicking the door.”152
Once a prisoner is found guilty of a disciplinary offense, jail or prison officials usually
punish him or her with a term of days based on a structured disciplinary code. Because
most facilities subject youth and adults to the same rules and regulations as adults, both
young people and adults are usually punished with the same amount of punitive solitary
confinement when found to have violated facility rules. As one official told Human Rights
Watch and the American Civil Liberties Union, “There is no differentiation. There are the
rules. If you violate the rules you’ll go through the process and your hearing and any

148 Human Rights Watch interview with Corey H. (pseudonym), Florida, April 2012.
149 Human Rights Watch interview with Jacob L. (pseudonym), New York,

April 2012.

150 Alex A. said he had admitted fighting with another inmate. Human Rights Watch interview with Alex A. (pseudonym),

Florida, April 2012.
151 The standard for determining guilt in administrative disciplinary processes is low, often only requiring a preponderance of

the evidence.
152 Human Rights Watch interview with Jeffrey J. (pseudonym), Florida, April 2012. There were not actually one thousand

youths in the unit.

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potential discipline is the same regardless of age.”153 Because jurisdictions often subject
individuals to multiple, serial—rather than concurrent—periods of solitary confinement for
more than one rule violation stemming from a single incident, periods of solitary
confinement can be long.154
Youth rarely reported that their age was discussed during their disciplinary hearings. A few
young people reported that officials noted their age only in passing—“[the officer] just said
I was young and very angry”—rather than to suggest mitigating the punishment.155 One
adolescent told Human Rights Watch and the American Civil Liberties Union that a mental
health worker at the facility raised his youth at his disciplinary hearing, but that the
hearing officer said, “That doesn’t matter. He’s in prison now and needs to learn how to act.
It’s his fault.”156
While a formal appeal process often exists, very few young people reported appealing the
decisions sentencing them to solitary confinement.157 As experts have suggested, it is even
more difficult for children to successfully navigate a prison grievance system than for adult
prisoners. One expert said, “On average, juveniles are more impulsive, less capable of
planning a course of action and taking steps, particularly when there are timelines for taking
those steps.... So they’re just less capable, on average, than an adult of doing that.”158
More than adults, incarcerated teens often act out to protect themselves or to fit into a
culture of violence, including by fighting or committing other disciplinary infractions. The
New York City Department of Corrections reported that the most common disciplinary
infraction for adolescents is fighting.159 An analysis of data made available to independent
researchers by the Florida Department of Corrections suggests that rates of misconduct of

153 Human Rights Watch telephone interview with Michael Grover, Police Chief, Cottage Grove, Oregon, April 20, 2012.
154 See discussion of duration in Section III below.
155 Human Rights Watch interview with Elizabeth K. (pseudonym), New York, April 2012.
156 Human Rights Watch interview with Rafael O. (pseudonym), Colorado, February 2012.
157 Only a few of the 77 youth interviewed by Human Rights Watch and the American Civil Liberties Union described
attempting (unsuccessfully) to appeal their disciplinary sentence, with one saying, “[The process] is crazy—there’s no relief!”
Human Rights Watch interview with Jacob L. (pseudonym), New York, April 2012.
158 Human Rights Watch, No Equal Justice: The Prison Litigation Reform Act in the United States, June 2009,

http://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/reports/us0609web.pdf, citing Human Rights Watch telephone interview with Terry
Kupers, M.D., California, November 14, 2008.
159 Human Rights Watch telephone Interview with Dora B. Schriro, Commissioner, New York City Department of Corrections,

July 6, 2012.

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HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH/ACLU | OCTOBER 2012

adolescents under age 18 were significantly greater than adults between the ages of 18
and 20, and many times greater than older adults.160
Several young people told Human Rights Watch and the American Civil Liberties Union that
other adolescents or adults tested them when they arrived at a jail or prison, and that they
felt they had to defend themselves to avoid future abuse. Many young people reported that
their first period of solitary confinement was soon after they arrived at the facility. Ernesto
D. told Human Rights Watch and the American Civil Liberties Union,
[I]f someone puts their hands on you, you must defend yourself. They want
to know that you will defend yourself. I seen [sic] people get hit and now
everyone hits them. You have to deal with it. Once you set the record
straight you can stay out of trouble.161
The rules and regulations governing punitive solitary confinement are often structured
such that officials have significant discretion about the length of time youth spend in
solitary confinement. When charging, officials can generally choose whether particular
conduct corresponds to a more or less serious infraction and choose from a range of
penalties. Jordan E., who entered jail when he was 15 years old, told us that officials
responded to seemingly any infraction with punitive solitary confinement:
15 days for not making the bed; 15 days for not keeping the cell door open;
20 or 25 days for being in someone else’s cell. In the write-up book, they
could have suspended privileges or anything. All they did is disciplinary
seg[regation]. I would put my ear wax in the toilet in my cell and flush it to
watch it spin. I did [solitary confinement] time for that. It was crazy.162
Some rules and regulations also give officials discretion to reduce the length of time youth
spend in solitary confinement, either at the sentencing phase or before release. But that’s
160 Attapol Kuanliang et al., “Juvenile Inmates in an Adult Prison System: Rates of Disciplinary Misconduct and Violence,”

Criminal Justice and Behavior, vol. 35 (2008), http://www.sagepub.com/stohrstudy/articles/11/Kuanliang.pdf (accessed
August 27, 2012). The analysis found that rates of all violations per 1,000 inmates were 2,558 for youth under 18; 1,895 for
youth between age 18 and 20; and 937 for other adult inmates; rates of all assaultive rule violations were 109 per 1,000 for
youth under 18; 61 for youth between age 18 and 20; and 26 for other adult inmates.
161 Human Rights Watch interview with Ernesto D. (pseudonym), Pennsylvania, January 2012.
162 Human Rights Watch interview with Jordan E. (pseudonym), Colorado, February 2012.

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not true for all prison rules, despite the fact that some officials say that, if they had
discretion, they would generally be inclined to reduce isolation terms. The rules governing
solitary confinement in Pennsylvania, for example, allow officials to reduce periods of
solitary confinement imposed, but only for some infractions, not all. Officials in
Pennsylvania reported that they feel their hands are tied. “Unfortunately, those are the
policies that guide us,” one said. “We try to get them out when we can, but we can’t always
get them out.”163
Young people in punitive solitary confinement are often entitled to an hour outside of their
cell each day, during which they can walk around, alone, in an indoor area, make phone
calls, or take a shower. In some facilities they are taken to an outdoor exercise yard, often
a small cage.164 Facilities often severely restrict what can be inside a punitive solitary
confinement cell, including for young people. For example, 12 young people across various
states and counties told Human Rights Watch and the American Civil Liberties Union that
they were unable to have a book in their cells (some facilities made an exception for the
Christian bible). As one young man said, “There were no phones, no visits, no books, no
newspapers—just the bible.”165 It was rare for a facility to permit access to any out-of-cell
programming to those in punitive solitary confinement.

Solitary Confinement to Manage Inmates
Jail and prison officials most commonly use two forms of administrative solitary
confinement to manage inmates, including adolescents, who are at risk of victimization or
who are too difficult to manage in the general population.

Protective Solitary Confinement
International law and the laws of a number of US states require that young people be
separated from adults when detained.166 And many facilities also require such separation as
163 Human Rights Watch telephone interview with Eric Bush, Superintendent, Secure Correctional Institution Pine Grove,
Pennsylvania Department of Corrections, June 21, 2012.
164 Human Rights

Watch interviewed more than a dozen youth held in various facilities that did not permit outdoor recreation.

165 Human Rights Watch interview with Jordan E. (pseudonym), Colorado, February 2012.
166 International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), adopted December 16, 1966, G.A. Res. 2200A (XXI), 21 U.N.

GAOR Supp. (No. 16) at 52, U.N. Doc. A/6316 (1966), 999 U.N.T.S. 171, entered into force March 23, 1976, ratified by the
United States on June 8, 1992, art. 7; Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or
Punishment (Convention against Torture), adopted December 10, 1984, G.A. res. 39/46, annex, 39 U.N. GAOR Supp. (No. 51)
at 197, U.N. Doc. A/39/51 (1984), entered into force June 26, 1987, ratified by the United States on October 21, 1994, art. 9.

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a matter of policy.167 Yet, Human Rights Watch and the American Civil Liberties Union found
that to achieve this purpose, some facilities resort to holding youth in permanent solitary
confinement. In other facilities, where youth and adults are intermingled or where many
young people are held together, corrections officials sometimes use solitary confinement to
protect particular adolescents. Some facilities use this practice for weeks or months.
A number of corrections officials confirmed that they used solitary confinement to separate
adolescents from adults.168 In states with a lower age of criminal majority, such as
Michigan or Wisconsin, where all young people age 17 are charged as adults, some
facilities hold all those age 17 and older together with adults, but separate those who are
younger.169 Human Rights Watch and the American Civil Liberties Union interviewed 27
young people across the United States who had been placed in solitary confinement to
protect them or to segregate them from adults or other inmates. A recent University of
Texas survey of Texas jails found that 25 out of 41 jails that responded to a survey held
youth in protective solitary confinement by default.170

167 Standard 4-4307, “Youthful Offenders,” in American Correctional Association, Standards for Adults Correctional

Institutions, 4th. Ed. (ACA: January 2003); Standard 4-ALDF-2A-38, “Youthful Offenders,” in American Correctional
Association, Performance-Based Standards for Adult Local Detention Facilities, 4th Ed. (ACA: June 2004); Standard 1-CORE2A-20, “Plan for Youthful Offenders,” in American Correctional Association, Core Jail Standards (ACA: 2010).
168 Letter from Susan Anderson, Corporal, Pasco County Detention Center, Florida, to Human Rights Watch, January 27, 2012
(reporting that on January 27, 2012, the facility held 12 youth charged as adults in single, separation, segregation, or special
management cells; that youth spend less than one hour per day out of their cells; and that youth generally spend three to six
months in the facility); Letter from Kent Rachel, Crawford County Justice Center, Ohio, to Human Rights Watch, January 5,
2012 (reporting that the facility rarely holds youth, but that when it does they are held in separation, segregation, or special
management cells; that youth spend one to two hours per day out of their cells; and that youth generally spend one week or
less in the facility); and Letter from Jacqueline Motter, Deputy Warden, Clinton County Correctional Facility, Pennsylvania, to
Human Rights Watch, February 13, 2012 (reporting that the facility generally holds youth charged as adults in single cells
near adults; that youth spend between one and two hours per day out of their cells; and that youth spend one to two weeks
in the facility).
169 Human Rights Watch telephone interview with Michelle M. Sanborn, Jail Administrator, Macomb County, Michigan, March
9, 2012.
170 Michele Deitch, Anna Lipton Galbraith, and Jordan Pollock,

Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs, The University of
Texas at Austin, “Conditions for Juveniles in Texas County Jails,” May 2012,
http://www.utexas.edu/lbj/sites/default/files/file/news/Conditions%20for%20Certified%20Juveniles%20in%20Texas%20
County%20Jails-FINAL4.pdf (accessed August 27, 2012) (reporting the use of single-cell confinement for 23 hours per day).

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In some circumstances, facilities place
The Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA)

young people in protective solitary

regulations require jails and prisons to keep

confinement after they request protection.

youth under age 18 separate from adults age 18

Several young people described preferring

and older in all common spaces.171 Although

protective solitary confinement to the

they acknowledge the difficulties that

violence they feared or faced in the general

corrections officials face in trying to keep youth

population.

segregated from adults, PREA regulations do not
prohibit isolation or solitary confinement.
Rather, they state that facilities “shall make

Sean F., for example, told Human Rights

best efforts to avoid placing youthful inmates in

Watch and the American Civil Liberties

isolation.”172 A separate regulation requires that

Union that after he had difficulty in

inmates at high risk of sexual victimization

protective solitary confinement, the facility

“shall not ordinarily” be placed in involuntary

moved him:

protective custody for more than 30 days.173 But
it is unclear how the two sets of regulations
interact.

They moved me to a pod with adults.
These guys were much older. They

In acknowledging that there should be a limit on

were nowhere near 17. [I was there]

involuntary protective custody, and that

about three weeks. Then I couldn’t

facilities should not use isolation to protect

take it. Just the thought, every day,

youth, the Department of Justice has recognized
that long-term solitary confinement is not an

asking, “What’s going to happen?”…

acceptable solution to the challenges of

Maybe they are coming for me next. I

housing and managing vulnerable inmates. Yet,

got paranoid … [they transferred me

Human Rights Watch and the American Civil

back to isolation]. It was better. You

Liberties Union found 21 cases in which young

weren’t as scared because [I] knew

people held in protective isolation reported

no one was going to wake up in the

spending months in solitary confinement.

middle of the night and harm me.174
Corrections officials acknowledge that adolescents seeking protection sometimes commit
disciplinary infractions so they will be taken out of the general population. Until recently,

171 Youthful Inmates, Prison Rape Elimination Act National Standards, 28 CFR § 115.14(a) (“A youthful inmate shall not be

placed in a housing unit in which the youthful inmate will have sight, sound, or physical contact with any adult inmate
through the use of a shared dayroom or other common space, shower area, or sleeping quarters.”).
172 28 CFR § 115.14(c).
173 28 CFR § 115.43(c).
174 Human Rights Watch interview with Sean F. (pseudonym), Michigan, March 2012.

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Colorado did not have any formal mechanism to accommodate inmates in protective
custody. Officials reported that administrative solitary confinement was used as a
substitute by some: “Sometimes people hang out in Ad[ministrative] Seg[regation]
because they are afraid. We have certainly seen that used to manage younger offenders
who cannot live in general population without living in fear.”175
Marcus S., who entered jail when he was 14 and was housed in a cell in a juvenile pod with
two older adolescent cell-mates, said he was placed in protective solitary confinement
after experiencing sexual abuse:
[My 17 year old cell mate] kept on telling me stuff—like types of stuff you
would say to females. And it escalated and when he approached me—I
couldn’t defend myself against two of them in the room—and he sexually
abused me. I went and told the officer and he said I had to do something to
be taken out of the dorm.… [At my disciplinary hearing, when I explained
what had happened] the corporal said she didn’t want to give me [a
disciplinary violation]. She put me in protective custody.… She told me she
was going to give me some help and let me stay in the isolation cell for a
while.176
Marcus S. said he spent six months in protective solitary confinement following the
incident. In some facilities, as with Marcus S., young people sometimes feel or are told
that they have few options in order to keep themselves safe. Young people are forced into
a position where they are choosing between solitary confinement and physical assault.
Some facilities place lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, or intersex (LGBTI) inmates, and
inmates who are perceived as LGBTI, in protective segregation and isolation, including
solitary confinement, to protect them from the increased risk of sexual abuse that these
inmates face. 177

175 Human Rights Watch telephone interview with Tom Clements, Executive Director, Colorado Department of Corrections,

Colorado, June 18, 2012.
176 Human Rights Watch interview with Marcus S. (pseudonym), Florida, May 2012.
177 Opening Statement of Senator Dick Durbin, “Reassessing Solitary Confinement: The Human Rights, Fiscal and Public

Safety Consequences,” Hearing before the Senate Committee on the Judiciary, Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil
Rights and Human Rights, June 19, 2012, http://www.judiciary.senate.gov/pdf/12-6-19DurbinStatement.pdf (accessed
August 27, 2012). Prisons and jails generally attempt to strictly enforce a gender binary system and categorize inmates as

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Like young people in punitive solitary confinement, those in protective solitary
confinement were often permitted out of their cell for one or two hours each day,
frequently alone in an indoor dayroom. Some, but not all, facilities allowed outdoor
recreation. Generally, young people were allowed to make phone calls and take a short
shower during their time out of their cells. Two interviewees reported being the only
adolescent in a particular unit, and that, for at least part of their detention, they were
therefore permitted to spend much of their day in an empty common area, although they
were still alone.178 Facilities regulate what can be inside a protective solitary confinement
cell, including for youth. Some facilities permit more privileges for those in protective
solitary confinement than for those in punitive solitary confinement.

Administrative Solitary Confinement
Jail and prison officials frequently use solitary confinement to segregate individual inmates
who they cannot otherwise manage from the general population. In most facilities, some
form of administrative segregation can follow one or more terms of punitive solitary
confinement and extend for months, or even indefinitely. It is generally the result of an
inmate’s “classification” and an evaluation of an inmate’s perceived dangerousness or
likely future conduct.
Human Rights Watch and the American Civil Liberties Union interviewed 28 young people
who had spent a period of time in administrative solitary confinement while under age 18 in
adult jails and prisons. Of those young people, six had spent six months or more in
administrative solitary confinement. In addition, a number of the young people interviewed
by Human Rights Watch and the American Civil Liberties Union entered administrative
solitary confinement while under 18, but remained there for many years; at least 2 had spent
a total of more than 10 years in administrative solitary confinement after they turned 18.

either male or female. Regina Kunzel, Criminal Intimacy: Prison and the Uneven History of Modern American Sexuality
(Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2008). Yet research has consistently demonstrated the increased vulnerability of
LGBTI inmates. National Prison Rape Elimination Commission, “National Prison Rape Elimination Commission Report,” June
2009, https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/226680.pdf (accessed August 27, 2012), p. 7. A recent study of California
correctional facilities found that approximately 67 percent of non-heterosexual inmates reported being victims of sexual
assault, compared with approximately 2 percent of heterosexual inmates. Valerie Jenness et al., Center for Evidence-Based
Corrections, “Violence in California Correctional Facilities: An Empirical Examination of Sexual Assault,” May 16, 2007,
http://www.ushrnetwork.org/sites/default/files/VJReport2007.pdf (accessed August 27, 2012), p. 55.
178 Human Rights Watch interviews with Ethan B. (pseudonym), Colorado, February 2012; and with Sean F. (pseudonym),

Michigan, March 2012.

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As one young man described in a letter,
Imagine that you’re locked in a small room like a bathroom 23 hours a day.
You’re handcuffed when you’re moved outside of it. Your food is thrown
under the door and you have five books per week. It’s noisy outside with
some [inmate] or another yelling, screaming, banging on his door at ALL
HOURS; it smells worse than the monkey house at the older zoos no matter
how hard you clean your own cell.… In seg[regation] you either implode or
explode; you lose touch with reality, hear voices, hallucinate, and think for
hours about killing yourself, others, or both. The anger and hurt gets so
intense that you suspect everyone and trust no one and when someone
does something nice for you, you don’t understand it.179
Long-term administrative solitary confinement is generally imposed on a prisoner as a
classification or housing decision. Such decisions to “administratively” isolate prisoners
generally consider factors such as the individual’s criminal conviction and history, severity
of any disciplinary infractions, and other individual characteristics.180 However, the criteria
used in this “classification” of prisoners rarely include the age of an inmate.181 Because
some young people who spend time in state prison systems are convicted of serious
offenses, they can be classified in a manner that leads to their direct placement in
administrative solitary confinement.182 Prolonged administrative solitary confinement is
less common in pre-trial facilities, but does occur, particularly in larger jails.183

179 Letter from Douglas C. (pseudonym), from Colorado, to Human Rights Watch, April 17, 2012.
180 National Institute of Corrections, US Department of Justice, “Internal Prison Classification Systems: Case Studies and
Their Development and Implementation,” January 2002, http://static.nicic.gov/Library/017381.pdf (accessed August 27,
2012).
181 For example, Tom Clements, the Executive Director of the Colorado Department of Corrections, told Human Rights Watch

that although the Department of Corrections is in the process of validating a new classification instrument, the final version
will not take age into account as a factor in determining classification. Human Rights Watch telephone interview with Tom
Clements, June 18, 2012. (“Our classification system really doesn’t factor in age. If there is a person who is 17, 18, 19 years
old we apply the same classification system to them. We have been doing some work for the last nine months or so on our
classification system. We are piloting a new classification instrument.… Assuming we implement that fully, we will rely less
on how much time a person has left to serve and focus more on other attributes and characteristics. But it still will not factor
in age as a driving factor.”).
182 Human Rights Watch interview with Ryan G. (pseudonym), Colorado, February 2012; Human Rights Watch, The Rest of

Their Lives; Human Rights Watch, Against All Odds.
183 Human Rights Watch interview with Philadelphia County Prison Official, February 23, 2012.

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Another major factor in administrative solitary confinement determinations is conduct
within a facility. As noted above, adolescents often misbehave or commit disciplinary
infractions to protect themselves or fit into a culture of violence in jail and prison.
Repeated disciplinary infractions can lead to administrative segregation, as it did with a
number of young people interviewed by Human Rights Watch and the American Civil
Liberties Union.
Prison and jail officials sometimes say it is necessary to separate an inmate, or groups of
inmates, from others to ensure the security of staff and inmates in the general population.
When this happens, some state prison officials said that they have to use solitary
confinement, as they are not equipped to manage individual or small groups of prisoners
in any other way. But several prison officials often told Human Rights Watch that they
would like to have the ability to manage youth differently. As Tom Clements, the executive
director of the Colorado Department of Corrections stated, “If I had a wish list, it would be
to have the flexibility to have more intensive case management, mental health, and other
programming to keep [youth] engaged in something that can build positive self-esteem.”184
Officials in the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections said that, although they try to
divert youth from solitary confinement when possible, generally “4-5 percent of youth [in
segregation] are those [who officials] can’t incorporate back into the population.”185
In recent years, legislators and corrections officials in a number of states have begun to
reexamine the use of prolonged solitary confinement to manage inmates. The state of
Mississippi recently reduced the population of inmates in long-term administrative solitary
confinement by 75.6 percent, and closed the state’s super-maximum security prison.186 The
Mississippi Department of Corrections found that prison violence decreased significantly
as a result, and millions of dollars were saved in the process.187 The Commissioner of

184 Human Rights Watch telephone interview with Tom Clements, June 18, 2012.
185 Human Rights Watch telephone interview with Marshall Shirley, Deputy, Secure Correctional Institution Pine Grove,

Pennsylvania Department of Corrections, Pennsylvania, June 21, 2012. Note that the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections
houses youth as young as 12 and as old as 22 in the same facility.
186 Written Testimony of Commissioner Chris Epps, Mississippi Department of Corrections, “Reassessing Solitary
Confinement the Human Rights, Fiscal, and Public Safety Consequences,” Hearing before the Senate Committee on the
Judiciary, Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Human Rights, June 19, 2012,
http://www.judiciary.senate.gov/pdf/12-6-19EppsTestimony.pdf (accessed August 27, 2012), p. 2.
187 Erica Goode, “Prisons Rethink Isolation, Saving Money, Lives, and Sanity,” New York Times, March 10, 2012,

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/11/us/rethinking-solitary-confinement.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1 (accessed August 27,
2012); See also Margaret Winter, National Prison Project, American Civil Liberties Union “Rethinking Solitary Confinement in

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HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH/ACLU | OCTOBER 2012

Corrections, Chris Epps, recently testified before the US Senate that solitary confinement
“created a situation where the norm was to be disruptive as there were no incentives to
change behavior.”188 Colorado, Illinois, and Maine have also begun taking steps to reduce
the number of inmates confined in long-term isolation.189 The US Senate Judiciary
Committee recently held hearings on the issue for the first time in its history.190 These
reforms may reflect a growing consensus that reliance on solitary confinement to manage
inmates is costly, cruel, and unnecessary.
As with the experience of the young people in punitive and protective solitary confinement,
those in administrative solitary confinement are often permitted out of their cell for one
hour each day. Some, but not all, facilities allow outdoor recreation.191 Facilities often
strictly limit what can be inside an administrative solitary confinement cell, including for
young people. Some facilities permit more privileges to those in long-term administrative
solitary confinement—such as a radio or television, if the prisoner is able to afford to
purchase such items from the facility—than they permit to those in punitive solitary
confinement. But telephone and visitation privileges are sometimes more restrictive,
particularly in prisons.

Solitary Confinement to Treat Inmates
Some adult jails and prisons use a stark form of solitary confinement to manage perceived
and actual psychological emergencies.192 Some years ago, it was considered medically
appropriate, in a range of circumstances, to use lengthy isolation, usually called seclusion,
as a therapeutic intervention for adults and, sometimes, adolescents. The current medical
consensus disfavors the use of stark and prolonged isolation, preferring an approach
much more tailored to the mental health needs of individual patients. For example, one

Mississippi and Beyond,” March 12, 2012, http://www.aclu.org/blog/prisoners-rights/rethinking-solitary-confinementmississippi-and-beyond (accessed August 27, 2012).
188 Written Testimony of Commissioner Chris Epps, pp. 1-2.
189 Goode, “Prisons Rethink Isolation, Saving Money, Lives, and Sanity,” New York Times.
190 Congressional Quarterly, “Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Constitution, Civil Rights, and Human Rights Holds Hearing

on Reassessing Solitary Confinement,” June 19, 2012, http://solitarywatch.files.wordpress.com/2012/06/transcript-of-thehearing.pdf (accessed August 27, 2012), Panel 1, transcript.
191 Human

Rights Watch interviewed more than a dozen youth held in various facilities that did not permit outdoor recreation.

192 Others have noted that the practice still occurs in many jails and prisons. Jeffrey L. Metzner, “Introduction to: Resource

Document on the Use of Restraint and Seclusion in Correctional Mental Health Care,” Journal of the American Academy of
Psychiatry and the Law, vol. 35 (December 2007), http://www.jaapl.org/content/35/4/415.full (accessed August 27, 2012), p.
415.

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forensic child psychiatrist told Human Rights Watch and the American Civil Liberties Union,
regarding seclusion for suicidal adolescents, “When you are feeling suicidal, [isolation]
may well make you feel worse.”193
However, several young people, including young people with mental disabilities, told
Human Rights Watch and the American Civil Liberties Union that they were subjected to
medical solitary confinement for days at a time; in a few cases, young people reported
being held in medical solitary confinement for weeks. Some young people also reported
being placed in medical solitary confinement after experiencing acute difficulty and having
threatened or attempted to commit suicide in other forms of solitary confinement.
Four young people described, in detail, time spent in inpatient mental health facilities
within state prison systems. These young people all reported spending long periods in
isolation in these facilities, including periods of medical solitary confinement.
Unlike the experience of the young people in other forms of solitary confinement, those in
medical solitary confinement were often not permitted out of their cell at all. Facilities
often permit almost nothing to be inside a medical solitary confinement cell. Frequently,
young people were naked except for a thin paper gown—called a “turtle suit” by some
because of its appearance—and were allowed only a single, thick, tear-resistant blanket.
Christopher M. described his experience in medical solitary confinement in a letter:
[I] was put in a pa[dd]ed room for 24 hours with a smock and hard blanket.
[I] was served food in a paper tray[. I] was to eat with hands[. A]fter the meal
[I] was not aloud [sic] to wash my hands[. I] was to shit and piss in the floor
and not able to wipe my but[t] and not able to flush the hole in the ground[I]
was to talk to a person about my sueisideaul [sic] thoughts … [I] learned
nothing from this person … was out in 24 hours and put in isolation for 15
days which usually got extended [due] to behavior issues … that was only

193 Human Rights Watch interview with Dr. Peter Ash, Chief, Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Director, Psychiatry and Law

Service, and Associate Professor, Emory University, Georgia, January 9, 2012.

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one of some 50 times [I] was put in observation for attempted sueiside [sic]
or saying [I] was going to kill myself.194

Quarantine
Some facilities use solitary confinement to quarantine adolescents, often when they first
enter a facility. Quarantine practices vary significantly across facilities. Young people in
some jails described being held separately at the beginning of their detention, pending the
results of a tuberculosis test. In other facilities, young people were not segregated, but
held with other incoming inmates. In some facilities, young people reported not spending
any time in quarantine upon entry. Inmates who reported being subjected to medical
solitary confinement for this purpose generally described being held for one, two, or three
days.195 As Human Rights Watch and the American Civil Liberties Union have argued
elsewhere, whether an inmate is placed in a temporary medical quarantine should be
based on whether it is medically necessary.196 There are serious questions about whether
medical solitary confinement is overused for quarantine and not actually justified as
necessary for public health reasons.

Seclusion and SAMHSA
The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA)—an agency of
the US Department of Health and Human Services—is devoted to addressing the social and
fiscal impacts of mental disabilities and substance abuse. SAMHSA has dedicated
significant resources to reducing the use of seclusion and restraint in various forms of
mental health treatment. SAMHSA shapes policy through contracts and grants, using various
national information and data. SAMHSA has found that the use of seclusion for individuals
with mental health issues has resulted in death, psychological trauma, and serious physical
injury, including of young people.197 SAMHSA has further noted that children are at a
194 Letter from Christopher M. (pseudonym), from Wisconsin, to Human Rights Watch, January 17, 2012.
195 Human Rights Watch interviews with Lloyd U. (pseudonym), Pennsylvania, January 2012; and with Craig G. (pseudonym),

Pennsylvania, January 2012.
196 Human Rights Watch and the American Civil Liberties Union, Sentenced to Stigma: Segregation of HIV-Positive Prisoners

in Alabama and South Carolina, April 14, 2010, http://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/reports/health0410webwcover.pdf.
197 SAMHSA defines seclusion as “the involuntary confinement of a patient alone in an area in which the patient is prevented

from leaving.” Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee (IACC) Services and Safety Committee, Administrator’s Office of
Policy Planning and Innovation (OPPI) and Substance Abuse and Mental Health Service Administration, “Alternatives to
Seclusion and Restraint in Behavioral Health Care,” May 19, 2011,
http://iacc.hhs.gov/events/2011/slides_larke_huang_051911.pdf (accessed August 27, 2012). Referencing CMS Hospital
Conditions of Participation: SAMHSA National Action Plan on Seclusion and Restraint, Substance Abuse and Mental Health

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particularly high risk of death and serious injury, as a result of the use of seclusion and
restraint.198 Through grant programs in a number of states, SAMHSA has worked to eliminate
the use of seclusion and restraint in treatment and rehabilitation, except as a safety
intervention of last resort, and has formally recognized the detrimental effects of holding
individuals in isolation, particularly children and individuals with mental disabilities.199

Rates of Solitary Confinement
Neither states nor the federal government publish systematic data that show the number
of youth held in adult jails and prisons who are subjected to solitary confinement.200 And it
is impossible to determine the precise number of people under age 18 subjected to solitary
confinement. But the available data suggest that the practice is prevalent in particular
jurisdictions and occurs nationwide.
Human Rights Watch and the American Civil Liberties Union identified facilities that hold
100 percent of youth in solitary confinement; large jail and prison systems that hold more
than 10 percent of youth in solitary confinement at any given time; and facilities that avoid
or rarely use the practice.
Jail officials in three states reported that all young people under age 18 in their facilities
were held in protective solitary confinement.201 Human Rights Watch and the American Civil
Liberties Union interviewed six young people in other facilities who reported spending the
entire period of their pre-trial detention in solitary confinement. Media and other reporting
suggest that this practice is widespread in some states.202

Service Administration, “Seclusion and Restraint: Statement of the Problem and SAMHSA’s Response,” May 2003,
http://www.samhsa.gov/seclusion/sr_handout.aspx (accessed August 27, 2012).
198 SAMHSA National Action Plan on Seclusion and Restraint, “Seclusion and Restraint: Statement of the Problem and

SAMHSA’s Response.”
199 IACC Services and Safety Committee, “Alternatives to Seclusion and Restraint in Behavioral Health Care”; SAMHSA

National Action Plan on Seclusion and Restraint, “Seclusion and Restraint: Statement of the Problem and SAMHSA’s
Response.”
200 Indeed, there are also no systematic national data on how many adults in jails and prisons or youth in juvenile facilities
are subjected to solitary confinement.
201 See discussion of protective solitary confinement above. Letter from Susan Anderson, Corporal, Pasco County Detention
Center, Florida, to Human Rights Watch, January 27, 2012; Letter from Kent Rachel, Crawford County Justice Center, Ohio, to
Human Rights Watch, January 5, 2012; and Letter from Jacqueline Motter, Deputy Warden, Clinton County Correctional Facility,
Pennsylvania, to Human Rights Watch, February 13, 2012.
202 Deitch, Galbraith and Pollock, “Conditions for Juveniles in Texas County Jails”; Chris Vogel, “For Their Own Good,” Texas

Observer, June 9, 2010, http://www.texasobserver.org/mollyaward/columns/for-their-own-good (accessed August 27, 2012).

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Information gathered from one large prison system and one large county jail system
suggests that, in those facilities, more than 10 percent of youth held there are subjected to
disciplinary solitary confinement.203 Disciplinary data reported by the New York City
Department of Corrections suggests that 14.4 percent of adolescents between the ages of
16 and 18 spend part of their pre-trial detention in solitary confinement.204 This is
significant because the department is one of the largest jail systems in the country. The
most common disciplinary infraction for adolescents between the ages of 16 and 18 in the
New York City Department of Corrections is for fighting.205
Population data reported by the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections, which holds
adolescents and young adults in a single facility through age 21, suggest that
approximately 10.9 percent of inmates there are held in solitary confinement.206 Like New
York City’s facility, the department mixes young people under age 18 with young adults,
but officials confirmed that approximately 10 percent of adolescents are consistently held
in a form of solitary confinement.207 Pennsylvania is among the 15 states that hold the
largest number of young people under age 18 in adult prisons.208
Many officials reported that they subject youth and adults to the same disciplinary rules
and that they subject youth to solitary confinement as a punitive sanction.209 Human
203 Human Rights Watch email correspondence with Sharman Stein, Deputy Commissioner, New York City Department of

Corrections, July 27, 2012; Human Rights Watch telephone interview with Marshall Shirley, Deputy, Secure Correctional
Institution Pine Grove, Pennsylvania Department of Corrections, Pennsylvania, June 21, 2012. Note that the Pennsylvania
Department of Corrections houses youth as young as 12 and as old as 22 in the same facility. See Pennsylvania Department
of Corrections monthly prison data (reporting 10.9 percent of all youth under age 22 at Pine Grove Secure Correctional
Institution in administrative or disciplinary solitary confinement as of April
2012),http://www.cor.state.pa.us/portal/server.pt/community/research___statistics/10669/monthly_population_reports/1
069959 (accessed September 26, 2012); Human Rights Watch telephone interview with Eric Bush, Superintendent, Secure
Correctional Institution Pine Grove, Pennsylvania Department of Corrections, June 21, 2012.
204 New York state law distinguishes between adolescents ages 16 to 18 and adults for purposes of pre-trial and post-

conviction detention; data was therefore reported for all adolescents. Human Rights Watch email correspondence with
Sharman Stein, Deputy Commissioner, New York City Department of Corrections, July 27, 2012; Human Rights Watch email
correspondence with Robin Campbell, Deputy Commissioner, New York City Department of Corrections, September 26, 2012.
205 Human Rights Watch telephone interview with Dora B. Schriro, Commissioner, New York City Department of Corrections,

New York, July 6, 2012.
206 Pennsylvania Department of Corrections, “Monthly Population Report,”

http://www.portal.state.pa.us/portal/server.pt/document/ (accessed August 27, 2012).
207 Human Rights Watch telephone interview with Marshall Shirley, Deputy, Secure Correctional Institution Pine Grove,

Pennsylvania Department of Corrections, Pennsylvania, June 21, 2012.
208 Heather West, Bureau of Justice Statistics, US Department of Justice, “Prison Inmates at Mid-year 2009 – Statistical

Tables,” June 2010, http://bjs.ojp.usdoj.gov/content/pub/pdf/pim09st.pdf (accessed August 27, 2012).
209 Prison officials in Colorado, Michigan, New York, and Pennsylvania all told Human Rights Watch that youth and adults are

bound by the same disciplinary rules and that youth are held in punitive segregation. Jail officials in 26 counties in Colorado,

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Rights Watch and the American Civil Liberties Union interviewed 36 young people who
spent several periods in solitary confinement in jail or prison before they turned 18.
As previously noted, some research suggests that youth in adult prisons may commit
disciplinary infractions at a rate that is higher than younger adult prisoners and much
higher than older adults.210 Disciplinary data made available to independent researchers
by the Florida Department of Corrections suggest that approximately one in every ten
adolescents in Florida prisons is found guilty of an assaultive rule violation.211 Florida
houses more young people under age 18 in its prisons than any other state. In Florida
prisons, as in most other adult facilities, assaultive rule violations can result in a sanction
that includes solitary confinement.212
While some large facilities reported high levels of solitary confinement, one facility in Erie
County, New York, reported using disciplinary segregation only rarely and as a last resort.213
On the basis of our research and these partial, but suggestive, statistics, Human Rights
Watch and the American Civil Liberties Union believe that solitary confinement of young
people under age 18 is a serious and widespread problem.

Length of Time Spent in Solitary Confinement
There are also no comprehensive national data on the duration of the solitary confinement
of young people under age 18. The limited evidence available suggests that adolescents in
a significant number of jails and prisons spend prolonged periods—weeks and months,
rather than just hours and days—in solitary confinement.
Human Rights Watch and the American Civil Liberties Union interviewed or corresponded
with young people who reported spending lengthy periods in solitary confinement. While

Florida, Michigan, New York, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin told Human Rights Watch that youth and adults are
bound by the same disciplinary rules.
210 Kuanliang et al., “Juvenile Inmates in an Adult Prison System: Rates of Disciplinary Misconduct and Violence.” The

analysis suggests that—per year—youth under age 18 are found guilty of “potentially violent rule violations” at a rate of
353.17 per 1,000 and of “assaultive rule violations” at a rate of 109.38 per 1,000.
211 Ibid. Human Rights Watch and the American Civil Liberties Union have found that youth subjected to disciplinary

confinement in Florida are sometimes held two per cell but at other times are held in solitary confinement.
212 See discussion of Florida prisons in Appendix 2.
213 Human Rights Watch telephone interview with Jeffrey Hartman, Captain, Erie County Holding Center, New York, March 2, 2012.

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not a representative sample, 49 of the 127 young people asked said that they spent
between 1 and 6 months in solitary confinement before they turned 18. Twenty-nine
reported spending longer than six months in solitary confinement.
Officials in some jurisdictions have reported that youth in the adult criminal justice system
are less likely to be released on bail than adults and therefore spend longer periods in pretrial detention.214 Human Rights Watch interviewed or corresponded with some young
people who had spent more than one year in detention awaiting trial before turning
eighteen. In some cases, this may mean that young people are more likely to be subjected
to solitary confinement in jurisdictions where the practice is common.

Table 1: Total time spent in solitary confinement reported by young people
Total Length of Time in
1-7 days
Solitary Confinement
Number of Youth

11

8-30 days

31-180
days

181-365
days

365+days

Exact Duration
Unknown

11

49

21

8

27

Human Rights Watch and the American Civil Liberties Union interviewed young men and
women who had been sentenced to a range of time in punitive solitary confinement. Young
people in a few facilities reported being sentenced to less than a week in solitary
confinement for fighting; others, to weeks or months.215 Human Rights Watch and the
American Civil Liberties Union did not independently verify accounts of the precise nature
of the disposition, but young people described different penalties for similar infractions in
different facilities, such as fights that did not result in bleeding or injury. Many young
people spoke about being punished for defending themselves from an assault from
another inmate.
Not all interviewees recalled the precise number of days they had spent in punitive solitary
confinement in jail or prison as adolescents. Some also said that they spent time in
administrative solitary confinement pending their disciplinary hearing. While not a
representative sample, for those young people who did report the specific time periods,

214 Human Rights Watch telephone interview with Dora B. Schriro, Commissioner, New York City Department of Corrections,

New York, July 6, 2012.
215 Human Rights Watch interviews with James M. (pseudonym), Florida, April

(pseudonym), Florida, April 2012.

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2012 and April 7, 2012; and with Justin C.

the most common disciplinary sanctions to which they had been subjected were between
15 and 29 days.

Table 2: Length of punitive solitary confinement sentences young people reported receiving
Length of Each Punitive
Solitary Confinement Period

1-6 days

7-14 days

15-29 days

30-59 days

Greater than
60 days

Each Period of Punitive
Solitary Confinement

8

26

27

21

20

While most facilities reported subjecting young people to the same lengths of punitive
solitary confinement as adults, a representative of one facility in Erie County, New York,
said that young people there were sentenced to shorter periods of disciplinary segregation
than adults.216
Disciplinary rules, and the corresponding durations of solitary confinement, vary from state
to state and jail to jail. Sanctions are commonly graduated, with the maximum period of
solitary confinement for individual sanctions often increasing with severity, for example,
from 7 to 15 to 30 to 60 days, depending on the infraction. Jail and prison officials in many
jurisdictions reported that youth are generally subjected to the same length of time in
punitive solitary confinement as adults.217 Some jurisdictions subject individuals to
multiple, consecutive—rather than concurrent—periods of solitary confinement for
multiple, one rule violations, stemming from a single incident.218 This can significantly
increase the duration of solitary confinement when it is imposed as a disciplinary penalty.
The New York City Department of Corrections reported that a typical period of punitive
solitary confinement for fighting for adolescents between the ages of 16 and 18 is 20
days.219 The median period of punitive solitary confinement for adolescents, overall, is 29

216 Human Rights Watch telephone interview with Jeffrey Hartman, Captain, Erie County Holding Center, New York, March 2,

2012.
217 No state prison system reported a difference in the formal regulations governing disciplinary solitary confinement for

youth and adults. A few jail officials also explicitly stated that youth and adults are subjected to the same periods of solitary
confinement. Letter from Bernie Zook, Administrator/Warden, Mifflin County Correctional Facility, Pennsylvania, to Human
Rights Watch, January 3, 2012; and Letter from Paul Falduto, Captain of Detentions, Kenosha County Sheriff’s Department,
Wisconsin, to Human Rights Watch, January 17, 2012.
218 Human Rights Watch telephone interview with with Dora B. Schriro, Commissioner, New York City Department of

Corrections, New York, July 6, 2012.
219 Ibid.

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HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH/ACLU | OCTOBER 2012

days; the average period of punitive solitary confinement is 43.1 days.220 This suggests that
some young people spend very long periods in solitary confinement.221 Furthermore, young
people generally spend more time in solitary confinement than adults.222
As with punitive solitary confinement, not all young people recalled the precise number of
days, weeks, or months they had spent in protective solitary confinement in jail or prison
while they were under age 18. While not a representative sample, for those young people
who did report the specific time periods, the most common duration was longer than six
months. Four of them reported spending longer than one year in protective solitary
confinement.

Table 3: Length of protective solitary confinement reported by young people
Length of Each
Protective Solitary
Confinement
Period

1-6 days

Each Period of
Protective Solitary
Confinement

4

7-14 days 15-29 days

3

3

30-59
days

60-89
days

90 to 179
days

180 days
or longer

4

5

11

18

There is rarely any absolute temporal limit on administrative solitary confinement (solitary
confinement as an administrative, management, or housing measure). Human Rights
Watch and the American Civil Liberties Union interviewed a number of young people who
began multi-year periods of administrative solitary confinement in state prison systems
while they were under 18.223
The use of medical solitary confinement as a therapeutic intervention also varies across
facilities. Human Rights Watch and the American Civil Liberties Union interviewed young

220 This data is from FY 2012. Human Rights Watch email correspondence with Sharman Stein, Deputy Commissioner, New

York City Department of Corrections, July 27, 2012; Human Rights Watch email correspondence with Robin Campbell, Deputy
Commissioner, New York City Department of Corrections, September 26, 2012.
221 Officials at the New York City Department of Corrections indicated that they hope to reform the management structure at
the facility to allow them to impose shorter periods of punishment. Human Rights Watch telephone interview with Dora B.
Schriro, Commissioner, New York City Department of Corrections, New York, July 6, 2012.
222 Human Rights Watch email correspondence with Robin Campbell, Deputy Commissioner, New York City Department of

Corrections, September 26, 2012.
223 Human Rights Watch interviews with Bradley T. (pseudonym), Colorado, February 2012; and with George T. (pseudonym),

Florida, April 2012.

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people who described spending a few days in isolation when in the midst of, or
immediately following, a mental health crisis. Four young people described spending more
than a week in medical solitary confinement. A number of young people who described
having great difficulty coping while in different forms of solitary confinement reported
spending several periods in medical solitary confinement. Others reported being
transferred from medical solitary confinement to another form of solitary confinement.

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IV. Violations of Fundamental Rights
International human rights law requires the US government to protect all prisoners from
mistreatment and to provide vulnerable inmates, especially children and persons with
mental disabilities, with heightened measures of protection. This body of law, as well as
international standards developed to guide its implementation, establishes that people
under age 18 have a right to be treated in a manner appropriate to their age and
development.
While the solitary confinement of adolescents is not yet prohibited under US domestic law,
the US Supreme Court has repeatedly suggested that young people in the criminal justice
system are entitled to special constitutional protections in the context of crime and
punishment because they are developmentally different from adults.

International Law and Standards
In November 1959, the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Declaration on the
Rights of the Child, which recognized that “the child, by reason of his physical and mental
immaturity, needs special safeguards and care, including appropriate legal protection,
before as well as after birth.”224 The United States was one of the 78 members of the UN
General Assembly that voted unanimously to adopt the declaration. While the declaration
is not binding law, since that time, the world’s governments, including the United States,
have further elaborated, in treaties and other declarations, the rights of children accused
of crimes.
The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), to which the United States
became a party in 1992, specifically acknowledges the need for special treatment of
children in the criminal justice system and emphasizes the importance of their

224 United Nations Declaration on the Rights of the Child, adopted November 20, 1959, G.A. res. 1386 (XIV), 14 U.N. GAOR

Supp. (No. 16) at 19, U.N. Doc. A/4354 (1959). Similarly, The American Convention on Human Rights (“Pact of San José, Costa
Rica”), Article 19, states, “Every minor child has the right to the measures of protection required by his condition as a minor
on the part of his family, society, and the state.” The Pact was adopted November 22, 1969, O.A.S. Treaty Series No. 36, 1144
U.N.T.S. 123, entered into force July 18, 1978, reprinted in Basic Documents Pertaining to Human Rights in the Inter-American
System, OEA/Ser.L.V/II.82 doc.6 rev.1 at 25 (1992).

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rehabilitation.225 Article 10 requires the separation of child offenders from adults and the
provision of treatment appropriate to their age and legal status. Article 14(4), which was
co-sponsored by the United States, requires that criminal procedures for children charged
with crimes “take account of the age and the desirability of promoting their
rehabilitation.”226 The ICCPR emphasizes age-differentiated, positive measures for child
offenders and education, rehabilitation, and reintegration over punishment.227
Both the ICCPR and the Convention against Torture and Other, Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading
Treatment or Punishment (CAT) prohibit “cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or
punishment.”228 In addition, article 10 of the ICCPR stipulates, “All persons deprived of
their liberty shall be treated with humanity and with respect for the inherent dignity of the
human person.”229 For treatment to be humane, it must be appropriate to age and legal
status.230 The vulnerability and immaturity of juvenile offenders renders a wider range of
treatment potentially cruel, inhuman, or degrading, and such treatment, in turn, can have a
much more profound effect on the body and mind of a developing child than on an adult.
It is precisely because imprisonment is such an inherently severe sanction that
governmental decisions to impose it are subject to human rights constraints. The ICCPR

225 International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), adopted December 16, 1966, G.A. Res. 2200A (XXI), 21 U.N.
GAOR Supp. (No. 16) at 52, U.N. Doc. A/6316 (1966), 999 U.N.T.S. 171, entered into force March 23, 1976, ratified by the
United States on June 8, 1992. The Human Rights Committee has interpreted the ICCPR’s provisions on child offenders to
apply to all persons under the age of 18. UN Human Rights Committee, General Comment 1 (Forty-fourth session, 1992),
Compilation of General Comments and General Recommendations Adopted by Human Rights Treaty Bodies, U.N. Doc.
HRI/GEN/1/Rev.1 at 155 (1994), http://www1.umn.edu/humanrts/gencomm/hrcoim20.htm (accessed August 27, 2012), para.
13.
226 The United States co-sponsored this provision together with Great Britain and India,

and it was adopted unanimously.
See Marc Bossuyt, Guide to the “Travaux Préparatoires” of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (The
Netherlands: Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, 1987), p. 307. The ICCPR contains three additional provisions related to juvenile
justice. Article 6(5) prohibits imposing the death penalty on persons who committed crimes while under the age of 18. Article
10(2), subparagraph b, mandates the separation of accused children from adults and the swift adjudication of their cases.
Article 14(1) provides an exception for cases involving children to the general requirement that judgments be made public.
227 Manfred Nowak, U.N. Covenant on Civil and Political Rights: CCPR Commentary (Kehl: N.P. Engel, 1993), p. 266.
228 ICCPR, art. 7; Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (Convention

against Torture), adopted December 10, 1984, G.A. res. 39/46, annex, 39 U.N. GAOR Supp. (No. 51) at 197, U.N. Doc. A/39/51
(1984), entered into force June 26, 1987, ratified by the United States on October 21, 1994, art. 16.
229 In article 37 of the CRC, the prohibition of both capital punishment and life imprisonment without possibility of

release are included in the sub-section banning cruel, inhuman, or degrading punishments. Convention on the Rights of the
Child (CRC), adopted November 20, 1989, G.A. Res. 44/25, annex, 44 U.N. GAOR Supp. (No. 49) at 167, U.N. Doc. A/44/49
(1989), entered into force September 2, 1990. The United States signed the CRC in 1995 but has not ratified.
230 See UN Human Rights Committee, General Comment 9, Article 10 (Sixteenth session, 1982), Compilation of General

Comments and General Recommendations Adopted by Human Rights Treaty Bodies, UN Doc. HRI\GEN\1\Rev.1 (1994).

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recognizes that all persons (including young people) deprived of their liberty shall be
treated with humanity and with respect for the inherent dignity of the human person.231
When the United States ratified the ICCPR, it attached a limiting reservation providing that
The policy and practice of the United States are generally in compliance
with and supportive of the Covenant’s provisions regarding treatment of
juveniles in the criminal justice system. Nevertheless, the United States
reserves the right, in exceptional circumstances, to treat juveniles as adults,
notwithstanding paragraphs 2 (b) and 3 of article 10 and paragraph 4 of
article 14.232
The drafting history of this reservation indicates that it should be interpreted narrowly. The
reservation was intended to permit—on an “exceptional” basis—the trial of children as
adults and the incarceration of children and adults in the same prison facilities.
The United States, as a co-sponsor of Article 14, was keenly aware of the breadth and
scope of its language. There is nothing in its reservation to suggest that the United States
sought to reserve the right to treat children as harshly as adults on a regular or frequent
basis, or to disregard the special needs and vulnerabilities of children. To the extent the
reservation is interpreted broadly, it risks creating a loophole for violations of children’s
basic rights. To be fully consistent with what it has agreed to elsewhere regarding
children’s rights, the United States should withdraw the reservation, and refuse to use it to
justify actions that otherwise would violate the ICCPR.
The Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), which the United States has signed but
not yet ratified, explicitly addresses the particular rights and needs of children.233
Underpinning several of the treaty’s provisions is the fundamental recognition of the
child’s potential for rehabilitation. The CRC requires that a state’s decision to incarcerate a

231 ICCPR, art. 10(1).
232 ICCPR, United States of America: Reservations, para. 5 (emphasis added). The United States also included a reservation

to the general obligation of rehabilitation.
233 Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), adopted November 20, 1989, G.A. Res. 44/25, annex, 44 U.N. GAOR Supp.

(No. 49) at 167, U.N. Doc. A/44/49 (1989), entered into force September 2, 1990. The United States signed the CRC in 1995
but has not ratified.

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child “shall be used only as a measure of last resort and for the shortest appropriate
period of time.”234 A child who has committed a crime is to be treated in a manner that
takes into account “the child’s age and the desirability of promoting the child’s
reintegration and the child’s assuming a constructive role in society.”235 States are to use a
variety of measures to address the situation of children in conflict with the law, including
“care, guidance and supervision orders; counseling; probation; foster care; education and
vocational training programmes and other alternatives to institutional care.”236 The treaty
also anticipates the need for regular and accessible procedures in which a child can
“challenge the legality of the deprivation of his or her liberty.”237
International human rights law also affirms the right of family unity.238 The International
Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (which the US has signed, but not yet
ratified) guarantees all persons a right to education and to the highest attainable standard
of physical and mental health.239
The Convention of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), which the Senate was
actively considering for ratification as this report was published, also states that young
people with disabilities, including mental disabilities (long-term mental health problems)
or intellectual disabilities (sometimes called developmental disabilities), retain the right
to full enjoyment “of all human rights and fundamental freedoms, on an equal basis with
other [youth],” including when deprived of their liberty.240
Various international standards provide additional detail regarding precisely how
governments should ensure that this range of rights be safeguarded in practice.241
234 CRC, art. 37(b).
235 CRC, art. 40(1).
236 CRC, art. 40(4).
237 CRC, art. 37(d).
238

ICCPR art. 23; International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), G.A. Res. 2200A (XXI), 21 U.N.

GAOR Supp. (No. 16) at 49, U.N. Doc. A/6316 (1966), 993 U.N.T.S. 3, entered into force January 3, 1976, art. 10. The United
States signed the ICESCR in 1977 but has not ratified.
239 Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), G.A. res. 217A (III), U.N. Doc A/810 at 71 (1948); ICESCR, art. 13.
240 Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), adopted December 13, 2006, G.A. Res. 61/106, Annex I,
U.N.GAOR, 61st Sess., Supp. (No. 49) at 65, U.N. Doc. A/61/49 (2006), entered into force May 3, 2008, arts. 7(1), 14. The
United States signed the CRPD in 2009 but has not ratified.
241 See for example, a recent report considering the particular vulnerability of persons with disabilities to cruel, inhuman, or

degrading treatment, including in the context of detention. UN General Assembly, Torture and other cruel, inhuman or
degrading treatment or punishment: Note by the Secretary-General, U.N. Doc. A/63/175, July 28, 2008.

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With regard to solitary confinement, the United Nations Guidelines for the Prevention of
Juvenile Delinquency (Riyadh Guidelines) describe punitive solitary confinement of young
people under age 18 as cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment.242 The Committee on the
Rights of the Child, which interprets the CRC, has also suggested that the punitive solitary
confinement of young people under age 18 is cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment.243
The United Nations Rules for the Protection of Juveniles Deprived of their Liberty reiterates
this conclusion.244 A number of treaty and regional bodies have suggested that the
prolonged solitary confinement of both adults and children can constitute cruel, inhuman,
or degrading treatment.245
Most recently, the special rapporteur on torture, in his report to the General Assembly,
called for an absolute ban on solitary confinement for young people under age 18:
The Special Rapporteur holds the view that the imposition of solitary
confinement, of any duration, on juveniles is cruel, inhuman or degrading

242 United Nations Guidelines for the Prevention of Juvenile Delinquency (The Riyadh Guidelines), G.A. Res. 45/112, annex, 45
U.N. GAOR Supp. (No. 49A) at 201, U.N. Doc. A/45/49 (1990).
243 UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, General Comment 10, Children’s rights in juvenile justice, U.N. Doc.

CRC/C/GC/10 (2007).
244 UN Rules for the Protection of Juveniles Deprived of their Liberty, G.A. Res. 45/113, annex, 45 U.N. GAPR Supp. (no. 49A) at

205, U.N. Doc. A/45/49, (1990).
245 See, for example, UN Human Rights Committee, General Comment 20,

Article 7, Prohibition of torture, or other cruel,
inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment (Forty-fourth session, 1992), Compilation of General Comments and General
Recommendations Adopted by Human Rights Treaty Bodies, U.N. Doc. HRI/GEN/1/Rev.1 (1994); UN Committee Against
Torture, Interim report of the Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment,
U.N. Doc. A/63/175, July 28, 2008, para. 80; UN Committee Against Torture, “Consideration of reports submitted by States
parties under Article 19 of the Convention: Concluding Observations of the Committee Against Torture,” U.N. Doc.
CAT/C/MAC/CO/4, November 21, 2008, para. 8. The Committee on the Rights of the Child has repeatedly recommended the
practice be banned. UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, “Consideration of reports submitted by States parties under
Article 44 of the Convention: Concluding Observations of the Committee on the Rights of the Child,” U.N. Doc.
CRC/C/15/Add.151, October 7, 2001, para. 41; UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, “Consideration of reports submitted
by States parties under Article 44 of the Convention: Concluding observations, Singapore,” U.N. Doc. CRC/C/15/Add.220,
October 27, 2003, para. 45(d); and UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, “Consideration of reports submitted by States
parties under Article 44 of the Convention: Concluding Observations, El Salvador,” U.N. Doc. CRC/C/15/Add.232, June 30,
2004, para. 36(a). See also the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment of
Punishment (CPT), “The CPT Standards: ‘Substantive’ sections of the CPT’s General Reports,” CPT/Inf/E(2002) 1- Rev. 2006,
Strasbourg, France, http://www.cpt.coe.int/en/documents/eng-standards-prn.pdf (accessed August 27, 2012), para. 56.
Human Rights Watch has condemned prolonged solitary confinement of adults as a function of individual characteristics and
the particular conditions of confinement. See, for example, Human Rights Watch, Out of Sight: Super-Maximum Security
Confinement in the US, February 1, 2000, http://www.hrw.org/reports/2000/02/01/out-sight-super-maximum-securityconfinement-us.

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treatment and violates article 7 of the International Covenant on Civil and
Political Rights and article 16 of the Convention against Torture.246
This proposed absolute ban reflects an agreement that solitary confinement is an affront to
the humanity and vulnerability of any child. The special rapporteur also called for an
absolute ban on solitary confinement of those with mental disabilities because the
adverse effects are especially significant for persons with serious mental health
problems.247 Young people under age 18 with mental disabilities are therefore doubly
vulnerable, given both their age and developmental needs and their disability.
With regard to the other deprivations experienced by young people in solitary confinement,
international standards similarly provide additional detail. The United Nations Standard
Minimum Rules for the Administration of Juvenile Justice (the Beijing Rules), among other
international standards, provide that while in custody, adolescents “shall receive care,
protection and all necessary individual assistance,” which must extend to psychological,
medical, and physical care and be differentiated by age and gender-specific needs.248 These
standards emphasize education, family contact, and access to developmentally-appropriate
programming aimed at supporting growth and at reintegrating young people into society.
Domestic professional standards suggest that adult facilities should not house young
people under age 18.249 These standards also echo international standards with regard to
access to physical and mental health care, with the American Correctional Association
(ACA) recommending that in jails, “[all] inmates have unimpeded access to a continuum of
health care services,” including preventative care, and that inmates should “have access

246 UN Human Rights Council, Interim Report of the Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading

treatment or punishment, Juan Mendez, U.N. G.A. Doc. A/66/268, August 5, 2011, http://daccessddsny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/N11/445/70/PDF/N1144570.pdf?OpenElement (accessed August 27, 2012), para. 77.
247 Ibid., paras. 67-68, 78.
248 United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Administration of Juvenile Justice (“The Beijing Rules”), adopted

November 29, 1985, G.A. Res. 40/33, annex, 40 U.N. GAOR Supp. (No. 53) at 207, U.N. Doc. A/40/53 (1985).
249

Standard 4-ALDF-2A-38, “Youthful Offenders,” in American Correctional Association, Performance-Based Standards for
Adult Local Detention Facilities, 4th Ed. (ACA: June 2004); National Commission on Correctional Health Care, “Position

Statement, Health Services to Adolescents in Adult Correctional Facilities,” May 17, 1998,
http://www.ncchc.org/resources/statements/adolsecents.html (accessed August 27. 2012); American Bar Association (ABA),
Youth in the Criminal Justice System: Guidelines for Policy Makers and Practitioners, 2001,
http://www.campaignforyouthjustice.org/documents/natlres/ABA%20%20Youth%20in%20the%20Criminal%20Justice%20System%20Guidelines%20for%20Policymakers.pdf (accessed August
27, 2012).

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to twenty-four hour emergency medical, dental, and mental health services.”250 The ACA
also recommends that adult facility classification systems and programming should “meet
the physical, social, and emotional needs” of young people and explicitly highlights the
importance of training and specialization in the areas of “educational programming,”
“adolescent development,” “crisis prevention and intervention,” “cognitive-behavioral
interventions,” and “social-skills training.”251

Human Rights Violations
Our research establishes both that young people under age 18 are subjected to solitary
confinement, often for prolonged periods, and that the conditions that accompany solitary
confinement frequently fail to meet the psychological, physical, social, and developmental
needs of adolescents. These failures constitute violations of fundamental rights in a
number of circumstances.
Any prolonged physical and social isolation of young people raises serious human rights
concerns. Whether and when a particular case violates international human rights law is
based on an individual analysis of the characteristics and needs of a particular young
person and the conditions and duration of confinement. The UN Special Rapporteur on
Torture and other UN bodies have stated that the solitary confinement (physical and social
isolation of 22-24 hours per day for 1 day or more) of young people under age 18, for any
duration, constitutes cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment.
Human Rights Watch and the American Civil Liberties Union recognize that in any particular
case, an analysis of the individual circumstances and conditions of confinement may be
impractical. Given the nature of incarceration, as well as the needs, characteristics, and
vulnerability of young people, we endorse the view that there is no reason—administrative,
protective, punitive, or medical—to hold a young person for 22-24 hours per day for 1 day
or more in social and physical isolation, even when it is necessary to separate a young
person from the general population.

250 American Correctional Association, Core Jail Standards (ACA: 2010).
251 American Correctional Association, Standards for Adult Correctional Institutions, 4th Ed (Virginia: American Correctional
Association, 2003). ACA Policy prohibits the confinement of youthful offenders in an adult facility. Comment to Standard 44307 in American Correctional Association, Standards for Adult Correctional Institutions, 4th Ed.

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Such treatment violates the obligation to treat young people deprived of their liberty with
humanity and respect for their inherent human dignity and status as children under the
ICCPR and the CRC, and can amount to torture or cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment
under the ICCPR, CAT, and the CRC.
Even if the solitary confinement of young people were not considered an inherent violation
of the rights of young people under age 18, and even in cases where it may not amount to
cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment, the conditions and deprivations that often
accompany it entail violations of other fundamental rights.
Young people told us graphically how they felt solitary confinement aggravated or
precipitated anguish and mental health problems. Officials often fail to provide mental
health services and care to young people in solitary confinement, whether they are
experiencing stress, mental disability, or even acute or repeated crises. They also often fail
to intervene in these circumstances to end solitary confinement. These failures constitute
violations of the rights of young people to be treated with humanity and respect for the
inherent dignity of the human person, the rights of adolescents to the highest attainable
standard of physical and mental health, and the rights of young people to be free from
torture or cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment. Failures of officials to maintain adequate
preventative, age-differentiated health services, or to intervene to prevent a foreseeable
successful suicide, would additionally constitute a violation of the right to life.252
Young people in solitary confinement are frequently only allowed out of their cell for one
hour each day. In some facilities, they are only allowed to “exercise” indoors in a hallway
or common area. In other facilities, they have access to a small fenced exercise area
outdoors. In a few facilities, young people reported they were unable to access any
physical exercise. Young people also reported difficulty accessing adequately nutritious
food to support physical development. Young people also reported experiencing a range of
physical changes while held in solitary confinement. Failure to foster conditions of
confinement that promote healthy growth and physical development, or conditions of
confinement which cause deterioration of physical health, can also violate the right of
young people deprived of their liberty to be treated with humanity and respect for their

252 The right to life is protected in all major human rights instruments, including the UDHR, the ICCPR, and the Convention

against Torture.

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inherent dignity, as well as the right to be free from torture or cruel, inhuman, or degrading
treatment or punishment.
Young people in many facilities cannot contact their families regularly while in solitary, either
literally by touch, or in other ways. Youth are often denied adequate or appropriate
education, or sometimes any educational programming at all. Programming to promote
social development is also sometimes entirely absent. These deprivations pertain also to
young people in solitary who have mental disabilities. These failures on the part of officials
can amount to a denial of the rights to be treated with humanity and respect for one’s human
dignity, the right to family unity, the right to education, and the right to rehabilitation.

US Law
US constitutional law does not currently prohibit solitary confinement, including for young
people. Nearly every court to consider the solitary confinement of adults with serious
mental disabilities has found the practice to be unconstitutional.253 The US Department of
Justice, when it has investigated the isolation and segregation of adolescents in adult
facilities, has suggested that there are constitutional limits related to the physical and
social isolation of youth with regard to conditions, duration, and process.254 But there is no
jurisprudence that specifically analyzes and finds unconstitutional the solitary

253 For example, Ruiz v. Johnson, Southern Federal District Court of Texas, 1999 (37 F. Supp. 2d. 855, 915 (S.D. Tex. 1999)),
rev’d on other grounds, Ruiz v. Johnson , Fifth Circuit Federal Court of Appeals, 2001 (243 F.3d 941 (5th Cir. 2001)), adhered to
on remand, Ruiz v. Johnson , Southern Federal District Court of Texas, 2001 (154 F. Supp. 2d 975 (S.D. Tex. 2001)) (“Conditions
in TDCJ-ID’s administrative segregation units clearly violate constitutional standards when imposed on the subgroup of the
plaintiff’s class made up of mentally-ill prisoners); Coleman v. Wilson, Eastern Federal District Court of California, 1995 (912 F.
Supp. 1282, 1320-21 (E.D. Cal. 1995)); Madrid v. Gomez, Northern Federal District Court of California, 1995 (889 F. Supp. 1146,
1265-66 (N.D. Cal. 1995)); Casey v. Lewis, Federal District Court of Arizona, 1993 (834 F. Supp. 1477, 1549-50 (D. Ariz. 1993));
Langley v. Coughlin, Southern Federal District Court of New York, 1988 (715 F. Supp. 522, 540 (S.D.N.Y. 1988)) (holding that
evidence of prison officials’ failure to screen out from SHU ‘those individuals who, by virtue of their mental condition, are likely
to be severely and adversely affected by placement there’ states an Eighth amendment claim).
254 Letter from Thomas E. Perez, Assistant Attorney General, to Andrew J. Spano, Westchester County Executive, November 19,
2009, http://www.justice.gov/crt/about/spl/documents/Westchester_findlet_11-19-09.pdf (accessed August 27, 2012),
para. 27-30 (noting that the average disciplinary sanction imposed on young people in an adult jail was in excess of 365 days
in isolation, with the longest period being 510 days, and noting how the isolation has contributed to the deteriorating mental
health of juvenile inmates); Letter from Wan J. Kim, Assistant Attorney General, to Jim Doyle, Governor of Wisconsin, May 1,
2006, http://www.justice.gov/crt/about/spl/documents/taycheedah_findlet_5-1-06.pdf (accessed August 27, 2012), para.
10-13 (finding that the adult facility used administrative segregation and observation status for inmates with severe mental
illness in violation of the Constitution); Letter from Ralph F. Boyd, Jr., Assistant Attorney General, to Parris N. Glendening,
Governor of Maryland, Aug. 13, 2002, http://www.justice.gov/crt/about/spl/documents/baltimore_findings_let.php
(accessed August 27, 2012) (finding that juveniles in an adult jail were put in isolation cells under “supermax” conditions,
sometimes for as long as several months).

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confinement of young people in adult jails and prisons.255 However, in almost all
jurisdictions, there are a variety of legal doctrines that distinguish between young people
under age 18 and adults. As the Supreme Court has explained,
The law has historically reflected the same assumption that children
characteristically lack the capacity to exercise mature judgment and
possess only an incomplete ability to understand the world around them.
Like this Court’s own generalizations, the legal disqualifications placed on
children as a class— e.g., limitations on their ability to alienate property,
enter a binding contract enforceable against them, and marry without
parental consent—exhibit the settled understanding that the differentiating
characteristics of youth are universal.256
In the past decade, the United States Supreme Court has repeatedly acknowledged that in
the criminal justice context, youth are entitled to greater constitutional protections than
adults. In four recent decisions regarding the death penalty, interrogations, and life
without parole, the court has affirmed that people under age 18 are still developing and
are inherently less culpable than adults.257 This reasoning applies with equal force in the
context of solitary confinement.

255 The few courts to consider isolation of young people have generally done so in the context of a range of claims related to
mistreatment in juvenile facilities. For example, R.G. v. Koller, Federal District Court of Hawaii, 2006 (415 F.Supp. 1129 (D.
Hawaii 2006)); Santana v. Collazo, First Circuit Federal Court of Appeals, 1984 (793 F.2d 41 (1st Cir. 1984)) (holding that
juvenile detention facilities in Puerto Rico failed to meet burden of showing legitimate interest in confining juveniles in
isolation for as long as 20 days on grounds of protecting juveniles from harm, discouraging offender behavior, and preventing
escapes); D.B. v. Tewksbury, Federal District Court of Oregon, 1982 (545 F. Supp. 896 (D. Or. 1982)) (detaining child pretrial
detainees in jail under circumstances, in which there was failure to provide work, exercise, education, recreation or
recreational materials or for privacy when showering, using toilets or maintaining feminine hygiene, in which certain children
were placed in isolation cells and in which there was failure to provide adequate supervision to prevent harm, to allow contact
between children and their families, to provide adequate diet, to train staff to meet children's psychological needs, to provide
written rules and grievance procedure and to provide adequate medical care, constituted “punishment,” and, thus, violated
due process clause); Gary H. v. Leo Hegstrom, Ninth Circuit Federal Court of Appeals, 1987 (831 F.2d at 1433 (9th Cir. 1987))
(“To the extent that the court ordered due process hearings prior to confinement in excess of 24 hours, . . . the decree was
clearly within the power of a federal court to assure minimum constitutional standards taught by Youngberg.”).
256 J.D.B. v. North Carolina, United States Supreme Court, 2011 (564 US __at 10 (2011)) (internal citations omitted).
257 Roper v. Simmons, United States Supreme Court, 2005 (543 US __, at 19 (2005)) ( “The differences between juvenile and

adult offenders are too marked and well understood to risk allowing a youthful person to receive the death penalty despite
insufficient culpability.”); Graham v. Florida, United States Supreme Court, 2010 (560 US __, at 23 (2010)) (“The differences
between juvenile and adult offenders are too marked and well understood to risk allowing a youthful person to receive the
death penalty despite insufficient culpability.”); Miller v. Alabama, United States Supreme Court, 2012 (No. 10‐9646, slip
op. at 8 (2012))(“ …[C]hildren are constitutionally different from adults.… [J]uveniles have diminished culpability and greater
prospects for reform … [and] are less deserving of the most severe punishments.… [C]hildren have a lack of maturity and an

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Federal courts have already recognized that for certain vulnerable populations, such as
those with severe mental health problems, solitary confinement constitutes a violation of
the Eighth Amendment as a cruel and unusual punishment. There is also a growing body of
law stating that young people are such a vulnerable population because of the unique
challenges they face when subjected to solitary confinement. And the Supreme Court has
already recognized that the punishment of children must take into account their age and
special developmental needs and capacity for change. Taking all this into account, solitary
confinement should not be inflicted on youth in the same way that it is applied to adults.
Failure to take age into account, and subjecting young people to solitary confinement,
should therefore be found to violate the constitutional prohibition on cruel and unusual
punishment.

underdeveloped sense of responsibility[;] … [c]hildren are more vulnerable … to negative influences and outside
pressures[;] … [a]nd … a child’s character is not as well formed as an adult’s; his traits are less fixed.”).

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V. Alternatives to the Solitary Confinement of Youth
Young people in conflict with the law can be among the most complex and demanding
group of individuals to house, manage, protect, and care for. The challenge is all the more
daunting for officials with limited budgets and in facilities designed, and with staff trained,
to house and manage adults. Some officials respond in the same way to every form of
misconduct: through punishment. Solitary confinement can sometimes appear to be a
simple solution to keeping everyone safe in overcrowded, short-staffed facilities that have
little programming to offer inmates. But the imposition of solitary confinement is never
necessary in the management of people under age 18 and can have dire consequences.
Human Rights Watch and the American Civil Liberties Union have found accord between the
views of some corrections and mental health experts that facilities can, and should, manage
and detain adolescents without subjecting them to any form of solitary confinement.

Getting Kids Out of Adult Facilities
A significant number of adult facilities across the United States rely on solitary
confinement when detaining and managing young people. An initial important step to
reducing the numbers of adolescents harmed by the practice would be to move people
under age 18 out of adult facilities and into juvenile facilities.
Although there is evidence to suggest that some facilities in the juvenile justice system
still use various forms of prolonged isolation, including solitary confinement, when
detaining and managing young people, there are other systems that rarely use prolonged
isolation. For example, a recent study of the Missouri juvenile system found that it used
isolation hundreds of time less often than juvenile facilities in Ohio.258 Additionally, every

258 The study also found that, when compared with 97 facilities nationwide that confidentially report data to the Council of

Juvenile Correctional Administrators Performance-based Standards (PbS) project, the ratio of isolation incidents nationally to
those in Missouri was 228:1. Richard Mendel, The Annie E. Casey Foundation, “The Missouri Model: Reinventing the Practice
of Rehabilitating Youthful Offenders,” 2010,
http://www.aecf.org/MajorInitiatives/~/media/Pubs/Initiatives/Juvenile%20Detention%20Alternatives%20Initiative/MOM
odel/MO_Fullreport_webfinal.pdf (accessed August 3, 2012), pp. 9-10. A detailed description of the use of isolation in
juvenile facilities can also be found in Sandra Simkins et al., “The Harmful Use of Isolation in Juvenile Facilities: The Need for
Post-Disposition Representation,” Washington University Journal of Law and Policy, vol. 38 (2012),
http://digitalcommons.law.wustl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1019&context=wujlp (accessed September 26, 2012).

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set of best practice standards for juvenile facilities proposes maximum limits on various
forms of isolation that are far below the durations of solitary confinement experienced by
the young people interviewed for this report and by young people in adult facilities across
the nation.259
The vast majority of facilities in the juvenile justice system are staffed and resourced to
provide for adolescent needs in a much more comprehensive way because they are
designed to house and manage young people.

Reviewing and Reforming
Managing youth in the juvenile justice system will always be the best option. But in some
jurisdictions, where reform of state law is necessary before all young people can be
returned to the juvenile justice system, adult facilities can take significant measures to
reduce the prevalence, duration, and harmful consequences of solitary confinement
without embarking on sweeping reforms.
Jails and prisons can review existing policies and practices, including disciplinary
procedures, and modify them to reflect differences in how they apply to youth and adults.
Officials can instruct and train staff to view and treat youth differently from adults,
including in designing and implementing services and programming, as well as in
assessment, diagnosis, and classification.

Training and Staffing
Officials repeatedly described to us the importance of mentorship and adequate
supervision to maintain order and protect all inmates. Facilities must have appropriate

259 The Juvenile Detention Alternatives Initiative suggests that best practices for juvenile facilities include prohibiting room
confinement in excess of four hours as a response to current misbehavior and prohibiting disciplinary room confinement in
excess of 72 hours. “Juvenile Detention Alternatives Initiative (JDAI) Facility Site Assessment Instrument,” May 2006,
http://www.cclp.org/documents/Conditions/JDAI%20Standards.pdf (accessed August 27, 2012). The American Bar
Association Task Force on Youth in the Adult Criminal Justice System proposed that room confinement for any purpose
should never exceed 10 days. American Bar Association (ABA), Youth in the Criminal Justice System: Guidelines for Policy
Makers and Practitioners, http://www.campaignforyouthjustice.org/documents/natlres/ABA%20%20Youth%20in%20the%20Criminal%20Justice%20System%20Guidelines%20for%20Policymakers.pdf. The 1980
American Bar Association Guidelines for Juvenile Facilities suggests that best practices for juvenile facilities should include
limiting protective custody to eight hours and prohibiting room confinement for suicide risk, as well as limiting disciplinary
confinement to 5 days for minor infractions and 10 days for major infractions.

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numbers of properly trained and adequately supervised staff.260 To provide for the full
range of the needs and vulnerabilities of young people, staffing must include specialized
service providers, like social workers and mental health professionals.
As one corrections official, who manages a prison for youthful offenders in the adult
system, described,
If we do what we do and do it well here, we are able to provide some of the
mentorship they wouldn’t be able to get at another facility because we are
staffed heavier. In a typical adult jail, they would have about half of the
staff that we do here on a unit. We have enough staff to interact with them
as much as possible—to provide that type of mentoring and leadership.…
We have twice the complement of case managers. We have treatment
specialists; two to three times the amount of corrections officers. One of
the things we do well is just the amount [of staff].”261
Another stated,
[Youth] are high maintenance. Half the battle [is] you have to know about
them; about their family, what kind of history they have. When they
understand that, it is half the battle.… Just the fact that you know their
name and know something about them, there is no substitute for the
rapport building.262

Programming and Activities
Whether housed in small or large groups, one way to effectively manage young people is by
providing significant levels of programming and activities in which they can invest their
energy and attention. For example, although officials at the Pine Grove youthful offender

260 For a discussion of staffing ratios in juvenile facilities, see Center for Children’s Law and Policy et al., “Protecting Youth in

the PREA national standards,” April 4, 2011, http://www.cclp.org/documents/PREA/PREA%20Youth%20Comments.pdf
(accessed August 27, 2012).
261 Human Rights Watch telephone interview with Eric Bush, Superintendent, Secure Correctional Institution Pine Grove,

Pennsylvania Department of Corrections, Pennsylvania, June 21, 2012.
262 Human Rights Watch telephone interview with Marshall Shirley, Deputy, Secure Correctional Institution Pine Grove,

Pennsylvania Department of Corrections, Pennsylvania, June 21, 2012.

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facility in Pennsylvania described using solitary confinement to manage some youth, they
described high levels of activities as one of the important elements of managing other youth
in their facility. As one official stated, “If you don’t create something for them to do, their
minds race at 90 miles an hour; they are harder to manage if you don’t keep them busy.”263
The New York City Department of Corrections has recently announced plans to reform the
programming it provides to adolescents held in general population on Rikers Island.264 The
Department’s current goal is,
… [T]o create a wrap-around environment. The question is, after the school
day, how do we sustain the focus on problem-solving? This is a cognitive
skills program … we have trained members of the school staff. We have also
trained our correctional staff and our adolescents so that everyone has the
same language and expectations for problem-solving. There are group
sessions that happen in the evenings in the housing units so things don’t
fester—to develop more pro-social problem-solving skills. The program also
features a component on using leisure time wisely. So … [youth are]
learning to make good choices throughout the whole of the day.265
It remains to be seen whether additional reforms at Rikers will address the developmental
needs of youth held in solitary confinement there. Young people who had experienced
solitary confinement across the United States, and who had spent months or years in adult
facilities while under age 18, frequently identified idleness as the primary source of
conflict, and hence rule violations, in jails and prisons.

Assessment, Diagnosis, and Planning
Experts stress the importance of assessing youth coming into and staying in adult facilities
(and of being able to recognize mental and intellectual disabilities) to provide
263 Human Rights Watch telephone interview with Eric Bush, June 21, 2012.
264“New

Privately Funded Program to Reduce Reincarceration—ABLE—is part of City’s comprehensive Young Men’s Initiative,”
News from the Blue Room, NYC.gov press release, August 2, 2012,
http://www.nyc.gov/portal/site/nycgov/menuitem.c0935b9a57bb4ef3daf2f1c701c789a0/index.jsp?pageID=mayor_press_r
elease&catID=1194&doc_name=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.nyc.gov%2Fhtml%2Fom%2Fhtml%2F2012b%2Fpr28512.html&cc=unused1978&rc=1194&ndi=1 (accessed August 27, 2012).
265 Human Rights Watch telephone interview with Dora B. Schriro, Commissioner, New York City Department of Corrections,

New York, July 6, 2012.

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appropriately for individual young people and ensure rehabilitation. As one psychiatric
expert with experience in adult and juvenile facilities described, this can take the form of
repeated re-classification:
“[The] risk and needs [of teenagers] change over time. With teenagers, they
need to have a good risk and needs assessment and they need that every
six months to a year. Then a behavior plan that matches their risk and
needs. What you want to do is target their highest criminal recidivism risk
and then target their highest needs. Maybe this kid has an emerging mental
illness; maybe they have a low I.Q.; maybe they malinger a lot. If we could
do that, then we could really help this person grow and progress.”266

Disciplinary Measures
Solitary confinement is also not necessary as a disciplinary measure, and experts have
pointed to alternatives, including through the establishment of a system of graduated
sanctions. Such a system would require changes though. As the former Commissioner of
Corrections of New York City and the state of Pennsylvania stated,
There aren’t a whole lot of tools to deal with adolescents as things stand.
So there aren’t a whole lot of things to control. If there were activities, then
something coveted to participate in, you could take that away.… Restricting
a kid from going to the movie tonight may have as powerful an impact on
controlling their behavior … there aren’t a sufficient number of activities
that are viewed as desirable that could be used as an intermediate sanction
where sanctions are necessary.267
To be effective, experts also point out that disciplinary measures must be immediate and
proportional to the behavior, and connected to programming. Even officials who described
using solitary confinement in some contexts, described being able to avoid it in other
contexts. As one state prison official described,
266 Human Rights Watch telephone interview with Deborah DePrato, Director, Institute for Public Health and Justice,

Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center, and Associate Clinical Professor, School of Public Health, Louisiana, June
6, 2012.
267 Human Rights Watch telephone interview with Martin Horn, Distinguished Lecturer in Criminal Justice, John Jay College of

Criminal Justice, New York, May 24, 2012.

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We have trained our staff to go to immediate sanctions, logical sanctions,
immediate and programmatic sanctions. What we have found is that if you
address the issue immediately and if the consequence is immediate, we
can change behavior. We have focused a lot on that with our younger
offenders.268
Even some officials who reported frequently using solitary confinement as a
disciplinary response identified very different alternatives:
If you can get in quick enough, it would be the equivalent of “go to your
room.” A lot of these [conflicts] start small. If you have one youth who is
monopolizing the channel-changer [for the housing area television], the
option now … if he does not respond is to infract him [which results in
punitive segregation]. What I prefer is “go to your room young man” and
then to create a mechanism for review—so every two hours you double back
and it wouldn’t go any longer than six hours (so that it doesn’t go beyond a

de facto punitive segregation in your housing unit). So when you are ready
to come out, all is forgiven.269

Borrowing from Juvenile Facilities
The most progressive and innovative alternatives to solitary confinement that respond
better to adolescent needs and development come from the juvenile justice system. As
one expert describes, “[Corrections officials in adult facilities] haven't thought about
different ways to deal with these acting out behaviors, to realize they are normal behaviors
and are teachable moments to teach [youth] to react in a different way to stimuli.”270
Officials feel that some of the best practices from juvenile facilities could work for youth in
adult facilities.

268 Human Rights Watch telephone interview with Steve Hager, Director,

Youthful Offender System (YOS), Colorado

Department of Corrections, Colorado, June 18, 2012.
269 Human Rights Watch telephone interview with Dora B. Schriro, Commissioner, New York City Department of Corrections,

New York, July 6, 2012.
270 Human Rights Watch telephone interview with Martin Horn, New York, May 24, 2012.

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Rewarding Positive Behavior
One fundamental shift that would help is to move from managing youth solely through
punitive disciplinary measures to focus on teaching and reinforcing positive behaviors. As
one official at a juvenile facility described,
What we have found in all our programs is that the best way to influence
behavior is positive reinforcement. You encourage good behavior by
incentivizing. What we have found as part of our philosophy [of] behavior
management is that the most important thing is to get kids to accept
responsibility for their actions and think about it and change. If you put a
kid in isolation of any kind, what you are essentially doing is letting the kid
off the hook. He can spend all of his time blaming you.… If you want to get
kids to do something that you want them to do, reinforce good behavior.…
We don’t have any punishments in our program. If you do something bad
you are held accountable. That might mean you pay back the community in
some way or it might mean that you continue in program longer than you
expected because you are not getting it. So the behavior is the report
card.… The last thing you want to do to kids who are struggling with some
very hard issues is make them be alone. That’s just stupid. I don’t know any
other way to put it. Putting them in a place by themselves is just stupid.
And it’s harmful.271
Another official at an adult jail stated,
If you deal with these teenagers at all, you know that the more you lock
them up and the less they have to do, the most trouble they get in. Locking
them up becomes counterproductive. So we try to use other, creative ways
to exercise discipline, as opposed to locking them up and letting them sit
idle.272

271 Human Rights Watch telephone interview with Peter Plant, Senior Vice President for Education and Policy Development,

G4S Youth Services, LLC., Florida, November 1, 2011.
272 Human Rights Watch telephone interview with Jeffrey Hartman, Captain, Erie County Holding Center, New York, March 2,

2012.

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Small Group Living
One technique that experts often identify as important to reinforce positive behaviors in
young people, is to create a small community in which youth can raise concerns and have
them addressed. In Missouri, for example, this process is structured around a discussion
circle:
[A]t any time, youth are free to call a circle—in which all team members
[residents] sit or stand facing one another—to raise concerns or voice
complaints about the behavior of other group members (or to share good
news). Thus, at any moment, the focus can shift from the activity at hand—
education, exercise, clean up, a bathroom break—to a lengthy discussion
of behaviors and attitudes. Staff members also call circles frequently to
communicate and enforce expectations regarding safety, courtesy, and
respect, and also to recognize positive behaviors.273

Limited Appropriate Uses of Segregation and Isolation
There is no question that corrections officials have a duty to protect the safety and
wellbeing—and to safeguard the human rights—of staff and the entire inmate population.
In some cases, certain forms of short-term segregation and isolation may be a valid tool for
corrections officials to use in pursuing this particular goal. Yet, any use of segregation and
isolation of young people must be tightly regulated, monitored, used for the shortest
duration possible, and only to the extent strictly necessary to maintain the immediate
safety of the young person or others.274
At all times, the goal of any form of protective isolation should be to return an individual to
general population. Steps should be taken to limit social and physical isolation. Facilities
must ensure that young people are not denied access to developmentally appropriate
treatment, services, or programming. Under no circumstances should practices be extreme
enough to constitute solitary confinement.
273 Richard Mendel, “The Missouri Model: Reinventing the Practice of Rehabilitating Youthful Offenders,”

http://www.aecf.org/MajorInitiatives/~/media/Pubs/Initiatives/Juvenile%20Detention%20Alternatives%20Initiative/MOM
odel/MO_Fullreport_webfinal.pdf (accessed September 26, 2012), p. 29.
274 For an interesting discussion of why penal isolation should be regulated in the same way as use of force, see Fred Cohen,
“Isolation in Penal Settings: The Isolation-Restraint Paradigm,” Journal of Law and Policy, vol. 22 (2006), p. 295; and Frank
Cohen, “Penal Isolation: Beyond the Seriously Mentally Ill,” Journal of Criminal Justice and Behavior, vol. 35 (2008), p. 1017.

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If officials find they are using segregation and isolation frequently for particular
adolescents, they should work with them to identify and address the underlying causes
and find alternative solutions.

Interrupting Disciplinary Crises
Limited segregation and isolation can also be an appropriate intervention to prevent harm
to an individual young person, to other adolescents, or to staff. But experts stress that
whenever youth are isolated, there must be a therapeutic goal and intervention. As Dr.
Cheryl Wills described,
Once the crisis has been de-escalated, you start the rehabilitation again.
So just because [the youth] had a crisis does not justify depriving them of
treatment and rehabilitation. The containment serves a purpose of
containing the behavior, but then you start again. So the key is the
rehabilitation. Whether or not a person has a mental illness, they need
rehabilitation. If you just do the restraint and retribution, but not the
rehabilitation, they are not going to change their behavior.275

Short-term Protective Segregation and Isolation
Even in specialized facilities designed to hold young people under age 18, some form of
short-term segregation and isolation may be necessary to protect individual adolescents
from others. But, as Human Rights Watch and the American Civil Liberties Union have
stated elsewhere, such isolation must be for as brief a period as possible and not subject
to extensions, lasting only until an alternative placement can be arranged.276

Diverting Youth to Specialized Facilities
Psychological experts stressed the importance of identifying the underlying causes of
behaviors that lead to misconduct or a need to segregate or isolate. Some experts also

275 Human Rights Watch telephone interview with Dr. Cheryl Wills, independent medical evaluator and director of child and
adolescent psychiatric services at Case Western Reserve University, Ohio, May 24, 2012.
276 Human Rights Watch, “Comments on the National Standards to Prevent, Detect, and Respond to Prison Rape proposed by

the Department of Justice on Feb. 3, 2011,” April 4, 2011,
http://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/related_material/Human%20Rights%20Watch%20Comments%20on%20Prison%20
Rape%20Standards.pdf, p. 34.

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emphasized that when those causes involve mental health problems or a mental disability,
and when facilities cannot manage adolescent behavior, transferring young people to a
specialized mental health facility may be appropriate. The American Academy of Child and
Adolescent Psychiatrists recently issued a policy statement urging a ban on solitary
confinement and promoting the intervention of a qualified mental health professional after
24 hours.277 As one of its drafters told us,
There really should be no reason that a child should be in any type of
solitary confinement for any duration. In my opinion, if they are in solitary
for more than a day [24 hours] you need to find another facility for them or
[implement] some kind of mental health intervention.278

277 Juvenile Justice Reform Committee, American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, “Policy Statements: Solitary
Confinement of Juvenile Offenders,” April 2012,
http://www.aacap.org/cs/root/policy_statements/solitary_confinement_of_juvenile_offenders (accessed August 27, 2012).
278 Human Rights Watch telephone interview with Louis Kraus, Chief of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Rush University
Medical Center, and Co-Chair of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Committee on Juvenile Justice
Reform, Illinois, June 14, 2012.

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Recommendations
The federal government and state governments should end the practice of subjecting
young people to solitary confinement. Legislative action is crucial; but even in the absence
of legislation, a range of actors, including jail and prison officials, can and should take
significant steps towards this goal.
Ending the solitary confinement of young people requires broad reforms in five areas. First,
the solitary confinement of people under age 18 should be prohibited in law and policy.
Second, young people should not be held in adult jails and prisons or managed with
policies and practices designed for adult inmates. Third, all forms of segregation and
isolation of young people, even those not long enough to constitute solitary confinement,
should be strictly limited and regulated, regardless of where they are held. Fourth, all
facilities that detain young people should publicly report on the use of segregation and
isolation. Finally, the US government should ratify human rights treaties protecting young
people without reservations.
The following detailed recommendations address each of these policy areas:

At the State Level
State Legislatures
•

Prohibit the solitary confinement of young people under age 18 in adult and
juvenile facilities for any purpose.

•

End the practice of trying, sentencing, and incarcerating youth under 18 in the adult
criminal justice system; where this is not immediately feasible, mandate that all
people under age 18 be held in the juvenile justice system—before trial and after
conviction or adjudication—no matter how they are charged; and appropriate funds,
as necessary, to provide for changes in population in juvenile facilities.

•

Strictly limit segregation and isolation of young people under age 18, even if for
periods not long enough to constitute solitary confinement.

•

Require that people under age 18 held in any form of segregation and isolation,
including solitary confinement, and particularly young people with mental or
intellectual disabilities, be treated in a manner consistent with their medical,

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psychological, developmental, educational, social, and rehabilitative needs;
appropriate funds, as necessary, to provide for changes in services and
programming.
•

Require periodic monitoring and review of solitary confinement, segregation, and
isolation policies, practices, and procedures at every correctional facility by an
independent and qualified reviewer; ensure that the reports generated from these
reviews are available to the public.

•

Require adult and juvenile facilities to monitor and publicly report:
o

The rates and durations of any form of segregation and isolation, including
solitary confinement.

o

The reasons why youth are subjected to any form of segregation and
isolation, including solitary confinement.

o

Information about the quality and availability of age-differentiated
programming and services for young people under age 18, including young
people with mental or intellectual disabilities, held in any form of
segregation and isolation, including solitary confinement.

State Prison Systems and County Jails
•

Prohibit the solitary confinement of young people under age 18 for any purpose.

•

Establish specialized facilities or sections of facilities to house young people under
age 18, including young people at high risk of victimization, so that they are not
held in prolonged segregation and isolation, including solitary confinement.

•

Conclude memoranda of understanding or contracts with state juvenile facilities to
house young people under age 18; and with state juvenile or other medical or
mental health facilities to house young people under age 18 who require
specialized medical or psychological care.

•

Develop specialized disciplinary rules for young people under age 18 that avoid
prolonged segregation and isolation, that expressly take age and needs into
account, and that provide a range of behavioral management techniques, including
positive behavioral management and differentiated and proportional sanctions.

•

Strictly limit the segregation and isolation of young people under age 18, even if for
periods not long enough to constitute solitary confinement.

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•

Ensure that all young people under age 18, and particularly young people with
mental or intellectual disabilities, in any form of confinement, including
segregation and isolation, have access to:
o

Adequate and age-differentiated medical and mental health services.

o

Adequate physical exercise, including outdoor exercise and aerobic,
muscle-strengthening, and bone-strengthening exercise.

o

Meals with adequate and developmentally-appropriate nutritional value.

o

Means of contact with their family, including contact visits, telephone, and
written communication.

o

Adequate and age-differentiated educational programming and services.

o

Adequate and age-differentiated social, developmental, and rehabilitative
programming and services.

o

Developmentally-appropriate levels of social interaction with other young
people and adults.

•

Ensure adequate staffing levels to manage young people under age 18.

•

Provide specialized training to all staff on managing adolescents, and particularly on
the use of verbal de-escalation techniques, and on identifying and assisting young
people with mental or intellectual disabilities and histories of trauma and abuse.

•

Provide additional training to staff who manage young people in segregation and
isolation on identifying and assisting young people with mental or intellectual
disabilities and histories of trauma and abuse.

•

Provide specialized training to medical and mental health staff who care for young
people under age 18.

•

Make data on rates and durations, and justifications for the use of segregation and
isolation, including solitary confinement, publicly available.

•

Publish all disciplinary rules, policies, and procedures related to young people
under age 18 in a publicly available forum.

•

Conclude memoranda of understanding with state juvenile, medical, and mental
health facilities, education systems, and between county and state facilities, to
ensure transfer of data regarding physical and mental health histories, identified
mental or intellectual disabilities, and histories of trauma and abuse.

•

Notify and consult with family members, as well as counsel for represented youth,
when young people under age 18 are placed in any form of segregation and isolation,
including solitary confinement, or have a significant medical or mental health event.

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State Departments of Education
•

Issue clear guidance mandating the provision of adequate and age-differentiated
educational programming and services to all young people under age 18 in
segregation and isolation in adult jails or prisons, including those with mental or
intellectual disabilities.

State Departments of Health
•

Issue clear guidance mandating the provision of adequate and age-differentiated
physical and mental health care, as well as social, developmental, and
rehabilitative programming and services to all young people under age 18,
particularly those with mental or intellectual disabilities, in segregation and
isolation in adult jails or prisons.

State Juvenile and Adult Criminal Court Judges
•

Hold a hearing on conditions and use of segregation and isolation, including
solitary confinement, in the place of detention when considering transfer of
jurisdiction to the adult criminal justice system and before sentencing.

•

Decline to transfer young people to the jurisdiction of the adult criminal justice
system.

•

Affirmatively order that young people be held in the juvenile justice system pre-trial
or post-adjudication or conviction.

•

Require prosecutors to submit data on the use and duration of segregation and
isolation, including solitary confinement, before sentencing.

•

Before sentencing, require a medical and mental health evaluation of the effects of
any periods of segregation and isolation, including solitary confinement,
experienced by young people.

State Prosecutors
•

Decline to exercise authority to charge young people as if adults or to request or
order detention of young people under age 18 in adult jails or prisons.

•

Affirmatively request that young people be held in the juvenile justice system pretrial or post-adjudication or conviction.

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•

Seek data from the pre-trial detention facility on the use and duration of
segregation and isolation, including solitary confinement, and disclose this
information to the court and defense counsel.

•

Seek a medical and mental health evaluation of the effects of any periods of
segregation and isolation, including solitary confinement, and disclose this
information to the court and defense counsel.

Defense Attorneys
•

At trial, raise the use of segregation and isolation, including solitary confinement,
in the place of pre-trial and post-conviction or post-adjudication detention.

•

Challenge the solitary confinement of young people, including through
administrative appeals of the imposition of solitary confinement, and conditions
litigation.

•

File a motion that young people be detained pre-trial and post-conviction or
adjudication in the juvenile justice system.

•

Request to be notified when young people are placed in any form of segregation
and isolation, including solitary confinement.

At the Federal Level
US Congress
•

Prohibit the solitary confinement of young people under age 18 for any purpose in
federal custody.

•

Hold hearings on the solitary confinement of young people.

•

Use the appropriations process to encourage standard-setting and capacitybuilding around the treatment of young people, and to press for prohibitions of
solitary confinement of young people under age 18 nationwide.

•

Appropriate funds and direct the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division to
investigate the solitary confinement of young people under age 18 in adult jails and
prisons as a violation of US domestic law and US human rights treaty obligations.

•

Amend the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act to close the loopholes
that leave young people under age 18 charged as if adults without federal
protections; define “juvenile” to include any young person under age 18.

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•

Amend the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act to prohibit the use of
solitary confinement for young people under age 18.

•

Appropriate funds and direct the Department of Justice’s Office of Justice Programs to
monitor the conditions of confinement of young people under age 18 held in any
form of segregation and isolation in adult facilities; and to ensure that young people
under age 18 are not held in solitary confinement in an effort to comply with the
Prison Rape Elimination Act or the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act.

•

Appropriate funds, such as through amendments to the Individuals with
Disabilities Education Act, and direct the Department of Education to monitor the
provision of educational programming to all young people under age 18, and in
particular, to young people with mental and intellectual disabilities, held in
segregation and isolation in adult jails or prisons.

•

Appropriate funds, such as through amendments to the Children’s Health Act, and
direct the Department of Health and Human Services to monitor the provision of
mental and physical health services to all young people under age 18, and in
particular, to young people with mental disabilities, held in segregation and
isolation in adult jails or prisons.

US Department of Justice
Bureau of Prisons
•

Modify existing contracts with secure juvenile facilities to prohibit the solitary
confinement of young people under age 18.

Office of Justice Programs
•

Publish a policy document supporting a prohibition of the solitary confinement of
young people under age 18 and promoting best practices for the detention and
management of young people without use of prolonged segregation and isolation.

•

Develop grant-making and capacity-building tools, and particularly those aimed at
implementation of the Prison Rape Elimination Act, to assist facilities
implementing protections for youth while also limiting segregation and isolation
and prohibiting solitary confinement of young people under age 18.

•

Expand the scope of information-gathering for state compliance monitoring under
the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act to include data about the
imposition of segregation or isolation, including solitary confinement, on young
people under age 18.

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Civil Rights Division
•

Declare the solitary confinement of young people under age 18 in adult prisons and
jails, as practiced, as unconstitutional and a violation of international human rights
law and urge prohibition of the solitary confinement of young people for any purpose.

Bureau of Justice Statistics
•

Amend current and future Bureau of Justice Statistics data collections to include
questions about when and whether young people are placed in segregation and
isolation, including solitary confinement, in adult jails and prisons.

Department of Education
•

Issue guidance or rules clarifying the application of the Individuals with Disabilities
Act to young people with mental and intellectual disabilities held in segregation
and isolation, including solitary confinement.

•

Develop grant-making and capacity-building tools to promote facilities providing
age-appropriate and out-of-cell educational programming to young people under
age 18 held in segregation and isolation, including solitary confinement.

Department of Health and Human Services and the Centers for Disease Control
•

Issue guidance clarifying the physical and mental health consequences of
segregation and isolation, including solitary confinement, on young people.

•

Develop grant-making and capacity-building tools to promote facilities providing
age-appropriate and out-of-cell physical and mental health services to young people
under age 18 held in segregation and isolation, including solitary confinement.

US Senate and Executive Branch
•

The President should submit to the Senate and the Senate should give advice and
consent to:
o

The ratification of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities
without reservation.

o

The ratification of the Convention on the Rights of the Child without
reservation

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o

A formal notification of the withdrawal of reservations to the International
Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, including ICCPR Article 10, and to the
Convention against Torture.

State and National Medical, Mental Health, Corrections, and Jail Associations and
Standard-Setting Bodies
•

Issue policy statements supporting a prohibition of the solitary confinement of
young people under age 18.

•

Amend standards for juvenile and adult facilities to prohibit the solitary
confinement of young people under age 18.

•

Promote best practices and resources for facilities that detain and manage young
people under age 18 focused on the development of specialized policies and
procedures that:
o

Avoid prolonged segregation and isolation, that expressly take age and
needs into account, and that provide a range of behavioral management
techniques.

o

Mandate that young people under age 18 held in any form of segregation
and isolation, including solitary confinement, and particularly young people
with mental or intellectual disabilities, be treated in a manner consistent
with their medical, psychological, developmental, educational, social, and
rehabilitative needs; appropriate funds, as necessary, to provide for
changes in services and programming.

o

Require monitoring and reporting of the rates and durations of any form of
segregation and isolation, including solitary confinement, and the quality
and availability of age-differentiated programming and services for young
people.

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Acknowledgments
This report was researched and written by Ian Kysel, Aryeh Neier fellow with the US
Program at Human Rights Watch and the Human Rights Program at the American Civil
Liberties Union. Jo Becker, senior advocate with the Children’s Rights Division at Human
Rights Watch, participated in one of the research missions. Much of the data analysis for
this report was done by Brian Root, Quantitative Analyst in the US Program at Human
Rights Watch. Significant research assistance was provided by Samantha Reiser and
Vikram Shah, associates in the US Program at Human Rights Watch; as well as Elana Bauer,
Elana Bildner, Ruth Monteil, Zachery Morris, and Halina Shiffman-Schilo, interns in the US
Program at Human Rights Watch; and Zoha Khalili, Tom McDermott, and Ariel Werner,
interns in the Human Rights Program, National Prison Project, and Advocacy Division of the
American Civil Liberties Union.
This report was edited by Alison Parker, US Program director; Maria McFarland, US Program
deputy director; Antonio Ginatta, US Program advocacy director; Jamie Fellner, US Program
senior advisor; Elizabeth Calvin, Children’s Rights Division senior advocate; Meghan
Rhoad, Women’s Rights Division researcher; Amanda McRae, Health and Human Rights
researcher; Dinah PoKempner, general counsel; and Tom Porteous, deputy program
director for Human Rights Watch; as well as Steven Watt, Human Rights Program senior
staff attorney; David Fathi, National Prison Project director; Amy Fettig, National Prison
Project senior staff attorney; and Tanya Greene, advocacy and policy council for the
American Civil Liberties Union. Layout, graphics, and production were coordinated by Anna
Lapriore, creative outreach manager, Brian Root, Grace Choi, publications director, and
Fitzroy Hepkins, mail manager for Human Rights Watch; as well as Rachel Myers, senior
communications strategist for the American Civil Liberties Union.
Most importantly, Human Rights Watch and the American Civil Liberties Union wish to
thank each of the individuals who shared their experiences growing up in adult jails and
prisons, and who spoke with courage and dignity about the challenges they faced when
subjected to solitary confinement. We are deeply indebted to the many who felt, like

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Nicholas M., that, “If my story can stop another kid from coming [to solitary confinement],
then there’s a small piece of it. Hopefully my pain serve[s] some purpose.”279
Human Rights Watch and the American Civil Liberties Union would like to thank the
American Civil Liberties Affiliates in Colorado, Florida, Michigan, New York, Ohio,
Pennsylvania, Texas, and Wisconsin for their support and assistance in making this
research possible. This report was significantly enhanced by the advice of experts at the
Campaign For Youth Justice, and the Center on Children’s Law and Policy. We are also
grateful to the Law Offices of Deborah LaBelle, The Colorado Juvenile Defender Coalition,
Florida Institutional Legal Services, the Children’s Law Center, Inc.; and to public
defenders in Florida, Michigan, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin, who shared
their invaluable expertise and time with Human Rights Watch and the American Civil
Liberties Union. We particularly appreciate the assistance of family members, social
workers, attorneys, and advocates who provided Human Rights Watch with invaluable
information, insights, and expertise.
Human Rights Watch would also like to thank those state and local jail and prison officials,
corrections experts, and psychological and psychiatric experts and officials who spoke
candidly about the challenges they face when managing and detaining young people in
adult facilities, and their perspectives on the prevalence and effects of solitary
confinement.

279 Letter from Nicholas M. (pseudonym), from Wisconsin, to Human Rights Watch, March 22, 2012.

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Appendix 1: Mapping Youth in Adult Jails and Prisons
Neither most states nor the federal government track or report comprehensive data on
youth held in adult jails and prisons. In the United States, there are three main criminal
detention systems: the local (state) jail system, the state prison system, and the federal
prison system. Data from each of these systems is gathered and disseminated separately
by the US Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS).

State Jails
The BJS produces nation-wide estimates of young people under age 18 incarcerated in state
and local jails in the Jail Inmates at Midyear report.280 The report provides an estimate of the
number of young people under age 18 held in the system on June 30.281 In any given year,
young people under age 18 make up approximately 1 percent of the inmate population of
local jails, according to BJS estimates. The majority of young people held in local jails are
being held as if adults, and are subject to charge and trial in the criminal justice system.
Typically, only 14 to 25 percent of the young people in local jails are being held as juveniles,
pending a delinquency adjudication or transfer to a juvenile facility (see below). While, as
discussed below, Human Rights Watch and the American Civil Liberties Union have found
that young people under age 18 held as adults typically spend long periods in detention, it
is likely that those held as juveniles may spend only very short periods in adult facilities: a
few hours or a day.282 2011 saw the fewest number of young people under age 18 in jails in
recent years, with 5,900 young people under age 18 held at midyear.

280 Todd Minton, Bureau of Justice Statistics, US Department of Justice, “Jail Inmates at Midyear 2011—Statistical Tables,”

April 26, 2012, http://bjs.ojp.usdoj.gov/index.cfm?ty=pbdetail&iid=4235 (accessed June 6, 2012).
281 The count does not represent the number of people admitted into jail on that day, or any other day. Rather, it is the

number of people in jail on the day that sampled jails submitted survey responses. It also provides no information on the
length of detention of inmates counted. Inmates may have been admitted the day before the survey or may have been
detained for months.
282 As discussed in Section I above, all youth held as juveniles are protected by federal law mandating sight and sound

separation for those under age 18.

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Table 1: Young people in jail at mid-year
Jail Inmates at Midyear283
2000

2005

2006

2007

2008

2009

2010

2011284

7,615

6,759

6,102

6,833

7,703

7,218

7,560

5,900

6,126

5,750

4,835

5,649

6,410

5,846

5,647

4,600

1,489

1,009

1,268

1,184

1,294

1,373

1,912

1,400

Youth under age 18285
Held as adults

286

Held as juveniles

The BJS produces no comprehensive data on the number of young people under age 18
that are admitted to local jail facilities over the course of a year. But based on the best
available data, Human Rights Watch has produced estimates of the total number of young
people under age 18 that are annually admitted to local jails in the US. We estimate that
93,947 adolescents were admitted into local adult detention facilities in 2011 (See Table 2,
Figure 1).287

Table 2: Estimated annual number of young people in jails288
Table : Estimates of Annual Number of Youth under age 18 in Local Jails
Number of Youth
under age 18
95% Confidence
Held as adults
Admitted to Local
Interval
Jails (Annual)
2006
93,254
88,783 - 97,608
72,575
2007
116,322
116,270 - 121,809
94,747
2008
133,050
127,974 - 138,836
108,488
2009
120,330
114,841 - 126,733
97,444
2010
137,445
129,152 - 146,311
96,251
2011
93,947
88,997 - 99,402
72,230

Held as Juveniles
20,680
21,541
27,122
22,886
41,211
21,717

283 Midyear count is the number of inmates held on the last weekday in June.
284 All characteristic data for 2011 adjusted for non-response and rounded to the nearest 100.
285 Young people are under age 18 as of the data reporting at mid-year.
286 Includes youth under age 18 who were tried or awaiting trial as adults.
287 Others have suggested that, based on the numbers of youth prosecuted as if adults each year, as many as 200,000

young people are at risk of being detained in adult facilities. Campaign for Youth Justice, “Jailing Juveniles: The Dangers of
Incarcerating Youth in Adult Jails in America,” November 2007,
http://www.campaignforyouthjustice.org/documents/CFYJNR_JailingJuveniles.pdf (accessed August 27, 2012); Campaign for
Youth Justice, “The Consequences Aren’t Minor: The Impact of Trying Youth as Adults and Strategies for Reform,” March 2007,
http://www.campaignforyouthjustice.org/documents/CFYJNR_ConsequencesMinor.pdf (accessed August 27, 2012).
288 Data extracted from annual Jails at Midyear reports. See methodology section for description of calculation methods.

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Figure 1: Young people held in adult jails

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Maps 1, 2: Youth in adult jails
These maps show the relative distribution of young people under age 18 in adult jails across the United States
by state and by county.

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Table 3: States that hold the most young
people in prison289
Inmates in state prisons serve median
sentences of approximately two years and
release rates and expected time served are
very “stable,” according to the BJS.290
Therefore, the June 30 inmate counts may
be used as baseline estimates for the total
number of juveniles entering state prisons
within the year. Combining these estimates
with the annual estimates of juveniles in
local jails produces an overall estimate of
139,495 juveniles admitted to adult
correctional facilities in 2010.291

State Prison Systems
The BJS also produces data on young
people under age 18 held in the federal
and state prison systems at mid-year (June
30) and disaggregates this data by state
and gender.292 In the most recent year for
which data is available (2010), 2,295
young people under age 18 were being held

289 Guerino, Harrison, and Sabol, “Prisoners in 2010”; West, “Prison Inmates at Mid-year 2009 – Statistical Tables”; Heather

West and William Sabol, Bureau of Justice Statistics, US Department of Justice, “Prisoner Inmates at Midyear 2008,” March
2009, http://www.bjs.gov/index.cfm?ty=pbdetail&iid=839 (accessed August 27, 2012).
290 Guerino, Harrison, and Sabol, “Prisoners in 2010”; West, “Prison Inmates at Mid-year 2009 – Statistical Tables”; West
and Sabol, “Prisoner Inmates at Midyear 2008.”
291 To prevent double-counting, this estimate does not include states that have integrated prison-jail systems. It also does
not include the 142 juveniles held in the federal prison system in 2010. Additionally, the combined estimates of juveniles
entering adult facilities do not include any juveniles detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Though these
detainees are held in administrative or civil detention, they are often housed in criminal detention facilities.
292 The federal Bureau of Prisons does not generally house inmates under the age of 18 in its custody; therefore, additional

juveniles incarcerated in adult prisons are held only in state prison systems. However, in 2010, 142 juveniles in the federal
system were held in contract facilities. Paul Guerino, Paige M. Harrison, and William Sabol, Bureau of Justice Statistics, US
Department of Justice, “Prisoners in 2010,” December 2011, http://bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/p10.pdf (accessed August 27,
2012); Heather West, Bureau of Justice Statistics, US Department of Justice, “Prison Inmates at Mid-year 2009 – Statistical
Tables,” June 2010, http://bjs.ojp.usdoj.gov/content/pub/pdf/pim09st.pdf (accessed August 27, 2012).

105

HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH/ACLU | OCTOBER 2012

in adult facilities in state prison systems on June 30. Florida and New York held the highest
number of young people under age 18, with over 200 juvenile inmates imprisoned in each
state (though Florida’s numbers were significantly higher) (Connecticut also held over 200
young people under age 18 in a combined prison-jail system).

Map 3: Youth in adult prisons
This map shows the relative distribution of youth in adult prisons across the United States.

Table 4: Estimated annual number of young people in adult jails and prisons
Table Youth under age 18 Entering Adult
Facilities (Estimate)
Prison
Jail
Total
2008
2,289
133,050
135,339
2009
2,404
120,330
122,734
2010
2,050
137,445
139,495

GROWING UP LOCKED DOWN

106

The Legal Landscape
As detailed in the report, whether young people are held in solitary confinement depends in
part on the legal landscape, and how and at what age youth are charged or held as if adults.
States charge young people under age 18 as if adults through a variety of legal
mechanisms. Youth charged as if adults—and held at adult facilities—are sometimes
subjected to solitary confinement for a range of reasons discussed throughout the report.
Youth detained in states that mandate protection for some young people held in adult
facilities (such as sight and sound separation requirements) are sometimes subjected to
protective solitary confinement to achieve this goal.

107

HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH/ACLU | OCTOBER 2012

Table 5: State Charging and Detention Regimes
This table shows the states which permit or mandate charging youth as if adults in certain circumstances; and states that mandate or
permit detention of youth in adult facilities, including those which have some legal requirements protecting some youth held there.

STATES CHARGING YOUTH AS ADULTS
Slate

Youngest age at which

Age at which

youth can be charged

all youth are charged

as if adults in some

as if adults

circumstances
Alabama

"

Alaska

no minimum age

Arizona

no minimum aEe

Arkansas

no minimum age

(atifwni,

"

Connecticut

no minimum age
no minimum age

Delaware

no minimum age

District of Columbia

no minimum age

Colorado

Florida

no minimum age

Georgia

no minimum age

Hawaii

no minimum age

Idaho

no minimum age

Illinois

n

Indiana

W

low.,

"
"

Kansas
Kentucky

louisiana

W

"

Maine

no minimum age

Maryland

no minimum age

Massachusetts

Michigan
Minnesota
Mississippi
Missouri

"

no minimum age

"n
"

Montana

no minimum age

Nebraska

no minimum age

Nevada

no minimum age

New Hampshire

n

New Jersey

New York

"
"
n

North Carolina

n

New Mexico

North Dakota
Ohio

"

10

Oklahoma

no minimum age

Oregon

no minimum age

Penn5Ylvani~

no minimum age

Rhode Island

no minimum age

South Carolina

no minimum age

South Dakota

no minimum age

Tennessee

no minimum age

Texas

no minimum age

Utah

"
10

Vermont
Virginia
Washington

"

no minimum age

WestVirginiaGROWING UP LOCKED
no minimum
DOWNage
Wisconsin

10

Wyoming

n

State law: • Yes

Permits housing youtli
under age 18 charged
as if adults in adult jails
in some circumstances

Mandates housing youth
under age 18 cliarged
as if adults in adult jails
in some circumstances

No

NfA

Mandates I form of
" paralion b<ttw.. n
youth and adults in adult
jail. in some circumstances

"
"
"
"
"
"
"
"
"
"
"
"
"
"
"
"
"
"
"
"
"
"
"
"
"
"
"
"
"
"
"
"
"
"
"
"
"
"
"
"
"
"
17

"
"

"
"
"
"
"

17

N
N

N
N

108

---------------------

N

NfA

--_...................
NfA

Statistical Methodology
Human Rights Watch analyzed six years (2006—2011) of the BJS’s Annual Survey of Jails
data to develop quantitative estimates regarding young people in local jail facilities. The
Survey of Jails asks facilities to answer three questions regarding young people held on
June 30th of each year: number of male inmates under age 18; number of female inmates
under age 18; and total number of young people under age 18 held as adults. The BJS then
computes a new variable to estimate “Juveniles Held as Juveniles” in this way: “JUVM” +
“JUVF” – “ADLTJUV.” The methodology should ensure that every person counted in the
“ADLTJUV” variable should also be counted in the “JUVM” or “JUVF” variables, and the sum
of those two variables should always be greater than the “ADLTJUV” variable.
However, facilities sometimes incorrectly fill out BJS surveys and do not include young
people under age 18 held as adults in their total counts for all inmates under the age of 18.
Therefore, in these states, the “Juveniles Held as Juveniles” variable (“JUVM” + “JUVF” “ADULTJUV”) results in a negative number. For these facilities, Human Rights Watch used
the larger count of juveniles held as adults (“ADLTJUV”) as the total count. We counted
these inmates as males under the age of 18 because we could not determine gender and
males account for roughly 94 percent of juvenile jail inmates annually.293
We also generated annual estimates of young people under age 18 admitted to local jails
by using data on the number of young people under age 18 held in jails on June 30th of a
given year, as well as admissions data for the last week of June. We multiplied the
293 Specifically, we adjusted the numbers for the following facilities:

2006: Ville Platte Jail, LA –- 9 juveniles held as adults counted as males under age 18.
White County/City Jail, IL – 5 juveniles held as adults counted as males under age 18.
Fairfax County Adult Detention, VA – 2 juveniles held as adults counted as males under age 18.
2007: Union County Jail, PA – 18 juveniles held as adults counted as males under age 18.
2008: Allen County Jail, ID – 4 juveniles held as adults counted as males under age 18.
2009: None
2010: Sherman Walker Correctional Facility, LA – 179 juveniles held as adults counted as males under age 18.
Ascension Parish Jail, LA – 50 juveniles held as adults counted as males under age 18.
Madison County Jail, NE – 30 juveniles held as adults counted as males under age 18.
Washington County Jail, MN – 23 juveniles held as adults counted as males under age 18.
Scotland County Jail, MO – 2 juveniles held as adults counted as males under age 18.
Data for Oakland County, MI was flagged as a likely error and was removed from analysis. In five other years of surveys, the
facility reported between 10 and 25 juveniles. However, in 2010, the facility reported 1302 juvenile male (and only 13 adult
male) inmates.
2011: None

109

HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH/ACLU | OCTOBER 2012

percentage of all inmates on June 30th that were young people under age 18 by the number
of weekly inmate admissions to estimate the number of young people under age 18
admitted during the week. These estimates allowed for additional upper and lower
percentages of all inmates that were under age 18. This figure was then multiplied by the
number of weeks in the year to estimate the number of annual admissions, as follows:
Percentage of all inmates that are young people under age 18 (on last day of June) times
the number of admissions during last week of June equals the estimated number of young
people admissions during last week times 365 (days) divided by 7 (days) equals the
estimate of the number of young people under age 18 admitted during the year. We
produced confidence intervals by using the annual standard error for young people under
age 18 to produce upper and lower bounds for the number of young people in jail on June
30th (z-score = 1.96, confidence interval = young people under age 18 count +/- standard
error * 1.96).
We are making two major assumptions with this estimate. First, we assume that the
percentage of inmates that are young people under age 18 on June 30th of every year are
representative of the percentage of inmates that are admitted during the last week of June
that are under age 18. There is evidence that the percentage of inmates that are under age
18 does not fluctuate greatly. In the most recent seven years that the BJS has collected this
data (from 2005 to 2011) the percentage of inmates under age 18 in the facilities sampled
has not fluctuated more than 2/10ths of a percent. Year in and year out, young people
under age 18 make up 0.8 to 1.0 percent of inmates on June 30th. Our second assumption is
that the data on weekly admissions, which comes from the last week of June, is
representative of a typical week and can be used to estimate annual admissions. The BJS
used the 2004 Survey of Large Jails to track monthly movements over the course of the
year and has determined that June admission data is a reliable source to calculate a
nationwide annual admission estimate.294
We also analyzed the Survey of Jails data to gain a greater understanding of the
distribution of youth inmates across the United States. We generated the estimates by
examining six years (from 2006 to 2011) of Survey of Jails data to identify unique facilities
that housed young people under age 18. The Survey of Jails is a nationally-representative
294 Minton, “Jail Inmates at Midyear 2011—Statistical Tables,” p. 12.

GROWING UP LOCKED DOWN

110

survey of all local jails, whether they have held youth or not, and is not a sample of only
those facilities that have held young people under age 18. Therefore it is possible that in
any given year, a jail facility with inmates under age 18 may not have been selected in the
sample. Examining only a single year of the survey would therefore skew the distribution of
young people under age 18 towards larger facilities, as 268 facilities are included in the
sample with certainty (annually) due to the size of their daily population.
Therefore, we examined six years of surveys and extracted counts of young people under
age 18 held for the most recent year that each facility was surveyed. We extracted data for
577 unique facilities (312 from 2011, 85 from 2010, 71 from 2009, 43 from2008, 40 from
2007, and 26 from 2006). It is important to note that this distribution analysis is not an

estimate of the overall distribution of young people under age 18 in jail systems, but a
distribution of unique facilities that reported housing inmates under age 18 during the last
six years of the Annual Survey of Jails. The distribution analysis did not utilize the BJS
facility-level weighting variable to weight the count of young people under age 18. It
examined the distribution of inmates under age 18 reported in surveys by facility, county,
and state.

111

HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH/ACLU | OCTOBER 2012

Appendix 2: State Case Studies

STATE CASE STUDIES: COLORADO
Youth in Adult Jails and Youth in Solitary Confinemen t

Clear (reek County Jail: "It affected me-mentally,
psychologically-shaped how I interact with
people today. There's got to be a better way...• It

took me a long time to regain a sense of humanity
and I don't even know if I'm stilt a/right or normal."
. Incerviewwilh Ethan 8. (pseudonym), February 2012,
held in jail 0/ age 15

•
•
••

•

Denver County Jail: "You ore a humon being.

You wont to socialize-talk to somebody. Plus J
was just a kid. f felt dead back there ...! felt like
I WQS going crazy.... A couple of times I felt like
acting out in violent ways just to get
communication-you stort tripping out."
. Interview with Todd D. (pseudonym),
February 2012. held in jail at age 17

• facilities that have reported a young person under
age 18 held on June 30 in the Annual Survey of Jails
In the past 6 years (2006·2011) and facltltiesln
which one or more young people identified by
Human Rights Watch and the American Civil Uberties
Union reported being held in solitary confinement
while they were under age 18.
VO)Ung pl'Ople und~rage 18 a<1' held in ddulljails and k '''I~,.'Y
<"nfin~ment acfOSS the United Slale,_ The faci lities shown are
'01 an e~hau,liye li~1 of aU fadlities that hold VGung peopl@
under ale 18 or1hat subie<t them to !>(IlitaIV <onfir ment.

GROWING UP LOCKED DOWN

112

Sourt@:HumanRlght, Watch inlervi~, ',-ld {orre,pondHce
with young people: lail,at Mid-Year Surwy (1O«i - 2011),
Bureau 01 JusticeSlatislits. US De )anment 01 Juslice.

Human Rights Watch and the American Civil Liberties Union have found that some
Colorado jails and prisons use solitary confinement to detain and manage young people
under age 18 in a range of circumstances. Human Rights Watch and the American Civil
Liberties Union corresponded with or interviewed 20 individuals who reported being
subjected to one or more periods of solitary confinement while under age 18 in jails in
Adams, Arapahoe, Clear Creek, Denver, El Paso, Jefferson and Park Counties; and in a
number of state prisons.295 Though not investigated by Human Rights Watch and the
American Civil Liberties Union, officials in Larimer, Pueblo, Washington, and Weld
Counties have reported detaining young people under age 18 in the last six years.296
Human Right Watch also interviewed or corresponded with state jail and prison officials.

The Law and Policy Landscape
Colorado law and policy governing jails and prisons permit holding young people in
various forms of prolonged isolation or segregation that can constitute solitary
confinement.297

Colorado Jails
By statute, young people under age 18 charged as if adults by prosecutorial “direct file”

can be held in jails, though under legal changes that took effect after Human Rights Watch
and the American Civil Liberties Union visited the state, the default place of detention is in
juvenile facilities.298 Young people under age 18 can be detained in adult jails only if a
state district court finds that an adult jail is the appropriate place of confinement after
weighing a number of factors, including whether the youth would be deprived of contact
with others in order to separate him or her from adults.299 The state requires that youth

295 Two of the individuals interviewed by Human Rights Watch were age 21 or younger when interviewed.
296 Jails at Mid-Year Survey (2006 - 2011), Bureau of Justice Statistics, US Department of Justice.
297 Throughout the report, “solitary confinement” is used to refer to physical and social isolation that extended for more than

22 hours each day and lasted for one or more days. See UN Human Rights Council, Interim Report of the Special Rapporteur
on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, Juan Mendez, U.N. G.A. Doc. A/66/268, August 5,
2011, http://daccess-ddsny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/N11/445/70/PDF/N1144570.pdf?OpenElement (accessed August 27,
2012). This report does not address the practice of holding two individuals in prolonged segregation, but Human Rights
Watch and mental health experts have raised serious concerns about this practice as well.
298 This is the result of legislative reforms enacted in 2012. Colorado Revised Statutes, Colorado Rev. Stat. Code 19-2-

508(3)(c)(II).
299 Colorado Rev. Stat. 19-2-508(3)(c)(III).

113

HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH/ACLU | OCTOBER 2012

held in adult jails be physically segregated from adults.300 But there is no prohibition in
state law against holding young people in solitary confinement in adult jails.301
Between July 2010 and June 2011, Colorado jails reported holding 42 young people under
age 18 in 7 jails for an average period of 116 days.302 Jail officials in Denver, El Paso, and
Adams counties reported that youth are subject to the same disciplinary rules as adults
when confined in their facilities.303 Officials in El Paso and Denver Counties told Human
Rights Watch that young people under age 18 can be sentenced to time in segregation for
disciplinary infractions, during which they are permitted out of their cell for one hour each
day.304 Such conditions constitute solitary confinement.

Colorado Prisons
The Colorado Department of Corrections (CO DOC) holds young people who are convicted
of criminal offenses and sentenced while under age 18. Youth and adults under age 21 who
have been sentenced as “youthful offenders” are detained in the Youthful Offender System
(YOS); some youth—including many of those sentenced for particularly serious offenses—
are held in mainline prisons.305 There is no prohibition in state law against holding youth in
solitary confinement in Colorado prisons. While the CO DOC code of penal discipline does
provide for consideration of “mitigating factors” in findings of guilt for purposes of
disciplinary segregation, it does not require consideration of age, mental disability, or
other special needs, in evaluating guilt or in assessing sanctions.306
CO DOC officials reported that, while they sometimes try to avoid placing young people in

300 Colorado Rev. Stat. § 19-2-508(4)(a)
301 The various forms of solitary confinement are discussed in Section III of the report.
302 Colorado State Division of Criminal Justice, SB 10-054 Annual Report—2nd Revision, January 23, 2012.
303 Human Rights Watch interview with Chief Elias Diggins, Denver Sheriff Department, Colorado, February 9, 2012; Human

Rights Watch telephone interview with Liz O’Neil, Special Management Coordinator El Paso County Sheriff’s Office, Colorado,
April 9, 2012; Human Rights Watch telephone interview with Kurt Ester, Captain, Adams County Detention Facility, Colorado,
March 29, 2012.
304 Human Rights Watch interview with Chief Elias Diggins, February 9, 2012; Human Rights Watch telephone interview with

Liz O’Neil, Special Management Coordinator El Paso County Sheriff’s Office, Colorado, April 9, 2012.
305 Human Rights Watch telephone interview with Tom Clements, Executive Director, Colorado Department of Corrections,

June 18, 2012. The limits of the youthful offender system are provided by statute at Colorado Rev. Stat. 18-1.3-407.
306 Colorado Department of Corrections, Regulation Code of Penal Discipline, AR# 150-01 at (IV)(E)(o), effective September 1,

2011, http://www.doc.state.co.us/sites/default/files/ar/0150_01_09012011.pdf (accessed June 4, 2012).

GROWING UP LOCKED DOWN

114

punitive solitary confinement, it is still used as a sanction.307 Regarding YOS, officials
reported:
We do everything we can not to place young offenders in solitary
confinement or disciplinary segregation. At YOS, we have the code of penal
discipline available to us. But we have trained our staff to go to immediate
sanctions, logical sanctions, immediate and programmatic sanctions. What
we have found is that if you address the issue immediately and if the
consequence is immediate, we can change behavior. We have focused a lot
on that with our younger offenders. To punish—certainly there is a need to
punish. The longest time we can put someone in segregation is 60 days for
a class 1 offense. We try not to use it; there are reviews every 28 days. The
goal is to get them back to programming.308

Research Findings
Colorado Jails
Human Rights Watch and the American Civil Liberties Union interviewed or corresponded
with 15 young people who reported being held in protective solitary confinement while in
pre-trial detention in Colorado jails. A number of those young people reported spending the
significant periods—or the entire period of their pre-trial detention—in protective solitary
confinement. Ten young people said they had spent five months or longer in protective
solitary confinement while under age 18. Human Rights Watch and the American Civil
Liberties Union interviewed three young people who reported being held in punitive solitary
confinement while in pre-trial detention in Colorado jails. Two of those young people said
they spent more than one period in punitive solitary confinement of 15 days or more.
Young people held in solitary confinement in Colorado jails generally described being
allowed out of their cell one hour each day into a day room or common space, generally
alone, during which they could shower and sometimes make phone calls to loved ones.
Young people reported being able to receive visits from loved ones, but four young people

307 Human Rights Watch telephone interview with Steve Hager, Director,

Youthful Offender System (YOS), Colorado

Department of Corrections, Colorado, June 18, 2012.
308 Human Rights Watch telephone interview with Steve Hager, Director,

Youthful Offender System (YOS), Colorado

Department of Corrections, Colorado, June 18, 2012.

115

HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH/ACLU | OCTOBER 2012

told us they were unable to have contact visits. Three young people said they were unable
to access any reading materials and one youth reported being unable to access writing
materials in his or her cell while in solitary confinement. Three young people said they had
considered suicide; two reported having attempted suicide while in solitary confinement.

Colorado Prisons
Human Rights Watch and the American Civil Liberties Union interviewed or corresponded
with nine young people who reported being held in punitive or administrative solitary
confinement while in state prison in Colorado. A number of those young people told us
they had spent significant periods in administrative solitary confinement, with three young
people reporting having spent four months or longer in administrative solitary confinement
while under age 18. Human Rights Watch and the American Civil Liberties Union
interviewed six young people who told us they were held in punitive solitary confinement
while in Colorado prisons. Three of those young people reported spending more than one
period in punitive solitary confinement of 20 days or more.
Young people held in solitary confinement in Colorado prisons while under age 18
generally described being allowed out of their cell one hour each day, generally into an
indoor recreation room, and being permitted a daily shower. Young people reported being
able to receive non-contact visits from loved ones. One young person told us he or she was
classified directly into long-term solitary confinement while under age 18; others reported
beginning periods of administrative solitary confinement while under age 18 that
continued for many years. Young people in long-term administrative solitary confinement
said they were never permitted outdoors.

Avenues for Reform
In spite of these challenges, the legal and policy landscape in Colorado is shifting in a
positive direction. In 2012, Colorado enacted legislation requiring that youth charged as if
adults be held in juvenile facilities, unless a judge orders otherwise.309 The state has not
yet reported on how this has affected the population of youth in adult facilities. The

309 House Bill 12-1139, Concerning Pretrial Detention of Children Prosecuted as Adults, signed March 15, 2012,

http://cjdc.org/wp/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/HB-1139_Final.pdf (accessed August 27, 2012); “Colorado: Assembly Acts
to Protect Youth Accused of Crimes,” Human Rights Watch and American Civil Liberties Union news release, March 6, 2012,
http://www.hrw.org/news/2012/03/06/colorado-assembly-acts-protect-youth-accused-crimes.

GROWING UP LOCKED DOWN

116

director of the CO DOC has also ordered a review of those in prolonged solitary
confinement in prison, resulting in a significant reduction of numbers held.310 The CO DOC
acknowledges that youth are different, and has signaled openness to additional reform:
The challenge for us is, as we manage [inmates] when they are younger,
how do we manage them … in a way that takes into consideration where
they are at in terms of their age, their impulsivity, their mental health
issues.… Our true goal is to manage inmates so they behave differently
because 97 percent are going to walk out the door and be somebody’s next
door neighbor.… If I had a wish list, it would be to have the flexibility to
have more intensive case management, mental health, and other
programming to keep [youth] engaged in something that can build positive
self-esteem and positive values. At that young age, it is important to
develop a positive view and see a light at the end of the tunnel.311
To continue down the road to reform, Colorado must ensure that young people under age
18 are never subjected to solitary confinement in jails or in prisons.312

310 Colorado Department of Corrections, Report of the Colorado Department of Corrections on Administrative Segregation,

January 2012, http://www.aclu.org/files/assets/co_adseg_rept_jan2012.pdf (accessed August 27, 2012).
311 Human Rights Watch telephone interview with Tom Clements, June 18, 2012.
312 For detailed recommendations, see recommendations section above.

117

HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH/ACLU | OCTOBER 2012

STATE CASE STUDIES: FLORIDA
Youth in Adult Jails and Youth in Solitary Confinement

Pinellas County Sheriff's Office: "There are
lights on but it is dark for me. It is like being
sunk in a hole-it is a dark place-you know the

jacket where your arms are tied and you are in
a sponge room? Thot's how it {eels .•.. What

would you do if you were in a place by
yourself? You wouldn't feel stronger
. Interview with Alyssa E. (pseudonym), Apri/2012,

held in iailDt age 16

•

•

Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center: "The only

thing left to do is go crazy-just sit and talk to the wolfs.

•
••
• •
•
•
•
• • •
•
•• •
•• •
•
•
•
• ••
•
•
•
•
I •

•

A fotofpeopie in here go on [suicide watch}•... I catch

i

myself {lolking to the walls} every now and ogoin. It's

starting to become a habit because I hove nothing else
to do. Sometimes I go crozyond con'teven control my
ongeronymore.... See, they soy it's to moke you better
but reolly it didn't chonge me, it just gove me 0 worser
[sic] ottitude. f feel like I om olone, like no one cores
obout me. Sometimes I feel like, why om I even living?"

•
• facilities that have reported II young person under
age 18 held on June 30 In the Annual Survey of Jails
in the past 6 years (2006 - 2011) and facilities in
which one or more young people Identified by
Human Rights Watch and the American Civil liberties
Union reported beln, held In solitary confinement
while they were under age 18•

. Interview with Henry R. (pseudonym), April 2012.
held in jail at age 16

You"! p.e'ople under are 18 ale held ,n adult lai ~and In wlitd'V
confinement oKf1)~~the Unite<::l5lolleS. The la(ilitie\ $.hown a~
nol an ..... hau~tive !i~I 01 aU lacj';II~~ thaI hold YOU"! peop\f'
under age 18 or thllt ~ubie{t themlo sollla,y conlinement.

Source: Human Rilhl~ Walch inte .... i~iand corresponde<>ce
wUhyoung people; ,ails at MldYNrSU ....ty (1OOfj. }0111,
B.urNu 01 Iuslke Slati~ti(\" US o.p.artmenl of 1.. '>I,ce.

GROWING UP LOCKED DOWN

118

Human Rights Watch and the American Civil Liberties Union have found that some Florida
jails and prisons use solitary confinement to manage young people under age 18 in a range
of circumstances. Human Rights Watch and the American Civil Liberties Union
corresponded with and interviewed 38 individuals who had been subjected to solitary
confinement while under age 18 in jails in Bay, Citrus, Clay, Duval, Escambia, Highlands,
Hillsboro, Jackson, Lee, Leon, Miami, Okaloosa, Okeechobee, Orange, Palm Beach,
Pinellas, Polk, and St. Lucie Counties; and in a number of state prisons. Though not
investigated by Human Rights Watch and the American Civil Liberties Union, officials in
Alachua, Brevard, Broward, Charlotte, Collier, Franklin, Gadsen, Hamilton, Hernando, Lake,
Levy, Manatee, Marion, Monroe, Osceola, Pasco, Putnam, Volusia, Walton, Sarasota,
Seminole, St. Johns, and Wakulla Counties have reported detaining young people under
age 18 in the last six years.313 Human Right Watch also interviewed or corresponded with
jail and prison officials in the state.

The Law and Policy Landscape
Florida law and policy governing jails and prisons permit holding young people in various
forms of prolonged isolation or segregation that can constitute solitary confinement.314

Florida Jails
By statute, young people under age 18 charged as if adults must be held in adult jails.315
The state requires that young people held in adult jails be prevented from having sight and
sound contact with adults and be held in a separate section of the jail.316 A recent legal
change, signed into law in 2011, also allows young people under age 18 not charged as if
adults to be held in Florida jails, though few jails have yet to exercise this authority.317 But

313 Jails at Mid-Year Survey (2006 - 2011), Bureau of Justice Statistics, US Department of Justice.
314 Throughout the report, “solitary confinement” is used to refer to physical and social isolation that extended for more than

22 hours each day and lasted for one or more days. UN Human Rights Council, Interim Report of the Special Rapporteur on
torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, Juan Mendez, U.N. G.A. Doc. A/66/268, August 5,
2011, http://daccess-ddsny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/N11/445/70/PDF/N1144570.pdf?OpenElement (accessed August 27,
2012). This report does not address the practice of holding two individuals in prolonged segregation, but Human Rights
Watch and mental health experts have raised serious concerns about the practice.
315 Fla. Stat. Ann. § 985.265.
316 Fla. Stat. Ann. § 985.265.
317 Florida law SB2112 on Juvenile Detention Facilities, effective July 1, 2011; David J. Utter, Southern Poverty Law Center,
“One Florida County Wisely Says No to Putting Children in Adult Jails,” May 8, 2012, http://www.splcenter.org/getinformed/news/one-florida-county-wisely-says-no-to-putting-children-in-adult-jails (accessed August 27, 2012).

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HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH/ACLU | OCTOBER 2012

there is no prohibition in state law against holding young people in solitary confinement in
adult jails.318
In January 2012, Florida jails reported holding 579 young people under age 18 statewide.319
Jail officials in Hernando, Pinellas, and St. Lucie counties reported that youth are subject
to the same disciplinary rules as adults when confined in their facilities.320 Officials in
Duval county told Human Rights Watch that young people under age 18 can be sentenced
to time in segregation for disciplinary infractions, during which they are permitted out of
their cell for less than two hours each day.321 Such conditions constitute solitary
confinement.

Florida Prisons
The Florida Department of Corrections (FL DOC) holds young people who have been
convicted of criminal offenses and sentenced while under age 18. Youth and adults under
age 21 who have been sentenced or designated as “youthful offenders” are detained in the
youthful offender facilities (where young people and adults under age 19 are separated
from older youthful offenders); some youth—including many of those sentenced for
particularly serious offenses—are held in mainline prisons.322 In fiscal year 2010-2011, the
FL DOC reported holding 276 young people under age 18 (although 398 young people
under age 18 were admitted to FL DOC custody) and 1,640 youthful offenders; the youngest
was 14 years old and serving a sentence for robbery with a gun or deadly weapon.323 There
is no prohibition in state law or FL DOC policies or regulations against holding young
people in solitary confinement in Florida prisons.
318 The various forms of solitary confinement are discussed in Section III of the report.
319 Florida Department of Corrections, “Florida County Detention Facilities Average Inmate Population January 2012,” January

2012, http://www.dc.state.fl.us/pub/jails/2012/01/FCDF.PDF (accessed August 27, 2012).
320 Letter from Dan Carriveau, Classification Sergeant, Hernando County Detention Center, Florida, to Human Rights Watch,

January 6, 2012; Letter from David Robinson, Lieutenant, Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office, Florida, to Human Rights Watch,
February 2, 2012; and Letter from F. Patrick Tighe, Major, St. Lucie County Jail, Florida, to Human Rights Watch, January 4,
2012.
321 Human Rights Watch telephone interview with Daryl Tyus, Operations Lieutenant, Jackson County Correctional Facility,

Florida, April 3, 2012.
322 Florida Statutes Title 47, Ch. 958.04, 958.11; Human Rights Watch email correspondence with Ann Howard,

Communications Director, Florida Department of Corrections, July 31, 2012.
323 2010-2011 Agency Annual Report, Florida Department of Corrections, “Inmate Population,”

http://www.dc.state.fl.us/pub/annual/1011/ar-im-population.html (accessed August 27, 2012); 2010-2011 Agency Annual
Report, Florida Department of Corrections, “Inmate Admissions,” http://www.dc.state.fl.us/pub/annual/1011/ar-imadmissions.html (accessed August 27, 2012); 2010-2011 Agency Annual Report, Florida Department of Corrections, “Youthful
Offenders,” http://www.dc.state.fl.us/pub/annual/1011/ar-additional-facts-youth.html (accessed August 27, 2012).

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FL DOC officials reported that both youthful offenders and non-youthful offenders can be
placed in confinement, including for disciplinary and other management purposes.324
Inmates in FL DOC custody who are held in disciplinary confinement (DC) or administrative
confinement (AC) are entitled out of their cell three times per week to take a shower and—
but only after thirty days—an additional three hours per week to exercise.325 Inmates in
“Close Management, Level I” status (CM-1) are entitled out of their cell three times per
week to take a shower and an additional six hours per week to exercise.326 Conditions in
AC, DC, and CM-1 constitute solitary confinement. FL DOC officials confirmed that there are
no differences between the disciplinary rules for managing the behavior of young people
under age 18 and those for managing the behavior of adults over age 18; that there are no
age-specific limits on the use of close management, AC, or DC for young people under age
18; and that there are no restrictions on housing young people alone in AC, DC, or close
management in DOC facilities.327

Research Findings
Florida Jails
Human Rights Watch and the American Civil Liberties Union interviewed or corresponded
with four young people who reported being held in protective solitary confinement while in
pre-trial detention in Florida jails. All of these young people reported spending three or
more months in protective solitary confinement while under age 18. Human Rights Watch
and the American Civil Liberties Union interviewed 21 young people who reported being
held in punitive solitary confinement while in pre-trial detention in Florida jails. Seven of
those young people said they spent more than one period in punitive solitary confinement
of 15 days at a time or longer. Fourteen young people reported being held in administrative
solitary confinement, generally when accused of committing a disciplinary infraction, while
in pre-trial detention in Florida jails. Five young people reported spending one or more
period in medical solitary confinement, three of them after they attempted or spoke about
having considered attempting suicide.
324 Human Rights Watch email correspondence with Ann Howard, July 31, 2012.
325 Regulation 33-602.222, Florida Department of Corrections, “ Disciplinary Confinement,”
https://www.flrules.org/gateway/ruleno.asp?id=33-602.222&Section=0 (accessed August 27, 2012), Sections 2(e) and 2(p);
Regulation 33-602.220, Florida Department of Corrections, “Administrative Confinement,”
https://www.flrules.org/gateway/ruleno.asp?id=33-602.220&Section=0 (accessed August 27, 2012), Sections 5(e) and 5(p).
326 Regulations 33-601.800, Florida Department of Corrections, “Close Management,”

https://www.flrules.org/gateway/ruleno.asp?id=33-601.800 (accessed August 27, 2012).
327 Human Rights Watch email correspondence with Ann Howard, August 28, 2012.

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HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH/ACLU | OCTOBER 2012

Young people held in solitary confinement in Florida jails generally described being
allowed out of their cell one hour each day, or for two hours, two or three times per week.
Generally, young people were permitted to shower regularly and sometimes make phone
calls to loved ones. Ten young people described spending a period of time in solitary
confinement during which they were only allowed out of their cell for showers; seven
reported being unable to call or visit with loved ones. Seven young people said they spent
a period in solitary confinement during which they were unable to access any reading or
writing materials in their cell. Four young people said they had attempted suicide while in
solitary confinement.

Florida Prisons
Human Rights Watch and the American Civil Liberties Union interviewed or corresponded
with six young people who reported being held in administrative solitary confinement
while under age 18 in state prison in Florida. Three of those young people reported having
spent three months or longer in administrative solitary confinement (in either CM-1 and AC
status) while under age 18. Human Rights Watch and the American Civil Liberties Union
interviewed six young people who told us they were held in punitive solitary confinement
while in Florida prisons. Human Rights Watch and the American Civil Liberties Union also
interviewed seven young people who told us they spent time in DC with a cell-mate.328
Young people in solitary confinement in Florida prisons reported spending prolonged
periods (sometimes longer than 30 days) without any out-of-cell exercise. Those who did
get out-of-cell exercise described being able to exercise alone in a small fenced-in area.
Young people reported being able to shower regularly, but not every day. Some young
people under age 18 with intellectual disabilities reported receiving in-cell study packets;
other young people under age 18 reported receiving no educational programming while in
solitary confinement.

328 This report does not address the practice of holding two individual in prolonged segregation but Human Rights Watch,

mental health experts, and advocates have raised serious concerns about the practice.

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STATE CASE STUDIES: MICHIGAN
Youth in Adult Jails and Youth in Solitary Confinement
Kent County Jail: "Being in isolation in jail
made me feel stressed out. Nobody cares. No
one to talk to. I was getting cruel and unusual
punishment. When J was in isolotion in jail it

changed me. It messed my head up."
-Interview with Adam B. (pseudonym), March 2012.
held in jail 01 age 15

•
••
•
•
•

• •

•

Calhoun County Jail: "[There} was a stone bed with a

blue mattress with a built-in pilfow... a very disgusting
slot that they slide food in. The light {was] on 24/ 7 so
you couldn't sleep at off. They don't give you a blanket.
It smelled really bod.... I was scored to death."
• Interview with Carter P. (pseudonym), Morch 2012,
held in jail at age 14

• Facilities that have reported a young person under

age 18 held on June 30 in the Annual Survey of Jails
in the past 6 years (2006 - 2011) and facilities in
which one or more young people identified by
Human Rights Watch and the American Civil Uberties
Union reported being held in solitary confinement
while they were under age 18.
Young pe<>ple under age 18 afe held In adult Jails and In solit~ry
conron~menl auoss Ihe Uniled Siaies. The facililies shown are
nol an e~haustive lisl 01 all I~dtilies thai hold young people
undef age 18 Or Ihal subjecllhem 10 solil.rry confinement.
Sourte: Human Rights Walch interviews and correspondence
w,lh young people; lails al Mid·Year Survey (2006· lOll).
Bureau 0/ Justice Slatisti(s. US Department of Jus!ice.

123

HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH/ACLU | OCTOBER 2012

Human Rights Watch and the American Civil Liberties Union have found that some
Michigan jails and prisons use solitary confinement to detain and manage young people
under age 18 in a range of circumstances. Human Rights Watch and the American Civil
Liberties Union corresponded with or interviewed 15 individuals who reported being
subjected to one or more periods of solitary confinement while under age 18 in jails in
Berrien, Calhoun, Ingham, Kent, Oakland, Wayne, and Saginaw counties; and in a number
of state prisons. Though not investigated by Human Rights Watch and the American Civil
Liberties Union, officials in Alcona, Bay, Branch, Cass, Clinton, Genesee, Jackson,
Kalamazoo, Macomb, Roscommon, Washtenaw, and Wexford Counties have reported
detaining young people under age 18 in the last six years.329 Human Right Watch also
interviewed or corresponded with state jail and prison officials.

The Law and Policy Landscape
Michigan law and policy governing jails and prisons permit holding young people in
various forms of prolonged isolation or segregation that can constitute solitary
confinement.330

Michigan Jails
Most Michigan young people under age 18 who are charged as if adults are treated this
way because criminal majority begins at 17 (although younger young people can also be
charged as adults).331 Young people under age 17 may be detained in adult jails with the
permission of the county sheriff (this includes both young people charged as if adults and,
for up to 30 days, certain juvenile delinquents who violate probation).332 The state requires
that young people under age 17 held in adult jails be held physically separate from 17 year

329 Jails at Mid-Year Survey (2006 - 2011), Bureau of Justice Statistics, US Department of Justice.
330 Throughout the report, “solitary confinement” is used to refer to physical and social isolation that extended for more than

22 hours each day and lasted for one or more days. UN Human Rights Council, Interim Report of the Special Rapporteur on
torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, Juan Mendez, U.N. G.A. Doc., http://daccessddsny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/N11/445/70/PDF/N1144570.pdf?OpenElement (accessed August 27, 2012). This report does
not address the practice of holding two individuals in prolonged segregation, but Human Rights Watch and mental health
experts have raised serious concerns about the practice.
331 Mich. Comp. Laws Ann. § 712A.2 (restricting exclusive jurisdiction of the juvenile court to youth under age 17); Mich.

Comp. Laws Ann. § 712A.2d (permitting the filing of criminal charges—and trial as if adults—for certain youth under age 17).
332 Mich. Comp. Laws Ann. § 764.27a(3) (permitting the detention of youth under age 17 charged as adults in adult facilities);

Mich. Comp. Laws Ann. § 771.7(2)(f) (permitting the detention of certain juvenile delinquents who violate probation).

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124

olds and adults.333 But there is no prohibition in state law against holding young people in
solitary confinement in adult jails.334
Jail officials in Bay, Benzie, Cass, Cheboygan, Gladwin, Houghton, Lapeer, and Oakland
counties reported that young people under age 18 are subject to the same disciplinary rules
as adults when confined in their facilities.335 Officials in Cheboygan, Gladwin, Houghton,
Muskegon, and St. Joseph counties told Human Rights Watch that young people under age
18 can be sentenced to time in segregation for disciplinary infractions, during which they
are permitted out of their cell for less than two hours each day.336 Officials in Oakland and
Macomb counties reported that while young people age 17 are housed with adults, young
people under age 17 are generally held in medical cells to keep them separate from adults;
officials in Oakland County reported that such young people spend less than two hours per
day outside of their cell.337 Such conditions constitute solitary confinement.

Michigan Prisons
The Michigan Department of Corrections (MI DOC) holds young people who are convicted
of criminal offenses and sentenced while under age 18. Young people and adults between
age 17 and 20 can be sentenced as “youthful trainees,” except those who commit certain,
generally serious, offenses.338 By policy, young people under age 17 and youthful trainees
are held in specialized facilities (either at the Thumb Correctional Facility or the Women’s

333 Mich. Comp. Laws Ann. §764.27a.
334 The various forms of solitary confinement are discussed in Section III of the report.
335 Human Rights Watch telephone interview with Troy Stewart, Administrator Bay County Jail, Michigan, March 23, 2012; and

with Ann Russell, Corrections Administrator, Oakland County, Michigan, March 23, 2012; Letter from Jeffrey Conquest,
Lieutenant/Jail Administrator, Benzie County Jail, Michigan, to Human Rights Watch, January 11, 2012; Letter from Joseph
Underwood, Sheriff, Cass County Sheriff’s Office/Correctional Facility, Michigan, to Human Rights Watch, January 30, 2012;
Letter from David Deeter, Jail Administrator, Cheboygan County Sheriff Department, Michigan, to Human Rights Watch,
January 4, 2012; Letter from Carl Gruzhit, Corrections Officer, Gladwin County Jail, Michigan, to Human Rights Watch, January
31, 2012; Letter from Marjorie Chandonais, Captain Houghton County Sheriff’s Office, Michigan, to Human Rights Watch,
January 4, 2012; and Letter from Duane Engelhardt, Jail Administrator, Lapeer County Sheriff’s Office, Michigan, to Human
Rights Watch, February 1, 2012;
336 Letter from David Deeter, Jail Administrator, Cheboygan County Sheriff Department, Michigan, January 4, 2012; Letter from
Carl Gruzhit, Corrections Officer, Gladwin County Jail, Michigan, January 31, 2012; Letter from Marjorie Chandonais, Captain
Houghton County Sheriff’s Office, Michigan, January 4, 2012; Letter from Scott Lamiman, Jail Population Coordinator,
Muskegon County Jail, Michigan, to Human Rights Watch, January 24, 2012; and Letter from Tim Schuler, Captain, St. Joseph
County Sheriff’s Office, Michigan, to Human Rights Watch, January 5, 2012.
337 Human Rights Watch telephone interview with Ann Russell, Corrections Administrator,

Oakland County, Michigan, March
23, 2012; and with Michelle M. Sanborn, Jail Administrator, Macomb County, Michigan, March 9, 2012.
338 Mich. Comp. Laws Ann. §762.11.

125

HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH/ACLU | OCTOBER 2012

Huron Valley Correctional Facility).339 Young people under age 17 are, to the extent
practicable, kept sight and sound separated from 17 year olds and adults.340 However, the
department can designate any young person under age 18 for housing and placement at a
mainline prison (including if the person is deemed to pose a risk to others, or if requires
psychiatric care).341 There is no prohibition in state law or MI DOC policies or regulations
against holding young people in solitary confinement in Michigan prisons.
MI DOC officials declined to comment on MI DOC disciplinary policies with regard to young
people under age 18, though the officials did indicate that the MI DOC classification
system does not consider age as a factor in inmate classification.342 Inmates in MI DOC
custody who are held in temporary, punitive, or administrative segregation are entitled out
of their cell three times per week to take a shower and shave and a minimum of one hour
per day, five days per week, to exercise.343 Such conditions constitute solitary confinement.

Research Findings
Michigan Jails
Human Rights Watch and the American Civil Liberties Union interviewed or corresponded
with seven young people who reported being held in protective solitary confinement while
in pre-trial detention in Michigan jails. Five young people said they had spent two months
or longer in protective solitary confinement while under age 18. Human Rights Watch and
the American Civil Liberties Union interviewed or corresponded with six young people who
reported being held in punitive solitary confinement while in pre-trial detention in
Michigan jails. Three of those young people said they spent ten days or more in punitive
solitary confinement while under age 18. One young person reported being held in
administrative solitary confinement for approximately one month while under age 18.

339 Policy Directive 05.01.140, Michigan Department of Corrections, “Prisoner Placement and Transfer,” October 2011,

http://www.michigan.gov/documents/corrections/0501140_365947_7.pdf (accessed August 27, 2012), at CC-EE.
340 Ibid., at EE.
341 Ibid., at DD-GG.
342 Human Rights Watch email correspondence with Russell Marlan, Administrator, Executive Bureau, Michigan Department

of Corrections, June 19, 2012.
343 Policies in place governing youth in Department custody suggest that

the segregation of youth is regulated in the same
way as the segregation of adults. Michigan Department of Corrections, “Prisoner Placement and Transfer,” at DD; Policy
Directive 04.05.120, Michigan Department of Corrections, “Segregation Standards,” September 2010,
http://www.michigan.gov/documents/corrections/0405120_333436_7.pdf (accessed August 27, 2012), at V.9 and V.21.

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126

Young people held in solitary confinement in Michigan jails generally described being
allowed out of their cell one hour each day, or for one-and-a-half or two hours a few times
each week, in a day room or common space, generally alone, during which they could
shower and sometimes make phone calls to loved ones. Young people generally reported
being able to receive visits from loved ones, but four young people told us they were
unable to have contact visits. Young people generally said they were able to access
reading materials. One young person said he or she was only able to receive reading
materials sent by others directly from the publisher. Two young people said they received a
Christian bible and no other reading materials while in solitary confinement. Three young
people reported receiving no educational materials or programming while in solitary
confinement. Two young people said they had considered suicide while in solitary
confinement.

Michigan Prisons
Human Rights Watch and the American Civil Liberties Union interviewed or corresponded
with eight young people who reported being held in solitary confinement while in state
prison in Michigan. Human Rights Watch and the American Civil Liberties Union
interviewed five young people who told us they were held in punitive solitary confinement
while in Michigan prisons. Three of those young people reported spending more than one
period in punitive solitary confinement of one month or longer.

127

HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH/ACLU | OCTOBER 2012

STATE CASE STUDIES: NEW YORK
Youth in Adult Jails and Youth in Solitary Confine ment

• • •
•
•

•

..

•

•

•

•

•
••

•

Rikers: "[I was} ups et, scored- bugging out.

Like. 'they cannot keep me in this cell for 23
hours. '/ was kicking the door, crying

hysterically. Th ey called mental health and

put me on suicide watch."
-Interview with Elizabeth K. (pseudonym), April 2012,
held in jail (1/ age 16

• facilities that howe reported I young person under
age 18 held on June 30 In the Annual Survey of Jalts
in the past 6 years (2006 · 2011) Ind fadlitles in
which one or more young people identified by
Human Rights Watch and the American Civil liberties
Union reported beln, held In solltaJY confinement
while they were under age 18.
You", J)e'Ople- undel "It' 18 are held ,n ad"lt lall~ and In wlild'V
ronfi~menl ;Kf'Q~~ tl\(o Unite<:l Slates. Thfo fa(mti~ $hQWn a~
not an exhllu\live list o' aU laell tin !lIiII hold YOU"!: ~plt'
under aj;t 16 o! Iltal ~Ublfillhtm 10 wlla,y conlin_nl.
Sourct: Human RiCh!, Walch inlf .... itwsand (orresponde<>ce
with young peOple; Jails at Mid ,Ytoar SU ....t-y (1006 . JOIIl,
B.ureau 01 JuMke Slal iSli(i, US DtparTmenl of JU'>lice.

GROWING UP LOCKED DOWN

128

Human Rights Watch and the American Civil Liberties Union have found that some New
York jails and prisons use solitary confinement to detain and manage young people under
age 18 in a range of circumstances. Human Rights Watch and the American Civil Liberties
Union interviewed seven individuals who reported being subjected to one or more periods
of solitary confinement while under age 18 in jails at Rikers Island. Though not investigated
by Human Rights Watch and the American Civil Liberties Union, officials in Albany, Erie,
Madison, Monroe, Nassau, Niagara, Onandaga, Orange, Orleans, Seneca, Steuben, Suffolk,
Sullivan, Washington, and Westchester Counties have reported detaining young people
under age 18 in the last six years.344 Human Rights Watch also interviewed or corresponded
with state jail and prison officials.

The Law and Policy Landscape
New York law and policy governing jails and prisons permit holding young people in
various forms of prolonged isolation or segregation that can constitute solitary
confinement.345

New York Jails
Most New York young people under age 18 who are charged as if adults are treated this
way because criminal majority begins at 16 (although younger adolescents can also be
charged as adults).346 Young people under age 18 who are charged as if adults can be held
in adult jails.347 The state requires that adolescents under age 19 held in adult jails be held

344 Jails at Mid-Year Survey (2006 - 2011), Bureau of Justice Statistics, US Department of Justice.
345 Throughout the report, “solitary confinement” is used to refer to physical and social isolation that extended for more than

22 hours each day and lasted for one or more days. UN Human Rights Council, Interim Report of the Special Rapporteur on
torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, Juan Mendez, U.N. G.A. Doc. A/66/268, August 5,
2011, http://daccess-ddsny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/N11/445/70/PDF/N1144570.pdf?OpenElement (accessed August 27,
2012).. This report does not address the practice of holding two individuals in prolonged segregation, but Human Rights
Watch and mental health experts have raised serious concerns about the practice.
346 The defense of infancy can only be invoked by youth under age 16 (and in certain circumstances). New York Penal Law §

30. See also Remarks of Chief Judge Lippman to the New York Citizens Crime Commission, September 21, 2011,
http://www.nycrimecommission.org/pdfs/Lippman110921.pdf (accessed August 27, 2012). There is a procedure for
sentencing such youth as “youthful offenders” in particular circumstances, though this is distinct from treating them as
“juveniles” under New York law. New York Criminal Procedure Law § 720.
347 All youth between 16 and 18 are generally held in adult jails, and youth under 16 can be held there in certain

circumstances. N.Y. Crim. Proc. Law § 510.15(1) (McKinney2006).

129

HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH/ACLU | OCTOBER 2012

physically separate from adults age 19 and older.348 But there is no prohibition in state law
against holding young people in solitary confinement in adult jails.349
Between 45,000 and 50,000 young people under age 18 are arrested each year in New York
and prosecuted as if adults.350 A significant proportion of those young people are held in
adult jails: in 2010, 16 jails reported to the US Department of Justice that on a single day in
June, they held 942 young people; New York City alone held 786 adolescents in fiscal year
2012.351 Jail officials in Erie, Fulton, Lewis, Monroe, Orange, and Rensselaer counties and in
New York City reported that adolescents are subject to the same disciplinary rules as
adults when confined in their facilities.352 Officials in Orange county and New York City told
Human Rights Watch that young people under age 18 can be sentenced to time in
segregation for disciplinary infractions, during which they are permitted out of their cell for
less than two hours each day.353 Such conditions constitute solitary confinement.

New York Prisons
The New York Department of Corrections and Community Supervision (NY DOCCS) holds
young people who are convicted of criminal offenses and sentenced while under age 18.
Young people under age 18 and adults under age 21 in DOCCS custody are detained in

348 The statute reads, “No person under nineteen years of age shall be placed or kept or allowed to be at any time with any

prisoner or prisoners nineteen years of age or older, in any room, dormitory, cell or tier of the buildings of such institution
unless separately grouped to prevent access to persons under nineteen years of age by prisoners nineteen years of age or
older.” N.Y. Correct. Law § 500-b(4). The New York City Board of Corrections, which separately regulates New York City jails,
refers to this population as “adolescents.” NYC Board of Correction (BOC), “Variances Granted by the Board of Correction,
Minimum Standards for New York City Correctional Facilities,” Section 1-02, “Classification of Prisoners,” March 1989,
http://www.nyc.gov/html/boc/html/rules/variances.shtml (accessed August 27, 2012).
349 The various forms of solitary confinement are discussed in Section III of the report.
350 Remarks of Chief Judge Lippman, September 21, 2011.

This data is hard to estimate because New York State does not
publish age-disaggregated felony arrest statistics. See New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services, “Adult Arrests:
2002-2011,” http://www.criminaljustice.ny.gov/crimnet/ojsa/arrests/index.htm (accessed August 27, 2012).

351 See Appendix 1 above; New York City data is drawn from City of New York Department of Corrections, “Adolescents:

Overview,” http://www.nyc.gov/html/doc/html/adolescent/doc_stats_adol.shtml (accessed August 27, 2012).
352 Human Rights Watch telephone interviews with Jeffrey Hartman, Captain, Erie County Holding Center,

New York, March 2,
2012; with Dora B. Schriro, Commissioner, New York City Department of Corrections, New York, July 6, 2012; and with
Dominick Orsino, Corrections Administrator, Orange County Correctional Facility, New York, April 9, 2012; and letter from
Randy Benedict, Captain/Jail Administrator, Fulton County Correctional Facility, New York, to Human Rights Watch, January 10,
2012; Letter from Sherry Stanford, Lieutenant, Lewis County Jail, New York, to Human Rights Watch, January 7, 2012; Letter
from Jason Tripoli, Corporal, Monroe County Jail New York, to Human Rights Watch, January 23, 2012; and Letter from David
Hetman, Program/Support Lieutenant, Correction Bureau, Rensselaer County Office of the Sheriff, New York, to Human Rights
Watch, April 19, 2012.
353 Human Rights Watch telephone interviews with Dominick Orsino, Corrections Administrator, Orange County Correctional
Facility, New York, April 9, 2012; and with Dora B. Schriro, Commissioner, New York City Department of Corrections, New
York, July 6, 2012.

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130

specialized facilities.354 On January 1, 2012, the NY DOCCS held 181 young people under
age 18; 11 of them were 16 years old.355 There is no prohibition in state law or NY DOCCS
policies or regulations against holding young people in solitary confinement in New York
prisons. Young people under age 18 in NY DOCCS facilities are subjected to the same
disciplinary rules as adults.356
Young people under age 18 in NY DOCCS custody can be held in Special Housing Units
(SHUs), a form of segregated isolation, for disciplinary or administrative purposes;
however, between a third and half of all people held in SHUs are held two per cell (or
“double-celled”).357 Officials confirmed that in certain circumstances, young people under
age 18 are held in conditions that constitute solitary confinement.358 On January 1, 2012,
the NY DOCCS held 83 young people between age 16 and 18 in SHUs.359

Research Findings
New York Jails
Human Rights Watch and the American Civil Liberties Union interviewed seven young
people who reported being held in solitary confinement while in pre-trial detention in jail
in New York City. A number of those adolescents reported spending significant periods in
punitive solitary confinement. Five young people said they had spent a total of longer than
thirty days in solitary confinement while under age eighteen; two of those adolescents said
they had spent longer than six months in solitary confinement.

354 Human Rights Watch telephone interview with Jeff McKoy, Deputy Commissioner for Program Services, New York

Department of Corrections and Community Supervision, June 28, 2012.
355 Human Rights Watch email correspondence with Peter Cutler, Director of Public Information, New York Department of

Corrections and Community Supervision, July 20, 2012.
356 Human Rights Watch email Correspondence with Peter Cutler, June 15, 2012.
357 In a recent op-ed, New York Department of Corrections and Community Supervision (NYDOCCS) Commissioner Brian
Fischer stated that of the 4,300 inmates in disciplinary segregation in DOCCS facilities as of August 19, 2012, 1,400 (or
approximately one-third) live in two-man cells. Brian Fischer, “Safety has to come first in N.Y.’s prisons,” Times Union,
August 19, 2012, http://www.timesunion.com/default/article/Safety-has-to-come-first-in-N-Y-s-prisons-3798859.php
(accessed August 27, 2012). This report does not address the practice of holding two individual in prolonged segregation,
but Human Rights Watch, mental health experts, and other advocates have raised serious concerns about the practice. See
for example, New York Civil Liberties Union, “Boxed In: The True Cost of Extreme Isolation in New York’s Prisons,” October
2012, http://www.nyclu.org/BoxedIn.
358 Human Rights Watch telephone interview with Jeff McKoy, June 28, 2012 (“As with any other offender, when they go to

SHU they are double-celled unless it is determined that they shouldn’t be double celled.”).
359 Human Rights Watch email correspondence with Peter Cutler, July 20, 2012.

131

HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH/ACLU | OCTOBER 2012

New York City jail officials reported to Human Rights Watch that 14.4 percent of
adolescents between age 16 and 18 at Rikers Island spend at least one period of time in
punitive segregation.360 Officials also reported that in FY2012, 48 percent of all
adolescents had been identified as having a mental disability (or “a diagnosed mental
disorder,” as defined in the American Psychiatric Association Diagnostic and Statistical
Manual of Mental Disorders).361 Officials confirmed that young people in punitive
segregation spend less than two hours per day outside of their cell; thus, the practice
constitutes solitary confinement.362
Officials also provided data that shows that adolescents are held in solitary confinement
as the result of a range of disciplinary infractions.363
Table 1: Infractions leading to a term of punitive segregation in New York City
Disciplinary Infraction

Percent of Punitive Segregation
Terms Involving Each Infraction

Fighting resulting in injury

19%

Assault on inmate

18%

Assault on staff

14%

Fighting

11%

Contraband-weapon

7%

Physically resisting staff members

6%

Assault with a weapon

3%

Destruction of city property

3%

Making threats to staff

3%

Assault—spitting/throwing

2%

Other

14%

360 Human Rights Watch email correspondence with Sharman Stein, Deputy Commissioner, New York City Department of
Corrections,July 27, 2012; Human Rigths Watch email correspondence with Robin Campbell, Deputy Commissioner, New York
City Department of Corrections, September 26, 2012.
361 As discussed in the report, Human Rights Watch and the American Civil Liberties Union use the term “mental disability”

to refer to this population. The Department of Corrections did not provide data about what percentage of youth subjected to
punitive segregation had a mental disability. Human Rights Watch email correspondence with Sharman Stein, Deputy
Commissioner, New York City Department of Corrections, July 27, 2012; Human Rights Watch email correspondence with
Robin Campbell, Deputy Commissioner, New York City Department of Corrections, September 26, 2012.
362 Human Rights Watch telephone interview with Dora B. Schriro, Commissioner, New York City Department of Corrections,

New York July 6, 2012.
363 This data is for FY2012. Human Rights Watch email correspondence with Sharman Stein, Deputy Commissioner, New York

City Department of Corrections, July 27, 2012; Human Rights Watch email correspondence with Robin Campbell, Deputy
Commissioner, New York City Department of Corrections, September 26, 2012.

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132

Officials provided data that suggests that adolescents are subjected to longer periods of
time in solitary confinement than adults; and generally spend longer than a month in
solitary confinement, with some adolescents spending significantly longer periods in
solitary.364

Table 2: Time spent in punitive segregation in New York City
Punitive Segregation Durations for Adolescents
Average Length of Stay

43.1 days

Median Length of Stay

29 days

Modal Length of Stay

20 days
Punitive Segregation Durations for Adults

Average Length of Stay

42.3 days

Median Length of Stay

27.3 days

Modal Length of Stay

18 days

Finally, officials provided data that suggests that adolescents subjected to solitary
confinement are broadly representative of the general population of adolescents in terms
of the offense with which they are charged.365

Table 3: Charges of adolescents in segregation in New York City compared to general
population
Adolescents in Punitive Segregation

All Adolescents

Charged Offense

% of Total

Charged Offense

% of Total

Robbery

45.4%

Robbery

43.7%

Murder/attempted

16.1%

Murder/attempted

14.2%

murder/manslaughter

murder/manslaughter

Weapons

9.5%

Weapons

8.2%

Assault

8.2%

Assault

7.0%

Other felonies

4.7%

Burglary

6.9%

364 This data is for FY2012. Human Rights Watch email correspondence with Sharman Stein, Deputy Commissioner, New York

City Department of Corrections, July 27, 2012; Human Rights Watch email correspondence with Robin Campbell, Deputy
Commissioner, New York City Department of Corrections, September 26, 2012.
365 Note that the data, which is for FY2012, is not completely parallel between the two groups. Human Rights Watch email
correspondence with Sharman Stein, Deputy Commissioner, New York City Department of Corrections, July 27, 2012; Human
Rights Watch email correspondence with Robin Campbell, Deputy Commissioner, New York City Department of Corrections,
September 26, 2012.

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HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH/ACLU | OCTOBER 2012

Young people held in solitary confinement in New York City jails described being allowed
out of their cell for one hour each day in a caged recreation area, but two young people
told us that they were only allowed exercise if they woke up before breakfast and
requested it. They also reported being let out of their cell for a short shower once per day.
Young people reported being able to receive regular visits from loved ones. Three young
people said they were able to access reading and writing materials while in solitary
confinement, but that the only educational programming they were permitted were in-cell
study packets. One young person said he or she had attempted suicide while in solitary
confinement.

Avenues for Reform
In spite of these challenges, the legal and policy landscape in New York is shifting in a
positive direction. New York lawmakers have introduced legislation that would raise the
age of criminal majority to 18.366 New York City recently announced a new program that may
deliver additional services to young people held in solitary confinement; and a new
disciplinary approach to minor infractions, involving short-term disciplinary room
confinement.367 Jail officials in Erie County and New York City have acknowledged that
young people are different, and have signaled openness to additional reform. Captain
Hartman, of Erie County, told us,
[I] [c]an tell you with absolute certainty that there is a point with everybody,
but with these minors that point is much sooner, when solitary confinement
goes from being an effective management tool and goes to being
counterproductive. And when it goes to being counterproductive, it gets
very rapidly, rapidly worse.… Teenagers live for now and today and don’t
take consequences into account. Whether it’s hormonal, emotional—

366 New

York State Bill A9424-2011/S7020-2011, http://open.nysenate.gov/legislation/bill/A9424-2011 (accessed August 27,

2012).
367 “New

Privately Funded Program to Reduce Reincarceration—ABLE—is part of City’s comprehensive Young Men’s Initiative,”
August 2, 2012, News from the Blue Room, NYC.gov press release,
http://www.nyc.gov/portal/site/nycgov/menuitem.c0935b9a57bb4ef3daf2f1c701c789a0/index.jsp?pageID=mayor_press_r
elease&catID=1194&doc_name=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.nyc.gov%2Fhtml%2Fom%2Fhtml%2F2012b%2Fpr28512.html&cc=unused1978&rc=1194&ndi=1 (accessed August 27, 2012); Human Rights Watch telephone interview with Dora B.
Schriro, Commissioner, New York City Department of Corrections, New York, July 6, 2012; New York City Board Of Corrections
Letter to Commissioner Dora Schriro, September 20, 2012,
http://www.nyc.gov/html/boc/downloads/pdf/Variance_Documents/201208/CELL%20RESTRICTION%20APPROVAL%20LTR.
pdf (accessed October 2, 2012).

GROWING UP LOCKED DOWN

134

regardless of the reason—fact is fact. [There] [n]eeds to be [an] environment
that understands that and takes that into account—and channels all that
stuff so it’s not coming out violently.… Inmates who are successful in
managing [their] own behavior in jail should be rewarded and provided
incentives for continuing. There should be tangible consequences for not
doing that, but something to look forward to if they do, but [by] using
different amounts of privilege, living conditions, all that sort of stuff.368
Commissioner Schriro of the New York City Department of Corrections told us,
If you can get in quick enough, [the ideal] would be the equivalent of ‘go to
your room.’ A lot of these [conflicts] start small. If you have one youth who
is monopolizing the channel-changer [for the housing area television], the
option now [] if he does not respond is to infract him [which results in
punitive segregation]. What I prefer is ‘go to your room young man’ and
then to create a mechanism for review—so every two hours you double back
and it wouldn’t go any longer than six hours—so that it doesn’t go beyond a

de facto punitive segregation in your housing unit. So when you are ready
to come out, all is forgiven.369
To continue down the road to reform, New York must ensure that young people under age
18 are never subjected to solitary confinement in jails or in prisons.370

368 Human Rights Watch telephone interview with Jeffrey Hartman, Captain, Erie County Holding Center, New York, March 2,
2012.
369 Human Rights Watch telephone interview with with Dora B. Schriro, Commissioner, New York City Department of
Corrections, New York, July 6, 2012.
370 For detailed recommendations, see recommendations section above.

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HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH/ACLU | OCTOBER 2012

STATE CASE STUDIES: PENNSYLVANIA
Youth in Adult Jails an d Youth in Solitary Confine ment

Allegheny County Jail: "We didn 't do anything
wrong to be put in isolation. They soy it's to
protect us but I think it puts us in more danger .
... [ H/ow could we be chorged as men but be

separated from men. It makes no s ense. If

thot's the case, keep our cases at juvenile if
they wont to protect us."
. Written correspondence with Charles O. (pseudonym),
April 10, 2012, held in jail at age 15

•
•
•

•

••
•
• •
•
'
•
•
•
•• •
•
• • ••• •

.

Philadelphia Industrial Correctional Center;
" The hardest port;s being behind glass when

your family visits and you con't hold your family. "
• Interview with Craig G. (pseudonym), January 2012.

held in jail 01 age 15

• facilities that have reported II young person under
age 18 held on June 30 In the Annual Survey of Jails
in the past 6 years (2006 - 2011) and facilities in
which one or more young people Identified by
Human Rights Watch and the American Civil liberties
Union reported beln, held In solitary confinement
while they were under age 18.
You"! p.e'ople under are 18 ale held ,n adult lai ~ilnd In wlitd'V
confinement oKf1)~~the Unite<::l5lolleS. The la(mti~ $.hown a~
no! an ..... hau~tive list 01 all lac j l;!I~~ that hold YOU"! peoplf'
under aJt 18 or thllt ~ubie{ t themlo sollla,y conlinement.

Source: Human Rilhl ~ Watch inte .... i~iand corre-sponde<>ce
wUhyoung people; ,ails at MidVNrSU ....ty (1OOfj. }0111,
B.ureau 01 lu~lke Sla t i~ti(\" US o.p.artmenl of 1.. '>I,ce .

GROWING UP LOCKED DOWN

136

Human Rights Watch and the American Civil Liberties Union have found that some
Pennsylvania jails (also called county prisons) and prisons use solitary confinement to
detain and manage young people under age 18 in a range of circumstances.371 Human
Rights Watch and the American Civil Liberties Union interviewed or corresponded with 11
individuals who reported being subjected to one or more periods of solitary confinement
while under 18 in jails in Alleghany, Dauphin, Lackawanna, Lebanon, Lehigh, and
Philadelphia Counties; and in state prison. Though not investigated by Human Rights Watch
and the American Civil Liberties Union, officials in Beaver, Blair, Berks, Bucks, Carbon,
Chester, Crawford, Cumberland, Delaware, Erie, Fayette, Franklin, Juniata, Lancaster,
Luzerne, Monroe, Montgomery, Northampton, Schuylkill, Union, Westmoreland and York,
Counties have reported detaining young people under age 18 in the last six years.372 Human
Rights Watch also interviewed or corresponded with state jail and prison officials.

The Law and Policy Landscape
Pennsylvania law and policy governing jails and prisons permit holding young people in
various forms of prolonged isolation or segregation that can constitute solitary
confinement.373

Pennsylvania Jails (also called county prisons)
By statute, young people under age 18 charged as if adults may be held in jails.374 Under a
legislative reform passed in 2010, young people charged as if adults can be “transferred”
back into the juvenile justice system.375 But even young people awaiting transfer may be
held in adult jails. The state requires that young people under age 18 held in adult jails be

371 In Pennsylvania, county detention facilities are called “county prisons.” However, because the term “jail” is used

throughout the report, it is retained here for the sake of consistency.
372 Jails at Mid-Year Survey (2006 - 2011), Bureau of Justice Statistics, US Department of Justice.
373 Throughout the report, “solitary confinement” is used to refer to physical and social isolation that extended for more than

22 hours each day and lasted for one or more days. UN Human Rights Council, Interim Report of the Special Rapporteur on
torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, Juan Mendez, U.N. G.A. Doc. A/66/268, August 5,
2011, http://daccess-ddsny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/N11/445/70/PDF/N1144570.pdf?OpenElement (accessed August 27,
2012). This report does not address the practice of holding two individuals in prolonged segregation, but Human Rights
Watch and mental health experts have raised serious concerns about the practice.
374 Pa. Cons. Stat. § 6327(c)-(d). Youth under age 18 are charged as adults through the operation of statutory language

excluding certain crimes from the definition of “delinquent acts.” Pa. Const. Stat. § 6302.
375 Pa. Cons. Stat. § 6322.

137

HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH/ACLU | OCTOBER 2012

separated by sight and sound from adults.376 But there is no prohibition in state law
against holding young people in solitary confinement in adult jails.377
Pennsylvania jails reported—in a daily snapshot—holding 215 young people under age 18
in 66 jails on January 31, 2012.378 Jail officials in Carbon, Chester, Clinton, and Mifflin
counties reported that adolescents are subject to the same disciplinary rules as adults
when confined in their facilities.379 Officials in Clinton and Chester Counties told Human
Rights Watch that young people under age 18 can be sentenced to time in segregation for
disciplinary infractions, during which they are permitted out of their cell for less than two
hours each day.380 Such conditions constitute solitary confinement.

Pennsylvania Prisons
The Pennsylvania Department of Corrections (PA DOC) holds young people who are
convicted of criminal offenses and sentenced while under age 18. Young people and adults
under age nineteen-and-a-half are housed at Secure Correctional Institution Pine Grove
(SCI Pine Grove) when entering department custody and participate in the Young Adult
Offender Program through age 21.381 As of July 31, 2012, there were 899 inmates under age
22 at SCI Pine Grove.382 There is no prohibition in state law or PA DOC policies or
regulations against holding young people in solitary confinement in Pennsylvania prisons.

376 Pa. Cons. Stat. § 6327(c)(3).
377 The various forms of solitary confinement are discussed in Section III of the report.
378 Pennsylvania jails report detention data to the State Department of Corrections. It is available at

http://www.portal.state.pa.us/portal/server.pt/document/1259638/2012_county_statistics_xls (accessed September 26,
2012).
379 Human Rights Watch telephone interview with Jack Healy, Director of Inmate Services, Chester County Prison,

Pennsylvania, February 29, 2012; Letter from Bernie Zook, Administrator/Warden, Mifflin County Correctional Facility,
Pennsylvania, to Human Rights Watch, January 3, 2012; Letter from Joseph Gross, Warden, Carbon County Correctional
Facility, Pennsylvania, to Human Rights Watch, January 6, 2012; and Letter from Jacqueline Motter, Deputy Warden, Clinton
County Correctional Facility, Pennsylvania, to Human Rights Watch, February 13, 2012.
380 Human Rights Watch telephone interview with Jack Healy, Director of Inmate Services, Chester County Prison,

Pennsylvania, February 29, 2012; Letter from Jacqueline Motter, Deputy Warden, Clinton County Correctional Facility,
Pennsylvania, to Human Rights Watch, February 13, 2012.
381 Human Rights Watch telephone interview with Eric Bush, Superintendent, Secure Correctional Institution Pine Grove,

Pennsylvania Department of Corrections, June 21, 2012; Policy 11.2.1, Pennsylvania Department of Corrections, “Reception
and Classification,”
http://www.portal.state.pa.us/portal/server.pt/document/916502/11_02_01_reception___classification_pdf (accessed
August 27, 2012), section 8(A).
382 Pennsylvania Department of Corrections, Monthly Population Report,

http://www.portal.state.pa.us/portal/server.pt/document/ (accessed August 27, 2012).

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138

PA DOC officials reported that, while they seek to avoid placing young people in punitive or
administrative solitary confinement, young people are housed in this way.383 Officials
reported that the inmates at SCI Pine Grove are held in administrative or disciplinary
confinement at high rates: “It has historically been about 10 percent of the population;
about 4-5 percent are those we can’t incorporate back into the population.… So that drives
our average in the [Restrictive Housing Unit] 4-5 percent higher than [other prisons].”384 On
April 30, 2012, 10.9 percent of inmates under 22 at SCI Pine Grove were held in either
administrative or disciplinary confinement.385 However, officials report that they try to
exercise their authority—when possible—to reduce the length of time young people spend
in disciplinary confinement. Eric Bush, the superintendent at SCI Pine Grove, told us,
The facility manager can reduce the time. And we use that tool. If we have an
opportunity to reduce their DC [Disciplinary Confinement] status we try to do
that. Unfortunately, some of them get into gang issues and they can’t be put
back into population. There [are] also mandatory issues that we can’t reduce
[under the Inmate Discipline Policy]—like assaulting a staff member.386

Research Findings
Pennsylvania Jails (also called county prisons)
Human Rights Watch and the American Civil Liberties Union interviewed or corresponded
with six young people who reported being held in protective solitary confinement while in
pre-trial detention in Pennsylvania jails. Five of those young people reported spending
more than a month in protective solitary confinement. Human Rights Watch and the
American Civil Liberties Union interviewed five young people who reported being held in
punitive solitary confinement while in pre-trial detention in Pennsylvania jails. Three of
those young people said they spent more than one period in punitive solitary confinement
of 15 days or more. Human Rights Watch and the American Civil Liberties Union interviewed

383 Human Rights Watch telephone interview with Marshall Shirley, Deputy, Secure Correctional Institution Pine Grove,

Pennsylvania Department of Corrections, Pennsylvania, June 21, 2012.
384 Ibid.
385 Pennsylvania Department of Corrections, Monthly Population Report,

http://www.portal.state.pa.us/portal/server.pt/document/.
386 Human Rights Watch telephone interview with Eric Bush, June 21, 2012; See also Policy DC-ADM 801,

Pennsylvania
Department of Corrections, “Inmate Discipline,”
http://www.portal.state.pa.us/portal/server.pt/document/916568/801_inmate_discipline_pdf (accessed August 27, 2012),
section 4(B)(7).

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HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH/ACLU | OCTOBER 2012

three young people who reported spending two or more days in medical solitary
confinement to quarantine them when they first entered jail.
Young people held in solitary confinement in Pennsylvania jails generally described being
allowed out of their cell one or two hours each day into a day room or common space,
generally alone, during which they could shower and sometimes make phone calls to
loved ones. Young people reported being able to receive visits from loved ones, but one
young person told us he or she was unable to have contact visits. Three young people said
they were unable to access any reading materials and one young person reported being
unable to access writing materials in his or her cell while in solitary confinement. One
young person said he or she had considered suicide while in solitary confinement.

Pennsylvania Prisons
Human Rights Watch and the American Civil Liberties Union corresponded with two young
people who reported being held in punitive solitary confinement while in state prison in
Pennsylvania. One of those young people reported having spent eight-and-a-half months
in punitive solitary confinement while under age 18.
Pennsylvania prison regulations mandate that young people in punitive or administrative
solitary confinement receive only one hour of recreation each day, five days a week.387
Officials confirmed that young people receive an in-cell study packet, meet weekly with a
counselor, and with a psychological expert “regularly,” but, “other than that they are pretty
much in their cell.”388

387 Inmates in PA DOC custody who are placed in administrative confinement are subject to periodic review from the Program

Review Committee, his or her counselor, and the Unit Management Team. A qualified psychologist or psychiatrist is to
personally interview and conduct an assessment of any inmate remaining in administrative confinement for longer than 30
calendar days. For inmates kept further in administrative confinement for an extended period, a mental health assessment is
to be completed every 90 calendar days. Policy DC-ADM 802, Pennsylvania Department of Corrections, “Administrative
Custody Procedures,”
www.portal.state.pa.us/portal/server.pt/document/919463/802_administrative_custody_procedures_pdf+&hl=en&g
(accessed August 27, 2012), section (2)(D). Inmates in administrative confinement are permitted only non-contact visits and
are permitted exercise one hour per day, five days per week. Ibid., section (3)(D)(6).
388 Human Rights Watch telephone interview with Jeff Dunmire, School Principal, Secure Correctional Institution Pine Grove,

Pennsylvania Department of Corrections, Pennsylvania, June 21, 2012.

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Avenues for Reform
The legal and policy landscape in Pennsylvania is shifting, and must move further if it is to
adequately protect young people. The 2010 reform that permits young people charged as if
adults to be transferred to the juvenile justice system is a promising change.389 But the
state must change its approach to detaining and managing young people. Fortunately,
officials within the PA DOC acknowledge that young people are different, and that solitary
confinement is not an effective way to manage young people. Eric Bush put it this way:
I most definitely think there is a heightened risk for young adults. They are
so impulsive and sometimes they “act out” out of anger rather than an
intention to hurt themselves—or attention-seeking behaviors.… [Prolonged
isolation] is detrimental to the youth. Unfortunately, we have people
confined.… [O]ver the years we have learned that they don’t get anything
out of that. They really don’t. My personal opinion is that it is a detriment to
them to keep them in restrictive housing for any length of time.
Unfortunately, those [Departmental rules] are the policies that guide us.…
There is not enough to be gained on an individual basis for them to prepare
themselves for release in restrictive housing.390
To continue down the road to reform, Pennsylvania must ensure that young people under
age 18 are never subjected to solitary confinement in jails or in prisons.391

389 See Campaign for Youth Justice, “The Pennsylvania Success Story: Pennsylvania Allows for Youth Sentenced as Adults

to be Served by Juvenile Facilities,” March 2011, http://www.campaignforyouthjustice.org/documents/PA_SB_1169.pdf
(accessed August 27, 2012).
390 Human Rights Watch telephone interview with Eric Bush, June 21, 2012
391 For detailed recommendations, see recommendations section above.

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HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH/ACLU | OCTOBER 2012

Growing Up Locked Down
Youth in Solitary Confinement in Jails and Prisons Across the United States
Every day in jails and prisons across the United States, large numbers of young people under age 18 are held in solitary
confinement. They spend 22 or more hours each day physically and socially isolated in a small cell, often for weeks or even
months on end. Adolescents in solitary confinement are routinely denied access to needed treatment, services, and
programming. The practice is serious and widespread.
The solitary confinement of adults can cause severe pain and suffering and can violate international human rights and US
constitutional law. But the potential damage to young people, who do not have the maturity of an adult and are at a particularly
vulnerable stage of life, is much greater. Yet, solitary confinement of young people is not necessary; there are alternative ways
to address the problems that officials cite as justifications for using solitary confinement.
Human Rights Watch and the American Civil Liberties Union call on US federal and state governments to prohibit the solitary
confinement of young people under age 18; prohibit the housing of adolescents with adults or in adult jails and prisons; strictly
limit and regulate all forms of segregation and isolation; and monitor and report on the segregation and isolation of young
people, whenever they are deprived of their liberty.

A cell at the Pinellas County jail, an adult facility
where young people are held in solitary
confinement. One girl interviewed for the report
said she spent four months in isolation there.
© 2008 AP Photo/Pinellas County Sheriff's Office

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