Extended solitary confinement in California prisons was supposed to have ended, for all practical purposes, after a 2015 legal settlement in a case brought by plaintiffs who had been held in isolation for 10 years or longer in the security housing unit at Pelican Bay State Prison, near Crescent City.
That same year, on the other side of the country, Kalief Browder ended his own life after having been traumatized by 700 days in isolation at the Rikers Island jail complex in New York for allegedly stealing a backpack. Browder’s death and the California settlement brought nationwide attention to solitary confinement, a cruel practice that eliminates human contact except for a few minutes a day.
Then-President Barack Obama called on the nation to reconsider solitary confinement, correctly noting that studies show that it tends to increase hostility and violence.
