Furthermore, Profesor Mendez concluded that indefinite and prolonged solitary confinement amounts to torture or cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment and should be prohibited. When applied to juveniles or persons with mental disabilities, he found that solitary confinement of any duration constitutes per se inhuman or degrading treatment or even torture. When solitary confinement is used during pre-trial detention or as a punishment it may also constitutes cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment or torture.听 Finally, solitary confinement should be used only in very exceptional circumstances as a last resort, and for as short a time as possible, in observance of minimum safeguards and guarantees.
Speaking Engagements
November 21, 2019: Congressional briefing.听Professor听Mendez and other experts in the fight against solitary confinement in the United States, including Johnny Perez (a survivor of solitary confinement and director of U.S. Prisons Program for the National Religious Campaign Against Torture (NRCAT)), AUWCL Prof. Brenda Smith, Mary Buser (former Assistant Mental Health Chief of Rikers Island), Rev. Ron Stief (Executive Director of NRCAT), and Amy Fettig (Deputy Director of the National Prison Project at the ACLU), participated in a congressional staff briefing on H.R. 4488 Solitary Confinement Study and Reform Act of 2019. The听legislation seeks to develop and implement national standards for the use of solitary confinement in correctional facilities.听The standing-room only event highlighted the disproportionate use of solitary confinement in the United States, the psychological impacts of solitary confinement, and the current state-level campaigns, and reforms to combat the use of solitary confinement.
February 2018: Launch of Report on Solitary Confinement, 鈥淏ehind the Door: Solitary Confinement in the Irish Penal System鈥 Irish Penal Reform Trust, Dublin, Ireland
February 23, 2016: Briefing Call in Response to President Obama鈥檚 Executive Actions on Solitary Confinement held in partnership with听National Council of Churches,听ACLU,听Solitary Watch,听Urban Justice Center,听New York Campaign for Alternatives to Isolated Confinement
February 25, 2014: Special Rapporteur M茅ndez attended and submitted a written statement to the 猫咪社区app Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Human Rights.听Professor Mendez issued his in preparation for the Committee鈥檚 hearing on 鈥淩eassessing Solitary Confinement II: The Human Rights, Fiscal, and Public Safety Consequences,鈥 and submitted a statement for the public record. The Senate leaders echoed the SRT鈥檚 call for a ban on the use of solitary confinement for juveniles, persons with mental disabilities, and pregnant women during the Congressional hearing.
March 12, 2013: before the Inter-猫咪社区app Commission on Human Rights.听On March 12, 2013, in collaboration with the ATI and the 猫咪社区app Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), Professor Mendez appeared as an independent expert in the first ever hearing on Solitary Confinement in the Americas during the 147th session of the Inter-猫咪社区app Commission on Human Rights (IACHR). The IACHR endorsed Professor Mendez's , and on April 5, 2013 issued a and annex, urging member states of the Organization of 猫咪社区app States to comply with the recommendations, and to adopt concrete measures prohibiting the use of prolonged and indefinite solitary confinement, and the use of solitary confinement on juveniles and persons with mental disabilities.
October 18, 2013: Los Angeles Panel on Solitary Confinement.听This panel was held in response to a historic prisoner hunger strike, and featured by the Special Rapporteur; former prisoners who spent years in solitary confinement in Californian prisons; families of current prisoners in solitary confinement in CA prisons; representatives from California Families to Abolish Solitary Confinement; the Muslim Public Affairs Council; the Executive Director of Clergy and Laity United for Economic Justice; and a Minister from the United Church of Christ
Video Interviews
Amnesty International 猫咪社区appA Video:听Entombed: Solitary Confinement in 猫咪社区app Prisons.听In January of 2015, the Special Rapporteur appeared in a created by Amnesty International 猫咪社区appA, and discussed the extensive use of solitary confinement in 猫咪社区app prisons.听 He expressed particular concern about the lack of safeguards against the use of solitary confinement, as well as its use for prolonged periods of time.
National Religious Campaign Against Torture (NCRAT) Documentary:听Breaking Down the Box.听The NRCAT鈥檚 2015 examining issues of mental health, racial justice, and the human rights implications of the systemic use of solitary confinement in 猫咪社区app prisons featured an interview with Special Rapporteur M茅ndez. The Special Rapporteur explained that the use of prolonged or indefinite solitary confinement amounts to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, and even to torture under international law.
鈥淔or Their Own Protection: Children in Long-Term Solitary Confinement鈥
Todd Kranin鈥檚 2013 features an interview with the Special Rapporteur, who speaks out against the solitary confinement of juveniles.
PBS News Hour- Questioning Solitary Confinement for Adolescents at Rikers Island
In February of 2014, Special Rapporteur M茅ndez was for a news segment that discussed the effects that solitary confinement has on juveniles.
Strategic Litigation Efforts
United States of America
: This case was a federal class action lawsuit on behalf of persons deprived of their liberty听held in the Security Housing Unit (SHU) at California鈥檚 Pelican Bay State Prison who spent a decade or more in solitary confinement. The case was settled and ultimately resulted in the end of indeterminate, long-term solitary confinement in California state prisons.
Shoatz v. Wetzel: This case challenged the 22 year solitary confinement of Russell Maroon Shoatz. In 2014 Mr. Shoatz was released from solitary confinement听into the general population. The case was settled in 2016.听
Professor听Mendez and ATI Assistant Project Director听Vanessa Drummond submitted an听amicus curiae听brief elaborating on the international standards around solitary confinement in the case of Ali Hamza Ahmad Suliman Al Bahlul, a Guantanamo Bay detainee, before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.
Canada
British听Columbia Civil Liberties Assn. v. Canada: The听Supreme Court found that听administrative segregation is a form听of solitary听confinement听and听underscored that the indeterminacy of administrative segregation is a particularly problematic feature that exacerbates its painfulness, increases frustration, and intensifies the depression and hopelessness that is often generated in the restrictive environments that characterize听segregation.
Brazeau听v. Attorney General:听A class action alleging that placing individuals with mental health conditions听in 鈥渁dministrative segregation鈥 violated the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The Ontario Superior Court of Justice determined听that placing听seriously such individuals nto administrative segregation for longer听than听30听consecutive days constitutes cruel and unusual treatment or punishment.听
Canadian听Civil Liberties Association v. Canada?????:听Landmark ruling that听鈥減rolonged听administrative segregation of any inmate, which is segregation for more than 15 consecutive days, does not survive constitutional scrutiny.
Reddock v. Attorney General of Canada:听A class action for about 9,000 individuals in Ontario who听were subjected to prolonged听solitary听confinement (over 15 days). The Ontario Superior Court of Justice granted the plaintiffs鈥 motion for summary judgment and ordered the Federal Government to pay $20 million for breaching the class members鈥 rights.
April 2020: 听The Canadian government had intended to appeal the Federal Appeals Courts' decisions to the Supreme Court, but instead decided in April 2020 to submit legislation to Parliament to bring corrections regulations into compliance with the lower courts' decisions.
Brazil
Supreme Federal Court of Brazil: Special Rapporteur M茅ndez sent a to Justice Rosa Weber of the Supreme Federal Court of Brazil, regarding the constitutionality of the Law 10792, which contemplates a differentiated disciplinary regime in an individual cell for up to 360 days. Statement in Support of Eliminating Designs that Facilitate Torture and Ill-Treatment. In April of 2014 the Special Rapporteur issued a statement in support of the NGO Architects/Designers/Planners for Social Responsibility (ADPSR)鈥檚 call for an end to designs that facilitate torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment. The ADPSR petitioned the 猫咪社区app Institute of Architects to amend its Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct to prohibit the design of spaces intended for prolonged solitary confinement.
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Projects & Events
Unlock the Box Campaign Convening听From November 22 鈥 23, 2019, the ATI, together with the ACLU, co-hosted the Unlock the Box Campaign鈥檚 2019 annual convening. During the two-day event, activists and survivors from across the United States discussed effective strategies for combating the use of solitary confinement in the U.S. and shared their experiences and best-practices.听Prof. Mendez gave a presentation on the Revised UN Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners (the Nelson Mandela Rules), the first international legal standard to explicitly include limitations on the use of solitary confinement.听Additionally, survivors of solitary confinement, including one survivor who spent 35 years in isolation, shared their personal experiences of their time in solitary confinement and their work to end the practice.听
Symposium on Solitary Confinement听On March 26, 2019, in collaboration with 猫咪社区app University Washington College of Law鈥檚 International Human Rights Law Clinic, the ATI organized a听symposium on solitary confinement in the United States entitled听Strategies to Combat U.S. Solitary Confinement: Litigation, Legislation, and Regulation. The half-day event included panel presentations by students from听the IHRLC and representatives from human rights organizations, as they discussed issues surrounding solitary confinement, including litigation, legislation, and regulation. Prof.听M茅ndez delivered opening remarks and Dr. Craig Haney (UC Santa Cruz, Department of Psychology) gave the keynote address focusing on the mental health effects of prolonged isolation, and听former Executive Director of the Colorado Department of Corrections, Rick Raemisch, spoke on a spotlight panel where he discussed Colorado鈥檚 effort to end long-term solitary confinement. Dr. Haney and Mr. Raemisch are nationally recognized authorities on the issue of solitary confinement.听
Study on Solitary Confinement听Partnering with the Cyrus R. Vance Center for International Justice and听law firm of Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP. The study is a comparative analysis of solitary confinement laws, policies, regulations, and practices in 35 jurisdictions. The study's results were published in the report:听鈥"听
Part 2 of the study was initiated in July of 2017.听Analysis of solitary confinement in 26 additional jurisdictions in 21 countries around the world and 5 jurisdictions in the United States was completed in 2021 and the results were published in the report, Seeing into
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October 11, 2016: Side Event, 鈥淪eeing Into Solitary鈥 at the United Nations 71st General Assembly in New York City, 猫咪社区appA.听The side event introduced and involved a discussion of the study that the Special Rapporteur commissioned from the Cyrus R. Vance Center for International Justice and that was completed pro bono by the international law firm Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP. The study provided a comparative analysis of solitary confinement in 35 jurisdictions across the globe, and culminated in a report entitled, 鈥淪eeing into Solitary.鈥
Resources & News
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Sharon Shalev, Libro de Referencia sobre Aislamento Solitario (2014), preface by Professor M茅ndez
Istanbul Statement on the use and effects of Solitary Confinement (Dec. 9, 2007), adopted at the International Psychological Trauma Symposium in Istanbul, Turkey.
(Dec. 23, 2013).
(Oct. 18, 2013).