California to Limit Solitary Confinement in Prisons

California to Limit Solitary Confinement in Prisons

California will put an end to the practice of keeping prisoners in solitary confinement for decades because of gang affiliation, under a proposed legal settlement announced Tuesday.

The settlement, disclosed by state officials and lawyers for inmates, could result in the release from isolation of more than half of the 3,000 prisoners now in solitary confinement in the state. The settlement must still be approved by a judge.

The agreement comes amid renewed attention to the use of isolation in prisons and jails around the country, and the effect it has on prisoners. Earlier this year, New York City officials announced a plan to end solitary confinement of inmates under 21 years old at Rikers Island jail complex.

Under the changes in California, prisoners would no longer be put into solitary for indeterminate periods just for being affiliated with a gang. Instead, isolation would be used for set amounts of time as punishment for offenses such as assault or other rules violations.

State prison officials will evaluate inmates in solitary to determine whether they should be let back into the general population. According to the settlement, some inmates deemed psychotic and dangerous will still be kept in isolation indefinitely.

The suit was brought in 2012 by inmates at Pelican Bay State Prison, located near the Oregon border. At the time, more than 500 prisoners there had been held in isolation for over ten years and 78 had been in solitary for more than 20 years, according to attorneys for the plaintiffs. They spent 22 ½ to 24 hours every day in a “cramped, concrete, windowless cell,” they said.

Jeffrey Beard, Secretary of the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, said the changes would bring California in line with other states, which he said don’t use solitary confinement as much. Mr. Beard said that California has already released about 1100 inmates from solitary with few problems in recent years.

“In some of the institutions, they’re some of the better inmates,” said Mr. Beard. “They want nothing to do with going back to Pelican Bay.”

The state’s prison guards union has argued that the changes could lead to more dangerous conditions for guards as gang members are let back into the general population.

Last month, inmate Hugo Pinell was killed in a prison riot just weeks after getting out of solitary where he had spent more than four decades. Mr. Pinell was involved in the 1971 prison escape at San Quentin State Prison that left six people dead.

Marie Levin, whose brother Ronnie Dewberry has been in solitary since 1990 at Pelican Bay, said she has only had limited visits with her brother, with glass separating them.

Mr. Dewberry, a convicted killer also known as Sitawa Nantambu Jamaa, said in a court declaration that he had no major disciplinary infractions since 1995 but was kept in solitary because he was tagged as a Black Guerrilla Family gang member. He has led hunger strikes in recent years to end solitary confinement.

“It will be a blessing to be able to hold him and give him a hug and give him a kiss,” Ms. Levin said of her brother.

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Republished by the Law Office of Scott A. Ferris, P.A.