Solitary Confinement Misused In Pennsylvania Prison
Harrisburg, PA – A federal civil rights probe has discovered that a Pennsylvania state prison kept seriously mentally ill inmates in solitary confinement for months, even years, at a time.
According to the findings of the US Justice Department investigation, the State Correctional Institution at Cresson off US Route 22 – an all-male medium-security facility – violated the constitutional rights of inmates with mental illness and intellectual disabilities, under the terms of the Constitution and Americans with Disabilities Act.
The Cresson prison, which was built in 1913, houses about 1,500 inmates.
Prisoners suffering with extreme mental illness were often retained inside their cells nearly 24 hours a day – left to languish, decompensate, and harm themselves – reflecting the serious deficiencies in its mental health program. The review also revealed a denial of basic needs and use of excessive force.
On January 8, 2013 the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections officials announced the prison would be closing in June. However, the Justice Department is concerned the misuse of solitary confinement could extend to prisons statewide. Therefore, the department is expanding its investigation to include all state prisons.
Solitary confinement is a special form of imprisonment in which a prisoner is isolated from human contact, with the exception of members of prison staff. It is sometimes employed as a form of punishment beyond incarceration for a prisoner and has been cited as an additional measure of protection from the inmate or is given for violations of prison regulations. Solitary is also used as a form of protective custody and to implement a suicide watch.
Critics argue that this method of punishment does not rehabilitate inmates but rather serves to promote psychological harm. Solitary Confinement is considered to be a form of psychological torture when the period of confinement is longer than a few weeks or is continued indefinitely.
The abuse of solitary or prolonged detention where individuals are forcibly isolated can cause or add to preexisting bouts of depression, mental strain, psychosis, encourage self-mutilation and suicidal tendencies.
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