Justice Kennedy challenges solitary confinement

Staff Report

“Earlier this summer, Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy took the unusual step of condemning long-term solitary confinement, writing a separate opinion in a California death penalty case that had nothing to do with the issue,” according to the Associated Press.

It wasn't the first time Kennedy had spoken out on the topic. He testified before Congress in March that American prisons rely too much on holding inmates in isolation and said it "literally drives men mad."

Kennedy wrote:

 “…it is likely respondent has been held for all or most of the past 20 years or more in a windowless cell no larger than a typical parking spot for 23 hours a day; and in the one hour when he leaves it, he likely is allowed little or no opportunity for conversation or interaction with anyone.

“…solitary confinement bears ‘a further terror and peculiar mark of infamy.’” 

“…in many cases, it is as if a judge had no choice but to say: ‘In imposing this capital sentence, the court is well aware that during the many years you will serve in prison before your execution, the penal system has a solitary confinement regime that will bring you to the edge of madness, perhaps to madness itself.’”

Citing scholarly works on solitary confinement, Kennedy wrote, these works, “…no doubt will aid in the consideration of the many issues solitary confinement presents. And consideration of these issues is needed.

“…research still confirms what this Court suggested over a century ago: Years on end of near-total isolation exacts a terrible price.”

The Gayly – September 3, 2015 @ 11:30am.