opinions
Common sense should tell us that locking up a child alone for 23 hours a day is inhumane. But this practice — solitary confinement — is disturbingly commonplace in state-run juvenile detention facilities across California. Unsurprisingly, such severe isolation can cause serious psychological trauma and sends young people back into their communities worse off than when they entered the criminal justice system. It’s a practice that has no place in a just society — and as Jews, we have a moral responsibility to add our voices to growing calls for reform.
As a deputy public defender in Contra Costa County and a regional council member of Bend the Arc: A Jewish Partnership for Justice, I work directly with clients impacted by this perverse practice and can speak to how antithetical solitary confinement is to Jewish and American values. Visiting my clients in jail, I witness firsthand the severe psychological and emotional damage caused by being locked alone in a cell for 23 hours a day. I see all too clearly how solitary confinement reduces the chances people have to get their lives back on track to re-enter society.
Access to education, substance abuse recovery programs and visits from loved ones while in custody are essential to successful re-entry into family and community life post-incarceration. But these vital resources are denied to young people held in solitary confinement for days, weeks — even months — at a time. Indeed, a significant number of clients who come back to me on repeat offenses do so after having spent time in solitary confinement. This should be no surprise. Housing young people in isolation sends them the clear message: We no longer expect them to return as contributing members of society.
That message directly contravenes our most central Jewish teachings that all have opportunity for teshuvah, or repentance and personal growth. As we look ahead to the coming Days of Awe, we are reminded that the wisdom of our Jewish traditions and legal code demand that repentance happen not in isolation, but with community support and accountability.
Disturbingly, solitary confinement has been used not just as a disciplinary tool, but also as a way for juvenile facilities to avoid dealing with mental illness. In Contra Costa County, where I work, the county recently settled a lawsuit brought by Disability Rights Advocates in partnership with Public Counsel on behalf of juveniles with disabilities, resulting in an agreement to end the use of solitary confinement at our Juvenile Hall.
The suit was filed on behalf of three minors — all youth of color — incarcerated in the county’s Juvenile Hall and placed in solitary confinement for lengthy periods of time, without access to adequate education or mental health services. One of these young men spent more than 100 days in solitary confinement. He was originally placed in isolation by Juvenile Hall staff to deal with his mental illness. He ended up hospitalized for three weeks for a psychotic episode he suffered while in solitary. Sadly, his story is not exceptional. And this problem is not unique to Contra Costa County.
Solitary confinement can also exacerbate or spark mental health problems. For young adults especially, it significantly increases the risk of suicide. Nationwide, approximately half of juveniles who have committed suicide while in custody have done so while in solitary confinement. Isolation has also been shown to cause severe depression and hallucinations. It places young people at grave risk of even more devastating psychological harm as their brains continue to develop through young adulthood.
As practiced in California today, solitary confinement cannot continue — and Jews have an obligation to demand reform. Our teachings call for humane and proportional punishment. Efforts to reform our criminal justice system speak to Jewish values of healing and repairing the world, standing up against oppression and working to achieve a more just society. These are the very goals that a bill winding its way through the state legislature aims to accomplish.
The bill, SB 124, has passed the state Senate and is now in the hands of the Assembly. It would limit the use of solitary confinement at state and county juvenile correctional facilities and create statewide standards and reporting obligations. SB 124 would allow the use of solitary confinement only when a young person poses an immediate and substantial risk of harm, when all less restrictive options have been attempted and exhausted, and only for the minimum time necessary to address the safety risk, not to exceed four hours.
As Jews, we have an opportunity show our legislators that our community cares about treating people humanely in our criminal justice system. All of us should be calling our legislators and joining the advocacy efforts of groups like Bend the Arc: A Jewish Partnership for Justice to ensure that SB 124 is passed by the state Assembly and signed by Gov. Jerry Brown. It’s time for our state to end the use of this perverse practice.
Solitary confinement is one of the most inhumane and degrading practices undertaken by our government. It has no place in a society that values the common humanity in all of us. As Jews, who see every person as made in the divine image, we cannot not stand for it.
Evan Kuluk has been a deputy public defender since 2008. He is a graduate of the Community Studies program at U.C. Santa Cruz and of U.C. Hastings College of the Law, and is an alumnus of Jewish Youth for Community Action. He is an Oakland native.