Bag of Snakes is an occasional email series that highlights different aspects of the criminal punishment system in Arkansas. Learn more here. Use these links to catch up on Part One, Part Two, Part Three, and Part Four.
With the highest rates of incarceration in the nation, Arkansas prisons are in need of reform. In the next email, we will discuss specific recommendations for reform, but for now, let's start by looking at specific reforms in other states to see how solitary confinement is changing across the nation. No state prison system has entirely abolished restrictive housing. However, four states no longer hold anyone in solitary confinement for longer than 15 consecutive days (Colorado, Delaware, North Dakota, and Vermont), and seven others (Connecticut, Hawaii, Maine, Massachusetts, South Dakota, Virginia, and Wyoming) report holding less than 2% of their total prison population in restrictive housing, according to 2019 survey data.
Louisiana
In 2017, the Louisiana Department of Corrections (LADOC) decided to address their use of solitary confinement by starting a two-year partnership with the Vera Institute of Justice’s Safe Alternatives to Segregation initiative. In this partnership, the Vera Institute analyzed prison policy and data, visited prisons, and interviewed staff, incarcerated people, and administration.
As a result of this work, Camp J, reputedly the most punitive prison in the LADOC, closed. At another prison, incarcerated individuals and staff together developed a program to move individuals out of extended isolation. From 2015 to 2019, the LADOC reduced their use of solitary confinement from being 14.5% of the total prison population to 4.8%.
New Jersey
In August of 2020, new state law in New went into effect that limited time in solitary to no more than 20 consecutive days or 30 days in a 60 day period. Additionally, the new law prohibits isolation of individuals under age 21 and over age 64, individuals with disabilities, pregnant women, and LGBTQ individuals, except in rare circumstances.
Acting Commissioner of New Jersey Department of Corrections Marcus O. Hicks hailed the new law as a way to prevent “wrongful overuse” of solitary by future state corrections administrators. “The Department of Corrections strives to rehabilitate the offender population and prepare them for success. Limiting the overuse of isolated confinement will further assist the Department in achieving this goal.”
Idaho
Idaho corrections leaders and civil rights advocates spearheaded an
in-depth policy review and revision process, and personnel took part in training and trips to other state prison systems to learn from their reform successes. Efforts were stepped up to transition people out of segregation, particularly those with mental illness. By June 2018, the segregated population declined from 294 to 165. The new policy allowed those in restrictive housing to be out of their cells three hours per day.
North Dakota
In 2015, Leanne Bertsch, who was then the North Dakota prison chief, took a trip to Norway to learn about more humane alternatives to solitary confinement. She applied what she learned to re-training correctional officers, who are now expected to “engage each [incarcerated individual] in friendly conversation, change-oriented discussion, or practice of a cognitive or behavioral skill at least twice per day."
With these changes, the number of people in administrative segregation (a type of solitary confinement) has declined by 70%, and the average stay solitary 30-60 days.
Mississippi
Mississippi prisons underwent significant reform as the result of a decade of advocacy and litigation. These reforms included closing the Mississippi supermax prison in 2010 and moving individuals with serious mental illness out of solitary and into special housing where they received intensive mental health treatment.
In the past year, Mississippi’s great strides in reforms to administrative segregation sadly were set back by gang violence and the deaths of at least five inmates. These events stemmed from the prisons being awash in weapons and cell phones, as well as severe shortages of guards, with vacancy rates as high as 50% at some facilities (Mississippi offers the lowest starting pay to guards of any state in the South), and increased reliance on lockdowns that eventually triggered the violence. Nonetheless, the reforms to the use of solitary confinement in Mississippi still stand as an example of what is possible.
Colorado
Colorado prisons once relied heavily on solitary confinement, but no more. Significant reforms are largely credited to Rick Raemisch, who is now retired as director of Colorado corrections. After studying data on the effects of isolation, Raemisch concluded that anything but the shortest time in solitary confinement amounts to torture and needlessly creates mental illness.
He resolved to rid Colorado prisons of the practice as much as possible. The first step was the elimination of administrative segregation and a multi-tiered classification matrix. The problem with that system, said Raemisch, is that a person may “never get out, but keeps getting bumped back to square one” for some minor infractions such as talking back to a guard while in segregation. Colorado’s three supermax prisons are now closed, with one repurposed as a mental health unit. Non-violent infractions are now sanctioned by restrictions on privileges such as commissary shopping, electronic tablet use, watching TV, or recreation time.
Restrictive housing is now reserved for those who have committed violent infractions – but for no longer than 15 days consecutively – and is prohibited for individuals with SMI as a result of state law and policies enacted in the last decade. After Raemisch retired, he said, Colorado correctional leaders asked the rank and file if they wished to “go back to the old way of doing things. Their response was 100% absolutely not.”
Ohio
Reform in Ohio prisons began in 2013. Some of these early changes involved hiring external consultants to help facilitate “wide-ranging discussions” about disciplinary policies and practices. Out of these conversations came a stronger commitment to administering discipline consistently, swiftly, and fairly and to rely more on limits to privileges rather than segregation to address disciplinary problems.
However, this new system was not without its flaws. “It is a continuing challenge to ensure conditions of confinement differ between restrictive housing, limited privilege housing, and the general population in a meaningful way that sufficiently deters prisoners from engaging in misbehavior,” Gary Mohr, former Ohio corrections director has said. Further, some staff resisted the reforms despite constant efforts to communicate, educate, and train. Despite the challenges, the restrictive housing population declined by 45% between 2013 and 2017. In 2019, the restrictive housing population was 2.2%.
Credits: This edition of Bag of Snakes was written by Claire White and Nancy Dockter. Logo design is by Tanya Hollifield. Editing and layout by Zachary Crow. DecARcerate depends on the generosity of people like you. Please consider making a one-time or recurring donation to support our ongoing work.