Torture in US Jails and Prisons: An Analysis of Solitary Confinement Under International Law
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Anna Conley
Staff Attorney at the ACLU of Montana and an adjunct professor at the University of Montana Law School
Abstract
One of the most serious human rights violations today is occurring throughout the US. In US jails and prisons, individuals are held in solitary confinement for weeks, months and even years. Solitary confinement can cause significant psychological damage, including cognitive delays, increased suspicion and paranoia, increased anxiety, fear, aggression and hostility, heightened feelings of helplessness and depression, and increased thoughts and attempts at self-mutilation and suicide. Many prisoners held in this severe form of isolation are juveniles or individuals with serious mental illness, to whom it is particularly damaging. Although solitary confinement is common in the rest of the world, nowhere is it more prevalent as a long-term prisoner management tool than in the United States. US courts have found that solitary confinement is a violation of the Eighth Amendment to the US Constitution in certain situations, yet the practice persists.
As a global movement against solitary confinement grows, the United Nations and regional human rights tribunals have spoken out against the practice. A robust body of international case law has defined the contours of when solitary confinement is cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, and the instances in which it is torture. International bodies prohibit solitary confinement for juveniles, prisoners with mental illness, and prisoners on death row or with life sentences. International tribunals generally find solitary confinement for all prisoners contrary to applicable law where it constitutes incommunicado detention, where it is unnecessarily prolonged without justification, and where the totality of conditions of confinement cross a threshold into unacceptable cruelty.
As international law prohibiting solitary confinement crystallizes, the practice in the United States may be curtailed through reliance on international law by US judges. Further, the US executive may take an increased interest in curbing solitary confinement to avoid reputational damage among the global community.
About the author
Staff Attorney at the ACLU of Montana and an adjunct professor at the University of Montana Law School
© 2017 by Walter de Gruyter Berlin/Boston
Articles in the same Issue
- Table of Contents
- Articles
- Torture in US Jails and Prisons: An Analysis of Solitary Confinement Under International Law
- Social Rights Against the Poor
- Aid Conditionality as (Partial) Answer to Antigay Legislation: An Analysis of British and American Foreign Aid Policies Designed to Protect Sexual Minorities
- Notes
- PIGS and Pearls: State of Economic Emergency, Right to Resistance and Constitutional Review in the Context of the Eurozone Crisis
- The Greek Financial Crisis and the voluntary conferral of jurisdiction to the ECJ in the light of state immunity
- Developments Austria
- Absence of an oral hearing before the Independent Administrative Panel
- Legislation prohibiting the Austrian Broadcasting Cooperation from acting in social networks violates Article 10 ECHR
- DNA Analysis for Identification Purposes: Legal Basis unconstitutional
- Developments CEE
- Hungarian Constitutional Court: The mandatory retirement of judges
- Slovak Constitutional Court: Deprivation of Legal Capacity due to Mental Illness – a legacy of the past?
- Book Reviews
- Hans-W Micklitz / Bruno De Witte (eds): The European Court of Justice and the Autonomy of Member States, Intersentia, 2012, ISBN 978-1-78068-113- 9, 402 pp.
Articles in the same Issue
- Table of Contents
- Articles
- Torture in US Jails and Prisons: An Analysis of Solitary Confinement Under International Law
- Social Rights Against the Poor
- Aid Conditionality as (Partial) Answer to Antigay Legislation: An Analysis of British and American Foreign Aid Policies Designed to Protect Sexual Minorities
- Notes
- PIGS and Pearls: State of Economic Emergency, Right to Resistance and Constitutional Review in the Context of the Eurozone Crisis
- The Greek Financial Crisis and the voluntary conferral of jurisdiction to the ECJ in the light of state immunity
- Developments Austria
- Absence of an oral hearing before the Independent Administrative Panel
- Legislation prohibiting the Austrian Broadcasting Cooperation from acting in social networks violates Article 10 ECHR
- DNA Analysis for Identification Purposes: Legal Basis unconstitutional
- Developments CEE
- Hungarian Constitutional Court: The mandatory retirement of judges
- Slovak Constitutional Court: Deprivation of Legal Capacity due to Mental Illness – a legacy of the past?
- Book Reviews
- Hans-W Micklitz / Bruno De Witte (eds): The European Court of Justice and the Autonomy of Member States, Intersentia, 2012, ISBN 978-1-78068-113- 9, 402 pp.
