You turn to us for voices you won't hear anywhere else.

Sign up for Democracy Now!'s Daily Digest to get our latest headlines and stories delivered to your inbox every day.

New York Ends Solitary Confinement of Mentally Ill Prisoners

HeadlineJan 16, 2008

And here in New York, state lawmakers have approved a bill that would bar holding seriously mentally ill prisoners in solitary confinement. Under the measure, the prisoners will now be transferred to secure treatment facilities rather than kept in twenty-four-hour solitude. The measure caps a four-year campaign by mental health and prisoner advocates. They’ve argued that solitary confinement of mentally ill prisoners is inhumane and has led to increased suicides and declining mental health.

The original content of this program is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. Please attribute legal copies of this work to democracynow.org. Some of the work(s) that this program incorporates, however, may be separately licensed. For further information or additional permissions, contact us.

Non-commercial news needs your support

We rely on contributions from our viewers and listeners to do our work.
Please do your part today.
Make a donation
Top