THE UNEQUIVOCAL CONSTITUTIONAL STANDARD IS QUICK EXECUTION:

The evidence is unequivocal: Solitary confinement is unconstitutional torture. It should be immediately abolished.

The report is by psychology and law professor Craig Haney from University of California, Santa Cruz, entered as expert evidence for an ongoing lawsuit against solitary imprisonment practices in California. It makes for grim reading. Many of his subjects have been in solitary for years on end, and some for decades. They have been cruelly harmed.

The scientific literature on isolation, as well as my own research and experience, indicate that "long-term" exposure to precisely the kinds of conditions and practices that -- based on the extensive number of documents that I have reviewed and many prisoner interviews I now have conducted -- clearly currently exist in the [Pelican Bay solitary unit] and clearly place prisoners at grave risk of psychological harm. This is true whether or not those prisoners suffer from a preexisting mental illness. [Craig Haney]

Haney also notes that the "long-term" cases in the social science literature include solitary stints that last four weeks -- not just years or decades.

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