Home -> Law Blog Directory -> Criminal Law Blogs -> The Real Cost of Prisons Weblog

Criminal Law

: The Real Cost of Prisons Weblog

Solitary Watch: No Evidence of National Reduction in Solitary Confienment

By Real Cost of Prisons Project (The Sentencing Project)

Solitary Watch News from a Nation in Lockdown No Evidence of National Reduction in Solitary Confinement June 15, 2010 by Jean Casella and James Ridgeway An article in yesterday?s USA Today suggests that there?s been a widespread reduction in the use of solitary confinement in state prisons. Its author, Kevin Johnson, has done excellent reporting on solitary confinement in the past. And everything in this article is factually correct. But some of its generalizations and especially its headline (for which the author cannot be blamed) could prove misleading?which is too bad, since the piece appears to quickly be making its way around the web, and will convince some readers of a trend that doesn?t exist. Under the headline ?States Start Reducing Solitary Confinement to Help Budgets,? the article begins: State prison officials are reducing the number of offenders in solitary confinement ? once among the fastest-growing conditions of detention ? as budget pressures, legal challenges and concerns about the punishment?s effectiveness mount...continue to full post

Full post as published by The Real Cost of Prisons Weblog on June 16, 2010 (boomark / email).